artistes guaranteed to sell any new
album release to Phespirit:
Phespirit first noticed music back in 1979 - having just turned ten years of age - around the time when "Message In A Bottle" [The Police] was jostling with "Video Killed The Radio Stars" [The Buggles] for the position of British Number One. Anyone remember?
Having narrowly missed out on 'Punk', Phespirit had little choice but to fall in with the 'Ska' scene of the day, thereby setting a fair starting point for developing musical predilections. In due course he would flirt with the 'New Romantics', plunge into the 'Indie Underground', bob along the surface of 'Indie Pop', grow his hair long for 'Madchester', dabble a little in 'Grunge', and so on and on.
Latterly, Phespirit has come to define his tastes, not by genre, but simply as favouring anything:
" ..... slightly off-kilter, done well, with a bit of artistic integrity please ..... "
In the potted history below, Phespirit fleshes out the tale of his musical odyssey and provides examples of a few tunes which he whistled along the way .....
Quite how Phespirit managed ten youthful years of existence without knowledge of any kind of music whatsoever is wholly unclear. Similarly, why the emergence of a 'Ska' scene in 1979, at the close of Phespirit's Primary School years, should be the catalyst for a sudden pre-occupation with the British charts is also unclear.
Madness released "The Prince", "One Step Beyond" and "Night Boat To Cairo" in quick succession; The Specials sent "A Message To You, Rudi" and released the classic "Too Much Too Young (live)"; The Beat covered "Tears Of A Clown"; Bad Manners did "Ne Ne Na Na Na Na Nu Nu"; The Selector were "On My Radio"; The Bodysnatchers suggested "Let's Do Rock Steady"; Phespirit loved it all.
Although Phespirit would always keep a place in his heart for Madness, The Beat and The Specials, perhaps more important at this time was a formative affection for some of the more literate and well-observed British guitar pop also making its way into the top 40.
At the same time synthesizer music was on the increase, with Tubeway Army, Kraftwerk, M, Visage and Ultravox all shifting singles by the bucket-load.
From all these, Phespirit recalls the following as having a significant personal influence:
In 1982, The Stranglers released the seminal "Golden Brown", a song quite unlike any of their previous (or, indeed, subsequent) material. Phespirit would name this as an all-time favourite for many years to follow .....
For whatever reason, Phespirit's interest in music tailed off through his comprehensive school and sixth-form years. Being brought up in the off-scene borough of Thurrock, his exposure to music came only via the mainstream charts; between 1983 and 1986 there was precious little to capture the imagination.
As a consequence, Phespirit was blinkered into buying nothing more imaginative than Depeche Mode, Tears For Fears and Ultravox, whilst all the time adding to his cosy little collection of Madness tapes. These were truly lean years, with only occasional respite:
Mercifully this period came to end when The The released "Heartland", a brooding song which would guide Phespirit back down the path of appreciating well-observed lyrics sung over a moody but simple guitar/piano work out.
When Phespirit finally escaped from Essex, so he escaped from his rut. In the Autumn of 1987 he left for Oxford - masquerading as a Physics degree student, he would be found out and flung out after just one year - where he met friends who played music of a kind he could never have previously imagined.
Phespirit owes a debt of gratitude to Jon Gale for introducing him to:
A whole new underground, hitherto unknown, now opened up before Phespirit. A scene where bands were ploughing their own furrow, defining their own genres. The Fall's Mark E Smith drawled of other groups: "they can imitate, but I teach", and Phespirit quickly realised that the teachers are the ones who should be sought out.
Stand-outs and oddities recalled from the period include:
After his academically unsuccessful year at Oxford, Phespirit tried starting over again at Southampton, with identical results. With regards to music, however, this was an even more productive period. The 'Indie Pop' scene was booming and, with many of the hottest bands of the day playing Southampton's student union, Phespirit would now embrace the joy of the 'gig'.
A lot of bouncing around ensued, courtesy of bands such as the following:
Additionally, friends continued to influence Phespirit's taste. Particular thanks are extended to Rupert Knox-Johnston for playing the following tracks (amongst many) within Phespirit's earshot:
Further thanks are due to Nick Powell for the Skinny Puppy tape, to Roy ('the boy green man') Mussell for Colourbox and Clan of Xymox, to Darren Haggerston for The Pixies, and to Bill Harrow for the 'Ska' nostalgia ..... and for adding: "nostalgia ain't what it used to be."
A cult track of the day was The Sisters of Mercy's "Marian (Version)", which was a good one for young gentlemen to sing-along to and thereby confirm that their balls had indeed dropped.
And, of course, everybody loved:
For Christmas 1988, Phespirit was given The Fall's "I am Kurious, Oranj" album. More than any other record of the day, this one captured his imagination. He would play it to everybody - frequently to their great distress - imploring them to buy a copy. He would doodle 'Kurious Oranj' motifs over every plane surface, plain paper or misted window he could find. Many observers felt it was this obsession which lead directly to his great fashion error of 1989.
But of all tracks by The Fall, ultimately this one would have the greatest influence on Phespirit:
On a fine day in 1989, Phespirit's plans to catch a train from Southampton to Oxford were thwarted by an impromptu rail strike. To console himself he shuffled down to Our Price and purchased a copy of the Happy Mondays' album, "Bummed", almost entirely because the Melody Maker looked favourably upon them. Phespirit soon looked upon them with equal favour. Within a couple of months the single "WFL" was released, 'trance dancing' was all the rage, and everybody loved Happy Mondays .....
..... The 'second summer of love' was coming, but for Phespirit the cosy student lifestyle was over and, on his return to Essex, he would have to find his own sources of musical inspiration.
The years between 1990 and 1994 were Phespirit's primary gig-going years during which he maintained an average attendance record of about two a month. Probably the finest gigs from this period were:
And five months after the latter gig, Jarvis and co. (first) released the magical:
Other wonderful bands picked up from the London gig circuit were: Cranes, PJ Harvey, Gallon Drunk, Stereolab, Th' Faith Healers, Beef, American Music Club, and Laika. For bouncing around and general silliness, there was Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine and The Family Cat. Throughout this period Phespirit's annual pilgrimage, taken every August bank holiday with tent and sleeping bag, come rain or shine, was to The Reading Festival.
Also, Phespirit finally found a track to usurp "Golden Brown" as his all-time favourite:
These are close contenders too:
In the latter half of the 1990s, Phespirit found that he no longer had to confine his tastes to the obscure and elitist world of Indie underground; bands which could previously never dream of British top 40 single success were regularly crashing straight into the top ten.
Acts such as Radiohead, The Verve, Chumbawamba, Babybird, The Divine Comedy and Beck all had huge hits. Even the likes of Nick Cave, Tindersticks, Cranes and Spiritualized dabbled their toes into chart waters without any discernable compromise.
Sadly, Phespirit's new hero, Momus, was unable to take advantage of these new opportunities.
Tracks of the day:
And some old stuff came to the fore as well:
By the year 2000 the record industry was firmly back in control of the charts, having adjusted the way it packages and hypes its own formula bands to suit the new climate. (sigh)
At least John Peel could be guaranteed not to sell out. His show on B.B.C. Radio One remained the most reliable source of the best in new and classic fringe music, moving Phespirit to buy albums by Ladytron and Neko Case. Browsing the record shops of Berwick Street in Soho continues to yield good results from speculative purchases. In this way, for example, has come Kev Hopper and Goldfrapp.
Ah, now here's a good song:
Most pleasing, however, are those sage recommendations of visitors to phespirit.info - thank you all
Phespirit's evolving (or not) tastes are reflected in his subsequent CD purchases .....