Wednesday 17 December 2008

The Discos of Christmas Past - No 3


1984

was one of the great Christmas party seasons. I spent much of it getting obliterated in a strange pub / club / Italian restaurant / knocking shop called Nonno's in Preston, an appropriately nihilistic name.

The original "Do They Know It's Christmas?" was number one (factual answer: Ethiopia is the second oldest Christian state in the world, after Armenia, so yes, I think they probably do) and elsewhere in the Top Ten Prince was threatening to party like it was 1999, Strawberry Switchblade were ripping off one of Sibelius' best riffs, and a (still heterosexual) George Michael was trilling

"Last Christmas,
I gave you my heart
And the very next day
You went off with that tart..."

But this was the tune that made me want to
  • go out and buy a sampler,
  • study Kandinsky and the Italian futurists,
  • forgive Paul Morley his unreadable NME articles, and
  • dance like a drunken idiot.


Close To The Edit
ART OF NOISE

It has one of my favourite basslines ever, naked men by the legendary Victorian photographer Eadweard Muybridge, and some line drawings that look like an influence on the young Homo Escapeons.

1 comment:

Romeo Morningwood said...

Cool travelogue..thank you for clearing the palette with AON because George's Christmas ditty was just about to earworm deep into me brain!
*schwarzeneggarian growl

It also brings back soundscapes of Rockit by Herbie Hancock and Pump Up The Volume by MARRS..heady days for instrumentalism.

I remember wondering why it took so long for Rock Stars to do a benefit gig..I always loved George's Concert For Bangla Desh back in the 70s (still listen to it) and it seemed odd that more Artists had not jumped on this bandwagon?

As for my early influences I confess that John Buscema of Marvel Comix and Frank Frazetta were on equal footing with Gustav Klimt, Warhol & Da Vinci...
pretty typical for a painfully shy kid caught up in the the great swirling vortex of Pop Culture during the 60s.