Saturday 21 January 2012

21st January

1965: In a clip that looks like it would've been equally better served by tape preservation were it recreated as a flickbook, Del Shannon gets his own massive personalised backdrop and then fails to play in front of it in favour of making his way down to the people. Loads to note among the crowd, but from 0:46 note that cameramen doing their best to run the audience over wasn't just a mid-70s thing. On this Gerry and the Pacemakers footage you get a better idea of the original set with its chart rundown, and from 20 seconds in you get to see not only the title graphic but Savile dancing to a completely different rhythm.

1982: As far as faux-Teutonic iciness goes The Mobiles, who were from Eastbourne, have it covered. Who are they taking most after here with all that acute angle instrument posing and movement school frontwomaning? Siouxsie? Lene Lovich? That keyboard player definitely gives Nick Rhodes a run for his money. In 1982 if it had a synth and you had a personable profile you could get anything into the top end of the charts, it seems - witness OMD's icy waltz coupled with Andy McLuskey's perpetual motion on the spot. Much less self-regarding are XTC, and given Andy Partridge's expression, that of a man seemingly being forced to play at gunpoint, it's unsurprising that his breakdown and acute stage fright that would halt XTC's touring activities would come less than three months later.

1988: Watch your Grolsch bottle tops, here comes a debuting Bros. Red leather jackets were very much of their time.

No comments: