A few days ago I was tagged by the fabulous Vix to do the High School Playlist
My high school years were between 1992 and 1997 and, contrary to the old adage, they certainly weren't the happiest days of my life. In actual fact school was one long, seemingly endless nightmare for me and it took me long into my adult life to fully recover from it! Music was one of the ways I escaped and it consequently became a huge part of my life.
So hard to narrow down to 5 tracks as I was listening to a lot of music during this time, from all different eras. To simplify matters, I've stuck to tracks that were current to the period.
An obvious choice maybe but everyone loved Nirvana. I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news of Kurt's death and how, after that event, a lot of my friends who wouldn't usually listen to that type of music suddenly became Nirvana fans. Such an important band to my generation, I couldn't leave them out.
After a while I tired of everyone jumping on the grunge bandwagon and started listening to Britpop. Inevitable I suppose. Unfortunately I became a bit of an indie kid for a while!
Suede were one of my favourite bands of the
Britpop scene, although I'm sure they would argue that they were never
really part of it. Dog Man Star is probably still one of my favourite albums to this day
As I got a bit older I became more interested in female fronted bands. I loved the kitsch glamour of this lead singer
I had the biggest girl crush on Miki. I recorded this video off The Chart Show (remember that?!) and watched it over and over. I wanted to be just like her.
I was listening to John Peel's Festive 50 in 1996 when I heard this track.
It was easy to get into Kenicke. They were only a couple of years older than me, wore cool clothes, cool make up, and were so accessible. Plus, they were girls with guitars!
Lauren Laverne now has her own show on BBC 6 Music as well as numerous TV presenting roles. I think she's one of the most interesting and culturally informed women in broadcasting.
At this point I must give an honourable mention to Mark Radcliffe & Marc Riley. Together they were Mark & Lard, a comedy duo of sorts who had their own show on BBC Radio 1 (when it was good). They did the infamous "graveyard shift" broadcasting from BBC Manchester Studios between the hours of 10pm and midnight every Monday to Thursday. The show ran from 1993 to 1997 and I listened to it religiously! I had a huge crush on Mark Radcliffe before I had even seen what he looked like. They played some excellent music from new up-and-coming bands as well as some older and more obscure artists. The show was full of spoof documentaries, toilet humour, and cheesy gags but combined with shed loads of interesting features such as "Cult Film Corner" "Cult TV Corner", and "Poetry Corner", featuring guests like Mark Kermode, Kim Newman, Katie Puckrick, Sean Lock, Simon Armitage, John Hegley, Harry Hill (long before the TV Burp days) and Bill Bailey.
I owe a huge debt to that show. It was a refuge for my angst ridden teenage self and introduced me to so many artists, bands, films etc. that I may never have otherwise discovered.
They played a lot of tracks by this next artist, including this one...
...and my love affair with Nick Cave began.
Phew, still with me?!
Thank you for sharing that trip down memory lane with me. Sorry if it was a bit angsty for your taste!
I may have mentioned here on my little blog how much I adore
the city of Berlin. I may have also
mentioned that I am a huge fan of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. How fortunate I was to stumble across Der
Himmel Uber Berlin or, as released in Britain, Wings of Desire, Wim
Wenders’ existential masterpiece, which combines my loves into a single film!
The premise is that countless angels have mingled unseen
with the people of Berlin for thousands of years, listening to their deepest
thoughts and darkest emotions. The film is shot in rich sepia toned black and white as a
metaphor for the fact that these angels have spent so long observing that they are no longer able to experience the simplest joys of
life.
We focus on two angels, Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel
(Otto Sander), portrayed as middle aged men in dark overcoats. They look down upon the city from Berlin’s ‘Golden
Angel’ or Statue of Victoria on the Siegessaule. They
embrace the lonely, the desperate, the bereft.
Their raison d’etre is, as Cassiel says, to “assemble, testify, preserve”
The city of Berlin is the major star of the picture, with
scenes depicting both the affluent Kurfurstendamm in West Berlin against the
dereliction and poverty of areas such as Kreuzberg on the other side of the wall. Not to mention the scenes that take place
in between as Damiel and Cassiel walk in a literal no man’s land.
The sense of loss and the presence of literal and metaphorical
ghosts is never better played out than when Homer (Curt Bois), a World War 2 veteran,
searches for the Potsdamer Platz, reduced from its former glory to a derelict
wasteland. A heart breaking scene seemingly
representative of the collective sense of emptiness and guilt experienced by a divided city struggling to find its identity whilst still wrestling
the demons of its recent history.
In another scene we see Damiel attend a circus, where he is
surprised that, unlike the adults, the children present can see him and talk to
him. The circus when seen through the
eyes of the children is in full colour.
The setting of the circus is where Damiel first encounters
Marion (Solveig Dommartin), a beautiful but lonely trapeze artist who lives alone
in a caravan and listens to Nick Cave. Damiel falls in love with Marion and begins to
wonder what it would be like to substitute observing the lives of others for a life filled with personal
experience.
Through the assistance of an already “fallen” angel played
by Peter Falk and referred to only as “Der Filmstar”, and with some angelic
assistance from his erstwhile partner Cassiel, Damiel makes his dreams come
true.
The film culminates with Damiel and Marion meeting for the
first time at a Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds concert where they greet each
other like long lost soul mates.
Cassiel listens in to Nick
This film is as close to perfect as any I’ve ever seen. Humourous and heartbreaking in equal measure. Beautifully shot, full of exquisitely poetic
dialogue and a torrent of metaphors that blow the mind!
I would heartily recommend this film to anyone. Not necessarily an easy watch, but it rewards
your emotional investment tenfold.
