What would be your perfect birthday present? For me, news of Belly reforming with Gail on bass.
http://bellyofficial.com/shows/
Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Bristol, London, Dublin.
I feel twenty years younger!
Belly klaxon
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Shite band name but there’s worse – Echobelly.
Oh that’s great news. Thanks.
Back in the summer of 1993 I went to this great one-off gig in Dublin’s Dalymount Park called Sunstroke. It was the only sunny day that summer. Disposable Heroes of Hiphopracy, Sugar, Belly, Sonic Youth & Faith No More. That was a good day.
1993 was also the year Sam Smith was born. So that’s depressing.
Wow, that’s a good gig. I like a bit of Belly, but if Sugar got back together I’d be there like a shot.
1993; definitely the best year for music. I imagine Everett True has a book to that effect in the pipeline.
Belly’s best of album is the best best of I own. I’m glad they’re back.
A chap my Dad knew at work copied “Star” for me when I was 16 or so. Fantastic album. I’m quite tempted – thanks for that!
What are the Recue Rooms in Nottingham like? Notts is pretty much equidistant from me in Cambridge. Kentish Town Forum is OK but if there was somewhere with better acoustics I’d be tempted away.
I was at the Shepherds Bush Empire gig, a few tracks of which were released on single b-sides. One of my favourite ever gigs. Half a lifetime ago…
I was a massive fan of Throwing Muses and of Belly. Tania was always the more straight ahead songwriter in the band when she got a look-in from Kristin’s songs. ‘Not Too Soon’ from The Muses’ The Real Ramona is the blueprint for what she went on to do in Belly
I can’t over estimate the significance of these two on moulding my taste in music and in women. I’m so glad they were around when I was at Uni as through them I met some really wonderful women at gigs and pubs before and after gigs who opened my eyes to how being first and foremost a good friend to women on an equal footing rewarded me with a far greater appreciation of what the sexes can get up to outside of going at it like rabbits.
Tania and Kristin were fiercely proud of their art but they also made the appeal of women in rock being something far more enlightening than how they looked. They had this fantastic attitude on record and live that made you just want to strip away all your male preconceptions and fantasies and focus on what they had to say and sing. For very personal reasons I’ll always love Belly for their cover version of Gram Parsons’ ‘Hot Burrito #1’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI7g_MbM8MU
There was definitely something about having Gail in the band which seemed to rev up Tanya. Gail’s melodic, driving basslines and flailing limbs and hair shifted attention from the lady at stage mid. The King tour was like a party.
And Gail was a cool bassist at a time when New Order had retired and Hooky was off doing DJ sets.
From reading the 4AD book, it seems the King era wasn’t a happy one for the band, but there was no indication of that from the audience’s perspective.
New date announced. Norwich Waterfront. That’s me sorted!
Anybody want a Forum ticket?
I absolutely love Belly. Star and King were absolute pillars of my teenage music taste. I still have my limited edition “book” release of King – one of the few CDs I kept when I got rid of the rest.
The rather wonderful She Makes War (doyenne of the unsigned self-releasers) recently made a video with Tanya, which made me unfeasibly excited.