| Author | Message | ||
     Peter Senning Member Username: Peter_senning Post Number: 9 Registered: 05-2005 |
I've just read an excellent interview by amazon.co.uk with Robert and Grant (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/98105/ref=ed_art_429075_txt_1/2 03-1287725-3264755). Here Grant says speaking of The Friends of Rachel Worth: "I think it's very much part of the same thing. It slots in beautifully, I think. It's also an odd-numbered record, being our seventh, and I think in some way ii continues in the vein of our first, third and fifth... it's more like Tallulah to me. I think our second, fourth and sixth, you know, Before Hollywood, Liberty Belle [And The Black Diamond Express] and 16 Lovers Lane all hang together in some strange way, as well." It has never occurred to me that you could view the Go-Betweens records this way, but I think Grant may be right up to a point. But in my opinion, the brilliant Oceans Apart (#9) is more like the previous even-numbered albums. | ||
| David Matheson Member Username: David_matheson Post Number: 41 Registered: 12-2004 |
Around the time Rachel Worth came out I remember hearing Grant say in an interview that his and Robert's songs seemed to be like each others'on album 2, 4 and 6, but more distinct from each other on 1, 3 and 5. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 130 Registered: 08-2004 |
This is another opportunity to look into things too closely, there's no real link between SMAL, SHF & Tallulah, although they added a new member for each record. Odd or even they are still no more than Go-betweens albums. Hmmmmm. | ||
| Peter Collins Member Username: Tyroneshoelaces Post Number: 59 Registered: 05-2005 |
I was listening to TFORW over the weekend and realised that it is by far their weakest album, bar the first three tracks. Bright Orange, Bright Yellow (is that the right order? I can never remember), however, I have warmed to, having initially thought it was one of the worst. | ||
| Alex Bolton Member Username: Alexb Post Number: 2 Registered: 01-2006 |
The problem with TFORW isn't the songs but the production/recording. Magic in Here and He Lives My Life are just two really strong numbers and are highlights of the Barbican CD IMHO. | ||
| Peter Collins Member Username: Tyroneshoelaces Post Number: 61 Registered: 05-2005 |
I wouldn't disagree that Magic in Here and The Clock are two fantastic pieces of music, but the rest of it is a wee bit dull, in my humble opinion. | ||
| Hugo Member Username: Hugo Post Number: 5 Registered: 06-2005 |
Anyone know anything about the filmscript they talk about in this interview? | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 146 Registered: 03-2005 |
Whereas my favorites on Rachel Worth are "Spirit" and "When She Sang About Angels," followed by "Magic in Here" and "The Clock." The other songs either suffer from terminal blanditude or Robert's excess. In all, it was a tentative effort. | ||
| gareth w Member Username: Gareth Post Number: 25 Registered: 05-2005 |
For me, Grant’s songs on ‘FORW’ are his weakest on a go-betweens record (‘Heart and Home’ (I think it’s called that) sounds like it was phoned in from his bed) but I can’t fault Roberts at all. I love ‘German Farmhouse’, ‘Surfing Magazines’ and ‘Spirit’ in particular. | ||
| Matt Ellis Member Username: Matt_ellis Post Number: 44 Registered: 11-2004 |
Why does FORW always seem to divide opinion so much? I think its vastly superior to BYBO. All Music Guide (www.allmusic.com) which I used to think (wrongly) was the be all and end all, rates FORW as their best post reformation record. Bizarrely it rates Heart And Home as one of the three best tracks on the album! Gareth, I had to laugh at your comment - I can somehow see Grant doing that but I do like the song. I think I've got to the stage where I think that if Grant farted through the middle of a toilet roll tube it would sound fantastic. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 32 Registered: 01-2005 |
I'll chime in with a preference to FORW over BYBO. The strong songs on it tower over BYBO. However, it isn't as consistent as the 1980's albums though. I thought it was a pretty good start to the second phase of the G-B's. | ||
| Matthias Treml Member Username: Matthias Post Number: 51 Registered: 05-2005 |
Matt, the tube comment is very, very disturbing. And it takes a lot to disturb me. Next, we'll see a cover band called Fart Out Corporation. | ||
| david pestorius Member Username: David_pestorius Post Number: 33 Registered: 08-2005 |
Hugo, the film script they mention in the interview was a lot of work during the 1995 year that came to nothing, at least to date anyway. At the time the Brisbane photographer Peter Fischmann — he took a number of promotional photos of RF at this time and did all the photography for his 'Calling From a Country Phone' album — was running the Dendy Cinema here and he gave RF and Grant a small office/studio in there. They worked on the script in that office on a regular basis, most week days I think. I'm not sure why it was never progressed beyond the writing stage or how much effort went into selling it, but it recall RF being quite ambitious for it at the time. I guess partly the reason for this is that they both still had their solo careers on foot then too — this was, for example, the time of 'Warm Nights', both the band and then the RF album — and soon after that RF returned to Germany, so the close working relationship with Grant was put on hold again and the film script sort of sank without trace. But I wouldn't be surprised if some attempt was made to dust the script off at some point. | ||
| Matt Ellis Member Username: Matt_ellis Post Number: 45 Registered: 11-2004 |
Good one Matthias LOL The blame should sit squarely with the guitarist in a band that I am in. He coined this phrase in relation to our new drummer - it came out of nowhere and it made me laugh all the way through our recent recording session! Michael I totally agree with your comments, about half of the album were staple live songs on the last tour. | ||
| Hugo Member Username: Hugo Post Number: 6 Registered: 06-2005 |
David, thanks for answering my question. I wonder what the film was going to be about? | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 147 Registered: 03-2005 |
I'm okay with the two slot idea of Go Betweens records, but I'd choose the more obvious two slots of 1980s for one and 2000 on for the second. The 80s records were all created in a pressure cooker when the band was working constantly just to survive. For so many artists, this dreadful condition seems to push them to their greatest creative heights and, so far, this seems to be true for Robert and Grant also. The second slot of records has been produced in comparative luxury. To my ears, BYBO seems particularly lazy-sounding. Few of the guitar fills are really thought out and the arrangements are pretty desultory. They had all the time in the world to polish up this set of songs but it doesn't sound to me like they did. I know there are some folks on here who feel that OA is just AOR pap and I will have to wait another year or two before I can weigh in on that but at least Wallis pushed them to do interesting things with the arrangements. I mean small things like the keyboard in "Boundary Rider," the use of mandolin in "Finding You" and the delicate detailings surrounding the beautifully simple "Mountains Near Dellray." But, for me, the two slots are: in the pressure cooker of constant touring to avoid starvation and out of the pressure cooker. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 139 Registered: 05-2005 |
Hugo, when I first interviewed Robert in 1996 he mentioned the film and that he and Grant had worked hard on it, writing every day. I recall him saying that it was about two men leaving somewhere, maybe it was a Queensland bush town or maybe it was Brisbane, and moving to Sydney. I don't think it was meant to be autobiographical. I also recall that it was set in the 80s and getting away from the Joh Bjelke-Petersen controlled police state that Queensland then was was part of the plot. But maybe my memory is letting me down. I'm sure David will correct me if it is. | ||
| david pestorius Member Username: David_pestorius Post Number: 34 Registered: 08-2005 |
I have a recollection of reading a synopsis of the script many years ago and that the title was something like 'Sydney Creeps'. I have an even more vague memory that some part of the story was set in Nambour and thinking at the time that this perhaps fed into the narrative of the song 'I'll Jump' from RF's 'Warm Nights' album. Beyond this I can't recall much more at the moment, sorry. | ||
| Robert Vickers Member Username: Robert_vickers Post Number: 16 Registered: 05-2005 |
Robert and Grant wrote a script together called Sydney Creeps around the time of FORW I think. It may have been some kind of 'caper' film. I think they are hoping Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole will be in it. If it does get made I fully expect the music supervisor to follow the lead of all other Australian filmakers and use no Go-Betweens songs | ||
| david pestorius Member Username: David_pestorius Post Number: 35 Registered: 08-2005 |
The capers idea rings bells to me too Robert, but the script was definitely written when they were both living in Brisbane again in 1995–1996. There were perhaps some efforts to attract interest in the script in the years that followed (when RF was back living in Regensberg), but the writing must have been completed by then. My recollection, admittedly pretty vague now, is of reading the synopsis around 1998–1999. | ||
| Richard Lim Member Username: Re17 Post Number: 21 Registered: 05-2005 |
Actually, of the three post-reformation albums I've probably listened most to Rachel Worth, and while it has its flaws, I find it more quirkily endearing than the other two CDs. I think Heart and Home is great and sadly neglected live - Grant described it during one radio interview as "the most Grant song on the record" or words to that effect, and it's true; it's Grant being idiosyncratically himself and nobody else writes like that, whereas when he's being more middle of the road he can play it too safe and end up sounding rather dull. Rachel Worth also has several other top-drawer songs - He Lives My Life, Magic In Here, When She Sang About Angels. To me, its high points are higher than most of those on the subsequent albums. Richard | ||
| Donat Member Username: Donat Post Number: 119 Registered: 11-2004 |
I remember reading an interview with RF regarding Sydney Creeps and he suggested that Daniel Johns (of silverchair fame) would play the lead role - or something to that effect. |