Albums - that often get overlooked...Part 3-Depeche Mode-Some great reward

A Album i can say i brought at the time of release on trusty cassette.Looking back through their catalogue this album is one that often get overlooked but it shows that they were following their own path but also taking in influences from obscure acts.
In the early 80s Depeche Mode were very much part of the smash hits magazine pop culture. in 1983 their sound changed from highly poppy to more industrial. This album was Depeche Mode hitting their stride.

The album features tracks like 'Master and Servant', 'People are people' but also tracks like ' If You Want to'. at this time their were bands who were using industrial things like metal(einstruzende Neubaten and SPK)), Depeche Mode embraced these elements whilst still remaining commercial.

Albums - that often get overlooked...Part 2-Station to Station-David Bowie

Artist : David Bowie
title : Station To Station
year : 1976
"Station to Station"
"Golden Years"
"Word on a Wing"
"TVC 15"
"Stay"
"Wild Is the Wind"
The album before the berlin trilogy of low, heroes and the lodger'. Station to Station I would class as his most overlooked album, it doesnt feature many tracks(7 if i recall). the album starts with the title track and features 'golden Years', 'Stay'.
I think its such a natural progression from his earlier albums to the trilogy that it seems to get overlooked or scarcely mentioned, also featured 'Wild is the wind'. I think the album was originally intended to be a soundtrack album to accompany the 'man who fell to earth ' film however it was shelved. I suppose the mid 70s were a hard time for Bowie, who's Diamond Dogs album (which was based on george orwells 1984) was also shelved.

Station to Station is a brilliant album.

The Legacy of joy Division

This is a strange post to write I have to admit its hard to write about something when its so entrenched in your past, for me the music of Joy Division was there from about 1985/86, I cant actually say I as into them at the time(i was only 7 then). For me what I liked about the band initially was the production of the music and the strictness of the rythmns, I didnt get into them via a normal route. The Double album called 'Still' was my first hearing of them. This featured out-takes and a poor quality live album.
There has been 4 points which get me going back to them, the first was a Joy Division documentry which as almost film like which I watched on BBC4 about 3 years ago, in a way it unravelled most of the myths surrounding the group. The second was the film 'Control' which I watched in parts. Other points were stumbling across images of his daughter Natalie curtis and lastly picking up a book by his wife Debroah Curtis'.

The latter is a brilliant piece of work, in a way I let the book rest on a shelf for about 6 months. The thing is Joy Division were right up there with some of the classic all time rock bands, in reading it I thought i wouldnt like them in the same light. one has to say Debroah curtis is a brave woman to give such details of her life with Ian Curtis whilst keeping all that information back for so many years(the book was published in 1995).

What comes across to me in the book is that there were failings in the health service at the time in his diagnosis and his level of care, the side effects of the drugs he was taking ultimately affected his reasonable judgment. Also the lyrics of 'closer' I always classeed them as the most directed suicide note ever directed to an ex partner, at the time you thought the lyrics might have been aimed at the wife but alot of it was aimed at the mistress(horne).

The lyrics that stick in my mind about Ian Curtis are the ones where he was talking about life as a whole rather than aimed at the single person. Lyrics like 'here are the young men , weight on their shoulders'.'novelty' which was a b side to a single is quite an optimitsic song.

The legacy of Joy Division is that they influenced a music scene from small beginnings, obviously achieving long term success as New order long afterwards.

I have put a picture of Debroah and Natalie curtis at the top of the picture, it makes you realise that suicide is a futile and its the people left behind are the ones that suffer.

Albums - that often get overlooked...Part 1-Harvest'Neil Young'

On top of re-evaluations and google maps and various other stuff, I thought I would add posts about albums that often get overlooked in various bands histories. Obviously some albums are more succesful than others, but sometime for bands to reach their peak they sometimes have to record albums to get to to that point. Pink Floyd as an example without 'ummagumma' they would not have recorded the 'dark side of moon'.
Neil Youngs' Harvest' album from 1972 is my first, I remember the album cover before I heard the album. The album is a mix of electric and acoustic, the track 'alabama' was about the county and wasnt complimentry about it as a result lynrard Skynard recorded 'Sweet home alabama' as a response. This sort of deflects away from an album that is really good. 'Heart of Gold' was a brilliant song as well as'the needle and the damage done'. other tracks like 'old man' set the scene for what is a brilliant album from start to finish.

The inevitable decline of certain football teams.

I think from next month onwards all football related posts will be put on a seperate site, but these words just stick in my mind. There seems to be the acceptance within english football that football clubs run on different business model to most business. About 20 years ago before the premier league the team reflected players of that area, so for instance you would have players that grew up in a area and played for their local team. With the advent of the premier league and all that followed the money generated enabled clubs with the increase in tv revenue to buy players from abroad.

The problem is now is that the football clubs are taking financial risks on the promise of future funds. Hull city are example of this. They invested in players and the incoming chairman was warning the club that they are 35 million in debt, the chairman was obviously hoping that out of adversity and crisis the players would raise their game and realise how important staying in the top flight is. however last week they got relegated.

With portsmouth the club has been thriving on of field crises and somehow the club has managed to get itself to a cup final. I think some previous owners thought they coould find a saviour like a Roman Abrovanich , but they are very thin on the ground. With portsmouth being in debt it seemed to me that all subsequent owners inputted little money for big returns when the club went to the administrators. I see some of the owners are owed 14 million etc.

The big two Man Utd and Liverpool now have just under a billion of debt between them, one of these clubs will fall by the way side. I honestly think it will be the latter.

Ventnor- google maps

This is only about 10 miles away from here, ventnor is the southern most part of the island and has a climate that is different from the rest of the island. Houses were built mostly 100-150 years ago, so lots of winding victorian houses going down to the sea front. A lovely area to live, work s hard to find there

Google maps - Dunoon, scotland

Both these images are from Dunoon in scotland.Come across a book on the area, seems quite an unspoilt area.

Google map images.

Sort of random photos or should that be screen shots of things I come across. i think i like google maps as I have always had an intrest in geography. This shot was someone's photo of Ben nevis.There is also another picture underneath this one of Mount Everest.

Have been coming across alot of books on the subject of Everest, I sort of wonder at what makes people want to risk their lives to climb mountains and the risks they take in their desire to achieve the peaks