Sinister: And The Children Drank Lemonade

[P F]

Let not the day go unmarked. Today, for the first time
since the foundation of sinister, Sister Disco and
Sruart Murdoch both appeared on a radio programme. If
I am wrong and this has happened before, write to
sinister and tell us.

I turned on BBC Radio 2 at about 11:30, thinking:
Murdoch's TRACKS OF MY YEARS is going to be on soon!
Stuart Maconie is, you remember, replacing Kenneth
Bruce for a week. He is doing a good job, in sooth, as
they say in California, or, in truth - playing Lloyd
Cole, talking to Stuart Murdoch, quoting Peter Miller,
I mean, what more do you want? Anyway, Maconie said
something like: - Ooh, I'd nearly forgotten, the
feature that's named after me (what's it called again?
remind us, Sister Disco) - and then he read out some
puns on pop titles, relating to places in Wales.
Casually, he continued: - Peter Miller suggests: - and
I can't think what the exact words, the title, the
place were. I did not write them down. But it was
about the WHO, you see. YES, the WHO. I hope Mooro
gets to hear it, possibly on an old-fashioned audio
tape. I hope Sister Disco writes in and fills in the
missing details too.

The funny thing was: hearing Maconie read Miller's
name, I felt as though he did it knowingly - the way I
would, or some of you would, or the way Maconie would
read, say, 'Paul Morley'. But I think this was
probably an illusion, created from my mindset, in
which Miller is a sort of major figure in
fanzine-style online discussions of ROCK and other
things. On reflection, I think that in reality,
Maconie probably has no idea who Peter Miller is.
Again, perhaps Sister Disco can set me straight on
this.

After the Miller moment, Maconie introduced Murdoch's
first song. It was 'Do You Believe In Magic?', a song
that Jerry the Nipper made famous, and of which Mr.
David Moore gave me my first copy. It is very good.
Murdoch then said, in a very high voice, things about
how Orange Juice had always said in the early 1980s,
things like, - We can never match this song, the only
way is down.

The funny thing is, they could never match that song -
the only way was down.

Endearingly, he then mentioned the Go-Betweens, in the
same connection. I am reminded of the conversations I
have had with Tim Hopkins in which OJ and the G-Bs
become virtually two halves of the same imaginary
entity, ie. you say one then you say another, and for
me both mean: pop that people from a certain period
like, but which sadly does not, *mostly*, live up to
its reputation, being too scratchy and tuneless. So,
Murdoch said something like: - I love the way that the
Go-Betweens knew they could never write the perfect
pop song / - which, in my paraphrase, is true.

So, mixed feelings: a) he is silly to keep going on
about those bands, but b) it is kind of touching, kind
of keeps in touch, with eg. Peter Miller, on sinister.
He spoke well, anyway. I stand by my statement of
yesterday. The second track was something else, a soul
track based on Bach; it was quite good.

So, that was an exciting few minutes on Radio 2. What
I have forgotten to mention is the way that Maconie
went straight from Miller's joke to 'Life In A
Northern Town'. I think it was the first time I have
ever heard that song all the way through. It was a bit
corny, but the way it sped up as it went was good.
Once I asked Steady Mike about The Dream Academy, and
*even he* did not know that much about them, though he
owned a difficult second LP.

I wonder two things: a) whether Maconie knows that
Peter Miller comes from a Northern town; b) whether
Murdoch will choose a track from Lloyd Cole, from that
walk-in wardrobe that I mentioned before.

And I suggest one thing: Miller should ring in with
more puns, on subsequent days, and become a regular on
this brief Maconie spot, and then he will be known to
more people that like !P!o!P!!




	
		
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