March. Or die. Curious goings-on this morning. Found myself intercepted on an escalator at London Bridge tube by John Sessions and Elkie Brooks; forced into a cubicle, I was showered with sticky glitter and had my neck tattooed with an LT symbol. A goon with a face like fighting geese and breath like used swabs filled my pockets with loose change (as opposed to low-denomination coins all glued together), pressed Deep Heat into my temples and made me stand on a podium next to 'Kid' Jensen. Disorientated and nauseous, I glimpsed a small gathering of sour-faced children, waving tiny flags, while some kind of triumphalist wincecore jazzbo honked away down to my left. It gradually became apparent that I was to be honoured as the trillionth passenger on the Northern Line (Bank branch) and this was some kind of presentation ceremony. I got the vague impression I was supposed to rummage through a sack of ping-pong balls for a special key, and when I reached Moorgate I was to disembark and locate a prize-chest filled with bubble-wrap. Within a single poppable air-lozenge, there'd be a micro-Travelcard entitling three acquaintances (they were very clear on this - no-one I actually *liked*) and myself to unlimited weekend access to the Executive SubTube - a network of HiSpeed Slinks 2km beneath the city streets. (Ever wonder why you never see Anne Diamond or Joe Pasquale squeezing their be-Guccied forms into a stuffed six-car at Hyde Park Corner? Now you know...). I'm off to Hackney Caldera (35 seconds from Deptford Fumarole) this Sunday with a middle-aged divorcee from accounts called Deborah (or Denise or something) from whom I once borrowed a stapler. I feel cheated somehow. Brush away, brush away, brush away... the SR way. How queer to see the late-80s MM aesthetic revived as a permissible topic of after-dinner conversation. Of course, such banter never fell out of favour in some postal districts. I think it's important to remember that the article PineFox liberally quoted was actually originally an extended think-piece *in* MM. Now, say what you like, but you don't see anyone attempting that sort of analysis these days in the weeklies, do you? I don't think Johnny Cigarettes vomiting 500 words on "Why we need another Clash" really counts. I get the feeling that, before my time, NME was a vital force, riding the punk torrents while MM laboured in the prog quagmire (I'm sure you could go back further - NME thrilling over the latest R'n'B imports, MM picking over trad-jazz LPs with an archivist's exactitude). By the time I was taking an interest, the post-Morley NME seemed to have slipped into stultifying greyness (the Lamacq years), while MM extolled everything vibrant and left-field*. Inevitably this led to yards of appalling daftness, gallons of embarrassing overstatement and a barn-door target for their near-neighbours' piss-taking. I lapped it up like a thirsty kitten. In some small but significant way, Reynolds, Stubbs, Roberts and the gang changed my notions of the pop experience, perhaps even the way I listened. Writing that was as superficially intoxicating, as texturally tangy, as preposterous and audacious as the music it celebrated. What happened after SR hung up his IPC gloves is the subject of my forthcoming tome, "Molko Looks Like a GIRL: Cessation of Brain Stem Activity in the UK Music Press, 1994-98". I blame the Sutherlands. (* But yes, as Nick D pointed out, The Cure were on the cover every sixth issue and The Mission would habitually top all the readers' polls. Go figure.) I can't swallow properly. Mike. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+