| You'll probably find it suprising to see these three together. They
share a
heritage of what was commonly known as Glam but three very different sides of the
coin (3 sides ??!!). However they all had driving toons, sexuality and a bit of spice . |
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| Roxy Music.
Verging on the almost serious side but mixing art with glamour.
Here was this glitzy offbeat art ensemble, with Brian Ferry screwing up his eyes
like he was having a good wank and calling it style and a Eno looking like a
reject from Jupiter who thought music was for wobbling. Roxy put together a
mishmash of half formed but essentially visionary ideals about being Continental,
being from somewhere else and being weirdly sexy, and the result was an
extraordinary debut album. Roxy brought a notion of sophistication to pop, once they
realised this as what people saw in them and this was their downfall. As Ferry developed
into a crooner par excellence as the band produced ever more
polished romantic ballads and their sleeves which for a time always
featured models became more interesting than the music. Their first album, their decadent image and stance definitely had an effect on punk
particularly members of the Bromley Contingent. Off looking, offbeat and
weirdly sexy... the perfect antidote to Emerson Lake & Palmer and their ilk.
Listen to Virginia Plain
at full blast and appreciate! |
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Roxy's first two albums
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Picks
Virginia Plain, Do The Strand, Editions Of You, In Every Dream Home A
Heartache (Ferry's paean to a blow up doll !!!) |
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With
Siouxsie |
With The
Damned |
Electric
Warrior cover
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T REX. Another hippy warbler who
from producing records with unfeasibly long and silly song titles suddenly with the help of Toni
Visconti (who when asked how Bolan became so successful only knowing 3 chords
replied .."If U were Marc three was all you needed) produced Electric
Warrior, an album of breathtaking brilliance, that catapulted him into the
charts. Electric Warrior mashed Chuck Berry riffs, mystical lyrics, nonsensical
lyrics, fat simple crunchy riffs to a sexy groove and makeup for our
little elfin one. An album where every song was a peach was followed by a stream of classic,
intoxicating, pure pop singles.
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Unfortunately as glam receded so did
Marc and he became an overweight parody of himself before punk and his influence
on it gave him the chance to bounce back. The Damned supported him on tour and
his comeback TV show featured acts such as Generation X while he mixed with artists
like Siouxsie and Raped. A carcrash robbed us of him. Yet again his influence
was felt on people such as Siouxsie, The Damned, Buzzcocks, Blondie and not least The Ramones who recognised
that a simple pop melody works every time and that 3 chords is all you
ever need to know !!!!
Highlights....Children Of The Revolution, Rip
Off, Telegram Sam, Metal Guru,
Solid Gold Easy Action, 20th Century Boy ( as covered by Siouxsie) and Jeepster as covered by Eater.
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With The Ramones |
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Ever
look back and wish you had done things differently ??!! |
The Sweet. Originally churned
out pap like Coca dressed as native Americans these boys hit the big time with the Winnichap writing team who gave
them, like
Suzi Quatro, a string of perfect pop punk glam monsters which they promptly went
and had hits with. On stage the boys faced a bit of a problem though. As good
looking boys in makeup they attracted the younger teeny bop crowd but as real
musicians with a risque stage show to boot they often found themselves in hot
water. The sound was up tempo more akin to post punk power pop but songs like
Hellraiser and Ballroom Blitz would have fitted in seamlessly into 1977
but by
then they were serving up shite like
Love is Like
Oxygen. |
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Classic
toons - the uncannily David Bowie sounding Blockbuster
(Jean Jeanie),
Ballroom Blitz ( as covered by Lemmy and the Damned
!) and Hell Raiser (a
raucous mother of a teenage tune)
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Like a sort of
baby Kiss!
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