My Seventies Music

Tag: Snatch

  • Magazine – “Rhythm Of Cruelty”, “Believe That I Understand”, “I Wanted Your Heart”, “Talk To The Body”, “Permafrost”, “The Thin Air”, “Feed The Enemy” and “Back To Nature”

    Magazine album "Secondhand Daylight" (1979)

    Magazine is another of those UK New Wave bands whose music I first heard played by the house band (Snatch) at the Majestic Hotel in Palmerston North, New Zealand, prompting me to buy their album “Second Daylight” with songs like “Rhythm Of Cruelty”, “Believe That I Understand”, “I Wanted Your Heart”, “Talk To The Body”, “Permafrost”, “The Thin Air”, “Feed The Enemy” and “Back To Nature”.

    Listening to some of the tracks now I’m not so sure why I bought it, but I think it might have been “Rhythm Of Cruelty” I heard at the Majestic (though I don’t recall the women at the pub being dressed like this…):

    “Believe That I Understand” might have been another one I heard in Palmerston North:


    Not sure about “I Wanted Your Heart”:


    Here are some more tracks from “Secondhand Daylight”, some of them seem a bit obscure for a “post punk” band, but you might like them, so I’ll let you make up your own mind…

    “Talk To The Body”:

    “Permafrost”:

    “The Thin Air”:

    “Feed The Enemy”:

    “Back To Nature”:



    That last one wasn’t quite what I was expecting, think I confused it with “Slow Motion” by Ultravox…

    Paul

  • The Cars – “Just What I Needed”, “My Best Friends Girl”, “Good Times Roll”, “Touch And Go”, “Since You’re Gone”, “Shake It Up” and “Drive”

    "The Cars" album cover
    Looking for a present for my sister in the late Seventies, I bought her the 1978 The Cars album, aptly titled “The Cars”, so I could also listen to tracks like “Just What I Needed”, “My Best Friend’s Girl” and “Good Times Roll”, which I had heard covered live by resident band Snatch at the Majestic Hotel in New Zealand’s university town of Palmerston North.

    “Touch And Go” from the 1980 album “Panorama” is another track from The Cars I like, as is “Shake It Up” from the album of the same name, which apparently came out in 1981, though I seem to remember hearing the track before that. (As it was written years earlier by Ric Ocasek, I guess that’s possible.)

    A later song by The Cars that has always been a favourite of mine – though I’m not even sure I knew it was from them – is their 1984 hit “Drive”, which was featured at the Live Aid concert in 1985.

    This song from 1978 was at Live Aid too…. “Just What I Needed”:

    The huge crowd at Live Aid certainly enjoyed it, but I kind of prefer the earlier version, this reminds me of the atmosphere at the pub where I used to dance to this song in the late Seventies:

    “My Best Friends Girl”:

    “Good Times Roll”:

    Can’t say I remember “All Mixed Up”, also from the first album, but I like the sound:

    I definitely have memories of “Touch And Go”, from the “Panorama” album:

    “Since You’re Gone”, from the “Shake It Up” album, has the feel of an Irish singalong (makes me think of The Pogues!):

    And of course, the title track from that album, “Shake It Up” itself:

    “Drive”, from the 1984 album “Heartbeat City”:

    The sadness in this song is made more poignant still knowing that the singer, The Cars bass player Benjamin Orr, died just a decade and a half later of pancreatic cancer. He was still performing live six days before his death.

    Because “Drive” is such a beautiful song, here it is again live:

    Take care.

    Paul

  • Ultravox – “Vienna”, “Slow Motion”, “Maximum Acceleration” and “I Can’t Stay Long”

    British New Wave band Ultravox had a hit in 1980 with “Vienna”, but except for the singing of the title, to quote the song itself, “this means nothing to me”.

    What I do recognise, however, is “Slow Motion”, from their 1978 album “Systems Of Romance”, which I have.

    I haven’t played it for ages, but I remember “Slow Motion” because the band Snatch at the Majestic Hotel in Palmerston North, New Zealand, used to play it when I went there regularly around that time as a student.

    I just listened to several of the other tracks from that album, most of them didn’t really resonate, but there were a couple that brought back memories.

    Apparently the album didn’t sell that well at the time, but I bought it, on the strength of hearing the tracks that Snatch played.

    Here’s “Vienna”, their first mainstream commercial success it would seem, just out of the Seventies in 1980:

    This one’s more like it, “Slow Motion”, from 1978 album “Systems Of Romance”:

    From the same album, “Maximum Acceleration”:

    And another one from “Systems Of Romance”, called “I Can’t Stay Long”:

    Gotta go now.

    Paul

  • XTC – “Statue Of Liberty”, “Radios In Motion”, “Making Plans For Nigel”, “She’s So Square”, “Spinning Top” and “All Along The Watchtower”

    The British New Wave band XTC, with songs like “Statue Of Liberty”, “Radios In Motion”, “Making Plans For Nigel” or their very unique version of the Bob Dylan song “All Along The Watchtower” (most famously covered by Jimi Hendrix), came to my attention towards the end of the Seventies.

    In the late Seventies, while studying at Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand, on Fridays and Saturdays we tended to go to a pub called the Majestic – sadly no longer in existence I hear – where we put up with the Leopard beer to listen and dance to a band called Snatch, who played a lot of New Wave stuff like XTC. (You’re likely to hear more about Snatch in later posts…)

    As a result, I bought their 1978 album “White Music”.

    I don’t remember most of the tracks on this album, but one of them was “Statue Of Liberty”, played here live:

    Also from that album, and also live (in 1978), is “Radios In Motion”:

    “Making Plans For Nigel” was a UK hit in 1979:

    Here’s “Making Plans For Nigel” live on the German TV concert Rockpalast in 1982:

    I’m not sure where “She’s So Square” is from, but I quite like it (the video shows the cover of “White Music”, but it’s not on the one I have):

    “Spinning Top” is from the “White Music” album:

    And, as mentioned, “All Along The Watchtower”, first the album version:

    And now “All Along The Watchtower” live in 1978:

    Whew, hope this hasn’t worn you out!

    Paul

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