Heartland

For my part, there are two issues:

1. The smoking. Yes, my decision, my responsability etc. but the fact is, I would never have smoked my first cigarette were it not for Andrew Eldritch glamourising the habit. And here I am 30 years later, still hooked. Not looking for pity here, just understanding.

2. How many times has the little Eldritch in me led to me saying something intelligent but vile to someone when, in retrospect, a much more diplomatic approach would have led to a better outcome? How to lose friends and alienate people - become a Sisters fan? Yes, if you're not careful.


XidiouX

For my smoking habbit i can not blame AE cause i started it without having him a model for that. And to be serious you can blame him for other things but not for that.

As for the second, if you need diplomatic approach to talk to some people then that people is not a friend at least at that time that need a "special" talk treatment. Friends must be open as book and know each other enough to understand what they want without even talk that much. Friends dont get offended by intelligent words talked to them.

i started smoking at the age of 11 -a good 3 or 4 years before i heard the sisters. and although eldritch and i share a preferrance when it comes to our 'drug of choice' (personally i have several drugs of choice) its fair to say that a) i was brought up around hard drugs/drug use anyway and b) eldritch would probably be dead if he'd done half as many drugs as me. fact.

as for saying something witty yet vile, as eldritch says: "My world is divided into Us Them and People i dont talk to...I do try to be nice to us....but i think the only way you can give something useful to the us's of this world is by being a bastard to the 'thems';...because really they are there to be bastards to you and it's not a world for the weak-willed."

"I can love my fellow man but I'm damned if I'll love yours"

(Minor) rock stars aren't meant to be good role models. That's not what we pay them for.

That said, Eldritch did better than I would when Smash Hits asked about the "strange flowers" line in Flood I. Not corrupting the youth seems like good-role-model behaviour.

I don't think I want my money back just for that though.

AE and Lemmy corrupted me in more ways then I want to admit.. JD and coke and white line fever comes to mind

Drsisters wrote:AE and Lemmy corrupted me in more ways then I want to admit.. JD and coke and white line fever comes to mind

...and everything else.

Apart from broading my misical geography and open my ears to lot lot new music AE had no impact. And Ballard.

There is something I find highly admirable about his stubbornness.

Let’s also not forget that when AE broke through, pop-culture was quite vacuous. He was one of the first to achieve mainstream success (relatively speaking) while showing that intelligence could be reconciled with cool. I wouldn’t underestimate the impact of that on young people of the day - at least those with discerning tastes.

That is good a point Sir Sultan(2075).

Yup, what he said.

As far as minor rock stars go, you could do worse. He writes a good lyric and would make a great radio personality, whispering away about all the things that ruin the world in a beautiful way and playing some kicking tunes to boot.

DJ for the apocalypse, hope he falls for it

A good role model?

That depends...

For life? Hell no.

For love? Dear god no.

For rock and roll? Abso-fucking-lutely.

I'd answer yes. Though in a world of fakes, being so single minded and having your own clear vision can be a detriment. In the same way that always speaking the truth regardless of if it hurts does not always make one popular.

markfiend wrote:"I can love my fellow man but I'm damned if I'll love yours"

Words to live by, if you ask me.

What are role models, really, except for a person’s attempt to fill the archetypal void typically reserved for religion? “So you’re too much of a freak to accept Jesus as an imaginary friend...may I interest you in some f**ked up alternatives?�

Or maybe there is more to it. Perhaps there’s a difference between identifying with a mental aesthetic you already possess versus crafting your budding identity around one because you think it looks cool. In any case, if you’re easily led enough to emulate the image of a self-destructive misanthrope (which is usually a sure sign of a frustrated idealist anyway) then I suppose you may as well choose one who will motivate you to read literature.

Chaotican wrote:What are role models, really, except for a person’s attempt to fill the archetypal void typically reserved for religion? “So you’re too much of a freak to accept Jesus as an imaginary friend...may I interest you in some f**ked up alternatives?�

Or maybe there is more to it. Perhaps there’s a difference between identifying with a mental aesthetic you already possess versus crafting your budding identity around one because you think it looks cool. In any case, if you’re easily led enough to emulate the image of a self-destructive misanthrope (which is usually a sure sign of a frustrated idealist anyway) then I suppose you may as well choose one who will motivate you to read literature.

nicely put

and as for this bit:

crafting your budding identity around one because you think it looks cool

umm....

I think million young goth boys in the mid/late 80s and early 90s did EXACTLY that.

Quiff Boy wrote: and as for this bit:

crafting your budding identity around one because you think it looks cool

umm....

I think million young goth boys in the mid/late 80s and early 90s did EXACTLY that.

Not guilty...ahem

Quiff Boy wrote: umm....

I think million young goth boys in the mid/late 80s and early 90s did EXACTLY that.

A million?????? If that was even remotely true I suggest Von and all his cats would be as happy as pigs in muck. Even in the student ghetto of Hyde Park it was only ever a subculture. Us oldies loved it though haha

Swinnow wrote:

Quiff Boy wrote: umm....

I think million young goth boys in the mid/late 80s and early 90s did EXACTLY that.

A million?????? If that was even remotely true I suggest Von and all his cats would be as happy as pigs in muck. Even in the student ghetto of Hyde Park it was only ever a subculture. Us oldies loved it though haha

ok, a few hundred

I knew at least 27 (myself included)

I'm keeping very quiet now that the subject of photos has come up. I don't have any of myself from that period as far as I can remember but they must exist somewhere...

There was a guy at Huddersfield Poly (as was) that had the complete white suit, hair and shades. It was very impressive. Perhaps he's on here!

abridged wrote:There was a guy at Huddersfield Poly (as was) that had the complete white suit, hair and shades. It was very impressive. Perhaps he's on here!

Did he have the beard too?

Pista wrote:

abridged wrote:There was a guy at Huddersfield Poly (as was) that had the complete white suit, hair and shades. It was very impressive. Perhaps he's on here!

Did he have the beard too?

Ah he did. How he found a white suit in Huddersfield in the mid-80s I will never know!

Never be surprised by what happens in Cleckhuddersfax, it's wild and woolly out there.

Didn't do me any harm.