Blog: Shindig

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A couple of weeks ago I did something I have not done for YEARS - I bought a copy of a music magazine!

Decades ago, yea verily in the 1990s, I bought TONS of them - Select, Q, Vox and then the NME and Melody Maker and sometimes Record Collector if I'd read all of those - but I gave it all up when THE WORD closed down, as that was SO much fun to read that it made what was left of music magazines seem RUBBISH. I've occasionally flipped through one in Smiths while waiting for a train, and have very very occasionally bought a copy of Mojo when it's had so much Macca/Beatles that I couldn't resist, but otherwise they have fallen into the dark pit of Things I Used To Do In The 90s along with Setting The Video, Going To Nightclubs and of course Generalised Moping Around.

HOWEVER, I had good reason to change this policy recently as I'd seen on Facebook that Mr Bob Fischer (formerly of Radio Tees and various GIGS) had done an interview with all-round ROCK LEGEND Mr John Otway, so after a bit of hunting around I SOURCED a copy of
The rest of the magazine is a STRANGE experience though, as it feels very much like a PRETEND magazine featuring PRETEND bands, like set dressing on a movie or something. Even the cover is like this - it's meant to be LINDISFARNE, who I know are REAL, but I am sure that the image they use includes Ade Edmonson and Jody Comer (with her Jesus beard on), so I have a distinct idea that the LOT of them are actors.

Inside there are features on HUNDREDS of bands that I have never ever heard of. I'm quite used to this being the case with The Young People's Modern Music, but even THEN I've got some idea of the most famous ones due to TELLY and listening to radio, but with Bands Of Yore I've always thought I've been fairly knowleadgeable. However, Shindig seems to be focused specifically on bands NOBODY has ever heard of. There are whole features on acts who basically recorded a couple of singles which were released only at 3 gigs and THAT'S THE LOT. It turns out there is a whole HOBBY of going looking for these incredibly obscure self-pressed records that were put out in the 60s and 70s (and later) by people nobody's ever heard of!

WELL. I'm sure you can picture my DELIGHT at discovering that this is A THING. Obscure releases by acts that hardly anybody's ever heard of? I wonder, how long is it until they get to the 1990s? I have a LOT of tapes, singles etc etc that are IMMENSELY obscure, and once the spotlight turns to the 2000s I have several metric TONNES of same! What I am basically saying here is that everybody should go and fill up in my online store RIGHT NOW before the "cratediggers" (technical term) turn up and everything starts to sell for A MILLION POUNDS on eBay. Treasure that copy of Say It With Words, it could pay off a MORTGAGE in a couple of years. In which case, I'll be buying a few HOUSING ESTATES!

posted 20/4/2022 by MJ Hibbett

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