Say Who You Are!

Posted on by

The album that did it for me. The one that, during my exploration of the Simple Minds back catalogue, “sealed the deal”. Empires And Dance put me into a state of…I dunno…suspended animation. I quite literally could not believe what I was hearing…that the band responsible for Don’t You (Forget About Me ) – subsequently I learned how much involvement there was in that, obv. – Alive And Kicking, Sanctify Yourself, etc, had also made stuff LIKE THIS?! It just blew my tiny frigging mind. I’m not holding up the songs mentioned to belittle them or say they’re inferior in ANY WAY….it is just a fact that Simple Minds within a 5 year period became a very different band musically and that I had NO KNOWLEDGE of how they sounded in 1980.

So, again for me personally, in 2014 listening to Empires And Dance for the first time was like discovering an entirely new band. And with the anniversary of its release this week, I just wanted to talk about it a bit, share some of my art inspired from the tracks and just give it and its content some praise.

I wouldn’t be the mega diehard (but has she earned her stripes yet?) SM fan I am now without this album existing, I don’t think.

Today I share what is at this point possibly my very favourite live version of Thirty Frames A Second. Jim stalking around that stage like a freshly uncaged animal. Leaping about like a jack rabbit…never faulting vocally…but being raw and emotive and just….GGRRRRRRRR!!! I love it!

Harley Davidson Euro Fest Advert – And Roxy Music New Fan Letter Of Thanks – R&F Magazine – Mai 2018

Posted on by

More of my Belgian clippings shared. An advert for tomorrow’s Minds gig as well as a letter from a reader on their discovery of Roxy Music…running strange parallels with my own recent Roxy epiphany. I do love the cartoon type artwork of the early Roxy band dynamic. Google Translate didn’t do the best work translating the French, but we get the gist of the letter (see translation below).

Anyway…there will be more things on the way. I love sharing these clippings. All part of the service here at Prip’s blog 🙂

In the simple past – Having already heard of the band Roxy Music without listening, I hastened to read the article on the latter. [I assume that means the previous edition of the magazine] In devouring the text I was attracted by the phrase “The most important band of England after the Beatles.” Could it be that I missed such a phenomenon I immediately began to listen to the band’s first album and from the first notes I was dazzled, no doubt this album was one of the most important that rock has known, so I want to thank you for making me discover such a group.

Sounds like me with Ms Deboick (and to some extent, compounded by Sir Kerr, aka The Boy).

John Grant – He’s Amazing!

Posted on by

Thirteen months ago, today…

I was in Adelaide, staying with my friend Janis and her family. I couldn’t sleep. I had tattoos done that day and sleeping on my back and left side was causing a little discomfort.

Jim had shared John Grant’s Pale Green Ghosts for his post about St Patrick’s Day. And so, I played Queen Of Denmark on Spotify (I always like to delve into an artist chronologically).

Another “creation of a monster”. My brother Quince would always say this if he was the instigator of me getting my hooks into something and becoming…obsessive. Well, it appears Sir has done it to me with John Grant. 

Thank you, Jim…for being “Where Dreams Go To Die”.

(Yes! I know! I am becoming a scratched record, on so many levels…sorry.)