BOC: Lots More o' Stuff

[Andy Gilham]

> If
> the fan-club
> membership suddenly dropped after Mirrors, I would offer as a possible
> explanation that it was not because Mirrors was suddenly a whole lot worse
> than the previous releases, but that people who had been holding on and
> hoping for a return to the 'good old days' suddenly decided that
> 'nope, they
> werent coming back, this proves it, lets get out' - the overall count for
> the last 2 or 3 releases had begun to tip too much negative.

Well, since it was my flip comment that kicked off this whole MIRRORS
debate: I got into BOC on the back of "Reaper," so did a lot of my friends,
and we devoured all the back catalogue, got SOME ENCHANTED EVENING the day
it came out and played it to death.  If there was a unifying feel between
AGENTS and SPECTRES it was that they were a lot slicker, and both had one or
two dodgy tracks whereas the first three albums were pure excellence, but
they were still terrific albums.

Then MIRRORS came out, and just about everybody thought it was rubbish.
Sure, people would say, "The Vigil" is OK, or "Great Sun Jester," but that
was about it.  They still played four nights at Hammersmith, but on the
strength of earlier material and live reputation.  Me, I was still saying,
loyally, BOC can do no wrong, but I knew in my heart they'd blown it; even
following it up with two excellent albums didn't restore their reputation.

I would have to say that the general opinion was that MIRRORS really was
"suddenly a whole lot worse."  The contemporary interview where one of the
band said they wanted to make their own RUMOURS pretty sums up the whole
"sell-out" feel of the record.

These days I like the two Lanier tracks the best.

-- Andy

www.andygilham.com