| Author | Message | ||
     Chris S |
Just purchased the said (excellent) book and whilst browsing through before the main read (due to begin tonight) I could have sworn that no mention was made of the gig at London's The Forum circa June 1997 (the year after the Paris date?). I guess it was connected with the Beggars Banquet reissues and featured the lineup Forster, McLennan, McLennan, Pickvance. Surely someone out there remembers it (the place was heaving). They opened with "To Reach Me". | ||
| Gareth |
This rings a bell. My one main gripe about the book would be that the last 10 years or so felt a little rushed. I seem to remember the band reforming to play some shows in France in light of 'Tallulah' being voted 'greatest album...ever!!!' or something along those lines. Perhaps I dreamt it but not sure. I would also have liked to have seen something along the lines of examining the growing acclaim that they started to get in light of the re-issues and the increasing influence they have had on new bands (does anyone else hear 'Send Me A Lullabye' in Franz Ferdinand?). For volume 3 methinks... | ||
| david nichols |
Whether I touch on an actual 1997 London 'Go-Betweens' show or not in the book I feel that whole era is more or less covered in the opening of the book, the 'Australian Go-Betweens show' in '95. There's obviously quite a long period of time when Forster and McLennan are toying with the idea of playing under the GoBs name again, and there's also a real blurring of the distinction between 'Forster and McLennan and rhythm section' and 'The Go-Betweens' at this late 90s time. I'm pretty sure I DO mention the French shows (for Les Inrockuptibles) in that section. The last ten years being rushed - well, yes, the mid-70s to Dec. 1989 take up 4/5 of the book, and the (almost) 15 years since take up the remaining fifth, so it's lopsided in that sense. But 'The Go-betweens, the solo years' is really a different book, don't you think? And one (I hate to say it) not many people would buy or read, though personally I would do both if someone out there was up for writing it. I pretty much compact the 90s into one chapter, on the basis that the group didn't really exist as a functioning unit in that time. Influence: Obviously (?) I couldn't have countenanced Franz Ferdinand who have only become prominent in the last few months (even if I'd been personally aware of them and felt they were a good example of a GoBs influence, I wouldn't necessarily want to take a punt on them becoming famous). But even then I really see SMAL as one example of many angular, edgy pop records of the era, and while in the book I do cite an example of one record I see as growing out of the SMAL-Before Hollywood era (The Servants' Disinterest) I wouldn't really want to make a big case for any group now taking SMAL to heart, though maybe that's just because I haven't heard it. Perhaps I should give FF more of a listen with Gareth's words in mind. |