Nostalgia

[zotz]

This was going to be a comment on one of zoo_music_girl's posts, but it got a bit above itself.

Patchouli. Is it a gothy thing?

It was for a while. I remember it mostly from the late eighties. Things did get a little hippyish around then for some people. All those peasant skirts with fringes . . . where are they now, eh? One year the annual year-end poll in one of the music papers asked "What is the worst influence on the eighties?" I made sure that the Potterrow's copy had "The sixties" in for that one. Mainly to annoy all the tedious indiekids. Oddly, the worst influence on the nineties was probably the seventies, and A Certain Scene's odd obsession with the eighties now seems to be creeping into the mainstream. Earlier this year I saw one of those weird robotics people on Princes Street. Truly there is no lower form of life than the street performer. Popular culture never picks up on the right bits of past decades when it does a nostalgic retro trip.

I went to the 1989 Reading Festival (not my review, incidentally - I think I had a better time) with my friend Glen and he got sold a tape by a band called (I kid you not) Saffron Dreamshadow. I sometimes wonder what happened to them. They sounded dreadful. To a twenty-year-old Buttholes fan, anyway. We took the piss out of their name for months. I'm not sure I've been back to Reading since then, although I certainly went through it on a particularly grim train journey in 1997 which ended up involving proper hippies and a new Iain Banks novel. The Thames valley is still terra incognita as far as I'm concerned. Anyway, Reading. World Domination Enterprises. Head of David (who had a song with exactly the same rhythm line as Headhunter. Actually, I was in London the other week and I heard Headhunter coming out of a tape player on a stall selling hair ornaments in Chinatown. I feel like mentioning William Gibson now, but perhaps I'd better not.)

I suppose it's a bit like asking whether ludicrous spandex jeans are a Metal thing. They used to be. Most of those involved would probably rather they were forgotten. Some of those involved probably have forgotten. And in another ten years, those too young to remember it the first time will look at the pictures and (instead of keeling over laughing) say "Kewl!"

And yet another nightmare retrowrong will be born.

Comments

[dj-alexander.livejournal.com]

I blame All About Eve. Martha's Harbour is still the albatross of my vinyl collection.

[zotz]

Actually, I did originally mention AAE in that, but I cut the end off because it was getting excessively ridiculous. I like Martha's Harbour. I don't like their Led Zep fixation, though. I saw them a couple of years ago at a festival I was working, and their guitarist was the most amazingly flatulent fretwanker I've had inflicted on me in years. Robert Plant was playing the next day, and although his guitarist was wanky enough for Plant to apologise for it, he wasn't anything like as bad as AAE's. Martha's Harbour was lovely, though. I like songs about boats.

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

I used to have a tape with a Head of David Peel Session on it, I don't know what happened to it. Or them, indeed.

Nice to inspire such an interesting post with such a flippant one. :)

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Who's David Peel, and why do you have a tape of a session of his head?

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

You know, even as I typed it, I thought 'this isn't going to scan well'...

:)

[zotz]

I have some head of david at home. I haven't listened to it in quite a while. I think the H'Hunteresque song is called Wildwood (or something very like it) and I've never seen any reference to a song by them called that.

Apparently they shared a member (Justin Broadrick, apparently) with Napalm Death (but eventually he left to start Godflesh) and finally broke up around '92.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Hm. I think I've a pair of their Blast First LPs (what other label would they end up on after all?). Dustbowl and summat else. I'm sure the interweb will provide tedious biographical detail.

And make me wish I'd bought more Slab! Bambi Slam and Gun Club records.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

AOL

[zotz]

I don't really know anything about the first two, but I've been known to pick up Gun Club records when I come across them. Which I still do, sometimes. Them and Giant Sand. Need more early Giant Sand.

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

That's another one to add to my 'bands I saw live' list - The Gun Club. They were rather good if I remember correctly, although I only knew one of their songs 'Breaking Hands'.

[zotz]

You jammy goit. If you find a copy of their first album (Fire of Love), don't let it escape.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Slab! I think, were what would be called 'Ant-zen with guitars' these days. Or that might have been Bambi Slam. Some cross-checking with the readaudio-ed festive fifties required.

(And now I have the Psylons [ and excellent name ] going through my head.)

Reading

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

-i'm from there. you don't want to go back! you really don't!

Patchouli. Is it a gothy thing?

[kiaransalyn.livejournal.com]

Remembering the eighties patchouli was mainly used to rub into your leather jacket (or other regularly worn garment) to disguise the smell of marajana use. So it was kind of a Goth thing in the sense, that mainly Goths who were into that Nephs, Sisters "T-shirt and leather jacket" image did it.
(This practice was defintely started in earlier decades.)

So was it a Gothy thing?
Well it never got me drunk, so I guess not. :)

(Best add, I haven't read Fiona's original comments, so the above might not be of much worth.)

Re: Patchouli. Is it a gothy thing?

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

Yup, that pretty much backs up what I remember, but I didn't know about the leather jacket thing. Someone else suggested it was to soften the leather. I thought they just liked the smell. :)

[ex-wendles389.livejournal.com]

All those peasant skirts with fringes . . . where are they now, eh?

there's quite a few hiding in my wardrobe waiting to be ebayed as 'original goth gear' :)

patchouli...there was more than enough around where i lived due to a much larger than average ratio of local hippies... hence most goths i knew didn't buy it at all.

[Reading 89]
I'm now fairly sure I've still got the programme for this one somewhere...next stage - trying to remember what bands i actually saw. this could be difficult.

[zotz]

I've certainly got the program. Dave at the next desk was there too, with his brother - I didn't actually meet dave until eight years later, though, and his brother only last autumn. My boss's ex-boyfrend was there too. As I said a bit back, I'm building a collection.

As for the bands . . . The Men They Couldn't Hang? I don't remember seeing them. I know that I got back and realised that I'd missed PWEI. I remember the Buttholes very well, and loads of others. Swans were disappointing, Sugarcubes were deranged, That Petrol Emotion were bouncier and more rock'n'roll than anyone had any right to be, World Dom Ents had the cruddiest kit I've ever seen, Voice of the Beehive seemed to be really looking forward to seeing the Buttholes, Peter Hook set fire to his amp (with only minimal success), the Mish played the same songs they'd been playing on tour in the same order, NMA started with Vengeance and kicked arse ("We've just been to America . . . there's nothing we want there". Except the ticket money and record sales, presumably). 'Twas good. At some point I should dig out the program, retype the lineup and write a somewhat late review.

Re: Patchouli. Is it a gothy thing?

[kiaransalyn.livejournal.com]

A few biker friends (in the past) used to say they softened their jackets by riding over them on their bikes.

I do a similar thing to new boots, I hit them with a hammer to make them easier to walk in. :)

Don't know what Goths would do. Jump off the stool and make sure the rope was long enough so they landed on their jacket? :)

[olithered.livejournal.com]

What /is/ wrong with spandex?

[zotz]

If you have to ask . . . how old did you say you were, again?

Wheels of Steel!

[kiaransalyn.livejournal.com]

Go you, young Padawan to Biff Byfford and ask your question again.

[olithered.livejournal.com]

I'm 22. Although last night doseybat said I looked about 16...

Re: Wheels of Steel!

[olithered.livejournal.com]

I met him at Wacken last year actually. Forgot to ask him then - doh!

[zotz]

Old enough to know better, then. Regardless of whether you look it.

Spandex . . . come the revolution . . .

Re: Wheels of Steel!

[blackmetalbaz.livejournal.com]

I'm not against spandex per se.