SoundsXP Message Boards - Indie, Indiepop, Nu-Folk and Alt-Country Forums

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God is a word and the argument ends there

Prior to 1994, when Kurt shot himself, I was living in a bungalow in Cowley, Uxbridge. As a shy 12-year old with no social life, I used to listen to a little fuzzy red radio that was tuned into Capital FM and I would draw, or play with Lego. When he died, I'd never heard of him and the news went over my head.

If I remember rightly, my favourite songs at this time were Stay by Shakespeare’s Sister, Stay (You Said) by Lisa Loeb, Babe by Take That, Prettiest Eyes by The Beautiful South and Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell. Aside from these, I had very little knowledge of anything else that wasn’t on my mum’s Love-song Compilation CDs or showcased on BBC's Live & Kicking on a Saturday morning.

Was pro-Blur in the 1995 war between Country House and Wonderwall in 1995. Shamefully became obsessed with the Spice Girls and All Saints in 1996, had a brief dalliance with Britney Spears and Billie Piper and liked a lot of dreadful bands under the Britpop label in the mid-90s, such as Dodgy, The Lightning Seeds and Ocean Colour Scene, as well as some fairly questionable American country-rock-balladry like Meredith Brooks. Got well into The Beautiful South, REM, James and The Cure in college, pretty much learned who Nirvana were from my college-friends in 1999 but was mortified by their obsession with bands such as Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot and Papa Roach, who I considered to be boring. Didn't get that whole nu-metal skater-thing at all. Was officially saved from musical criminality by the discovery of PJ Harvey in 2001, when I caught the video for Big Exit on MTV. When I told my photography teacher how great she was, he then introduced me to Patti Smith, Captain Beefheart and Tom Waits and made me a compilation cassette, setting me well on my way to discovering a wide range of brilliant music of a variety of genres.

Looking back, I prefer neither grunge or Madchester. Nirvana and Sonic Youth were better than The Stone Roses and Inspiral Carpets but Joy Division were better than Pearl Jam. On the whole, I have to side with Grunge though, due to it being in closer proximity to folk than Madchester was and because I really like a lot of Riot Grrrl stuff like Daisy Chainsaw, Sleater-Kinney, Bikini Kill, X and Le Tigre.

Er, Joy Division were never Madchester, Tim... They were from Manchester (well, most were, Curtis was actually from Macclesfield) but were about ten years prior to Madchester the indie/dance scene that came out of the Hacienda in the late 80s, early 90s. Did you ever see Pronghorn down in Bournemouth?

Jim - sorry I vaguely remember a chat about T&G. May have been refreshed at the time...

Possibly only me and Estuary Boy interested but the Boothill Foottappers Ain't That Far From Boothill was re-released on CD for the first time last year. Hadn't realised until I found it on Amazon at the weekend. Only 8 quid or less too.