Didn't realise they are so massive...
JR
I grew up in Basildon, and was an early DM fan. I remember my brother
bringing home a 'Dreaming of me' 7" and I liked it, although I thought
that 'Ice machine' was the better side. We used to see them in town a
bit, and my brother had loads of signed 12"s and albums - I had a 'New
life' 12" signed, that I gave to a freind in Austria many years ago. My
biggest moment was in '95 when I went to the local shop (I lived in a
part of Basildon called Langdon Hills - Dave Gahan lived there for a
while) and bumped into someone. He dropped his packet of 20 Marlboro
Lights and I trod on them. I looked up and it was Dave Gahan - I was
wearing my DM t-shirt at the time, and had a copy haircut. I said
"sorry Dave" and he said "that's alright". I felt a bit of a prat.
Anyway, he got into a rather nice porsche (I think it was metallic
gold) and drove off.
My older brother was involved with the Basildon music scene and managed
to go to the annual DM party for a couple of years - he said that they
were good (loads of drink, etc...), but I was too young for such
things, and then DM gave them up.
Other things I knew related to DM was Yazoo. My brother used to party
with Alison Moyet (called Silver at the time, due to her over-bleached
hair). She used to get on our school bus, and was rather over-weight.
She came to our house once or twice as well. We used to take the micky
out of her a bit. Her mother was our French teacher at school (Madame
Moyet). I remember the time when she gave me a 7" of the first Yazoo
release Only You. It was signed by both, and had little messages with
it to my brother. A great track.
I kind of went off DM after the brilliant 'Black Celebration' as I
really got into The Smiths. In England there is no real indication of
the world-wide success of DM - it amazes me that they have done it, but
I've only just found out... I'm stunned that the band I loved as a
child is still going on. We always thought of them as a local band, so
didn't think of them in the bigger picture.
Have you heard of the Double Six pub and the place that it played in
Basildon music in the early '80s? DM, The Cure, and others played
there. I knew it because it was down the road from school, and when we
were in the sixth form we used to bunk off school and drink there for
lunch. It was an absolute dump in a moderately rough area of town. They
tried to pull it down recently, but people made a noise about it -
don't know if it happened though.
Anyhow, it also amazes me that Basildon hasn't recognised DM. They are
as big as REM and U2, and they are massive. In town there is no single
reference to them. Shame.
Regards to you all,
JR
Favourite tracks:
Shake the disease
Blasphamous rumours
Here is the house
Somebody
plus many others - really like Lilian on new album
JR
De Cuyper Dominik
with up since 1984 (heard people are people first). i'm 37 now and still a
fan. It must be a honor to grow up in Basildon and meeting Dave their. Great
!
"JR" <josephsi...@hotmail.com> schreef in bericht
news:1143465358....@t31g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
JR
and we just took it for granted that they were around. I remember
seeing Dave Gahan at the local train station with his wife at the time
(I think) in '97, and I just felt sorry for him because he looked up at
me from the bench he was sitting on and gave the look of "oh fuck,
another fan". I was dressed in office clothing, and really wanted to
say hi, but did him the favour and walked on by.
Basildon hasn't changed much since the early 80's, so it must be
comforting for them in a way when they visit. I go there a few times a
year (I live in the county Dorset now), and I like it, but only for so
long. Knowing the areas that DM grew up in does add perspective to
their music though. I used to play around St Nicolas School where some
of DM went, and I had friends there as well. It was a hard school. Alot
of the houses are being pulled down and new ones put in their place - I
don't know exactly where they lived, but it wouldn't be that hard to
find out, and I know all of Basildon.
Dave Gahan still has a Basildon accent, with a bit of American to it
(slightly). I've tried to get rid of mine, but it never goes. I've not
heard the voices of the other two in a good while though, but I bet
they are similar.
JR
old....
Engelkott
<dominik....@skynet.be> wrote:
>It's strange that in England they don't realise that DM is great. I grew up
>with up since 1984 (heard people are people first). i'm 37 now and still a
>fan. It must be a honor to grow up in Basildon and meeting Dave their. Great
>!
If you have ever been to 'Bas' you will know it is no honour to grow
up there let alone go there! To get to Basildon you need to go on the
A13, take my advice and keep on it! *s*
All the so called 'new towns' such as Basildon, Harlow, Basingstoke
and so on all suffer from the same problems and are/were pretty
grotty.
Engelkott
JR
London on the A13 to get there! Also, it goes to Southend, which many
thought that Morrissey wrote "every day is like Sunday" with the famous
lyrics "come, come, nuclear bombs"! It is one of the better New Towns
though, and does have many really nice parts to it - although, and this
is being absolutely honest, the bad parts would lead you towards
suicide if you had to live there - prime example is Vange (uhhhh!).
The good thing about the place is being able to walk around the town
centre and have some great memories attached. My mum used to work in a
bar there called The Sweenies and apparently saw DM pay early gigs, as
well as other good bands. I also remember going to the local band-stand
to see an inpromptu gig by a new band called "Erasure", and having a
chat afterwards with Vince Clarke about the possible future of the
pair. He said that he hoped it would work out well..... Langdon Hills
is a really nice area as well, situated on the edge of vast areas of
woodland. Thought to be the posh bit of town... that's why Dave Gahan
moved there.... (I'm sure it was Dave Gahan who moved there, as he was
the only one that I ever saw there).
I also lived in Liverpool for about five years, and the bad parts of
that were really bad.....
Engelkott
wrote:
My sister lives on Canvey Island (pikey central) and a brother lives
in Benfleet but worked in Basildon a lot.
Luckily i am a south London boy (Wimbledon) but have been down
Basildon way a lot, luckily i take the M25/A13 route bypassing the
dregs of London. *s*
Engelkott
JR
Benfleet was not so bad - an old fiance lived there once. At least by
going through the Dartford tunnel you miss Dagenham... now that is a
place from hell.
mave
<josephsi...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I
> don't know exactly where they lived, but it wouldn't be that hard to
> find out, and I know all of Basildon.
Have you read 'Stripped'? It has the addresses of the houses where the
original 4 members grew up.
--
mave
----------------------------------------------------
have you tried turning it off and on again?
have you tried shoving it up your arse?
JR
were their addresses?
mave
101 (!) Woolmer Green and Martin at 16 Shepeshall
'Stripped' is a good read overall and worth looking out for. It's not
perfect in places (what biography is?) but it's generally sound and
very comprehensive; probably the most detailed of the DM bios published
so far.
JR
Martin lived to get to St Anne Line Primary School every day. Not such
a bad place, although I did get really badly beaten up in '91 just down
the road from Mynchens - broken nose, face slashed, etc. - but that was
quiet rare. I had a girlfriend who lived down the road from Mynchens,
and one in the next street to Woolmer Green (she later moved to a flat
just down the road from Bonnygate) and my Aunt Peg lives in a few
streets up from there. I went to senior school about 10 minutes walk
from Bonnygate - St Anselms. Believe me, there are much worse parts of
Basildon - I grew up in the areas talked about here, and they were o.k.
- close to town, not that hard, etc. I'm going to have a look at them
next time I'm back to my parents as they are only about 15-20 walk from
where they live (except for Bonnygate, which is much further) -
actually, when I worked for Pizza Hut as a delivery driver, I went to
the region of Bonnygate and delivered a pizza to someone called Gahan -
of course it wasn't Dave, but he did look quite similar. Always
wondered about that one.
Cheers!
JR
died in the early eighties. My mum said that Eileen knew the Gore
family. My Grandmother and Grandfather also spent their last few years
of life next to the little shop that was up the road from them (most of
the area was pedestreanised - still is). I was around their all through
the 70's and early 80's, so I might have come across some of them...
who knows.
paleophile
> Dave lived at 54 Bonnygate, Vince was at 59 Mynchens and Fletch was at
> 101 (!) Woolmer Green and Martin at 16 Shepeshall
>
> 'Stripped' is a good read overall and worth looking out for. It's not
> perfect in places (what biography is?) but it's generally sound and
> very comprehensive; probably the most detailed of the DM bios published
> so far.
My biggest complaint (which isn't a big one) is that it's very, very
heavy on info about the early years of the band...disproportionately so.
Then again JR might appreciate that.
--
-paleophile
mave
paleophile <n...@no.com> wrote:
> My biggest complaint (which isn't a big one) is that it's very, very
> heavy on info about the early years of the band...disproportionately so.
I would agree. However, that's also the period from which I had always
found it hard to get accurate information; so many previous
publications (including the Steve Malins and Dave Thompson books) drew
heavily from the same small pool of interviews and magazine articles,
to the point where you could spot the same descriptions of particular
events cropping up almost word for word. Where Jonathan Miller scores
(for me) is in the interviews he conducts with old associates and even
school friends to build a more comprehensive picture of how DM came
into being. By its very nature, the collected memories of things that
happened over 25 years ago are never going to be 100% factually
correct, but I find it a much more interesting read than something that
I know has been lifted from previous work.
DM were documented in increasing detail as their career progressed, so
perhaps the author felt there was less scope to contribute new
information in the later years?
JR
old Towngate Theatre in Basildon - now knocked down, but used to be the
only place that anyone different could drink in Basildon without
getting beaten up. He was quite cool about the whole thing - at the
time they were just one of the new(ish) bands in town who drank there.
Said that they were a good laugh, as it was his drinking place as well
- he was in a band a bit later, but he moved on into the theatre
business. I remember going there for a pottery class (not in the bar of
course), and I made a small, and very crap house. I was young....