Ordered in a foolish moment

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Ordered in a foolish moment

Postby SPT » Sun Jan 25, 2015 11:53 am

But fucking hell, I'm glad I did. Beautiful and great.

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Re: Ordered in a foolish moment

Postby Wicker Man » Sun Jan 25, 2015 1:19 pm

Oh, dear lord - heard about this but didn't realise it would be that lovely. Money well spent.
Is the whole Go-Betweens catalogue being reissued in a similar fashion, do you know?
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Re: Ordered in a foolish moment

Postby Wicker Man » Sun Jan 25, 2015 1:31 pm

Ah, the phrase 'Volume 1' probably answers that question.
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Re: Ordered in a foolish moment

Postby SPT » Sun Jan 25, 2015 2:51 pm

The book (and the B&W photos which were tucked inside it) is from Grant McLennan's collection. Which is a bit odd but intriguing.

Prob won't get volumes 2&3. I've already got most of the mid-period stuff on vinyl and the later stuff while pretty damn fine, I'm OK with what I've got.
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Re: Ordered in a foolish moment

Postby Wicker Man » Sun Jan 25, 2015 4:40 pm

Bloody hell - I'd read something about fans being tempted to reassemble Grant's library, but didn't realise what that was about.
Makes sense, when you think about it - why cart all his books to the charity shop if they can be distributed among people who will really appreciate them? That's a very personalised, BSP shop-style way of doing business.
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Re: Ordered in a foolish moment

Postby Blackout » Sun Jan 25, 2015 8:26 pm

Shut up and go away.

(Translates: I seriously regret being a twat when the pre-orders for this went on sale and convincing myself I didn't need it whilst feeling proud of my rare self-restraint...). :)
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Re: Ordered in a foolish moment

Postby Wicker Man » Tue Jan 27, 2015 12:39 pm

I'm just glad I didn't hear about it until it was too late. What with 'Sea of Brass' and that mint Shirley Collins box set on eBay, my rekkids budget for 2015 is already down to the suds.
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Re: Ordered in a foolish moment

Postby Blackout » Tue Jan 27, 2015 2:01 pm

I have a history of missing the boat where Grant McLennan is concerned.... About ten years ago I was staying over with a friend in Brighton after a BSP gig and waiting for them to wake up I was leafing through the local listings mag, and saw The Go-Betweens were playing in Brighton that very evening (I'd been completely unaware they were in the country, they didn't do a northern date), and it wasn't sold out!

So what did I do?

I considered phoning work and asking for another day off, but technically we were supposed to give a week's notice unless it was an "emergency". I did not get on with my manager at the time, and there was also a dispute in progress which had turned a bit nasty including attempts to "get" the union reps, of which I was one, for anything they could, so I was scared to invent an emergency or indeed throw a fake sickie (something I have never done) in case I was found out. I got on the train and went home, away from what nobody knew at the time was the last ever Go-Betweens gig in the UK. Grant died a few months later.

So not getting an expensive box set I probably didn't need isn't that big a deal really :)
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Re: Ordered in a foolish moment

Postby Wicker Man » Tue Jan 27, 2015 4:37 pm

Regrets? I've had a few.

At the turn of the century, I was a fleet-footed reporter on a late-night indie show on what was then GLR. Once a week, I'd attend a hot 'alternative' gig somewhere in London town and then, sometime after the midnight news, phone into the programme from a phone box or using a borrowed mobile and give a 'hot of the press' report on what I'd just seen.

One particular night, Forster and McLennan were on the show promoting their then new album ('The Friends of Rachel Worth', it would have been), chatting to the presenter, Laura Lee Davies (they commented on the double 'l' in her name, of course and said they'd consider it as the title for their next release) and playing a few new songs. As I wrapped up my review (no idea what of on that occasion - Shack, Arab Strap, something like that) LL segued into a record, then came on the line and said "Bob and Grant are still in the studio. We've just opened a bottle of wine - do you fancy coming over?"

I'd been listening into the show on my little portable radio and had been delighted if not surprised at how urbane and witty the two of them sounded. I remember they held a competition to win the new album, the question being "What colour suit is Robert wearing?"*

The studio was in Marylebone and I was, I think, right by the Astoria. If I'd taken a cab, I could have been there in 10 minutes. But suddenly aware of how 'refreshed' I was (I always managed to hide it on the air, I think) I bottled it and made some excuse about having to be in work early the next day.

I only half regret not going, I suppose - I'd have babbled, or lapsed into an agonising silence or tripped over and spilled the wine everywhere, I'm certain of it. Would still have made a better anecdote than this one though, eh?

*Answer: canary yellow.
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Re: Ordered in a foolish moment

Postby Blackout » Tue Jan 27, 2015 5:14 pm

Brilliant... that's the kind of band they were, though, all about life's little not quites.

And never mind the suit, I wonder what colour his hair was?

(See first paragraph of this rather good interview if you don't immediately know what I was talking about......)
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/a ... popandrock
And I asked, "Are you dreaming about a crow?"
And there she was....

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Re: Ordered in a foolish moment

Postby Singing Bear » Wed Jan 28, 2015 9:11 pm

Nothing foolish about owning ANYTHING to do with The Go-Betweens. They were proof that no matter how much talent you have there will always be more people with no taste.
Fucking brilliant group in every way.
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Re: Ordered in a foolish moment

Postby Wicker Man » Thu Jan 29, 2015 11:32 am

Blackout wrote:And never mind the suit, I wonder what colour his hair was?

(See first paragraph of this rather good interview if you don't immediately know what I was talking about......)
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/a ... popandrock

I thought that was going to be the interview where he insisted on meeting the writer at an exclusive hotel he wasn't actually staying at, just so the piece could open with the line, "Robert Forster strides across the lobby of The Ritz..." (or wherever it was).
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Re: Ordered in a foolish moment

Postby Blackout » Thu Jan 29, 2015 1:27 pm

Singing Bear wrote:Nothing foolish about owning ANYTHING to do with The Go-Betweens.


True. Bloody wish I'd bought the thing now.


Wicker Man wrote:
Blackout wrote:And never mind the suit, I wonder what colour his hair was?

(See first paragraph of this rather good interview if you don't immediately know what I was talking about......)
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/a ... popandrock

I thought that was going to be the interview where he insisted on meeting the interviewer at an exclusive hotel he wasn't actually staying at, just so the piece could open with the line, "Robert Forster strides across the lobby of The Ritz..." (or wherever it was).


He is just the greatest thing ever, really. I know it's not the same without Grant, it couldn't be, but still hope he tours again sometime. I'd love to see someone do one of those "in conversation" live onstage interviews with him, I bet he'd be amazing.

I'm now remembering the last time I actually did see them, in Manchester in 2003. We were close to the front, and right at the very front was a particularly enthusiastic fan who had spent much of the set with his eyes closed, head thrown back and arms out like he was having a private religious experience. Every now and then he would do a big sort of swoopy sway, and you could see Grant was trying, rather unsuccessfully, not to piss himself laughing at this.

Grant's guitar started cutting out, and it was getting worse, so they jigged the setlist so there was a run of Robert-fronted ones while he helped the tech try and sort it out. Then he got bored, walked down off the side of the stage and went and stood in the crowd right behind the enthusiastic man, copying his actions for a bit (now with Robert trying not to look), then tapped him on the shoulder; enthusiastic man looked round suddenly looking extremely pissed off someone had broken his reverie, and Grant said "They're not bad, these, are they?" and walked back round to the stageside leaving enthusiastic man looking like his head had actually blown....

Yeah, I miss them.
And I asked, "Are you dreaming about a crow?"
And there she was....

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Re: Ordered in a foolish moment

Postby SPT » Thu Jan 29, 2015 10:05 pm

Blackout wrote: I'd love to see someone do one of those "in conversation" live onstage interviews with him, I bet he'd be amazing.


He did something along those lines a few years back at Latitude while also reading from his book. And yes, it was ace. He came out to say hello to people afterwards. He'd been slagging off AC/DC (without irony), so I was going to say something about how I was a teenage metalhead who won a copy of 16 Lovers Lane in a competition and just fell for it and it unlocked a whole new area of music and I like the way that AC/DC and the Go-Betweens go hand in hand for me.

But of course I got a bit starstruck and gibbered (even more) like a twat.
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Re: Ordered in a foolish moment

Postby Blackout » Fri Jan 30, 2015 12:02 pm

The closest I have come to him in person was when he played at Lancaster Library (see thread viewtopic.php?p=79929 ) - the bogs were round the back of where they'd put the stage, I'd gone for a quick visit beforehand (perhaps as well given the mammoth 27 song set list) and as I was heading back up the corridor a door swung open, typically theatrically, and he strode out past me basically exuding Presence.

As I am at work on a very restricted internet connection I don't know if the pictures are actually working in that Lancaster Guardian link in that 2008 thread, nor can I see my own picture of said monster set-list, but this is another of my own pictures of what Forster in a library looked like. Pretty surreal...
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And I asked, "Are you dreaming about a crow?"
And there she was....

http://blackout300.tumblr.com/
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