Popular

DAVID ESSEX - “Hold Me Close”

A matey vocal matched with a jaunty tune,”Hold Me Close” is clumsily eager to please. It claps me hard on the back and makes me splutter, its bogus bonhomie too loud and too close. Essex’ singing on this is such a put-on: sure, all pop singers act but few of them this badly and baroquely, with such deliberated roughness. An out-take from Oliver fifteen years late, or an echo of “Parklife” two decades early? Either way, I’m allergic. 2

76. FT's Tom on April 14th, 2008

    Volume was kind of a precursor of the MP3 blog, or at least the better MP3 blogs, the ones with content to match their powers of sleuthery. And it pioneered the “every mag must have its own CD” tactic that Uncut etc now run with.

77. crag on April 14th, 2008

    At the high point of my rock/pop press habit(1994-95)i was devouring MM and NME every week along w/ Mojo, Q, Select, Vox and Record Collector every month. Looking at that list i just think “Christ how many different reviews of “Park Life” or “Ill Communication” did i think i actually needed to read?”

    Gave up on Vox about ‘96, the weeklies about ‘00(still buy the xmas issues each year though),Q and RC about ‘01 or ‘02, stuck with Select till the end, tried Uncut from about ‘00 to 03 w/ occassional issues since and have basically stuck w/ Mojo and Word since ‘04.

78. a logged out p^nk s lord sukråt wötsit on April 14th, 2008

    impetus! that’s the third weirdie-music proto-wire i was think on, along with musics that marcello mentioned and collusion (which was a kind of successor to musics, staff-wise if not content-wise)

    i will scan a cover of all of these if i have time before i go to strasbourg

79. Rob M on April 14th, 2008

    I also had complete sets of Underground and Offbeat magazines, circa ‘87 - ‘89, basically covering C86 and post C86 indie stuff. I think the first issue came as a freebie in Sounds in early 87, on the worst paper possible. It had a few covermount tapes too but when Underground closed all the staff moved to Offbeat which was basically the same on glossier paper. Offbeat also had one of the first covermounted CDs in early 89.

80. Billy Smart on April 14th, 2008

    I’ve got a few copies of that glossy and bland mid-80s magazine that was “also an LP!” It was handy to have a copy of ‘Song 3′ by Scott Walker in the days when Climate of Hunter was impossible to find.

    The shortest-lived magazine that really excited me was Chris Roberts’ Ikon - 5 months in 1995.

81. Caledonianne on April 14th, 2008

    Well, I liked ol’ twinkle eyes bit of Good Old Days nostalgia (glottal stop and all) enough to buy it. My mother appreciated it too - I seem to remember she liked to hoover to it.

    This was NICE Cockney (not like those shouty, nasty geezers on The Sweeney), and the idea of holding Mr Essex close was not unappealing.

    Seems to me that if we’d had karaoke in 1975 half (or should that be ‘alf?) the population of Glasgow would have been giving this laldy in tortured approximations of what we didn’t then know was estuary English. In much the same way that you’re not a gold-plated Weegie unless you have caroused with Wilma, the chanteuse at The Cabin restaurant on Dumbarton Road, and high-kicked your way through the climactic rendition of Noo Yoick, New York…

82. Caledonianne on April 14th, 2008

    Oh, er Music Star around 73-74 and Mojo 1996-2006 (till I was made redundant and couldn’t afford it any more).

83. rosie on April 14th, 2008

    I was never a great reader of the music press. Melody Maker when I was a sixth former but never consistently.

    I did once earn a bit of pin money by rescuing the subscription list data for The Wire at the behest of my upstairs neighbour in Notting Hill who was involved with it. It was a spin-off from doing a similar (but more convoluted) job for the Literary Review, for which I was paid with a cheque drawn on Coutts bank and countersigned by Auberon Waugh.

84. Snif on April 15th, 2008

    Did no-one buy Rolling Stone?

85. LondonLee on April 15th, 2008

    I started with Record Mirror around 1977 when they had a feature on the upcoming world tour of my favourite band ELO. I seem to remember Hugh Cornwall was on the cover though it would be almost another year before I was interested in that sort of thing. I think I read Sounds for a while (I remember Gary Bushell giving London Calling a right slagging) before moving on to the giddy heights of the NME until the mid-80s when I was more interested in what they were doing at The Face who had Julie Burchill and Ian Penman writing for them on a regular basis anyway.

    I got The Wire for while when Richard Cook was the editor but that was more because of the design than any jazzbo tendencies on my part.

    But it must be nearly 20 years since I read any music mag on a regular basis.

86. Erithian on April 15th, 2008

    Blimey, some of you lot make me sound a right part-timer! Record Mirror from ’74 and Sounds from ’75 until the early 80s, Q since its inception with the very occasional Smash Hits, NME or Mojo during that time.

    I didn’t throw out a copy of Record Mirror for five years, until my wardrobe was groaning with them, then compiled a scrapbook of what seemed to me to be the highlights of the era, from a headline reading “Wombles – Orinoco to go solo?” to a letter enthusing about the Pistols from a lad called Stephen Morrissey. Highlights of ’75 in RM included a review of “Jive Talkin’” saying the Bee Gees had totally lost direction, and a feature on Europop saying that Mouth and Macneal, like Abba, were unlikely to be heard from again.

87. Billy Smart on April 15th, 2008

    Youngsters today wouldn’t believe how exciting it was when something free came with a magazine back in the day, be it a Korky the Cat kazoo in the Dandy, a free EP featuring Steinski & Mass Media and Husker Du in the NME, or even the first two years of Uncut CDs.

    Nowadays, all is marketing, and you expect this stuff as a matter of course, and it generally just seems like clutter.

88. Marcello Carlin on April 15th, 2008

    Now you get the new Prince album free with the Mail On Sunday and the first instinctive thought is: “what’s wrong with it then?”

89. Erithian on April 15th, 2008

    And now the new album by Flo Rida is *titled* “Mail on Sunday”, and the first instinctive thought is “what the hell is that about?” Mind you it’s a first to see the phrase “Mail on Sunday – Explicit Lyrics”.

90. FT's Alan on April 15th, 2008

    Big posters of DE’s face all around Hammersmith cos he’s playing the apollo in June.

91. intothefireuk on April 15th, 2008

    For me it was :-

    Disco 45 or Words intermittently between 1972 - 1975

    Disc & Music Echo occasionally 1973-1974

    Record Mirror 1974 - 1979

    Sounds 1975 - 1982

    Melody Maker 1976 - 1989

    NME 1977 - 1988

    All dates are approximate as is my memory.

    I didn’t buy every issue of each but used to swap between them depending on which way the wind was blowing that week. Since the 90’s have bought Q, Uncut, Face, Mojo on a completely irregular basis due to their general shiteness (in varying degrees).

92. FT's Matthew H on April 16th, 2008

    The first music mag I bought was Record Mirror in 1983 - 26th March, in fact, with Nick Rhodes on the cover… I’ll go no further for fear of the Spoiler Bunny. I was 10, and my mum was letting me shop around for a magazine to add to the paper delivery.

    I then bought NME - the week they did the Greatest Albums Ever with Marvin Gaye at the top - and Smash Hits, with the Human League featured. Mum decided NME was too “rude” and let me take out a sub for Smash Hits for the next three years.

    Then:

    Record Mirror (at last) from 1985-1991
    A mix of NME, Select for the rest of the 90s, but I was a Face man, really
    Uncut and Word dominate this decade

    I’ve never truly recovered from RM folding. It hit the right balance for me, plus the dance section (props to James Hamilton again) was essential.

93. FT's Matthew H on April 16th, 2008

    Oh, and all nine editions of The Hit.

    I probably shouldn’t have binned them.

94. Marcello Carlin on April 16th, 2008

    None of us who saw it can ever forget the NME’s 1985 All Time Top 100 Albums wherein Danny Kelly stated that Psychocandy would have been one of the greatest records ever made if it had been released two weeks earlier.

95. FT's Matthew H on April 16th, 2008

    Ah yes. I’ve clearly got my chronology out of whack.

96. mike on April 16th, 2008

    Until his ill-health got the better of him, James Hamilton continued his dance column for several years after Record Mirror folded as a stand-alone title - it lived on as a pull-out section inside Music Week. Indeed, the column was compiled on the living room table of the house that I grew up in, and where I had been regularly chastised for single-mindedly over-obsessing about pop music.

    (The first thing that JH did upon marrying and moving in with my stepmother was to enlarge the letter box to a width of slightly over twelve inches, in order for it to receive the white label/promo packages.)

    It was particularly fascinating to watch my stepmother develop an interest in the music that dropped through the letterbox, having previously never got much further than a passing fondness for the Travelling Wilburys. Without any “taste-maker” reference points, she made her own choices. Mr. Vegas was a favourite. And Catatonia. And hip hop, the more lewdly explicit the better. (”Darling, I just love listening to these black men talking about sex!”) And a dub remix of “Ooh Baby” by Vida Simpson, which reduced the song down to one repeated line: “F**k me baby, f**k me.” She used to blast that one out through the French windows. Always big on epater la bourgeoisie stunts, my stepmother…

97. FT's Matthew H on April 16th, 2008

    Yes, I used to read the dance column in Music Week whenever I could, but it was hell to get hold of in North West Herts.

    Love the JH tales.

98. Mark G on April 21st, 2008

    Primary mag:

    Disco 45 from 1972 to 1980 or so
    Record and Radio Mirror, from 1973 to 1977
    Sounds, 1977
    NME, 1977 to present

    Bought lots of other ones, Record Collector, Mojo, Select, Underground, Hit, etc.

    Hmm, comment 98?

99. Roadhog on April 26th, 2008

    I agree with the poster who said how the hell can David Essex be accused of using mockney (as well as being from Plaistow and the son of a dockwer he went to the local secondary modern and left school at 15).It so obvious he slipped the “cockney” line in as a piss take _ i even realised that as a kid.
    For some reason the media are far more lenient to exaggerated accents from outside the London area.
    The most obvious example of this to me coming as I do from Sheffield is the case of the Arctic Monkeys. I can’t believe how they weren’t laughed into ignomony when they appeared with their ridiculous caricature of a Sheffield accent. Remember the lead singer is the son of two university educated teachers from a leafy suburb and would naturally speak in a pretty middle class version of the local accent.
    Not in the type of parody accent that I’ve never even heard the roughest kid from an area like Parson Cross (a very deprived Sheffield estate)speak with.

100. FT's Tom on April 26th, 2008

     I don’t like the Arctic Monkeys guy’s voice either - though I don’t know if that’s the accent or phrasing or what.

101. FT's richard thompson on May 10th, 2008

     Coming Home the following year sounded like Hold Me Close and when it was number one on Oct 2 75 The Goodies were on that night so HMC wasn’t the worst song on.
     I bought Popswop from 72 until 1974 when it merged with record mirror so I read that then afterwards, Popswop referred to Essex as Blue Eyes, he was one of their cover stars as well as Donny and Glitter and Bowie.

102. Billy Smart on June 5th, 2008

     Light Entertainment Watch: Quite a few television appearances for the popular singing hearthrob;

     ASPEL & COMPANY: Featuring Barry Humphries, David Essex, Claire Rayner (1985)

     THE BASIL BRUSH SHOW: Featuring David Essex, Guys ‘N’ Dolls, Howard Lang (1976)

     THE BIG TOP VARIETY SHOW: Featuring David Essex, Bucks Fizz, The Krankies (1981)

     THE BRITISH ROCK AND POP AWARDS: Featuring Maurice Kinn (Host), Real Thing, David Essex (1977)

     CANNON AND BALL: Featuring David Essex (1982)

     CILLA: Featuring Gerald Harper, The Wombles, David Essex (1974)

     DAVID ESSEX: Featuring David Essex, Marti Webb, Jeremy Irons (1977)

     DES O’CONNOR NOW: Featuring David Essex, Sarah Payne (1985)

     HARTY: Featuring David Essex (1983)

     IN CONCERT: Featuring David Essex (1975)

     THE JOHN DENVER SHOW: Featuring David Essex (1973)

     THE LAUGHTER SHOW: Featuring David Copperfield, David Essex, Hale & Pace (1984)

     THE LES DAWSON SHOW: Featuring David Essex, Brian Blessed (1989)

     LIVE FROM HER MAJESTY’S: Featuring Neil Sedaka, Danny La Rue, David Essex (1984)

     LIVE FROM THE PALLADIUM: Featuring Cannon & Ball, David Essex, Pet Shop Boys (1987)

     MARTI WEBB TOGETHER AGAIN: Featuring Marti Webb, David Essex, Christopher Gable (1982)

     NIGHT MUSIC: Featuring Elaine Paige, David Essex (1982)

     PARKINSON: Featuring David Essex, Rita Hunter, Alfred Marks (1977)

     POP QUIZ: Featuring David Essex, Kenny Jones, Carlene Carter (1982)

     POP QUIZ: Featuring David Essex, Mari Wilson, Leo Sayer (1982)

     RUSSELL HARTY: Featuring David Essex, Jimmy Savile, James Cameron (1974)

     RUSSELL HARTY PLUS: Featuring David Essex, Malcolm Allison, Jill Bennett (1973)

     SHOWSTOPPERS: Featuring David Essex, Katia, Twiggy Lawson (1995)

     THIS IS YOUR LIFE: David Essex (1995)

     THE TWO RONNIES: Featuring David Essex (1982)

     THE VAL DOONICAN MUSIC SHOW: Featuring The Clancy Brothers, Tommy Makem, David Essex (1985)

     WOGAN: Featuring Roger Cook, David Essex, French and Saunders (1984)

     WOGAN: Featuring David Essex, Anthony & Mary Green, George Layton (1985)

     WOGAN: Featuring Francesca Annis, David Essex, Go West (1986)

     WOGAN: Featuring Dora Bryan, David Essex, Jackie Stallone (1988)

     WOGAN: Featuring Rowan Atkinson, David Essex, Ishmail & Merchant (1988)

     WOGAN: Featuring David Essex, Prisoner Cell Block H, Alison Steadman (1990)

     They all survive, but these two are missing;

     SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MILL: Featuring Patrick Moore, Beryl Reid, David Essex (1978)

     SET ‘EM UP JOE: Featuring Georgie Fame, David Essex (1969)

103. wichita lineman on June 5th, 2008

     So, anyone going to see Davo at Hammersmith? Chances are he’ll sing Hold Me Close and Tahiti rather than reprising Out On The Street in it’s entirety… but what the hey.

104. Billy Smart on June 5th, 2008

     I wonder if Russel Harty conducted a joint interview with Essex, Malcolm Allison and Jill Bennett? That looks like an awkward grouping…

105. mike on June 9th, 2008

     wichita l, I’ve seen Mr Essex in concert a couple of times in recent years. There’s rather too much “And now from my new album, available exclusively from my website…” for my liking, but the old hits are more than servicably attended to, and Mr E is the very essence of dignified Silver Foxiness. Biggest disappointment on both occasions: no “Rolling Stone”, no “City Lights”.

106. DJ Punctum on June 9th, 2008

     Did he do “Imperial Wizard”?

107. mike on June 9th, 2008

     Afraid not, and I think he gave “Stardust” a miss both times as well…

108. DJ Punctum on June 9th, 2008

     I recognise the logistical difficulties of getting Ray Cooper to submerge a gong in a filled bath on a nightly basis…