Celebrating vinyl / CD / cassette / memorabilia releases of musical gems and curiosities from the punk era onwards
Fair warning, there could be several posts in this series, as being a fan of all things Gary Numan since 1979, I have a LOT of these little things. So, here are just a few to get started with, but a nice little selection of vintage cold wave, icy synthesizer cool lapel adornment they are too, I’m sure you’ll agree…
Continue reading “Button Badge Goodness: Gary Numan (Part 1)”
‘Eardrum Buzz’ was one of Wire’s two single releases of 1989 (along with ‘In Vivo’) that seemingly had their mind focussed on the ‘think pop’ message that Mute label owner, Daniel Miller, had apparently made the message of the previous year’s Berlin recording sessions (for what would be ‘A Bell Is A Cup (Until It Is Struck)’). ‘Eardrum Buzz’ certainly was a catchy ear-worm of a tune, to be sure, and such were the hopes of this making in-roads to the charts of the day that its release (in the UK at least) saw Mute records issue a regular 7″ single, a limited edition clear vinyl 7″ single (withdrawn hastily, apparently), regular 12″ single, 3″ CD single (with a different selection of additional tracks) and limited edition second 12″ single with exclusive live tracks – oh, and one of Wire’s most witty and entertaining promo videos, with a left-field star-studded cast in ear-waggling cameos. Despite the multi-format effort, it didn’t break the upper reaches of the charts – a shame as it was without any doubt one of Wire’s ‘pop’ numbers (well, the kind of ‘perfect pop’ that the NME’s writers used to bang on about) they had periodically been feted for since early days and the video gained plenty of airtime on the likes of MTV (and even an elusive interview with the band on BBC 2’s ‘Snub TV’).
A little helping of button badge goodness in the shape of ‘Red Mecca’ era Cabaret Voltaire, a particularly fine vintage. Well, at least two of them are of that era – the pale blue one dates from a bit later, 1982 or 1983, can’t quite recall exactly when it was I bought it, but it would have been one of those years.
With an advertised running time of 8 hours and 25 minutes, this whopping 8 CD set brings you the voice of Peter Hook himself reading his in parts amusing and unpretentious take on his days as one quarter of Joy Division. Any conceptions of the mythic, pained, sullen and mysterious image of Joy Division as a band is taken in hand and dismantled by Hook. You’d be hard pressed to balance the immature, laddish wind-ups and downright cruel ‘japes’ played on one another by the band with the somewhat sombre yet brutal grace of the music they made, as told by Hooky. There’s a recurring retrospective regret to proceedings as the inevitable end of Ian Curtis unfolds. A good many ‘why didn’t we see what was happening?’ or ‘why didn’t we take a break?’ questions arise as one event after another that should have rung the klaxon of concern takes shape, is absorbed, patched up or glossed over and everything proceeds relentlessly all the same. All too often the urge to forget the implications and move on seemingly from Ian Curtis himself. Hook jokes about naming his book ‘He Said He Was All Right So We Carried On’ and you have to chuckle, darkly.
For some reason, I’ve never posted anything about Visage on this blog, despite having a fair few of their records. The return of the band in recent years has been a most welcome surprise, with a strong album that tapped into the original style of the band and a string of fine singles (and accompanying remixes, the latter something of a rarity). This on top of their classic era material, particularly the first two albums. So, it is with sadness that I have just read about the passing of Steve Strange. RIP, Steve.