Kez

Can anyone with old photos of the shop/s please scan & post them? I have a couple somewhere. I remember (and I hope Bruce has copies or negatives or something) there being 'candid' photos of some of the staff stuck to a wall (uh, the photos, not the people). (PM me a link if they turn up, anyone). Some VERY good people worked there. And the other record shops, of course. It has been a long-standing fantasy project to compile a 'Rock Family Trees'-type flow-chart of Melbourne (for starters) record shops, while most people still have a modicum of their memory/are alive, plus a ''sealed section'' for all the goss, slander, hearsay and behind-the-scenes machinations. Who wants to help me get an arts grant funding for that? Historical importance.

I heard they once blew up the Tote, pa.

Is that right, son? Bloody terrorists, is nothing sacred!

I heard a Macy Gray song being piped out of a shop today.

http://www.screenhub.com.au/television-film-jobs/PVsearchnew.php

Oh, Screenhub, you teasing minx!

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Interesting (to me anyway) fact about an unusual collaboration, and one certainly under-documented by Simple Minds historians:

Iggy Pop recorded his 'Soldier ' album at the isolated Rockfield studio farmhouse in Wales, at the end of a tour. The assembled band was Glen Matlock, Steve New and XTC's keyboardist Barry Andrews, as well as James Williamson, who fell out with Iggy and blow-in David Bowie, and didn't complete the session. Scott Thurston had already bailed, but Ivan Kral from Patti Smith's band also contributed.

Anyway, Iggy and Simple Minds were both on Arista records at the time, although the person who signed them both was out of the picture due to a label merger, leaving both acts with unsympathetic overseers at the helm, but with recording time booked at Rockfield.

Simple Minds were recording Real To Real Cacophony in the other farmhouse studio. When Bowie turned up to hang out with Iggy (much to James Williamson's chagrin), they had a recording-studio party and (possibly quite drunkenly) recorded Play It Safe, with improvised lyrics ostensibly concerning a rumoured liaison between Princess Margaret and a Kray associate mobster. The most pointed (ie libellous) of the lyrics were edited out of the final mix.

So what with boredom, drunkenness and personality clashes, all in all it was a fairly strained session to say the least, Steve New apparently either hit on Iggy's girlfriend, didn't want to commit to touring, or committed some other perceived infraction, and was subsequently put so low in the mix that his guitar is virtually inaudible. With the absence of either Williamson's or Steve New's guitar, the keyboards were much more to the fore, rather than being an element in the mix, giving the album a barer more 'new wave' sound than was originally planned. There were some good songs on the album and apparently the demos were very promising, but it was generally thought a bit of a hotch-potch and not something any of the contributors feels particular fondness for, despite the apparent pedigree of the project.

It would be VERY interesting for someone sympathetic (and non-addled) to get those original tapes and do a remix with all the track channels present, and a more 'rock' aesthetic.

What's the story with th 'do not cross' bunting tape around the Tote? Anything exciting?

marchinginthestreet said 4 days ago:

former hardcore vocalist awkwardly yells out slogans as if he's trying to create socialist alliance bumper stickers and their guitarist hides his lack of talent by playing with the toggle switch a lot. rage against the machine - rage against the machine.

... thinks about telling Mum I'm not gonna clean up my room and Teacher to shove the homework assignment, while spending major label money earned by the most recent releases of Mariah Carey and Michael Bolton.

Dog Food - Iggy Pop

West Of The Wall - Toni Fisher

I remember reading a Primal Scream Screamadelica review once that pretty much refused to acknowledge any imput by the band, calling it an Andrew Weatherall album in everything but name.