Entertainment For Lively Minds
Campaign for the real Dave Stewart
Imagine my regular upset whenever I see the words 'Dave Stewart' and find a tuneless, ridiculously rich luckiest man in the world spoken of, and not his earlier namesake and keyboard wizard of Uriel, Egg, Hatfield and the North, National Health, and Bruford. (Though it would be nice to have the latter Mr. Stewart doing the occasional gig with a Canterbury-style band again).
I remember seeing 'The Tourists' in 1979 and it was clear they were trying too hard, didn't have a tune behind them (though they did have a keen record company hyping them), and both the front persons were desperately weak. And the Eurythmics were hugely weak, too. Innovative, my arse; they took what was already around and sold it to the masses and shopgirls experimenting with 'Crazy Colour'.
A bit more:
please.
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The bloke out of Longdancer should revert to his David A. Stewart name...
Never heard them before
After having heard of Hatfield & The North for years, this is the first time I've actually heard them. And I like it.
What would be a good starting point?
More expense... :)
The Rotters Club - without a doubt
Then 'Hatfield And The North' after which you're into posthumous rarities/live collections (Hattitude, Hatwise Choice)
They then slowly morphed into National Health, the music of which is broadly similar in style to ver Hatfields.
Thanks
Mr Jobs and his Information Tunes will be making a few more ackers this evening.
Can I refer you....
... to this thread?
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/what-are-must-have-albums-canterbu...
One of many where the mighty Dave Stewart is lauded to the rafters....
Where
Do I sign up?
To my mind...
...Lennox is like Helen Mirren: absurdly lionised and overrated 'iconic 80s people' with all that glass-ceiling codswallop part of the story. Prime Suspect? It was just a bl**dy TV cop show for goodness sake - one among dozens. Lennox? Just a woman who sang the word 'bliss' is a bizarre, elongated pronunciation...
1,000 Ups
Couldn't agree more with you about Annie Lennox. If ever a singer defined the term "absurdly overrated"...
This video....
should be shorthand for every bad cliche the 80's sprung up.
Smug, self centred, appalling fashions and just very very wrong. Far too many "lost in music" faces.
Christ, that's nasty. The
Christ, that's nasty. The artists involved clearly had NO insight as to what they were doing or they would not have been involved in such self-regarding toss. Note the parasitic use of 'authentic' musics (grizzled old blues guy, bigger boned soul chanteuses to cover up Ms. Lennox's iffy pipes, 'club ambiance, horn section)to give a generic 80s sound spurious credibility. We are often told about the social concerns and originality of Stewart and Lennox. HA BLOODY HA.
I hate to be rude, but
It's a f##king pop record from 1985, and a good one at that; what were you expecting, cheese cloth and lava lamps?
And since when did authenticity matter?
"Authenticity" usually seems to matter most
to those who feel they lack a certain depth or authority in their own right. Like the Eurythmics.
Didn't Dave Stewart suffer from Paradise Syndrome?
Well, doesn't that tell you everything you need to know?
Like the Tourists though.
His fame may have lead him here...prophetic lyrics?
I saw HATN supporting Steve Hillage
At the Croydon Greyhound in 1978. Both were excellent.
(As a footnote, Hillage was playing with a black rhythm section and not the usual stupid hippies. They played a blinder and the place went fcking mental).
said it before, I'll post it again
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/alan-partridgesmashy-nicey-moments...
annex:
I've always considered myself an Hatfield and the North fan, bought the first two albums when they came out on Virgin and I still have 'em. But that clip of them at the Rainbow really made me re-examine what they sound like to me now. Utter crap is the answer. Started badly with noises an Hammond just shouldn't make, got worse when they went into a section reminiscent of the missing audio from a bad 70s information film about how 'motorways would revolutionise our lives'!
Then came Annie & Dave - a very 80s vid, stupid, big, brash and in yer face!
I was never was a fan but there are some gems in there, try this
and this
I think know which Dave's band I'd rather listen to these days.
Shit this growing up, innit?
BTW, two pristine HatN albums on Virgin vinyl for sale - mint
An unabashed Eurythmics fan writes
Lovely choices, James. I think they were a bloody good band, and their first few albums were full of terrific songs and very few duffers. Annie Lennox is a fecking good singer, and I genuinely don't get the "soulless" criticism which is so often thrown at her. I'd accept that the sound of her solo records is rather antiseptic; and that the covers album was really terrible. But Sweet Dreams, 1984 and Savage are great albums. I saw them live in 1987, and they put on a storming show, driven along by the great Clem Burke on drums.
I have no idea why Dave Stewart attracts such opprobrium either. I suppose if you hate Eurythmics and the Tourists, you might well wonder what's the point of him, but he's always seemed an ok bloke to me. And I even quite like a few songs from his first album with the Spiritual Cowboys.
So, a couple of songs: the first is the gorgeous Julia, from Eurythmics' album 1984.
And here's Dave Stewart with Mr Reed. Not a world beater, but I think it's a good song, with some lovely guitar playing.
Tourists-wise, worth pointing out that...
... their main songwriter was the now-deceased Peet Coombes, Dave & Annie didn't start contributing songs until quite late on in the game.
And I always found Eurythmics to be a singularly joyless and soulless band, kind of all the right noises, but adding up to nothing I wanted to listen to...
"the missing audio
from a bad 70s information film about how 'motorways would revolutionise our lives'!"
What's wrong with that?
Johnny Trunk's
got it out on gatefold sleeved, hand pressed 180 gram vinyl I believe. Send a tenner in a used crisp packet with a koan on the theme of... etc.
Shit!
he owes me £38 for coining that description.
I bet the cheque and ellpee are't in the post. :(
Hatwise Choice
I pulled out Hatwise Choice last night without reading this and loved it, sounds a bit quaint, but all the better for it.
Can't stand Eurthymics..
.. but love Dave Stewart for all the wrong reasons.
I read an interview once with him - he took LSD every single day for 18 months. That is a feat of epic proportions and I am genuinely surprised he's not locked up in a secure ward now.
The best thing Eurythmics did
was Stevie Wonders harmonica bit. From her smug faced, bleach blonded, ear splitting voiced, Brit winning, world saving, trouser wearing god awfulness to his stupid hair, silly beard, guitar murdering, career ruining, 80's omnipotence I cannot stand the Eurythmics, no redeeming features, none and I love the 80's. And if anyone disagrees listen to "1984" all the way through and come back to me with an apology.
No, no, no
I'm not having that, Dave. De gustibus an' all that, but I disagree vehemently, and sod the apology, 1984 is a bloody good record. I've already posted one song from it, Julia, and if you hate that, well, you must be made of sterner stuff than me. Here's another song from that album, which I also think is great, For The Love Of Big Brother.
No worries Rosbif
it's all just opinion anyway. I just can't get past the Lennox voice and even if I get close there's Stewart gurning in the background. Maybe I have some distant 80's mental scarring that means listening to Go West (the band) can put a smile on my face and yet ver 'rhythmics make me feel slightly nauseous.
Because your hippy Dave
Gave birth to this:
He will always suck slightly more than the one that was actually successful.
I may be AWOL
but I could not leave it there with It's My Party. The track below (Golden Rain) is from 1991. There have been more recent releases but they are not on YouTube. For details go to http://www.davebarb.demon.co.uk/
I'm a sucker for their Green And Blue CD from 2009 but that's because I get a mention on the sleeve...8-}
Dave Stewart?
No thanks.
I can't see myself buying any record involving either Dave Stewart any time soon. I do see that some of the Eurythmics tunes are good pop songs - but I find them unlistenable today where once I found them palatable. I thought Thorn In My Side was a good one but sampled it on You Tube just now and the production is just awful and heavy handed. Those early synth ones could have been something but again were spoiled. Love Is a Stranger has that 'boom' 'boom' treated vocal all over it - not much taste and sense of what sounds right in the making of those records. As for the OP clip - I'm with James above, couldn't put it better myself.