Maybe listen to the first Propaganda album. I think that album pre-empted a lot of sounds of today - from industrial to Detroit - and the sleeve notes remind me of Axis' liner notes! I guess the whole fantasy element of the Blitz Kids fed into the imaginations of Motor City's youth. There is a book called The Book With No Name which is worth seeking. I recently found a copy second-hand, after not seeing it for a decade. It was the New Romantic bible. It was such a radical thing to hear songs like Vienna or Fade To Grey and Controversy (as a kid Prince *was* New Romantic to me, and let's not forget Sheila E's get-up for Romance 1600) in the charts as a kid, it was so refreshing after all that dull rock - Australia is a country where pub-rock/MOR country rules, after all. I mean how did Japan chart in the UK with Ghosts? Such an abstract record! The videos were so powerful. With Duran Duran, you really have to listen to the album material. It's purely elitism in the rock media that deems them of less critical value than Depeche. I didn't mind Depeche, I just wasn't as gripped by them as I was by Duran, Visage, etc. That's not a value judgment, just personal. Not so sure of Vince Clarke's recent work - like that Erasure covers album, ahem. The story of Duran's roots in industrial Birmingham, their associations with the New Romantic club Rumrunner, the Andy Warhol thing, it was all great stuff!
> Am I the only one who has never really got the appeal of a lot of the 80s > New romantic stuff to techno heads? I mean I can understand a few > individual tracks, but I've always thought of bands like ABC and Duran > Duran as being a bit...well...not my cup of tea anyway. Admitidly I've not > listened to any of it since it was all over the radio in the 80s so maybe > the cheesy pop music that I associate with many of these bands isn't all > there is to be discovered and I should delve deeper. I was a big Adam and > the Ants fan when I was a kid, but thats about the only impact the whole > new romantic thing ever had on me. My guess is I'm missing the target by a > mile and theres a wealth of undiscovered gems out there. I'd like that, but > when I think of ABC I think of Poison Arrow and the Look of Love and it > just doesn't register with me at all. > > Stewart > > > __________________________________________________________________________ > Join Freeserve http://www.freeserve.com/time/ > > Winner of the 2003 Internet Service Providers' Association awards for Best > Unmetered ISP and Best Consumer Application. > >
