OFF: Magazine

[ANDREW GARIBALDI]

yeh - but did you ever get the Beranard Szajner album on Island that
featured Devoto or see the concert one-off in London where we had the
unlikely trio of Szajner, Devoto and Magma's bassist Bernard Paganotti all
on stage together??
Andy G.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jon Browne" <jon at COMICS.DEMON.CO.UK>
To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU>
Sent: Monday, May 28, 2001 10:27 AM
Subject: Re: OFF: Magazine


> In article <keX2pEAwLRE7EwBq at hermit0.demon.co.uk>, Nick Medford
> <nick at HERMIT0.DEMON.CO.UK> writes
> >I've read  a lot about this band but AFAIK never heard anything by them.
> >They were a late 70s/early 80s group that included Howard Devoto and John
> >McGeoch, and supposedly were something pretty special, but of course the
> >mainstream music press cannot be trusted on such things...
> >
> >Anyway the point of this post is that my local CD emporium has the triple
> >CD Magazine retrospective called "Maybe It's Right To Be Nervous Now"
> >going for just 10 quid, and this seems like a remarkable bargain to me,
as
> >from what I've read I suspect I might really like this band, but OTOH a
> >triple CD box-set is a bit of a biggie for a speculative punt on a band
you
> >haven't heard... so can anyone fill me in a bit on this band and their
sound?
> >The kind of reference points I had were that they might be a sort of UK
> >equivalent of Pere Ubu or early Talking Heads.  If in fact they were a
> >power-pop outfit like the Buzzcocks can someone warn me please...
> >--
> >Nick Medford
>
>
> I haven't bought "Maybe It's Right", but I've got everything else by
> Magazine. I think they're great. Buy it. If you don't like it, I'll buy
> it off you.  You can't lose, eh? Do bear in mind it's like outtakes,
> live versions etc.
>
> Real Life is their best LP, a real fave which gets played regularly even
> after twenty-plus years, followed by Secondhand Daylight. Real Life is
> one of two or three albums that I have had five or six copies of over
> the years, because it just gets played to death. Magnificent in places.
> "The Light Pours Out Of Me" - wow.
>
> They ain't like Buzzcocks, (who are also great BTW, and still produce
> fine spiky stuff!)  They do have punk sensibilities, but were clearly
> very prog influenced too. Longer songs, mood pieces, keyboard solos etc.
> Another thing that marked them out was the lyrics, which were literate
> in the main. Devoto now works on and off with Apollo 440, who covered
> Don't Fear The Reaper. (BOC-L content here!)
>
> I honestly couldn't say how they would sound these days, to modern ears.
> Not fantastic, I suspect, but at the time they were a bit of revelation
> to me, and they still work for me. They were my favourite band, one
> month in 1978.
> --
> Jon
> NP Punishment of Luxury - Puppet Life (Anyone got the LP this came off?)