Heartland

mh wrote: ↑09 Dec 2020, 18:39 ..... check out the intro to LA Rain and tell me that's not the Sisters take on Emma.

Phil's American accent was far more convincing than Von's

I think they were from south of the river rather than the usual Hyde Park/Burley area. I first saw them in the Haddon Hall pub in darkest Kirkstall, usually only visited for a Tetley pub hunt stamp in student days but they occasionally had decent bands on in their biggish concert room.

mh wrote: ↑09 Dec 2020, 18:39 I'd almost forgotten about Rose of Avalanche. I don't consider them as blatant copycats

Name was a bit nicked though wasn't it?
I liked them TBH.
Saw them in an upstairs room in a pub in Brighton. Same place I saw the Lorries.

mh wrote: ↑09 Dec 2020, 18:39 I'd almost forgotten about Rose of Avalanche. I don't consider them as blatant copycats as others, although there is at least once instance where their own mothers wouldn't be able to tell them apart - check out the intro to LA Rain and tell me that's not the Sisters take on Emma.

I think I remember these guys. Don’t really recall that song, but bloody hell that droning D major chord is right off the Emma hymn sheet. Until the vocals kick in and all goes a bit Lou Reed

Swinnow wrote: ↑09 Dec 2020, 22:08...in the Haddon Hall pub in darkest Kirkstall...

...which is just round the corner from me. It's no longer a pub, it's been converted into a nursery.

markfiend wrote: ↑10 Dec 2020, 10:09 ...which is just round the corner from me. It's no longer a pub, it's been converted into a nursery.

Memory tells me it was a big old pub, so it'll be a huge nursery. Only used to go there to see the occasional band, the pub nearby I'd go to most often was the Cardigan, mainly due to a certain curry house being very close. A certain guitarist also played a solo gig upstairs in the Cardigan, immortalised on tape by a Heartland regular

To get awfully 80's Leeds the curry house that was then between Burley Rd and the Haddon Hall had a terrible reputation amongst the population of the student ghetto.

the cardy arms had some ace gigs on while i was there

It strikes me as an odd phrase - "heavily influenced" - when the Sisters sound changed so fast. Critics were still drawing JD comparisons long after Reptile House was out. Marx/Huss/Adams were polishing their take on Second&L&A while the 'Dritch was releasing Gift and Floodland. Floodland derivatives in the long list above show no signs of abating when VT arrived in '90.

"heavily influenced by" was me weaselling out of saying "complete copyists of" (especially when it comes to TMT).

The curry house between the Haddon and Burley Rd still doesn't have a great reputation TBH - when I was walking to and from work (in the before times) I'd go past every day and a Rentokil van was outside alarmingly often.

for the record i f**king despise the merry thoughts*. knew you'd be pleased....


*mainly (but not exclusively) because their songs get put on yootoob credited as being the sisters.

Nobody has ventured into the obvious, yet. Now I always thought comparisons with the Nephilim were a bit like comparing Led Zeppelin with bloody Iron Maiden or Saxon. You see where people are coming from, in a lazy way, but only one option is danceable and has that groove.

Swinnow wrote: ↑10 Dec 2020, 20:07 Nobody has ventured into the obvious, yet. Now I always thought comparisons with the Nephilim were a bit like comparing Led Zeppelin with bloody Iron Maiden or Saxon. You see where people are coming from, in a lazy way, but only one option is danceable and has that groove.

The only reason I went to see the Nephs the first time at the Clarendon Ballroom in 85 or 86 was because of the Sisters comparisons.
Visually they were very alike with the smoke & hats.
But aurally they were quite different I think. They were also fcuking amazing. Even if McCoy did nearly have my eye out with his Kruger glove.

Well for me the Neph and Sisters are completely different, in presentation and sound. There is a lower register vocal sure, but McCoys growl is nothing like Eldritch’s baritone. It’s like comparing beaugelais to Zinfandel. Sure they’re red wines but even to a cheap bottom shelf only dude like me it’s an obvious contrast.

Incidentally I’ve been watching a lot of Neph videos lately. I was huge into them, prolly seen them more than any other band (mainly cuz my Neph gig partner was a lovely girl I lusted after for years but sadly never came to anything). I only just appreciated what incredible songwriters and musicians they were. McCoy/Eldritch comparisons aside, the Neph were far superior songmasters IMO. The guitarists are amazing and weave together brilliantly, the bass too, and of course the proper drummer. I think they are hugely underrated

Okay let the stoning begin

I wouldn't lump the Nephs in with the Sisters copyists either TBH. There's an influence there obviously but the Nephilim went much further into the Wild West imagery* and then into Crowleyana for their subject matter.

*Spaghetti goth?

markfiend wrote: ↑11 Dec 2020, 11:50 *Spaghetti goth?

Wasn't 'Afterhours' the beginning, middle and end of 'spaghetti' g*th?

markfiend wrote: ↑11 Dec 2020, 11:50 I wouldn't lump the Nephs in with the Sisters copyists either TBH. There's an influence there obviously but the Nephilim went much further into the Wild West imagery* and then into Crowleyana for their subject matter.

*Spaghetti goth?

I do recall them being described as spaghetti metal in the music press. Don't remember who coined that one though

Pista wrote: ↑11 Dec 2020, 13:35 I do recall them being described as spaghetti metal in the music press. Don't remember who coined that one though

Hence the mention of those new wave of heavy metallers above. It was the layers of twiddly guitars what did it my lord.

Ref: The Neph: "Hey! We look like Sisters.....caught up in a landslide" says all there is to be said about their "plagiarising" The Industrial Groove Machine. it was purely an aesthetic front to go with their asthmatic frontman. previously they were more "Daniel Ash /mascara lash" than the Miliners of Mercy. i bet they couldn't believe their self-raisngly sprinkled luck when they copped for a load of lost & disappointed Sisters fans. Pre-This Corrosion, there seemed to be a fair few unhappy former Reptiles; who, having started off with the mish's fabulously tasty precum only to reject the evermore flowey ejaculate offered by the Gargoyle Gang (apologies to Simon Hinkler who was quite handsome in the 80's) were too stoopid to go and see the Ghosties (who remain The Most Underrated Goth Supergroup of All Time -professor pearman where are you when your country needs you?)

fact: saying mccoys voice was like Vons is like comparing Shakira to Lady Gaga.
fact: saying that Nods was slmilar in sound to the Doktor is pure bollocks. drumming just like a drum machine was only ever acheived by 17 seconds era the cure and the lorries. nods is actually a massively under-rated stick-twiddler in my opinion. and undoubtedly the finest corner-dwelling-by-proxy music mag batteur ever.

i saw them once cuz my friends The Hunters Clubs were supporting and we were on their guestlist. i was brutally paralytic and was ejected 2 songs in to the Neph's set for cobbing empty newcastle brown bottles at the band. i wasnt, i was throwing them at the head of my traitrous acquaintance Neil -the self-styled "Mr E" who was spasming like a fairy on some guys shoulders doing that eternal goth dance of catching imaginary birds...then letting them go.. but i never was a good shot.

it wasnt untl the second album that i had anything but contempt for them. Love Under Will won me over and 2 California Sunrise acid tabs turned me onto Dawnrazor. i was actually walking across the actual bridge of stars that his garbled voice may as well have been singing about in Slowkill. (it wasnt it was a 2 lane flyover lit with halogen lamps but the effect was much the same.)

Excellent. Can always rely on Whizz for a solid rant