Originally posted by Alex S:
I've just finished reading it on MySpace (although it's easier on the Quiet Man because there are paragraph breaks!!) - but what a delightful and insightful, educational and interesting read.
In fact, I'm gonna have to put the album on!
You can really hear and 'feel' the environment these pieces were created in, in the music.
This is clearly an endless source of inspiration for John - reading it, so many of his songs, from instrumental pieces to electronic ones flashed through my head. The line about imagining his parents aged twenty walking together brought me to "Uptown/Downtown" and the romantic urban nostalgia of its parent album.
There were several parts I could relate to too. It's funny how you often find yourself walking down the same streets as your parents or relatives; sometimes without even knowing or by coincidence. Treading the same path in an almost fate-like way. And like John said, sometimes, it's your own.
I've seen Sheffield change dramatically over the last 15 years. This is my shifting city. I've seen it go from a slightly neglected and scruffy town of old-fashioned architecture, still with hints of the war all these years later - to a bright and vibrant modern city; new buildings popping up everywhere and a constantly evolving skyline.
It's such a different place now to what it was when I was about fifteen and began exploring it by myself.
Maybe this accounts for the strong emotional attachment I have to so many of John's city-themed songs/albums, and I'm sure a lot of other fans can relate to this similarly.
As one who grew up in and lived in Sheffield, I'd have to agree with you there, Alex. Many's the time I've walked down some of Sheffield's scruffy backstreets almost feeling like I was The Quiet Man!
And I can certainly relate to John's "Electricity And Ghosts" article. Back in 1991 some friends and I rented a room just off Division Street in Sheffield that had once been a cutlery works but had been converted into rehearsal rooms. It was tucked away down an overgrown cobbled alleyway and, although it seemed to be on the verge of falling down, was a place of great character. Like John, my collaborators and I would spend hours down there making strange experimental synthetic music that was inspired at least in part by our surroundings. Often we'd carry on working through the night, only stopping as the sun rose to head off to our respective day jobs.
It was owned by Steve Singleton, one time sax player with ABC and was reputed to have at one point been Pulp's rehearsal room (though I later found out that was a bit of a running gag as just about every rehearsal room in Sheffield was at some point claimed to have been used by Pulp!). The now quite well-known Richard Hawley and his band were in the room opposite.
Anyway, ezxcuse the name dropping. I'm trying to make the point that the thought processes behind "My Lost City" will be familiar to anyone who spent much of their youth hanging around band rehearsal rooms that more often than not were former industrial premises that had fallen into disuse. Much of the music that emanated out of them must have been inspired in part by their history and atmosphere, albeit subconsciously.
And my own lost city is indeed lost. Some time in the 1990s the building was pulled down and the site is now part of an indoor shopping arcade called "The Forum". Yet even in those trendy boutiques and coffee shops lurks the ghosts of me and my friends and our twentysomething selves.
One day I'll go back there to meet them.......
The first six instrumental pieces could be here. I'll familiarise myself with My Lost City and then onto the live recording.
