New Pose, September 1977: Difference between revisions
(add transcribed text - more to follow) |
(add more transcribed text) |
||
Line 26: | Line 26: | ||
Costello sings staring over the heads of the audience like Huddersfield didn’t exist, the look of a scornful lover - hot red eyes refusing to meet as he points his accusing finger at an imaginary girl-friend who is walking out on him. O yeah, Elvis sings love songs. I guess even punks fall in love and bleed when cut just like normal human beings. Elvis bleeds in style, songs bitter like lemon drops when you bite through the sugar coating and the sherbet fizzes on your tongue. (Jeesus - ED.) He did "[[Less Than Zero|less than zero]]," a great single lyrically the most perceptive of the new writers, and he did two numbers called "[[Watching The Detectives|Watching the Detectives]]" and "[[Lip Service]]" that cut even deeper. | Costello sings staring over the heads of the audience like Huddersfield didn’t exist, the look of a scornful lover - hot red eyes refusing to meet as he points his accusing finger at an imaginary girl-friend who is walking out on him. O yeah, Elvis sings love songs. I guess even punks fall in love and bleed when cut just like normal human beings. Elvis bleeds in style, songs bitter like lemon drops when you bite through the sugar coating and the sherbet fizzes on your tongue. (Jeesus - ED.) He did "[[Less Than Zero|less than zero]]," a great single lyrically the most perceptive of the new writers, and he did two numbers called "[[Watching The Detectives|Watching the Detectives]]" and "[[Lip Service]]" that cut even deeper. | ||
It’s not all love songs, though, he does the kinda dance/romance/good times things that [[Brinsley Schwarz|Brinsly Schwarz]] used to do so well, good to see [[Nick Lowe]]'s shining brightly on the production chores. | It’s not all love songs, though, he does the kinda dance/romance/good times things that [[Brinsley Schwarz|Brinsly Schwarz]] used to do so well, good to see [[Nick Lowe]]'s shining brightly on the production chores. Anyhow considering he's kinda esoteric and sophisticated like, and this is Huddersfield he goes down great, and is called back for an encore. It's a pity a few cretins tried to foul his set by gobbing etc. Costello's not claiming to be another Johnny Rotten, but he is trying to be honest, and that's what it's all about. Like he said "To those who understand - Thanks and Goodnight, to those who won't - FUCK OFF!" | ||
It was about 12:15 in the morning when Generation X finally got onstage, half the audience having already gone home to bed or the late night movie, but more to the point having seen the legendary Elvis Costello, which I suspected was why most of the people were there in the first place. But the true fans of decent rock'n'roll were gonna stick it out until the end, movie or no movie. | |||
The large E. Costello posters ([[Stiff]] aren't joking when they say they're hyping Elvis u know) had thankfully been removed, or had they? I was too tired at the time to really take notice of irrelevancies such as that. Anyway, opening with "Day by Day", their token "song with a message" a strong sentiment expressed about the pressures of working and living in London, Generation X prove to me once again, that not only are they one of the fastest/angriest/best bands around, but also that given time, and a record company , they could develop into a musical style that could change and help the state of punk as it is, at the moment. (I'm a biased cunt when it comes to this band, but I don't care, its my fanzine and I'll put in it what I like). What I mean is that theres so many people bringing out their own stuff on their own labels, just to jump on the bandwagon. So there's bound to be a credibility loss as a lot of these singles go. Gen. X, for some reason haven't been caught up in this rush, so their music remains a form of expression, instead of a device to make money and get famous, so they have to be good! It's simple when you think about it. | |||
Billy Idol, the lead singer, to some the ultimate poseur, has a method of vocal attach not unlike a starving man trying to grab some food that's just out of his reach behind bars, and he pulls the faces that go with it. Yellow hair and babylike skin, he pulls allsorts of uglinesses, and pouts on that clock of his while singing Tony James hammers out the bass nearly literaly Bob Andrews looks a bit lost but plays his guitar relentlessly "from the heart" and their new drummer (not ex-Clash) has shaped up just fine in the stool once occupied by John Towe. So in the face of the harsh spotlights, Gen X play very basic stuff, not raw, but very fast (and good) theres no fancy extras, they pump it out for all their worth. | |||
Onstage Billy is the one that attracts most of the attention, mainly due to the fact that he does most of the choreograph, if thats what you can call it, also his hair makes him stand out a mile. A lot of people call him a poseur, but I don't agree, he has an image but christ, he doesn't stand still in one place for long enough to do any posing. He reminds me of James Dean, Billy Fury, Heinz and one of those blond haired kids out of an old film called "''Children of the Damned''" or something. | |||
Back to the show though. Their set consists of a lot of goodies all performed with that certain amount of fire mentioned earlier, "London Life" is another, like the first, a song about the shit we live with their soon-classic "Hey Listen", and also a couple based on stuff in the sixties, "Ready, Steady, Go" is great, remember watching it on T.V., when we were kids? Plus their first single"Your Generation" which when it's sung I'm sure is directed at the last decades rebels who do nothing now but sit around and get stoned, | |||
{{cx}} | {{cx}} | ||
Revision as of 22:22, 20 September 2016
|