An outstanding album that just grabbed everybodies attention ... even the Americans started listenning.
From Spotify: Portishead – Dummy
(Please open Spotify while you read this if you want to listen inbetween reading)
When you think of Northern England, where I was studying and living at the time, you have to appreciate there was a huge North-South divide when it came to Indie music.
People from the North never listenned to anything South of Birmingham ,,, yeh there were exceptions for older music ... for Paul Weller, The Mod-father and I guess some others but that was generally how it was. When it came to Oasis & Blur, well my loyalty was firmly placed in the Oasis camp!
So while I was happily playing The Stone Roses, Ocean Colour Scene, Oasis, Happy Mondays & so on at home ,,, I was however, sneaking off to House clubs at least a few times a week like Gatecrasher (just down the road), Rise @ The Leadmill ... trips to Pure in Edinburgh & Cream in Liverpool. Amazing tapes from Paul Oakenfold were piling up in my room and Underwold were accompanying me on long journey's.
Pretty much everyone had a copy of Massive Attack Blue Lines so you can't say anyone was really holding too fixed to their indie haircuts.
Tracy Thorn, previously a favourite of mines with nicy-nicy 'Everything but the Girl' sung on the Massive Attack second album, Protection. Everybody kind of stopped and asked themselves ''what is going on in Bristol?''. Tracy had been transformed to a club diva and even 'Everything but the girl' released this new music genre with 'Walking Wounded'. What a contrast!
It was however Portishead with Dummy that blew my mind. SERIOUSLY ... WHAT IS GOING ON DOWN SOUTH?
When I first heard Southerners ''Radiohead'', I knew Northerners, Oasis were dead ... it was just so much more inteligent music. When I heard Portishead I just couldn't beleive it ... it was so good. I was just finishing off my degree at Sheffield University when I started using my climbing skills to do bridge inspections ... I'll put a photo up later today! By some miraculous fate we got the contract to inspect all of Isambard Kingdom Brunel bridges in the south ... more specifically BRISTOL :)
Hanging off amazing structures during the day was followed up by visiting amazing clubs at night. Portishead, Tricky & Massive Attack played every night ... well not actually them but there were literally stacks of bands playing Live with similar style and they were really, really good! The clubs looked amazing ... it was like visiting another planet. So what was going on in Bristol ... the answer: everything that was good was going on ... what a scene!
Portishead Dummy just made the Bristol scene impossible to ignore ... what an album and well deserving of it's place in my Top 10! You could release it tomorrow and people would still feel it's modern and new ... brilliant!
From Spotify: Portishead – Dummy
(Please open Spotify while you read this if you want to listen inbetween reading)
When you think of Northern England, where I was studying and living at the time, you have to appreciate there was a huge North-South divide when it came to Indie music.
People from the North never listenned to anything South of Birmingham ,,, yeh there were exceptions for older music ... for Paul Weller, The Mod-father and I guess some others but that was generally how it was. When it came to Oasis & Blur, well my loyalty was firmly placed in the Oasis camp!
So while I was happily playing The Stone Roses, Ocean Colour Scene, Oasis, Happy Mondays & so on at home ,,, I was however, sneaking off to House clubs at least a few times a week like Gatecrasher (just down the road), Rise @ The Leadmill ... trips to Pure in Edinburgh & Cream in Liverpool. Amazing tapes from Paul Oakenfold were piling up in my room and Underwold were accompanying me on long journey's.
Pretty much everyone had a copy of Massive Attack Blue Lines so you can't say anyone was really holding too fixed to their indie haircuts.
Tracy Thorn, previously a favourite of mines with nicy-nicy 'Everything but the Girl' sung on the Massive Attack second album, Protection. Everybody kind of stopped and asked themselves ''what is going on in Bristol?''. Tracy had been transformed to a club diva and even 'Everything but the girl' released this new music genre with 'Walking Wounded'. What a contrast!
It was however Portishead with Dummy that blew my mind. SERIOUSLY ... WHAT IS GOING ON DOWN SOUTH?
When I first heard Southerners ''Radiohead'', I knew Northerners, Oasis were dead ... it was just so much more inteligent music. When I heard Portishead I just couldn't beleive it ... it was so good. I was just finishing off my degree at Sheffield University when I started using my climbing skills to do bridge inspections ... I'll put a photo up later today! By some miraculous fate we got the contract to inspect all of Isambard Kingdom Brunel bridges in the south ... more specifically BRISTOL :)
Hanging off amazing structures during the day was followed up by visiting amazing clubs at night. Portishead, Tricky & Massive Attack played every night ... well not actually them but there were literally stacks of bands playing Live with similar style and they were really, really good! The clubs looked amazing ... it was like visiting another planet. So what was going on in Bristol ... the answer: everything that was good was going on ... what a scene!
Portishead Dummy just made the Bristol scene impossible to ignore ... what an album and well deserving of it's place in my Top 10! You could release it tomorrow and people would still feel it's modern and new ... brilliant!
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