What you need is
One. What face?
Two: face new
Three. Face mag for arse
Four. Three rules of audience
Five. Mug of Geoff Travis, framed
Six. The book Theft is Vision by the brothers Copeland.
The Fall, What You Need
I just watched the BBC4 doc on Rough Trade and am now watching the compilation of Rough Trade acts from BBC shows like Whistle Test, Top of the Pops etc.
Someone said in a TV review that the story of Geoff Travis and Rough Trade couldn’t fill a movie in the way that Tony Wilson and Factory Records did, and this is true, but it makes a fantastic companion piece to 24 Hour Party People. Both Factory and Rough Trade were idealistic, they tried to put the artists and the music first. Both went bust. Rough Trade’s story isn’t as romantic as Factory’s (how could it be?) but it’s a peculiarly London companion to Factory’s Mancunian rise and fall.
Forget Scritti Politti. Forget the Woodentops. Even forget The Smiths – why do I not have any Young Marble Giants records?! Why have I never even HEARD of Weekend, the band they begot, nor indeed Delta 5? And Mazzy Star?! I cannot bear to watch Mazzy Star, they are hurting my eyes at the same time as bathing my ears in languid vocals and slide guitar. Oh jeeeezus where have I been all this time?
Who knew that James’ ‘Sit Down’ was a Rough Trade single? James got screwed around my major labels who wanted them but didn’t know what to do with them. Tony Wilson once said that Tim Booth’s vocals were like sea shanties and my lord it sounds bonkers, but he was right.
Then there was Sandie Shaw’s version of ‘Hand in Glove’. I had totally, utterly, completely forgotten about that. It was a wonderful thing to behold, the Top of the Pops performance. At first so stilted, so awkward, then by the end even Andy Rourke is grinning at Sandie like a schoolboy. And now I am grinning like a schoolboy too. Right up to the point where Antony and the Johnsons make tears roll down my face.