| Author | Message | ||
     spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 2111 Registered: 05-2005 |
On BBC radio 2 tonight (Sat 2.2.08) http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/musicclub/do c_johnmcgeoch.shtml He's a hero of mine and many more i am sure, be worth tuning in. I once had the fortune to satnd right in front of him and watch him play all night in 1985 with the Armooury Show. It was at Dudley polytechnic, the same place Edwyn Collins played a coupld o years later, must've had a great ENTS manager! The Armoury Show gig was full of fun, first off on the way in I found a box of ciggies, I smoked then, although not very much. Then after the AS had left the show, there were two guys behind me and a friend, they were leaning on our backs and shoulders, shouting 'wan*ers! Boo! Stay Off etc etc. Then Richard Jobson along with McGeoogh pushed us aside and jumped on the stage for a couple o encores, i think they did a Magazine cover. On the subject of Magazine, Howard Devoto gave me the high five at the end of a Luxuria gig in '88 in Birmingham, I was atthe front (again!), and ghe went down a line of fans at the front either high fiving or slapping 10! It was so unlike the image built up in my head all those years!! he was cool. They had just played Parade too! | ||
| TROU Member Username: Trou Post Number: 131 Registered: 05-2005 |
I've surfed through the links. And I didn't knew he died in 2004. Shame on me! McGeoch was a hero in my teenager's years. The new British Sea Power reminds me of the Skids and Armoury Show. I'm not a fan but I'll go to see them live in two weeks. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 2114 Registered: 05-2005 |
it was a great show, it was touching in parts, especially the dave formula song which features snippets of mcgeogh cut up and pasted in very randomly, the song is very beautiful and will be on formula's new album. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 986 Registered: 10-2004 |
just listened to this show - a good listen. mcgeoch is definitely one of my very favorite guitarists. hugely influential for me. it was really interesting to hear more about who he was and how the people he played with viewed/heard his playing. i also like that they had both roddy frame and johnny marr chiming in throughout, as fans of his playing. oddly enough, i haven't heard much armoury show. were they any good? i know i've heard a song or two but can't remember what they were like. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 2116 Registered: 05-2005 |
imho Jeff, armoury show were like an amalgamation of things that were happening at the time, '84/'85, the bombast of the new Simple Minds sound, the gritiness of say, The Cult, obviously The Skids because of Jobbo, and their own thing. McGeogh was brilliant in them, a great riff exists in the song Castles in Spain. I NEED the album on CD, can't find it anywhere, I really liked it. They were pompous but I enjoyed that. The rhythm section was Russell from The Skids and John Doyle from the last Magazine line up. I notice on the show on Saturday they neatly and obviously skipped right past the armoury show stage in mcgeogh's career, wonder why? because they didn't have any hits? seems a little stupid to me as here he as in a group with legends and fellow magazine personnel, mind you as with all these docu things, they could do with more time to really get over more of an artist's career. | ||
| Richard Martin Member Username: Ems Post Number: 4 Registered: 01-2008 |
Thanks for the link. I saw him play with Public Image when they toured Australia in 1989 (ex-Pop Group member Bruce Smith was on drums). Sadly an incarnation of PiL that was musically much less than the sum of its (impressive) parts - but still worth seeing. My first ever gig! | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1538 Registered: 03-2005 |
I finally sat down and listened to this. For some reason I thought I couldn't get it here in the States. Thanks Spence! While Magazine are in regular rotation with me, it's been so long since I listened to the Banshees that I forgot which albums he played on. And now I'll be loading selected tracks into iTunes because--yes--his contribution is great. But I do have to wonder what he thought of her infantile lyrics. They were a very far fall from Devoto's brilliance. I never knew that he played in PIL. I sort-of liked "Compact Disc" for its bizarre unexpectedness but "Happy" was so dreadful that I doubt I've played it more than once. When I'm in a patient mood I'll need to do so. That's a pretty cool first gig to have gone to, Richard. Another person who died at 48. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1015 Registered: 10-2004 |
It's true, PIL's expiration date had long since expired by the time McGeogh joined them. "Happy" has a decent song or two, but not much else. What's sad is that I could never really hear McGeogh in Happy. Not that I've ever spent any time analyzing it (much less listening to it), but it alway struck me as odd that a lot of the guitar playing on that record sounds like it could've been done by anyone. It's also true that Siouxsie's lyrics are pretty infantile (hell, Siouxsie herself comes across as pretty infantile in her interviews), but the music still holds up wonderfully for me. It's no coincidence that the three Banshees albums McGeogh played on (Kaliedoscope, Juju, and A Kiss in the Dreamhouse) were among the band's very best. And I've always maintained that the best showcase for McGeogh's talents (of his entire career) is probably Juju. As for McGeogh's having to adjust to the step down from Devoto's lyrics to Siouxsie's - if it was a concern to him at all - I'm sure the prospects of playing in a more successful band outweighed those concerns. I think the documentary more or less got that across, that McGeogh basically left Magazine because it wasn't getting the attention it deserved. So, he gravitated towards a band that *was* enjoying that level of attention. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 2145 Registered: 05-2005 |
Some great comments/theories guys. The thing with Siouxsie is that she was very much at the centre of movements which morphed quite easily into one another, punk/new wave/new romanticism/goth and so on. She was the Queen of these categories. No one dissed Maam Siouxsie, like no one dissed Paul Weller when he was in The Jam. Whether they were right or wrong, good or bad, all through their careers, Siousxe and Weller have had hardcore fans who constantly followed through thick and thin, and I think during the time John McGeogh was involved, everyone kinds new she was 'it'. Times were hard, there must've been a cash incentive. Its important to remember the time all of this was happening, they were all extremely young, the 70's (for me was FAB!) but being young society and particularly being a teenager in England and UK at this time was hard. No one was pissing around worrying about MySpace song hits or The Internet. Ego's aside, I don't think things were being analysed by these people that much, if it meant abetter life with some cash, that was it. As a for instance, Malcolm Ross joined Orange Juice after the Josef K split, cos there was potential to earn some cash, it wasn't a plan or anything, just because it was cool, times were hard, and they were on their way to Polydor (for better or for worse). | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1021 Registered: 10-2004 |
I was thinking about that section of the program in which they were discussing Magazine's desire to have John Barry produce 2nd Hand Daylight. As a fan of both John Barry and Magazine, I think that would've made for a *really* interesting pairing. A cool idea, to say the least. Too bad it couldn't happen. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1540 Registered: 03-2005 |
Yes, that amazed me too. And it says an awful lot about Barry that he was interested. Here was this scruffy punk band from another generation--I'm tempted to say from TWO generations later, musically--and Barry was able to see their potential. That's very impressive. It must have been things like "Motorcade" that tipped him off. |