Shoegazing was one of those scenes put together in a conspiracy by the NME and Melody Maker to tell the kids what to like. It was also referred to as 'The Scene that Celebrates Itself' - 'cos apparently everyone was really up themselves, or the Thames Vallet Scene - as all the bands came from that part of the world apparently... Well, Ride came from Oxford and Slowdive from Reading. You get the picture! It came after baggy (Roses, Mondays) and C86 (The Wedding Present, Tululah Gosh) and has been followed by such terrible things as Fraggle rock (Back to the Planet), the crusty scene (Levellers), Riot Grrrl (Huggy Bear - Lest we forget!), the New Wave of New Wave (Sleeper, Elastica), Britpop and all the other terrible tags that those who want to destroy music have come up with. Hell, lets put a tag on everything - Belle & Sebastian can be 'fey pop' and lumped in with other bands that have acoustic guitars such as the Auteurs. Or, apart from the fact that they come from Scotland could fall into London's 'Red Wine Scene' with My Life Story, Rachel Stamp or Orlando, because we can hear some strings at times! The music press love to divide us, rule us and conquer! I remember shoegazing as great, partly because I was living near Reading at the time and everyone I knew was in a shoegazing band or new someone from Chapterhouse. Anyway Steve Quarralt (is that right) bass player from Ride still works in a record shop in Reading. Waheeey - what a career. In other words shoegazing died as quickly as it began because although some of it was good such as the early Ride stuff, eg Chelsea Girl and Nowhere, most of it was pap, not P!O!P! Does that help? I've got bucketloads of shoegazing stuff at home! A mispent childhood I'm sure. It's good to discover that I am not alone in remembering those dark old days of indie pop. Dan ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". . For unsubscribing, list rules, Tigermilk and sessions tapes, . please see http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister@majordomo.net . *** B&S new LP worldwide release 7th September, tour news etc. at *** . *** http://www.majordomo.net/sinister/news.html *** . Coinini athasach ata muid - ag canuint amhrain na . coinini - nach bhfuilimid? -----------------------------------------------------------------------