I went to see Ladytron on Friday night and they were bloomin’ marvelous. You know how you know what a band is going to play for the encore because they haven’t played that song yet? Well, this is Ladytrons, I imagine they’ll be closing shows with this one until the end of time.
The encore can sometimes seem like a bit of a phony ritual, unless the band is booed off stage you know they’re coming back and in the States I’ve never seen a band play more than one which makes it seem all the more rote and expected. I remember at concerts in my youth bands were regularly dragged back for second and even third encores by the enthusiastic noise of the audience. Now, no matter how well the band are going down, they do one and it’s lights-on-go-home-everyone. Is that only an American phenomenon or is it just the bands I go to see?
Wonderful BBC documentary on British synthpop from its indie beginnings to its 1980s glory. It’s an hour and a half long so you might want to make a cup of tea first because you will end up watching the whole thing.
“The famous collage that Richard did was very exciting to me, and I suppose that when I try to analyse my own work, certainly some of the early songs were very collage like — where I’d actually throw different styles of music into the same song, or try to.” — Bryan Ferry Re-Make/Re-Model
Michael Bracewell (2007)
Very sad to hear that the great British artist Richard Hamilton has died. I think that the man who (probably) invented Pop Art, designed the cover of The White Album and was Bryan Ferry’s art teacher, certainly deserves a mention and a doff of the cap here.
Being old enough to remember the 80s the first time around (and — gulp — most of the 70s too) I’m highly dubious about the sounds and styles of that decade being recycled. Having a bunch of young trendies breaking into the house of your youth and ransacking the place makes you want to give them all a good clip ’round the ear, then tell them to bugger off and get their own bloody music. Yes, I am going to read Retromania very soon.
But I do love Ladytron, probably because they do the decadent, We-Are-The-Robots-with-eyeliner thing so much better than anyone else and were doing it before it was hip so it seems like genuine love and not just jumping on the next cool thing. Their debut album “604″ is one of my favourites of the past decade and their new single “White Elephant” sounds like a step back to the sound of that record which is fine with me. The video looks like they’ve been watching “Vienna” a lot too.
Terry Gilliam teaches you how to animate. Fabulous.
(Yes, I do realize I am ignoring the big story in London at the moment, but I’m finding it just too depressing and sad to write about. This did cheer me up a bit though.)
Oh 1980s, how I miss you sometimes. You were so silly and pretentious it’s a shame we had to part.
On the Wikipedia page for “Vienna” I read that it is “often performed live by Midge Ure in solo performances, most recently at Butlins in Skegness on Sat 8th May 2011″ which is, you know, both funny and sad.
The sentimental musings of an ageing expat in words, music, and pictures. Mp3 files are up for a limited time so drink them while they're hot.
Contact me: lee at londonlee dot com
