Some talk on the “blogosphere” about “Regressive Rock”, (80s schmindie-indie to you and I) particularly from K-punk and the resurgent Marcello. Broadly speaking Mark Kpunk is against it, and Marcello is if not wholeheartedly for it at least willing to give it a fair hearing. There isn’t really a ‘debate’ as such yet, but if there was, here are my two frivolous contributions to it.
– this stuff is a coming ‘big thing’, like it or not. The revival clock is ticking towards the mid-80s (Hi-NRG, Italo disco etc.) and DIY indie will be a part of it. My guess is that at first the revisionists will concentrate more on the Ron Johnson end of things but the rest of the C86 mob will get a look in soon enough. It is so easy to imagine Soul Jazz style comps of the more difficult end of things and Nuggets-esque CDs of the shambling stuff. Especially as this particular era in British music is so readily dismissed – lots of room to surprise people.
– in the pub on Friday members of the FT Editorial Board were marvelling at the grip ex-organisers and artistes of Sarah Records now have on British cultural and political life. Off the top of our head we could tick off the senior economist at the Office of Fair Trading, someone who works on Top of The Pops and other BBC stuff, Simon Fuller’s assistant, and perhaps most remarkably the EDITOR OF THE WIRE! I think there were others too – clearly this wasn’t quite enough to write the drunkenly mooted “Sarah = Illuminati” article but it’s an intriguing factoid nonetheless.