Categories: uncategorized
Date: 31 August 2007 19:35:26
Many moons ago the fringes were long, the arms on the t-shirts were long and the band names were equally long. In fact the only way the average 6th former could discuss their tape collection without it taking the whole free period to simply get through the name of an artist and their album was to abbreviate everything. So it was in this golden age that Carter the Unstopable Sex Machine became Carter (or at a push Carter USM), Pop Will Eat Itself were simplified to PWEI and Ned's Atomic Dustbin simply became Neds.
Then a generation left college and grew up. The t-shirts became gardening wear and the names became obsure cultural references in male chick lit (think Mike Gayle or Nick Hornby). The tapes were long since lost (& the equipment to play them on replaced by digital machines which wouldn't eat the music). Occassionally they would be fondly remembered in one of those "do you remember..?" or "what ever happened to....?" type conversations but generally they were forgotten.
So why am I remembering? A trip into town after work for a mooch around the local record store, and the inevitable trawl through the reduced selection led me to Some Furtive Years a ned's anthology today. It's actually a cracking album which reminds you of just how good that strain of "proper indie" was.