"Next you're going to be shooting yourself up with Chanel No. 5..."

[sam_tom_sam]

Today I was thrilled to receive from matthewnorth the classic Romo issue of Melody Maker from November 1995! I have wanted to see this issue, with frontmen from Orlando, Dexdexter, Sexus and Plastic Fantastic on the cover, for ages. I think I shall have to scan some of the pictures so you can all see how nice they looked, especially Stuart Shadric from Plastic Fantastic – a sort of latter-day David Sylvian but made up with Superdrug Collection 2000 instead of Clinique. They make the current set of "glamourites" look rubbish.

There are some brilliant, witty articles alongside the pictures – the editorial by Simon Price and Taylor Parkes takes the rockists to task, insisting:

Rock is American… and let the Americans have their rock, their raw material hewn from the mountainside. Britain is a manufacturing nation and therefore a pop nation, pop by its very nature being synthetic.

A riposte to the frequent complaint that synth-pop is emotionless compared to soul or rock:

Pop is about suggestion, the dramatic, the poignant, the catalyst to move the listener, rather than the grotesque, incontinent spectacle of someone being moved.

I wouldn’t agree with all the statements of the "Romanifesto", such as that "Romo is acknowledging the death of God" – I believe God made all beautiful things, and creative people are channels for this. Perhaps it was thought that such Nietzchian statements might attract the more serious types who would be repelled by the artifice and glitz.

It didn’t work, unfortunately, and the phenomenon was very short-lived. By the time I arrived in London after my six-year exile in France, summer 1996, the scene was fizzling out. I didn’t get to any of the clubs so I wore my Romo stylings on Croydon High Street and in Forest Hill Sainsbury’s instead. Anyone can dress up to go clubbing, anyway, there’s not much merit in that.

Comments

All Tusks Sharp And Sizeable

[joysilence.livejournal.com]

Some very good quotes there. But we mustn't forget this is the British music press, so the "God is dead" thing will have been stipulated by the editor, seeing as how it's uncool to believe in anything at all after 1986. You should certainly scan some pictures for new_romantic as doing so will enter you into a members' prize draw, and you might win an empty packet of Prawn Cocktail crisps once sneered at by Marilyn.

Re: All Tusks Sharp And Sizeable

[sam-tom-sam.livejournal.com]

Wow! With a prize incentive like that, I shall get scanning tonight. There are some fab pics. Prawn Cocktail - such a quintessentially 80's flavour of crisp. The hot pink packet, the violently artificial flavour, the word 'cocktail' in the name...

Re: All Tusks Sharp And Sizeable

[joysilence.livejournal.com]

Don't forget that Prawn Cocktail crisps are also namechecked in Threads! A bunch of squaddies find a stash of them while picking through the ruins of the New Steel City.

Re: All Tusks Sharp And Sizeable

[sam-tom-sam.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, I remember you told me that it occasioned a then-rare outburst of swearing. Good old BBC.

[puddingsworth.livejournal.com]

A quick note of randomness-

'Tis yuuyaku. I've a new journal for more personal entries, but I'll still be using my old journal, too. Just letting you know I've added you!