Terrifyingly badly written Def Leppard review

[vin_petrol]

I seem to recall some of you were contemplating going to see Def Leppard soon? Here, for your amusement, is a review of a Def Leppard gig I wrote for York Student Vision in about 1988. Reading it some 15 years later convinces me that I made the right choice when I decided to make a career out of writing Perl rather than English!
http://toybox.twisted.org.uk/~vincent/pics/vision/def_leppard.jpg

Comments

[road-runner.livejournal.com]

I made the right choice when I decided to make a career out of writing Perl rather than English!

What do you mean? It was Rocktastic and Overblown as it should be.

Although your ability to use there/their in the right place hasn't improved..

Odd to think that the old 'astra thighrider' is mouldering in Phil's garage. It does still go though. A testimony to Kawasaki over-engineering.

[vin_petrol]

Although your ability to use there/their in the right place hasn't improved..

[clears throat]

The sub-editor should have fixed that.

[been wanting to say that for *years*]

[echo-echo.livejournal.com]

I have discovered that the secret of 'good' music journalism is not to give a flying fuck about what you are supposed to write about, whatever it is, write something suitably pithy, in fact, slag them off unless they are the saviours of the world, in which case over zealous platitudes are the order of the day. It's not about them, it's about you.

ALL WILL WORSHIP THE EGO OF THE ROCK JOURNALIST \m/

[vin_petrol]

Hmmm. Good point. Thinking about it, a lot of music journalism I've read is more "listen to me - witty comments" rather than stuff about the music. Still, it can be quite interesting to read...

Back in the 1980s I can recall Mick Wall (I think) would often go "on tour" with Marillion (showing my dubious past here). He would return and write huge articles for Kerrang about all the things he got up to, with a small paragraph at the end describing one gig. Fun to read though.

Maybe there's a niche for music writing *about* the music?

[echo-echo.livejournal.com]

I think the problem lies in that there are only so many ways you can describe music in words and make it entertaining reading.

"The band played well, Mick played guitar, Eddie sang and John played drums. The lights and sound were good." etc. It all becomes very matter of fact. Or you can go along the wild adjective route of "They were ripped to shreds by the seething throng of pvc clad vixens they had whipped into a frenzy of sleazy sex. The band screamed (in pleasure or pain, possibly both) as their pale flesh was revealed and their clothes torn to pieces by a sea of female hands. The gig descended into an erotic mass with Justin Taylor starring as Jesus H Christ."

I still get the NME delivered but it has always been an issue that the journalism is shite and tells us more about the journalist than the artist they are reviewing.

[resyk.livejournal.com]

..and you got a degree?

:)

[vin_petrol]

There were only two essays in a 1990 Computer Science degree from York...

[kissmeforlonger.livejournal.com]

Sorry... couldn't read... distracted by awful typesetting... eyes can't focus.... urghhh...

Rock of Ages - I'd forgotten that one. Oh, that brings back memories.

[vin_petrol]

Sorry... couldn't read... distracted by awful typesetting... eyes can't focus.... urghhh...

Hey, that was state of the art for 1988! :-)

It was laser printed text from the Computer Service. It was all laser printed as columnar text on pages of A4. These were then cut up and pasted onto sheets of A3 paper. This was when cut and paste really meant it - scalpels, scissors and Pritt stick. Letraset for the headlines, and my photographs were stuck on the pages. Eee, them were the days...

About 1989 Vision bought an Apple Macintosh and moved into the modern era. I think it was an SE with 2Mb of RAM or similar...

[kissmeforlonger.livejournal.com]

I just about caught the end of that. Tricky work.

However I was referring to the rivers of white space caused by justifying too-narrow columns. One of my pet hates.

[cyberspice.livejournal.com]

My final year project was printed using that laser. There used to be a little PC lab at York next to the old URY location (where campus security is now). It had a couple of the original IBM PCs and a BBC linked to one of the Computing Services VAXen. So I wrote my entire project on my BBC micro in my room and then transfered it to the VAX using that beeb only doing the final typseting on the VAX.

[cyberspice.livejournal.com]

I saw them on that tour at Whitley Bay Ice Rink. Fucking ace they were! A thoroughly good time was had by all.

I saw one other band at the rink and that one was special. Pseudo Yes (Anderson, Wakeman et al when they weren't allowed to be called Yes) were using the rink to rehearse for their world tour. A select few, including yours truely, got to see them do their entire set. A magical experience.