Entertainment For Lively Minds
Screamadelica night - thank you BBC4
Exemplary documentary about the making of Screamadelica which does what any good music doc should - make you want to go and play the record right now very load. The story of the remix of I'm Losing All That I'll Ever Have into Loaded (surely the best remix of all time) is unmissable. Andy Weatherall is great value and should be signed up for his own show asap. You can then catch up on some fantastic clips from 1991, which has surely as good a claim to be a great year for music as the usual suspects. Massive Attack do Unfinished Sympathy by sending on a string ensemble, Buck and the mandolin, 808 state, Move On Up, the Mondays and the Roses. Even bit players such as Neds Atomic Dustbin and Ride stand up really well. I assume they're on the iplayer for a week, don't miss them.
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Perfect timing
I have just come to 1993 in David Cavanagh's incredibly comprehensive and well-written book about the Creation Records story so I was well versed on the story of Screamedelica and I played the album when I got home from work in preparation. It was great to be back in 1991 for a couple of hours, possibly the most important year for me in terms of music.
Thoroughly enjoying watching
Thoroughly enjoying watching all this stuff. Nice of Gillespie to describe the finest album to his band's name as 'Weatherall's masterpiece'. Which of course it is. '91 was a great year for the long player - Screamadelica, Bandwagonesque, Out Of Time, The Real Ramona, Electronic, to pick out a few personal favourites.
And if you want more, the Upside Down documentary about Creation Records is out on DVD and Blu-ray on Monday.
the bands second finest.
Exterminator is Primal Scream real master piece and any one that disagrees i'll see in the playground later.
Agree that 1991 was a genius year for music though.
Really Enjoyed It
Thank God For BBC4 on a friday night
I was out tonight but 1991 was
the year my eldest daughter was born but Screamdelica was definitely the soundtrack to that year and the next.
Not watched the Primal Scream doc yet
but looking forward to it. I'm very fond of the record, and while it is incredibly easy to knock The Primal Scream (they are the Indie Spinal Tap), I do think there was a stroke of genius with that record which was simply to make a lot of the tracks with DJs and Remixers in the same way that bands would normally make dance mixes as extra tracks or B-Sides. Even if you don't like Primal Scream, if you like The Orb and Andrew Weatherall you gotta have some time for that record.
The 90s nostalgia fest that followed 'Movin On Up: Pop Hits of 1991' was bit was strange. That's the first time (apart from the *waaay too early* 'I Love the 1990s') that I recall seeing a bit of nostalgia TV from my A Level/Student years.
It did focus entirely on the Indie/Dance side of things (otherwise it would have been Whitney, Stock Aitken & Waterman, Wet Wet Wet and Bryan Adams)
Some great tunes, including tons of Indie Disco perennials (Smells Like Teen Spirit, Losing My Religion, Can U Dig it),
The KLF were the band who knew how to make an impact on TV, and the Massive Attack song (Unfinshed Sympathy) was the one that stuck out for me as still sounding contemporary.
The most dated sounding thing was probably The Shamen. Very 'of it's time' although I seem to recall thinking Mr C and his pals were the future of music at the time.
I think I have got to grips with what the 80s were all about, I'm still struggling with the 90s but this helped a bit. The 00s? Forget it.
'Move any moun-taaaayne'
Agree, Shamen sounded a bit dated. I thought Move Any Mountain was great at the time, but Mr C sang it like a club singer - 'moun-taaaayne'.
Nirvana and Pop Will Eat Itself sounded dated to me as well. Grebo revival anyone?
But I was surprised how much I liked almost everything on that 1991 show, I'd always imagined it was a bit of a fallow year.
Weatherall
"Not that im likening the making of Loaded to Citizen Kane in anyway"
Very entertaining and great to have all the protagonists there. The making of the album was a "happening" for want of a better word, reflecting what was going on through 90 & 91.
I thought the clips programme was terrible though. Was SnubTV not available? Endless TOTP PAs did the songs no favours.
EDIT:Come to think of it, I saw a different version of the documentary with much more Weatherall and a chronological running order. Might have been part of the 20th anniversary package-I saw an uploaded copy.
Neds
I'm no fan but I have a kid sister who was a massive fan. They weren't entirely bit players at the time, they were bigger than a lot of other Indie bands of the time, playing some pretty big venues during their peak. They might have been bigger in the long run if they didn't feature a guitarist/songwriter who was more than a little bit unhappy about flying. Kind of put the dampeners on overseas touring.
I left school...
in 1991 and LOVED the Neds! Their album God Fodder is brilliant and I still play it regularly.
Gillespie.
Much nicer than I thought he'd be.
Excellent series
and excellent episode.
no exaggeration to say
"Screamadelica" was a pivotal record (along with the associated EPs and 12" singles) for myself and countless others. The surprising thing about the documentary was that the participants can remember everything so well!
P.S. Henry Olsen comes across as officially the nicest, most modest man in rock.
Thanks for the nod
A very good documentary.
Generous Gillespie
Bobby G very generous with shout-out to A Weatherall on stage when we saw them doing Screamadelica live recently, crowd not as appreciative as they shd have been as they were much more taken with Mani. Re P Scream albums, thanks to Guy Garvey for bringing to my attention recently 'Vanishing Point', gorgeous anomaly.
And BTW Sabres of Paradise anyone? Still excellent, slightly cheesy fun 15 years on.
Sabres of Paradise 'cheesy'?
Are you sure you've got the right group?
Each to their own
I just get kept thinking how vacuous the whole era was.
I agree.
It was a brilliant time for pop music.
Thank you
Glad someone said that before me!
Watching the documentary made me realise how much of a fluke the album was. And also how dated sounding: I realised I haven't actually listened to it for a good fifteen years or so.
And the live footage of the band just brought home how hopeless they were as a live act. I suppose in the spirit of the moment their gigs must have seemed fantastic, but really it was all just smoke and lights and backing tracks.
But I suppose I'm maybe just bitter that it never really led to anything. The Screamadelica album seemed like the start of something promising, but for me it never materialised. Feels like their Exile On Main Street!
The 1991 compilation show also made me remember how sick I was of that "baggy" beat that signified "indie rock". Pop Will Eat Itself?? Gary Clail?? At least we were spared Jesus Jones and the Soup Dragons. Massive Attack really stood out as doing something much more vital and energetic.
.
How ironic that they should then actually try to make "Exile On Main Street"..
.
How ironic that they should then actually try to make "Exile On Main Street"..