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What were the cool kids listening to in 1987?

Started by lazyhour, January 14, 2019, 04:21:27 PM

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phantom_power

Quote from: Funcrusher on January 14, 2019, 04:29:35 PM
This is NMEs end of year list. Some on there were big faves with me.

http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/1987.html

They have Criminal Minded down as being by Scott La Rock. Fucking dunces

boki

Quote from: Funcrusher on January 14, 2019, 06:57:02 PM
Not something that ever computed with me at all, but yeah goth would have been big at that point. Fields of the Neff and the like.

Yup, I remember seeing the video for 'This Corrosion' by the Sisters on The Chart Show and thinking that Andrew Eldritch was the coolest man in the world.  In retrospect, a man clad in black leather hanging around a dark alleyway in the pissing rain with his shades on at night is probably a bit of an oddun to look up to at the age of 12, but I was getting into metal at this point, so didn't think much of it.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Quote from: boki on January 15, 2019, 12:12:07 PM
Yup, I remember seeing the video for 'This Corrosion' by the Sisters on The Chart Show and thinking that Andrew Eldritch was the coolest man in the world.  In retrospect, a man clad in black leather hanging around a dark alleyway in the pissing rain with his shades on at night is probably a bit of an oddun to look up to at the age of 12, but I was getting into metal at this point, so didn't think much of it.

Spitting image of Denis Norden, too.

Norton Canes

Quote from: Funcrusher on January 14, 2019, 06:57:02 PM
Not something that ever computed with me at all, but yeah goth would have been big at that point. Fields of the Neff and the like

Oh yeah, for sure. I switched schools over Xmas 1986, leaving a 6th form where most of the students were conventional swotty types where the most outré musical tastes were Tears For Fears, and arriving at a college where hordes of black-clad goths, greboes (it was the Midlands so they really were) and assorted metal heads and indie kids hung around the coffee bar. The Sisters and The Mish definitely had heavy rotation on the communal ghetto blaster. 

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Quote from: Norton Canes on January 15, 2019, 01:02:33 PM
Oh yeah, for sure. I switched schools over Xmas 1986, leaving a 6th form where most of the students were conventional swotty types where the most outré musical tastes were Tears For Fears, and arriving at a college where hordes of black-clad goths, greboes (it was the Midlands so they really were) and assorted metal heads and indie kids hung around the coffee bar. The Sisters and The Mish definitely had heavy rotation on the communal ghetto blaster.

Were the Greboes battling valiantly to get Gaye Bykers On Acid and Crazyhead on there ( Common ground would have been ceded not only amongst those two factions, but also the Indie Kids, with an airing of the Peel-Disapproved [He wrote a stiffly-worded letter to the NME about it at the time] "Beaver Patrol" by Pop Will Eat Itself, I would imagine )?

Squink

Quote from: maett on January 15, 2019, 01:09:58 AMDumpy's Rusty Nuts

Blimey, a Dumpys fan out in the wild. Was '87 the year that Melody Maker were pushing all kind of stuff like Loop, Spacemen 3, etc only to be gazumped in the readers poll by their goth-loving readership who all voted en masse for the Mission and the Neff etc? Or was that a bit later?

gilbertharding

Quote from: Norton Canes on January 15, 2019, 01:02:33 PM
Oh yeah, for sure. I switched schools over Xmas 1986, leaving a 6th form where most of the students were conventional swotty types where the most outré musical tastes were Tears For Fears, and arriving at a college where hordes of black-clad goths, greboes (it was the Midlands so they really were) and assorted metal heads and indie kids hung around the coffee bar. The Sisters and The Mish definitely had heavy rotation on the communal ghetto blaster.

Flashing back to my Huntingdonshire sixth form, I am now recalling the day in 1987 when the drummer from local goth band Giant Polar Bears (later drummer with local jangle/noise/shoegaze band The Charlottes, later still drummer with non-local shoegaze band Slowdive) came to school with his usual 5" spiked back-combed goth 'do all flat like something out of the book A Scene In Between.

Quite a radical move. I don't even think his subsequent lifetime shunning of the hairspray was motivated by concern for the ozone layer.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

I remember The Charlottes, saw them live at the very famous Hull Adelphi Club, if memory serves. Did a spirited version of Shocking Blue's "Venus".

Keebleman

I was listening to Queen, Simon & Garfunkel, Led Zeppelin and The Beatles.

However, and this may come as a shock, I was not regarded as cool.

hermitical

For me 1987 was still mostly about metal:
Celtic Frost, Metallica, Anthrax, Testament, Nuclear Assault, Voivod, Death, Kreator, Savatage, Agent Steel, Suicidal Tendencies, Crumbsuckers, Corrosion of Conformity, DRI, Possessed.
Gigs - went to my second Monsters of Rock, saw Celtic Frost/Kreator, and in the autumn went to see The Cult as my mild gothy tendencies took hold.


I was starting to investigate punk, hardcore, noise courtesy of crossover and reading the thanks lists, interviews etc. Dead Kennedys (Give Me Convenience came out that year and was my first deep dive into them), SST (found Blasting Concept Volume II in a sale on vinyl, in the local Co-op!). UK punk and h/c fanzines lead me to bands like Heresy, Civilised Society?, Napalm Death, Doom, Electro Hippies, Concrete Sox etc


A BBP tapes catalogue was an eye opener, as well as current punk and hardcore there was weird noise and industrial - I'd love to see a copy from that era. Also Underground and their Rhythm + Noise tape was a landmark - introduced me to Sonic Youth. Can anyone remember what it covered in print. It's that tape that sticks in my head.

Many of the bands mentioned in posts above such as Husker Du, AC Temple, Big Black, Sisters of Mercy, Neffs, JaMC, Skinny Puppy, scratchy indie like Jackdaw With Crowbar etc would flow into my conciousness during 87 and into 88, as well as US/DC hardcore and straight edge, more US stuff like Swans, Killdozer, Butthole Surfers etc.



Cuntbeaks

Discovered Laibach in 87, and immediately took to them. Was also into Stump, The Fall, HMHB, Japan, Byrne and Eno and Japan.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Cuntbeaks on January 22, 2019, 01:11:09 PM
Discovered Laibach in 87, and immediately took to them. Was also into Stump, The Fall, HMHB, Japan, Byrne and Eno and Japan.

I'd like to think we would have been mates in 1987.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Quote from: Cuntbeaks on January 22, 2019, 01:11:09 PM
Discovered Laibach in 87, and immediately took to them. Was also into Stump, The Fall, HMHB, Japan, Byrne and Eno and Japan.
You were obviously a very big fan of Japan.


jamiefairlie

Quote from: Pingers on January 14, 2019, 06:49:25 PM

If you count Goth as being cool in 1987, Sisters of Mercy were very big

I think they'd passed their cool phase by then though, the real band having imploded earlier leaving only Eldritch, Like many alternative bands in the 80s, their cool phase and their breakthrough to mainstream phases were offset by a few years from each other (see New Order, Psychedelic Furs, Simple Minds, The Cure and so on).

jamiefairlie

Speaking as the quintessential pasty faced, skinny miserable indie white boy,  my list of favs from 1987 (as recorded at the end of the year as was my habit) included:

The Bhundu Boys
Catapult (they did a great Peel session)
Dead Can Dance
Half Man Half Biscuit
Lowlife (featuring original Cocteau's bass player Will Heggie)
McCarthy (proto-Stereolab)
The Beloved  (still in their guitar 4-piece incarnation)
The Chesterfields
The House of Love
The Siddeleys
The Smiths
The Wedding Present
Wire

It definitely had the feel of being a bit of an in-between era.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Quote from: jamiefairlie on January 23, 2019, 04:57:23 AM
Speaking as the quintessential pasty faced, skinny miserable indie white boy,  my list of favs from 1987 (as recorded at the end of the year as was my habit) included:

The Bhundu Boys
Catapult (they did a great Peel session)
Dead Can Dance
Half Man Half Biscuit
Lowlife (featuring original Cocteau's bass player Will Heggie)
McCarthy (proto-Stereolab)
The Beloved  (still in their guitar 4-piece incarnation)
The Chesterfields
The House of Love
The Siddeleys
The Smiths
The Wedding Present
Wire

It definitely had the feel of being a bit of an in-between era.

I remember Catapult ! I was going to say that they had a lovely little song called " Addicted To Robert Palmer ", ( ' in his suits, he's just such a charmer ! ' ) but I think that was actually the Bandung File. I'd say that It's a safe bet that you were also a fan of the original incarnation of The Shamen, James Dean Driving Experience and most of the other groups you'd find plying their wares on the free cassettes given with " Underground " magazine. While I'm not sure that The House Of Love didn't actually release a record until 1988, I was also a big fan of The Siddeleys, have a couple of their singles, they never got round to releasing an album, did they ? Shame, that.
I'm sure had we met at the time, we 'd have got on like a house on fire, a La Cuntbeaks and Brundle Fly.

jamiefairlie

First couple of singles from House of Love (Shine On and Real Animal) came out in 87 and I bought them both (I expect Peel played them or I read about them in the NME). I think the 'German album' compilation also came out in late 87 and Andrea Heukamp left at the end of that year too.

Correct, The Siddeleys never did relesae a true album (a couple of compilations came out with lots of demos and live stuff). That was one of those (of many) occasions when you'd have big expectations of a band's future releases and they'd just drift out of your consciousness over time. It was so hard to get information about bands in between records and gigs.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Just after I'd posted my post, I remembered that the House Of Love had released " Shine On " in 1987 ( it was re- released in 1988 ), and I'd forgotten that they also used to have a real live girlie in their ranks ! What a time to be alive ! I'm guessing that you also remember Treebound Story ( with yer man Richard Hawley in their ranks ) and the ever so slightly Smiths influenced 1000 Violins.
I also seem to remember that Voice Of The Beehive were one of mine most favoured groups of '87. " Just A City " , while not being entirely representative of their works, was a lovely, meditative little tune, and I used to wear my " I Say Nothing " badge ( given away free with limited edition versions of the 7" ) with no small degree of pride.

Jockice

Quote from: kngen on January 14, 2019, 06:52:54 PM
Even the neds at my school liked The Mission.

I bumped into a member of The Mission at that Devo tribute band show on Friday night. I wasn't a fan myself, but they were absolutely huge in 1987.

Jockice

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on January 23, 2019, 07:18:01 AM
Just after I'd posted my post, I remembered that the House Of Love had released " Shine On " in 1987 ( it was re- released in 1988 ), and I'd forgotten that they also used to have a real live girlie in their ranks ! What a time to be alive ! I'm guessing that you also remember Treebound Story ( with yer man Richard Hawley in their ranks ) and the ever so slightly Smiths influenced 1000 Violins.
I also seem to remember that Voice Of The Beehive were one of mine most favoured groups of '87. " Just A City " , while not being entirely representative of their works, was a lovely, meditative little tune, and I used to wear my " I Say Nothing " badge ( given away free with limited edition versions of the 7" ) with no small degree of pride.

And I went to Richard Hawley's birthday do on Saturday. I am the man who really knows the stars.

Pauline Walnuts

Quote from: Cuntbeaks on January 22, 2019, 05:00:29 PM
I seconded that emotion

What you did there, I see.


Saying you were big on Japan in 1987 would be like saying your into skiffle. These are Those were modern times get with it daddio.

Good calls on Stump, and Dead Can Dance though.

When did Snub TV start in the UK? That line up would be a good start,  The wiki page is a bit vague on the UK transmission dates?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snub_TV

holyzombiejesus

The Siddeleys stayed at my mum's house! I put them on in Hanley (at Katz Bar) and they slept over. The singer (who called herself Johnny Johnson) had written 'Joe Meek Forever' on her hand and the next morning it was imprinted on the pillow. I asked her who Joe Meek was and she wrote me a huge essay on the back of some of that green lined computer print out paper. We kind of became friends and I stayed at her flat in London the night after they recorded one of their John Peel sessions; she was really lovely and I drank my first ever brown ale with her! They've issued a couple of compilations (there might be some overlap), the latest being an album of demos which I keep meaning to buy. Optic Nerve have just reissued their first single too.

Jockice

Quote from: jamiefairlie on January 23, 2019, 04:57:23 AM
Speaking as the quintessential pasty faced, skinny miserable indie white boy,  my list of favs from 1987 (as recorded at the end of the year as was my habit) included:

The Bhundu Boys
Catapult (they did a great Peel session)
Dead Can Dance
Half Man Half Biscuit
Lowlife (featuring original Cocteau's bass player Will Heggie)
McCarthy (proto-Stereolab)
The Beloved  (still in their guitar 4-piece incarnation)
The Chesterfields
The House of Love
The Siddeleys
The Smiths
The Wedding Present
Wire

It definitely had the feel of being a bit of an in-between era.

Yes to most of them. The Bhundu Boys is still to this day the best concert I've ever been to. But I fucking hated The Chesterfields.  Probably because they wrote a song creeping up to a journalist. Who wasn't me.

At the paper I worked for at the time (and had recently been appointed music writer) I did a top five singles and albums of the year. My album of the year was Babble by That Petrol Emotion (an album I thought was shit until about the fifth play. I wouldn't have the patience for that sort of thing nowadays) and The Pastels and The Housemartins were in there too.

As for singles, I got a lot of stick from my indie mates for putting the Blow Monkeys (It Doesn't Have To Be This Way) and Wet Wet Wet (Sweet Little Mystery) in there but I still stand by my choices. They were great pop singles. Anyway, I also had My Bloody Valentine in as well  Admittedly Sunny Sundae Smile is pretty standard indie stuff, but it's just proof that I liked them before they were weird.

Funcrusher

I'd forgotten about Bhundu Boys mania - I have a copy of their album from that time somewhere. Acts that were championed by Peel did well in those days. Ted Hawkins comes to mind for the first time in years.

holyzombiejesus

Quote from: Jockice on January 23, 2019, 10:14:36 AM
I fucking hated The Chesterfields.  Probably because they wrote a song creeping up to a journalist. Who wasn't me.


My friend Richard (who I bet you know, he was in a Sheffield shoegazey indie band) thinks that Kettle by The Chesterfield is one of the greatest records ever made...

Brundle-Fly

A certain track on the Hat trick 7" EP that came free with the NME in February on '87. It completely opened a door in my head. Hearing this for the first time, I realised the fantastic potential of (for want of a better word) 'urban'. Beyond rap, breakbeat and electro. I shed off another layer of my youthful music taste conservatism that day.

Wasn't fussed with Sonic Youth though, and Sly & Robbie were already firm favourites from years back.

With no introduction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjyFwbSNh4o

Funcrusher

Yeah, an amazing thing to put out on a free single. They put out some good ones.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on January 23, 2019, 10:13:28 AM
The Siddeleys stayed at my mum's house! I put them on in Hanley (at Katz Bar) and they slept over. The singer (who called herself Johnny Johnson) had written 'Joe Meek Forever' on her hand and the next morning it was imprinted on the pillow. I asked her who Joe Meek was and she wrote me a huge essay on the back of some of that green lined computer print out paper. We kind of became friends and I stayed at her flat in London the night after they recorded one of their John Peel sessions; she was really lovely and I drank my first ever brown ale with her! They've issued a couple of compilations (there might be some overlap), the latest being an album of demos which I keep meaning to buy. Optic Nerve have just reissued their first single too.
Cor! Friend to the Indie stars, eh ? Did yer woman Johnnie Johnson regale you with tales of her time working as a hostess in Japan ? And when they stayed at your mum's, did you have a rousing game of " Guess Which Sonic Youth Album I Am ", which you carried on long past your bedtime ? Were you still EVOL when you were sleeping ?

Jockice

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on January 23, 2019, 10:51:02 AM
My friend Richard (who I bet you know, he was in a Sheffield shoegazey indie band) thinks that Kettle by The Chesterfield is one of the greatest records ever made...

I do. He has good taste apart from that one lapse.