| Author | Message | ||
     Rohan Howitt Member Username: Rohan Post Number: 1 Registered: 02-2010 |
Hi Everyone, My name's Rohan Howitt, and I'm currently completing my Personal Interest Project (PIP) for Year 12 Society & Culture at Narara Valley High School in NSW. The PIP is a 4000 word piece of original social and cultural research. I am researching the differing perspectives of artists and fans on the relationship between cities and music. For this, I'm looking at two case studies, Brisbane & The Go-Betweens, and the changing Manchester bands (from Herman's Hermits to Joy Division to Oasis, etc). I really need some perspectives of fans, in particular fans of the Go-Betweens, so if anyone could answer a few of the following questions I'd be exceptionally grateful. 1) What city/region are you from? 2) What access to music have you had in this area? 3) Do you, as a music fan, feel that there is a particular band that represents your area? Do you think your city has a particular sound? 4) Do you think The Go-Betweens represent Brisbane? 5) Do you think the relationship between The Go-Betweens and Brisbane has changed over time? How? Once again, if anyone could find time to answer those questions, I'll be eternally in your debt! Thanks, Rohan Howitt | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 2279 Registered: 03-2005 |
Welcome to the board Rohan. Those are not particularly easy questions. Well, not for me. 1. California. Los Angeles for the past 32 years. 2. There is a very large club scene here as this is one of the world's media centers. Access to music is maximal. 3. The Beach Boys. Most bands who operated here came from somewhere else and have a weaker claim. Unlike the others the Beach Boys came from here and wrote about what they saw here so I choose them. I can't decide whether immigrant bands like the Byrds or the hateful Eagles qualify. Los Angeles is a city of immigrants so immigrants CAN qualify but they need to write about and reflect the city. X is another band that might qualify. But I can't think of anybody who personifies Los Angeles of their era(s) quite like the Beach Boys. 4. Yes, but they are not the only ones. I'd also name the Apartments. 5. Well, they returned to it didn't they? Originally they wanted to transcend Brisbane and experience the world, but they always referred back to Brisbane during their travels. Grant, the Queensland country bumpkin, particularly denigrated Brisbane. Finally I think songs like "Lamp by Lamp" by Grant McLennan and "Pandanus" from Robert Forster reflect a coming to terms with the appeal of returning to the city. Good luck with your essay! | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1891 Registered: 10-2004 |
1. Oakland, California 2. Local music? Clubs, word of mouth, college radio. Any music? Some truly great record stores. 3. American Music Club best sums up the atmosphere, the fog rolling over the peninsula... Most people would say Creedence or Jefferson Airplane or the Dead or something... 4. I have no idea, I've never been there. 5. Going along with what Randy says, I think Robert and Grant both felt stifled by Brisbane initially, and despite it being a fertile breeding ground of art and music in the late 70s/early 80s, they needed to get out. It seems the Saints song "Brisbane (Security City)" summed the atmosphere up pretty well. But once London wore them down, Australia seemed to become pretty appealing to them, but they moved to Sydney, not Brisbane, suggesting that perhaps Sydney was viewed as the more viable location for surviving as artists at that time. But even after that, it took years for them to finally relocate back to Brisbane, with Robert living in Germany for quite some time (not sure when Grant went back to Brisbane). To me that would indicate a possible growing acceptance of Brisbane over time. It seems Brisbane played an important role in The Go-Betweens' mach II identity, and that by the time of BYBO, they had really come to terms with that. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 3403 Registered: 05-2005 |
1) From County Limerick, Ireland. Live in Sydney. 2) Growing up my access to music was mainly through music magazines and Radio Luxembourg, which led me to record shops. 3) I don't know who would represent Limerick, but the area of Sydney I live in - the Northern Beaches - is best represented by local boys Celibate Rifles. 4) Every time I go to Brisbane (I've been there four times since 1999) I can see what The Go-Betweens were writing about. So yes, I think they do represent Brisbane. 5) Definitely. I will email an article to you where Robert talks a bit about this. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 3405 Registered: 05-2005 |
There is an extremely well written history project by Rohan on The Go-Betweens here http://historyteacher.org.au/nhc/2008/20 08_yr9_10_AwardWinner.pdf (the power of Google!) | ||
| Andreas Severins Member Username: Andreas_severins Post Number: 140 Registered: 11-2007 |
1) What city/region are you from? - I'm from Düsseldorf/Germany 2) What access to music have you had in this area? - There are sooo many clubs around in a distance of 50 km let's say about 200-400 clubs and many big arenas! Concerts are quite cheap compared to the uk and new bands you can usually see in very small venues (could see the libertines in a venue for 100 people, maximo park from the very start ....) There used to be very good record shops but thru the last decades they get fewer 3) Do you, as a music fan, feel that there is a particular band that represents your area? Do you think your city has a particular sound? - The band no. 1 nowadays is Die Toten Hosen, but Kraftwerk and Fehlfarben and many other innovators come from this area. 4) Do you think The Go-Betweens represent Brisbane? I've just been to brisbane once for a couple of days so I can't answer your question. 5) Do you think the relationship between The Go-Betweens and Brisbane has changed over time? How? I am quite sure, but as question 4 I can't really know ;) Good luck, Rohan. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 346 Registered: 10-2006 |
1)I’m from Dundee in Scotland, now live in central Italy. 2)The usual, record shops & tours, but my biggest “access to music” in terms of shaping taste and opening ears for many years was British dj John Peel, who certainly introduced me to the GBs. 3)Off the top of my head, there’s the Average White band, the Associates and Deacon Blue! Nothing very Dundonian about any of them, I think. If I had to choose a band that summed up Dundee for me in fact, it would be the Smiths, whose lyrical brand of industrial city in decline melancholy can probably be applied to a large part of northern England and Scotland. And Dundee does get a mention in Panic, of course. 4)That’s one for the locals, I guess. “represent” is a thorny word isn’t it? The GBs certainly evoke what I imagine east coast Australia to be like in many songs & namecheck local geography; they both criticise and celebrate the town & its environs: tricky to say if they “represent” it though. 5) Didn’t they follow a quite standard parabola from got-to-get-out-of-this-provincial-minded -hellhole loathing (the band) countered by let-us-ignore-these-noisy-upstarts indifference (the city) to our-roots-are-here-maybe-it’s-not-such-a -bad-place-ok-I’ll-buy-a-house contentment (the band) matched by Welcome-back-favoured-sons-we-love-you- here’s-a-bridge celebrativeness (the city)? |