Rock Evolution – The History of Rock & Roll - 1998 - (page 271)

Jazzman said:
1989 was a year where I had little time for music, for various reasons. It is thus a quite grey area for me. There is a lot of music coming out which means nothing to me. Nevertheless let me throw a couple of tunes into the mix:

Black Velvet - Allanah Myles
Belfast Child - Simple Minds

And something new for me Eurodance:

This Beat is Technotronic - Technotronic
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I was surprised that the Alannah Myles album was so early in 1989 - like most people, I only caught up when "Black Velvet" became a hit in 1990. Great song.
 
RobMCFC said:
I was surprised that the Alannah Myles album was so early in 1989 - like most people, I only caught up when "Black Velvet" became a hit in 1990. Great song.
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I heard that the week before last and was hoping it was released in 1988 for selfish reasons. A standout opening track from the Canadian Myles. It is rightfully on my Memphis playlist too.
 
1989 hmm if memory serves me right we were fed a diet of hair metal MTV stuff.
I think it was a time I was becoming increasingly disenfranchised with Music.
Hot on the heels of the brilliant “Once around the World, It Bites released the chaotic sounding “Eat me in St Louis”.
For this they employed none other than Roger Dean for their album cover yet veered away from any prog leanings focusing on a rawer, more angular sound.
First choice
It Bites - Still too young to remember.
 
1989
Madchester - so much to answer for.

The year started for me as it had been for the previous 18 moths as a delivery driver for a printing company in Sale, where I had lived for the past 5 years and I ended the year, aged 26, as a full time mature student at Manchester Polytechnic (Didsbury campus) - and what did I get for my troubles and pain? Just a rented room in Whalley Range, which meant I could now walk to Maine Road and back for City games.

This was the year a very big music shift that had been simmering in Manchester was about to go national. A work colleague had been telling me about a Sunday afternoon show on Key 103 by Terry Christian where he was playing Manchester bands. After pestering me for weeks I gave in and tuned in and I instantly regretted not having done so earlier. Here I first heard the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and Inspiral Carpets - soon to be simply known simply as The Roses, The Mondays and The Carpets..
All three bands had been around for a few years, even on the same bill often at The International 1 or sharing rehearsal space at the Boardwalk. They were mates but at this point there was no scene and remarkably different musically. The Roses being psychedelic 60’s style, the Mondays with an underlying funky groove and The Carpets a garage band with a swirling organ - yet clearly the same set of fans liked all three and it seemed to appear there was a gig every other week at the Boardwalk or International 1 or 2. Manchester’s biggest secret went national later in the year when both The Roses and Mondays appeared on the same edition of TOTP and the nation went baggy. I disliked the “Scally Rock” tag the scene was given. Scousers were Scally, not Mancs!

I had seen the Carpets in 88 at the Ritz supporting James, but as ever, spent more time at the bar / chatting with friends as these crazy cow images were projected onto the screen behind the band. - but now I was seeing them at Manchester Uni in May, not only that but I was interviewing the band back stage for the City fanzine Blue Print. I had heard 3 of the 5 band members were Blues and contacted the manager and went in with a backstage pass (which i still have) and met the band.
When I got back stage, I discovered two of the Blues, - Stephen Holt and Dave Swift - had left the band months before - that left the drummer Craig Gill as the only Blue and we chatted away.
The support band had been 808 State with MC Tunes coming in on a few of his songs too. It went down badly. The indie / dance crossover hadn’t caught on yet and the white indie boys weren’t ready for a white rapper rapping in front of them! One year later, 808 State and MC Tunes sold out GMEX as the white indie kids cheered and roared with approval……

As I was interviewing Craig, and talking City, MC Tunes came in and joined in the conversation, very annoyingly and wouldn’t shut up going on about the rags. Eventually the door opened and a young scruffy lad came in saying all was set on the stage and there was 10 mins to go. Craig called him over for a bit of moral support in fending off Tunes from my scoop of an interview, and I was introduced to the scruffy lad, the bands roadie, called Noel…….
I saw the Carpets twice more this year, at The Hacienda in August and International 2 in November.
IMG_6582.jpeg

The Mondays I saw also at the Hacienda with a hastily arranged Hillsborough benefit gig with Pete Wylie and Dub Sex. But the gig of the year was The Roses at Blackpool Empress Ballroom. Manchester took over Blackpool for the day! Their eponymous album remains my best ever debut album today.

Morrissey was still on the scene with singles Interesting Drug and Last Of The Famous International Playboys. He did a free gig - his first solo - at Wolverhampton Civic Hall. You just had to wear a Smiths or Morrissey t shirt to get in and Morrissey was backed by Mike Joyce, Andy Rourke and Craig Gannon. I didn’t go. Only Johnny Marr was missing from The Smiths line up - but he was too busy on two fronts. Electronic and The The.

23rd September was the 5-1 Maine Road Massacre and on the 25th, it was my first day at The Poly with The The at the Apollo in the evening, promoting the Mind Bomb album. Johnny Marr rightly received a hero’s welcome home cheer.

Siouxsie Sioux still held my attention and The Creatures gave us their follow up to their 1983 debut album with Boomerang, with two singles Standing There and Fury Eyes.

I also went to Glastonbury for my 2nd and final visit (1986 being the first) and saw the likes of Van Morrison, The Waterboys, The Proclaimers, Elvis Costello, Hot House Flowers, The Wonderstuff - all for £27

So after all that, it’s time for my 5 nominated songs! I’ve deliberately stayed away from the Madchester stuff as either someone else will do it or simply that everyone knows the songs so best off highlighting other tunes from the year.

The Lightning Seeds - Pure. Ian Brodie’s perfect pop song. Pure and simple every time it is heard.
The The - The Beaten Generation - as relevant today as it was then: “Breed on a diet of prejudice and misinformation”
The Creatures - Standing There - Siouxsie’s rallying call for every woman running the gauntlet of having to pass a gang of males on a street corner.
XTC - The Mayor Of Simpleton. I was amazed that this song was so late in the band’s repertoire- would have said definitely early 80’s
New Order - Run 2. A nice and pleasant enough tune that picks up as it goes and the extended instrumental at the songs end just rises and I never want it to stop!
 
threespires said:
So the question "if last nights performance was a genre, what would it be?" Is probably not the place to go then is it lol.

Might be safer to stick with which act did they resemble and I was going to say St Winifred's School Choir but that seems harsh (on the wee bairns).
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Last night’s performance was a minor irritation.
 
For my first pick I'm going for my favourite Tracy Chapman song, the title track from her second album. It's not particularly musically sophisticated but it gets to the heart of our personal choices in life. I'm not normally one for quoting lyrics but these lines seem somewhat appropriate today...

Some say the devil be a mystical thing
I say the devil he a walking man
He a fool, he a liar, conjurer and a thief

Tracy Chapman - Crossroads
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
1989
Madchester - so much to answer for.

The year started for me as it had been for the previous 18 moths as a delivery driver for a printing company in Sale, where I had lived for the past 5 years and I ended the year, aged 26, as a full time mature student at Manchester Polytechnic (Didsbury campus) - and what did I get for my troubles and pain? Just a rented room in Whalley Range, which meant I could now walk to Maine Road and back for City games.

This was the year a very big music shift that had been simmering in Manchester was about to go national. A work colleague had been telling me about a Sunday afternoon show on Key 103 by Terry Christian where he was playing Manchester bands. After pestering me for weeks I gave in and tuned in and I instantly regretted not having done so earlier. Here I first heard the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and Inspiral Carpets - soon to be simply known simply as The Roses, The Mondays and The Carpets..
All three bands had been around for a few years, even on the same bill often at The International 1 or sharing rehearsal space at the Boardwalk. They were mates but at this point there was no scene and remarkably different musically. The Roses being psychedelic 60’s style, the Mondays with an underlying funky grove and The Carpets a garage band with a swirling organ - yet clearly the same set of fans liked all three and it seemed to appear there was a gig every other week at the Boardwalk or International 1 or 2. Manchester’s biggest secret went national later in the year when both The Roses and Mondays appeared on the same edition of TOTP and the nation went baggy. I disliked the “Scally Rock” tag the scene was given. Scousers were Scally, not Mancs!

I had seen the Carpets in 88 at the Ritz supporting James, but as ever, spent more time at the bar / chatting with friends as these crazy cow images were projected onto the screen behind the band. - but now I was seeing them at Manchester Uni in May, not only that but I was interviewing the band back stage for the City fanzine Blue Print. I had heard 3 of the 5 band members were Blues and contacted the manager and went in with a backstage pass (which i still have) and met the band.
When I got back stage, I discovered two of the Blues, - Stephen Holt and Dave Swift - had left the band months before - that left the drummer Craig Gill as the only Blue and we chatted away.
The support band had been 808 State with MC Tunes coming in on a few of his songs too. It went down badly. The indie / dance crossover hadn’t caught on yet and the white indie boys weren’t ready for a white rapper rapping in front of them! One year later, 808 State and MC Tunes sold out GMEX as the white indie kids cheered and roared with approval……

As I was interviewing Craig, and talking City, MC Tunes came in and joined in the conversation, very annoyingly and wouldn’t shut up going on about the rags. Eventually the door opened and a young scruffy lad came in saying all was set on the stage and there was 10 mins to go. Craig called him over for a bit of moral support in fending off Tunes from my scoop of an interview, and I was introduced to the scruffy lad, the bands roadie, called Noel…….
I saw the Carpets twice more this year, at The Hacienda in August and International 2 in November.
View attachment 181185

The Mondays I saw also at the Hacienda with a hastily arranged Hillsborough benefit gig with Pete Wylie and Dub Sex. But the gig of the year was The Roses at Blackpool Empress Ballroom. Manchester took over Blackpool for the day! Their eponymous album remains my best ever debut album today.

Morrissey was still on the scene with singles Interesting Drug and Last Of The Famous International Playboys. He did a free gig - his first solo - at Wolverhampton Civic Hall. You just had to wear a Smiths or Morrissey t shirt to get in and Morrissey was backed by Mike Joyce, Andy Rourke and Craig Gannon. I didn’t go. Only Johnny Marr was missing from The Smiths line up - but he was too busy on two fronts. Electronic and The The.

23rd September was the 5-1 Maine Road Massacre and on the 25th, it was my first day at The Poly with The The at the Apollo in the evening, promoting the Mind Bomb album. Johnny Marr rightly received a hero’s welcome home cheer.

Siouxsie Sioux still held my attention and The Creatures gave us their follow up to their 1983 debut album with Boomerang, with two singles Standing There and Fury Eyes.

I also went to Glastonbury for my 2nd and final visit (1986 being the first) and saw the likes of Van Morrison, The Waterboys, The Proclaimers, Elvis Costello, Hot House Flowers, The Wonderstuff - all for £27

So after all that, it’s time for my 5 nominated songs! I’ve deliberately stayed away from the Madchester stuff as either someone else will do it or simply that everyone knows the songs so best off highlighting other tunes from the year.

The Lightning Seeds - Pure.
The The - The Beaten Generation - as relevant today as it was then: “Breed on a diet of prejudice and misinformation”
The Creatures - Standing There
XTC - The Mayor Of Simpleton
Run 2 - New Order
Click to expand...

Some fantastic recollections there. Did the scruffy roadie give off any "one day..." vibes?

Taking a step back and thinking about how good Soul Mining, Infected and Mind Bomb were as a trio of albums, it's a bit of a mystery to me that Matt Johnson isn't more famous than he is.
 
Replace the rent with the stars above
Replace the need with love

1989, what a year! The final year at one university, and the start of a first and only year at another - I've been saying "Go Blue" for many years before being a Man City fan. But more on that later.

This would be the last year of hearing my beloved "Rock 105" in SWVA and winning all those free pizzas with music trivia, so it was a good run while it lasted through my undergrad years. One of the main musical memories from that spring would be the introduction to this folk duo from Athens, GA heard for the first time there, and I was on board from the first track and after hearing their first full length album.

This track timely and appropriately explores the transition from childhood innocence to adult struggles, contrasting simple childhood fears in ghosts with real life struggles. The song uses imagined fears to contrast with real-life painful experiences. I remember hearing this song for the first time and being mesmerized by the back and forth vocals of Amy (who starts this off) and Emily and how well they blended together. And then I heard the initial softly delivered guest male vocalist come in, and I was thinking, could this song get any better? And it just had with the three part harmonies going on. Still a powerfully performed song. Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile, and Julien Baker all covered this song off of Jason's 2021 beautiful album celebrating better results and times here in Georgia Blue, but I am always partial to the original.

"Kid Fears" - Indigo Girls
 
Last edited:
OB1 said:
1989:

With a riff presumably knocked from The Sweet, Motley Crue: Kickstart My Heart.

Tom Petty: Free Fallin'

Stevie Nicks: Rooms on Fire

Neil Young: Rockin’ in the Free World
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The Tom Petty and Neil Young picks are both superb and demonstrate the how good 1989 was musically.

That's freed up at least one pick for me in a year where once again, four choices is almost impossible.
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
1989
Madchester - so much to answer for.

The year started for me as it had been for the previous 18 moths as a delivery driver for a printing company in Sale, where I had lived for the past 5 years and I ended the year, aged 26, as a full time mature student at Manchester Polytechnic (Didsbury campus) - and what did I get for my troubles and pain? Just a rented room in Whalley Range, which meant I could now walk to Maine Road and back for City games.

This was the year a very big music shift that had been simmering in Manchester was about to go national. A work colleague had been telling me about a Sunday afternoon show on Key 103 by Terry Christian where he was playing Manchester bands. After pestering me for weeks I gave in and tuned in and I instantly regretted not having done so earlier. Here I first heard the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and Inspiral Carpets - soon to be simply known simply as The Roses, The Mondays and The Carpets..
All three bands had been around for a few years, even on the same bill often at The International 1 or sharing rehearsal space at the Boardwalk. They were mates but at this point there was no scene and remarkably different musically. The Roses being psychedelic 60’s style, the Mondays with an underlying funky groove and The Carpets a garage band with a swirling organ - yet clearly the same set of fans liked all three and it seemed to appear there was a gig every other week at the Boardwalk or International 1 or 2. Manchester’s biggest secret went national later in the year when both The Roses and Mondays appeared on the same edition of TOTP and the nation went baggy. I disliked the “Scally Rock” tag the scene was given. Scousers were Scally, not Mancs!

I had seen the Carpets in 88 at the Ritz supporting James, but as ever, spent more time at the bar / chatting with friends as these crazy cow images were projected onto the screen behind the band. - but now I was seeing them at Manchester Uni in May, not only that but I was interviewing the band back stage for the City fanzine Blue Print. I had heard 3 of the 5 band members were Blues and contacted the manager and went in with a backstage pass (which i still have) and met the band.
When I got back stage, I discovered two of the Blues, - Stephen Holt and Dave Swift - had left the band months before - that left the drummer Craig Gill as the only Blue and we chatted away.
The support band had been 808 State with MC Tunes coming in on a few of his songs too. It went down badly. The indie / dance crossover hadn’t caught on yet and the white indie boys weren’t ready for a white rapper rapping in front of them! One year later, 808 State and MC Tunes sold out GMEX as the white indie kids cheered and roared with approval……

As I was interviewing Craig, and talking City, MC Tunes came in and joined in the conversation, very annoyingly and wouldn’t shut up going on about the rags. Eventually the door opened and a young scruffy lad came in saying all was set on the stage and there was 10 mins to go. Craig called him over for a bit of moral support in fending off Tunes from my scoop of an interview, and I was introduced to the scruffy lad, the bands roadie, called Noel…….
I saw the Carpets twice more this year, at The Hacienda in August and International 2 in November.
View attachment 181185

The Mondays I saw also at the Hacienda with a hastily arranged Hillsborough benefit gig with Pete Wylie and Dub Sex. But the gig of the year was The Roses at Blackpool Empress Ballroom. Manchester took over Blackpool for the day! Their eponymous album remains my best ever debut album today.

Morrissey was still on the scene with singles Interesting Drug and Last Of The Famous International Playboys. He did a free gig - his first solo - at Wolverhampton Civic Hall. You just had to wear a Smiths or Morrissey t shirt to get in and Morrissey was backed by Mike Joyce, Andy Rourke and Craig Gannon. I didn’t go. Only Johnny Marr was missing from The Smiths line up - but he was too busy on two fronts. Electronic and The The.

23rd September was the 5-1 Maine Road Massacre and on the 25th, it was my first day at The Poly with The The at the Apollo in the evening, promoting the Mind Bomb album. Johnny Marr rightly received a hero’s welcome home cheer.

Siouxsie Sioux still held my attention and The Creatures gave us their follow up to their 1983 debut album with Boomerang, with two singles Standing There and Fury Eyes.

I also went to Glastonbury for my 2nd and final visit (1986 being the first) and saw the likes of Van Morrison, The Waterboys, The Proclaimers, Elvis Costello, Hot House Flowers, The Wonderstuff - all for £27

So after all that, it’s time for my 5 nominated songs! I’ve deliberately stayed away from the Madchester stuff as either someone else will do it or simply that everyone knows the songs so best off highlighting other tunes from the year.

The Lightning Seeds - Pure. Ian Bodie’s perfect pop song. Pure and simple every time it is heard.
The The - The Beaten Generation - as relevant today as it was then: “Breed on a diet of prejudice and misinformation”
The Creatures - Standing There - Siouxsie’s rallying call for everyone woman running the gauntlet of having to pass a gang of males on a street corner.
XTC - The Mayor Of Simpleton. I was amazed that this song was so late in the band’s repertoire- would have said definitely early 80’s
New Order - Run 2. A nice and pleasant enough tune that picks up as it goes and the extends instrumental just rises and I never want it to end.
Click to expand...
I was in the final year of my Electrical & Electronic Engineering course at Manchester Poly in 1989-1990.

Ours was a big class and as you would expect, a lot of different music genres were represented. There was the Irish guy heavily into U2, who went on to be a BBC reporter. There was a girl who was an Alice Cooper obsessive who got upset if she didn't get front row seats when a concert was announced. There were a few metal heads and a few that liked the dark, gloomy stuff such as The Cure and The Damned. Then of course there were people like me who liked proper music :)

But I don't remember one mention of The Stone Roses or any of the Manchester bands. I've long believed that the whole Manchester scene was a faked thing like some people think the moon landings were, so it's good to read that it was a real thing from somebody who was there.

However, whilst it's not the worst album ever, I still believe that by some distance, The Stone Roses debut is the most overrated album of all time, or at least in that conversation.
 
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