Arkless Electronics
Trade: Amp design and repairs.
Sorry it comes across that way, it is just a subject that really annoys me. There has always been truly amazing music just a few steps from the mainstream in any direction and I’m sure there always will be. I hope I remain sharp and inquisitive enough to keep finding it. It definitely gets harder the older one gets as one becomes increasingly isolated from those actually creating it. One should still always aim to be more John Peel...
I completely agree!
The main thrust of my argument is not about what you may find if you go off the beaten path and search for it, but what you will likely hear if you switch on your kitchen or car radio, or playing on the builders radio, or in the pub on the jukebox with the latest hits on, in your taxi etc etc.
Yes there was "Cherpie cheap cheap" and "Long haired lover from Liverpool" (and Cilla Black) but even these had decent studio session men with some chops behind them.. they had a reasonable (if obvious) range of chords, you may even have got a key change!
To be fair, in spite of this, "Billy don't be a hero" by Paper Lace could be truly stomach churning
At the other extreme of quality though you could have once switched your radio on and heard "now at number 5 it's David Bowie with Star Man!"
I well remember the magic of hearing "Teenage Kicks" played for the very first time by John Peel, on a cassette the Undertones had sent him! I'd have been 13 or 14 I guess.... I can't imagine a kid today hearing anything quite that inspirational on mainstream radio today! Remember we could only pick up maybe 5 stations on the radio, no internet, no mobiles, jumpers for goal posts, it was all fields round here you know.