The early 90’s were an exciting time in music. The 80’s were over and i was discovering for myself more music than ever, growing out of The Smiths, Echo & The Bunnymen and the like… “Baggy” had started a couple of years earlier but was fading into House music, which left me cold. That’s when “Shoegaze” grabbed hold of me. There were fantastic songs coming out of this genre, and a couple of great albums as well. One such album was the debut from English band Lush, titled “Spooky“. I was in love with this album, and with Emma Anderson, the other singer-guitarist. Have a look and a listen…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBkMQsu2iwc&feature=related]
In 1992 Lush played The Palace in Hollywood (now The Avalon Hollywood), and some friends and I made the trip over. Back then, all the shoegaze bands played The Palace and did signings at the late-great Aron’s Records. We headed down, but i refused to wait in line. However, i did hang around hoping Emma would see how great looking i was and come over and introduce herself. If that’s sounds cringe-worthy, i also stood in front of her at the show trying to grab her attention! You know what? I was surrounded by hundreds of other smelly 20-somethings trying the same thing. Embarrassing. I realized that night how ridiculous I was and killed my infatuation right then and there. However, the music still sounds great!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKCTWreqR40&feature=related]
Back in the day, i only had a cassette player in my car, so i had to dub the CD onto one side of a 90 minute Maxell. The other side was their collection of British EP’s, “Gala“.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCvhc2gRBM4&feature=related]
I spent 2 years driving around the desert with the top off of Beowulf blaring this lovely drug music! I didn’t do drugs then, but with Shoegaze music you didn’t need to. Just turn the volume up as loud as possible! Lush eventually jumped on the Britpop bandwagon and lost me. After the death of drummer Chris Acland in 1996, they disbanded. However, I do think it’s time for a Coachella reunion show!?
Tony
Media Producer
PlayNetwork, Inc.
