Love Machine / The Sandman Never Sleeps
Chris on a recent comment, reminded me that for a short time in the mid 1980’s there seemed to be a fashion sweeping the land that included donning a black roll-neck, black levi 501’s and a pair of pointy pixie boots. The Stirling Morrison 1967 hair style was an optional extra for those lucky enough to have been born with jet black hair. That particular hair style never looked that great with any other coloured hair. Wrap round shades were worn whether in the day or in the night!
One of the bands that started out with this basic look were My Bloody Valentine, who for extra KYPP points had in their ranks Debbie Goodge from Yeovil, whose first band, The Bikini Mutants is on this site somewhere if you use the search function. She was also a contributor to the ‘All The Madmen’ Fanzine, which evolved into the record label of the same name, bands on that label included The Mob, The Astronauts, Flowers In The Dustbin etc.
I saw My Bloody Valentine perform many times, but one of the best times was as support to Angels Of Light (Psychic TV) in a squat next to the Hackney Central station in 1986, a gig that finished around 05.00 in the morning! I went along with Curtis late of The Mob, at that time performing in Blyth Power.
This record was My Bloody Valentine’s debut 12″ release and the sound is completely different to the records released for the Kaleidoscope and Lazy Record labels a year or so later. My Bloody Valentine finally signed for Creation Records in (I think) 1988 and released some stunning singles for that label. The amount that the label spent on the recording and the remixing of their excellent LP ‘Isn’t Anything’ was a factor that brought the Creation record label to it’s knees for a short while.
Great band…
Nuzz
April 12, 2008 at 1:43 pmWe’re talking ‘shoegazing’ here, saw ’em once, supporting Nikki Sudden at Bay 63 under the Westway in Ladbrook Grove formerly known as the Acklam Hall I think. Never really got into MBV, now Swervedriver on the other hand…….
Nic
April 14, 2008 at 9:05 amYes, Nuzz – for me, MBV were a little too ‘tuneful’…
I really liked the approach to the guitars, but couldn’t get beyond the sweetness of the melodies…
(I know that contrast may well make for a more appealing result…but not for me! 🙂 )
They are whipping up a frenzy of excitement about their forthcoming ‘reunion’ concerts…
Bring back Letraset for record cover art!
😉
Final Curtain
April 15, 2008 at 3:41 pmGreat to see MBV up on this site Peng. The first MBV release was actually a seven track EP called “This Is Your Bloody Valentine” on Tycoon Records in 1985.