Nik Turner's Bohemian Love-in

[Mikey_C]

Check out this gratuitously insulting review of Mike's appearance at this event, on the same bill as Steve Took's Horns and Nik Turner's Sphynx:



This was of course that brief era when it was de rigueur to insult anyone who didn't sport safety pins or vaselined hair (note that punk troubadour Patrik Fitzgerald is the only act to meet with approval!

(Now, whatever happened to him? Probably Director of Social Services somewhere...)

Now, I would like to have been there, whatever Melody Maker had to say about it. Anyone out there remember it?

[Garage]

Roundhouse

I was there and had a pretty good time. The review is very smartie pants stuff. I only remember Nik Turner and his band all in body stockings. They didn't move the earth but it wasn't all that bad either. An interesting and varied evening of entertainment is how I recall it.

[zakt]

This was of course that brief era when it was de rigueur to insult anyone who didn't sport safety pins or vaselined hair (note that punk troubadour Patrik Fitzgerald is the only act to meet with approval!

Don't forget, it wasn't so long before this that Melody Maker wouldn't even review punk bands positively, as it was the house journal of proper musos. The tone of the review is indeed too aspirationally clever for its own good; I can imagine much of the music would, indeed, however have been pretty poor compared to what was coming through at the time?

[Kevin McCabe]

Ah well, you know how it is. Even now, there's still a fair segment of the (neo)punk crowd who villify the prog and stare without any comprehension when the word psychedelic is used. On the other hand, the bands themselves tend to be reaching in a lot of different directions as they grow musically. A case in point is AFI. They're very much the screaming punk/emo band. But, a couple of their guys have a side project called Blaqk Audio that would leave Depeche Mode suffering from an embarrassment of synths and eyeliner. Then there's Tiger Army, a psychobilly band that mixes punk with rockabilly and surfer tones. And, of course, we saw the concept album invade the punk scene with a vengeance in the form of Green Day's American Idiot. The kids are alright, rebellion is to be expected. I weep that in my house it takes the form of hip-hop!

[opaloka]

I think texture is the key aesthetic to hip hop. You need a good subwoofer too, forget melody. It's also a kind of portraiture I think. You might like 'Phrenology' by The Roots, they play instruments on stage. If you start listening to hip hop she might move on to Doom Metal though

[Shipscook]

I was there

This shows my age but I was at the Love in and far from what the resident idiot at Melody Maker would like us all to think, there were a lot of punkers there as well as us hairy folk. OK its a long time ago but I remember there was a pretty good atmosphere going on and most of the bands were pretty good, Roger Ruskin Spear's robots were fun too. The highlights for me were John Cooper Clarke who is always good value and Mike's set.

As I recall he was backed by Adrian Shaw (then in Hawkwind) on bass and Pete Pavli on cello and the numbers palyed included Rolling in the Ruins, the Entropy Entango and I think although my memory may be clouded by over 30 years, Dodgem Dude.

Whatever that fool thought I had a good time!