Entertainment For Lively Minds
In Their Own Write
Just been re-reading Paul Gorman's excellent oral history of the music press, "In Their Own Write".
No analysis or overarching thesis, just the voices of the people who were there from Maurice Kinn to Alexis Petridis and all points in between - including several habituees of the 'ere pub.
NICK LOGAN: ...There's grown up this myth about "the kinderbunker" they built in the office. I don't remember any barbed wire. They took a little space in the middle of the office which no one else wanted. It had little privacy. It was basically just a walkthrough so they put up an incongruous curtain of plastic strips - like you find in shops' back doorways - to make people go the other way around. It wasn't quite the kinderbunker of legend.
If you've ever read a music paper or magazine, it's well worth checking out.
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From memory...
...Charles S Murray comes off best throughout through a seemingly effortless ability to form a winning, pithy, masterful phrase at will - even in natural speech (as this is an oral history, presumably compiled from verbatim interview recording). Unless, of course, Charles was given a chance to tweak the panache of his recorded comments before publication!
his mouth
still looks like a dog's bum when he talks
Thankfully....
...there's no moving image representation of that in the book. Only black and white print.
But I take your point: his on screen pontificating in documentaries always makes me think of the Jilted John guy's 'pop professor' alter ego for some reason. The earnestness is overwhelming.
But his turn of phrase is still bloody good. So... respect!
Absolute
Re'speck! to the man for his writing!
I omitted to say I was a fan, sorry.
Glad it's good
I just picked it up in Oxfam for £1 and am really looking forward to reading it. I've got a great deal of affection for the old inkies and used to love going to the local newsagent on a Thursday to pick up my NME & Sounds.
Bargain!
Doubly so from Oxfam - that's a price my local local Oxfam would only go down to for a 40-year-old guide to a stately home, or an out-of-date Berlitz travel guide.
I'll keep an eye out for this, but won't expect to find it at that price.
If it matters....
....I was interviewed for it and wasn't misquoted at all. This is rarer than you'd think.
It does matter...
...and I'm very impressed if the verbatim was accurate and the editing was limited/light - ie just a grammatical tidy-up of spoken word sentences, to avoid the irritating use of dots, square brackets and every um and er, a la Clinton H!
Out of interest, were you asked questions within the author/editor's 'agenda' or were you given free reign to reminisce asnd make observations?
I was interviewed for BBC4's 'Folk Britannia' series several years ago - which a researcher had got me to agree to by saying 'it'll basically be your book' on screen (which was flattery that I had mixed feelings about, given there wasn't even an appearance fee being offered). Frustratingly, though, the director/producer only seemed interested in asking me questions about the Pogues - an act I've never once written about (because I've no knowledge of or interest in). I had lots of possibly interesting things to say, but never got a chance to say them. Weird. Which was why nmothing I said made it into the series!
I honestly can't remember how it was done...
.....but I read it afterwards and I thought, well, he doesn't misquote or distort my words so the chances are it's the same for every one else.
TV's a different thing. I was talking to a very experienced TV producer mate the other day and he pointed out to me that the only thing TV producers are interested in is edit points. There's no point waxing lyrical about something that they either can't or don't wish to "throw" to. You'll just end up on the cutting room floor.
Indeed...
...I'm quite sure the Folk Brit chap had the shows mapped out/storyboarded in his mind in the knowledge of what vintage VT there was, what pieces he'd get still living artistes of note to demonstrate and roughly what he'd get his talking heads to say.
For some reason I was the guy he obviously wanted to say, 'The Pogues were significant because...' in a 30 second soundbite. Maybe - and I suspect this is true! - he wanted someone with an English accent to talk about English artists.
I did, ironically, get an appearance fee out of him - just on principle!
I don't have many...
...pop music books, but this one I do, and I like it a lot.
(Incidentally, one of the few others is Paul Morley's "Music And Lyrics" effort. And I do mean effort. Couldn't get through it: overwritten and pompous - although I'll allow that I might have been picturing his face saying it all while reading, which couldn't have helped).
Great Read
Yes, a fine tome. Loved hearing the stories from behind the scenes of Papers and Mags I used to pour over.
Picked up "The Pink Moon Files" by Jason Creed today, seems a good read for Nick Drake fans.
Excellent book
I redip into it every hols. All the different eras are interesting and have their own atmosphere. certainly one of the music books I come back to regularly. DH's bits about Q are good - the point that when it was first launched, if you liked music is just wouldn't have made sense not to buy it. I bought 200 issues straight.
Has someone
from the Massive just got the one for around a fiver on Amazon? I had it in my basket to buy today and its been snaffled.
Own up, who's got it? (and can i borrow it as the next one is now £10)
I'll dig mine out, Jim.
You can have it for nowt - I'll probably not read it again.
You guys..
Bob, I'll get you a half a bitter shandy next meet up.
Susie Baby - you seem to have the same problem as most of the Massive, too many books, not enough time and do you stop buying them? No!
Thanks both.
Sorry Jimmy
I actually think that was me!!! I was going to send it on afterwards but it looks like you've had a better offer, which is just as well, as my "to read" pile is approx 600 strong, so you'd likely get it from me in about 5 years.
I had
the one for £6.19. Sorry.