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It’s worrying….

by 138 Comments

….the lack of reviews on here. I remember the good old times when every second thread was a review of a new release by an old band. These days it’s all political shenanigans and other non-review bollox. We need to stand firm otherwise this blog will become some sort of forum where hapless losers exchange sad tales of when they lost their virginity (as if) or the first time they saw The Clash. There’s new releases by old bands every single day – what are you waiting for?

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Comments

  2. My perception is that there is still a bit of everything. Sometimes politics can be a dominant subject, I agree. I’m here for all of these things – a reviews-only forum wouldn’t interest me nearly as much.

  3. Down arrow for this tired old Afterword Boilerplate Whinge 2.1

    Want more of a particular type of content? Contribute. Less of another? Don’t contribute.

    (And it was you weighing into Bargepole recently for writing too many reviews …)

  4. I will happily exchange tales of when I lost my virginity, and the first time I saw The Clash (separated by 8 months, i thought you’d like to know). These things are why I visit here.

  7. I’m not entirely sure what point your making – mixed messages here but I’m guessing you’re being sarcastic and you mean there’s too many reviews on the site? Well I’ve got 3 gigs in the diary next week and I might just write up all 3 of them so you’re just going to have to scroll right on past those.

  8. Headline/subject
    BREXIT, TRUMP AND THE DEATH OF THE UK
    Website/URL

    Brexit, Trump and the death of the UK


    Category
    Reads
    Author
    H P Saucecraft
    Review
    The protean talents of the veteran Mekong funster are showcased to good effect in this, possibly his most serious outing yet. It’s got length, depth, width, breadth…as we say in the business, it’s got bollocks. The searing social commentary we have come to expect from him is here in spades, and already readers have flocked to it. For sheer impact, it possibly doesn’t quite measure up to some of his most legendary output, such as “I’m Thinking of Buying a Tray”, or “Your Poptastic Proustian Madeleines”, or even “Readers’ Dogs”, which was vastly appreciated even by readers with no dogs. But that’s a minor quibble. As the Christmas legend has it, no matter where you insert your finger you will find a plum to pull out.
    Length of read
    Increasing.
    Might appeal to people who enjoyed
    War and Peace, À la recherche du temps perdu, Middlemarch.
    One thing you’ve learned
    One thing? One thing? I’ve learned dozens!

  9. Just popping in for a second (and it’s cold out there). Sarcasm is the refuge of the scoundrel. Mine was a late-night observation re when logging into the Home Page (I know others go straight to Recently Updated) I espied 5 record reviews clustered closely together.
    Right, zip up me parka, I’m off

    • That’s not a flounce. *This* is a flounce… How can I bear this place when some bastard posts a review of a freaking *covers* band ferchristsakes. The guilt. The shame. The pointlessly large quantities of Young Henry’s Lager required to negate the critical faculties. Bugger, that was me. And I used my house pass on that rather than The Scientists on Saturday night…what a bloody lightweight. A waste of bytes I think you’ll agree. Next you’ll be telling me I can’t attend The Church gig in December. Oh, I can’t, the FPO booked an xmas do that night…anyone need a ticket to the Factory (Marrickville) on the 9th ?

    • I notice your What You Listenin’ To thread is approaching 250 comments. Reviews rarely get past ten. We reviewers don’t do it for upsies or comments, you know. We slave for hours and hours for love. I’m glad you appreciate our efforts. 😘

    • Whether you got it from BargeStream or some other “questionable” source, you produced a properly good, passionate appraisal of an REM album that I was somewhat non-plussed about.
      Saturday morning re-listening suggests I was wrong.

      More of this sort of thing

      And the fact it appeared in both Nights In and Recently Updated has probably saved me from wandering around for the next 10 years saying “AFTP was a bit rubbish, wasn’t it”

  12. I noticed it too. Seems like everything needs to be reviewed, even stuff that has no interest to 99% of people here. I still think reviews should be about love rather than perceived duty. And again I don’t understand why they appear in two places. They don’t need to be on main blog. Those who love them can click on Nights In or Out.

      • Quality has something to do with it. Yours was a good review of something which has meant a lot to you over the years. In turn that means something to the reader. Bargepole’s reviews-to-order this month have managed 2, 0,12,3, 0 and 0 responses despite being on the Home Page, the Nights In and the blog.

        Perversely, the really popular, traffic-generating topics, like this month’s top three most read and most commented (none of which, incidentally, is music related) don’t even get a mention on the home page.

    • Putting my sarcasm to one side (stay, I said stay!) and being very wary of upsetting some more hornet’s nests (as well as mixing my metaphors) I quote here the inestimable Dai (whose surname happens to be Lama) – ” I still think reviews should be about love rather than perceived duty”.
      Passion whether praise or damnation, yes. Lukewarm reviews like “Might appeal to long-term fans who like this sort of thing”, no.
      “Get ’em off the main blog” is our new party slogan.
      ps you just wait for my review of Ms Swift’s Reputation, it’s a zinger….

        • Hmm. I’ve come to realise that my main weakness as a critic is an inability to be really critical. Mostly, the musicians do it for love and put in thousands of hours of practice and many hours of hard work to create the albums they put out. There is nearly always some good to find. Good job I’m just an amateur, sharing my thoughts with likeminded people on a blog hidden away in a tiny part of the Internet. 😀

  14. Yet again – for the umpteenth time – we have the same few people moaning about this. Someone said above that 99% of reviews aren’t of interest to people on here, and yet if I remember rightly the last time we had this debate, which was pretty recently, it was approximately 99% of people who said they were happy with the current situation!
    I don’t particularly like political threads, but I don’t complain about people’s posting them, I just scroll past them. I think this method might work for reviews too!
    And by the way, of the last 15 reviews, only 3 are mine.

    • Just asking, and asking very politely and without a hint of rancour, how many of the 15 came from Barge HQ?
      I personally have moved on, accepted is probably more accurate, and have not one problem with reviews per se.
      I would hesitantly posit they should stay out of the main blog and, rather more vehemently, question the point of reviews that are virtual passion-free zones (whether the passion is aye or no).
      But, hey, enough of my whingeing (cue cheers from the grandstands) I’ve written the first para of my TS review….

      • Ahem….11.

        As I’ve said before, I have no problem with them not appearing in the main blog, but that’s not something I can do anything about. Likewise, I’ve no problem with having a new ‘reviews’ section created rather than using ‘nights in’, but again that’s not up to me – at the same time, let’s also think about the usefulness of tumbleweed sections like afterwiki and games.

        Any time you fancy having another go, let me know.

        • 11 out of 15.
          Barge provides the raw material, others do the writing.
          This arrangement reminds me how lazy and tardy I am about adding Nights In for nonBP supplied albums (I never remember, and then the moment has gone)
          I must try harder
          (mentally planning/outlining one for end of this month)

          • I don’t see what’s wrong with Bargepole providing 11 albums out of 15 for review. He asks if people want to review the albums he gets access to and people agree, presumably because they are albums they want hear and are willing to write reviews of.
            There’s no arm-twisting going on (AFAIK). If anything it’s the reverse. He creates opportunities for those who want to contribute reviews to do so.

            • I can’t put off writing Page 3 of my Great Novel (progressing slowly but I am pleased so far) but…
              Reviews are part of the very fabric of this blog. We have many talented contributors who by sheer strength of their passion can open our eyes to stuff that could easily pass us by.
              Divergence of taste and opinions is part of the very fabric of this blog. We have many talented contributors who by sheer strength of their passion can open up our eyes to stuff that could easily pass us by.
              And here I quote Disappointment Bob :”unpaid for advertorial dross”, however fine the writing of the actual review may be, is not, IMHO, part of the very fabric of this blog.

        • My mother always said “never underestimate Bargie” and I never have. 11 out of 15 is pretty impressive, non?
          And when will the Admins do anything about all this ?Apart from keeping the site alive, working tirelessly for no reward other than the silent thanks of an ungrateful audience and lying around AWHQ smoking spliffs the size of a stallion’s loveweapon what do they actually do, eh?

  16. Wise words there from Bargepole: read and comment on the stuff that interests you and just scroll past the rest.

    And just because a review only gets a few comments does not mean it has not achieved its purpose: to put a book, album, film on the map. I am delighted that people find the time to share their discoveries here.

      • So Friday to Sunday, including sponsored competitions and calls for more reviewers, 11 out of 35 new blog entries were new release notifications from record companies, via Bargepole Marketing Services Inc. That’s a third… and no one but me and Lodes thinks that’s excessive?

        • No, I agree, but the rest of the AW has apparently decided that unpaid advertorial for dross is fine and dandy. Hardly seems worth rehearsing the arguments again.

        • We’re like lone sirens on a rock and The Ship Of Fools passes by with nary a wave. I’ll hold your hand if you’ll hold mine….
          I have just unearthed a very dusty AfterWord Terms & Conditions: I ask the jury to go to p 94 and read “This blog is for waifs and strays, no-hopers, losers and HP Saucecraft. Members may discreetly (in HPs case, not so discreetly) bring the blog’s attention to books and records they may have association with. Members are , however, forbidden to accept gifts from evil capitalist swine like evil record companies if the sole purpose of these gifts is to gain favour and therefore sales from the elite consumer group called The AfterWord”
          The prosecution rests, m’lud

          • Oi! I’ve never hawked me wares here, unlike some people I could mention, who have actually made money from the blog. More power to them, say I! And I may be in a minority but I find Phil Space reviews of bin-end albums (especially compilations themed around “road music”, “love songs” or specific decades) strangely poetic in their desperate banality. I’m really looking forward to the Kansas review, in particular. Goes well with a road trip in the company Escort from Winnersh to Staines to make a trade ad presentation to a bunch of vaguely psychotic sanpro brand managers. Should appeal to the kind of person who finds this kind of music appealing. My kind of music, my kind of people!

        • I agree. But not so much that I can muster more than a sigh in support.

          After all, life’s too short, this is just a spot on the internet that very few people in the world actually know about much less care about, and my mouse has a scroll wheel which makes it painless to not read the stuff I’m not interested in.

          Besides, anyone that sits through 4 CDs and a Blu Ray of a single Metallica album and then types some stuff deserves a pat on the back.

  19. So the rules for reviewers

    – be passionate
    – but only about things will get likes
    – or artists that most people like
    – Steely Dan is a good one
    – admit if you got offered the album to review for free or not cos that may invalidate your opinion.
    – don’t bother cos we prefer politics n that
    – bypassing things I’m not personally interested in is soooo hard

      • Hey – we’re all free to jump in wherever we like, or not, as the case may be.

        From my POV, I’d say about 80-90% of the threads on here are of virtually no interest to me these days. I like the politics, I like the personal stuff, I like the people and I like to hear their honest views on real life stuff. Recollections of the 70s, technical discussions about amps, the Beatles – none of these things light my fire, so I scroll on by. And that’s not a problem.

        But then I also quite like to be able to contribute stuff that I pretty much *know* will get little or no response. I want to write about Young Thug, and Nintendo games, and some obscure 80s movie I dig. I want to be able to send all that stuff out into the digital ether, and not have to worry that it’s passing some sort of relevance test, because if that’s the case then – as a demographic outlier to this community – I’m in bother. You might be able to make an argument for the quality/effort in the writing, but that’s a very difficult thing to measure and/or police.

        I never really read Bargepole’s reviews, and I get the frustration that some are experiencing re: the idea of this sort of sponsored content. From a purely cerebral perspective, I’m probably on the fence as to whether or not that’s a problem that wants actively addressing.

        What moves me to comment here is that it kind of sucks that this gets brought up every few weeks, that it’s targeted at a single individual and that he has to defend himself every time. He does so with general civility and patience, and that earns my sympathy, and makes me want to jump in to defend him, so here I am. Every time it comes up, I find I feel a little bit more like “leave the guy alone”.

        I think it was worth raising the first time. Views were taken, the majority seem happy with the status quo, so there we are. I don’t really see what threads like this achieve, other than to make Bargepole probably feel a little got at, and idiots like me who reflexively gravitate to the underdog feel a little more defensive of him and his three star reviews of 40 disc Whitesnake compilations.

        Just a few thoughts.

        • Wise words and fair-dos. My late night weekend post was but a frustrated wail at the seeming avalanche of “Barge” reviews clogging up the site. It’s got rather out-of-hand since (as much my fault as anyone else).
          I can only repeat I have no problem with reviews, I love reviews. Can’t the Admins at least listen to the (minority) view – “post them somewhere else on the blog” ?

          • No worries, Lodestone. Not meaning to have a pop at you either – I do get where you’re coming from.

            Be nice if a middle ground could be found to put the whole thing to bed.

        • Agreed. I was (am) very much in the “not a fan” camp, but The People Have Spoken and so I don’t want to add substantially to the discussion, mostly because it feels a bit mean to old Bargepole.

          Saying that, I still don’t understand for the life of me what he gets out of agreeing to review 52 Much-Loved Pringle Jumper And String-Backed Gloves Classics Volume 2, let alone farm out 25 other downloads from the Welcome Break/Moto imprint to participants to a little-read message board* about forty-year-old pop culture. The explanation of the quid pro quo has never felt quite kosher to me, but then I also don’t care that much, so… whatever.

          I come here for the joke threads, stay for the opportunity to pretend to be intelligent, and don’t have a massive problem with scrolling past the releases from the Bargepole stable. I do think it makes the place a bit dull, but who cares?

          (*yes it is, yes it is, it isn’t and never has been a blog, just wanted to get that off my chest).

          • Quid pro Quo sounds like a very small remittance for writing something nice about the Dog Of Two Head box set rerelease… hopefully Barge gets more out of it that that but I’m mystified as to what it is.

            If there was a rule for reviews, perhaps it should be ‘say what you really think’. That’s the advantage this place has over other review sites – we should be able to trust our chums here not to suckle at the corporate teat, or at least to be up front about it if they do.

            • For the general good perhaps Bargepole could tell us why he reviews/farms out so many records that on the face it have little relevance to an audience already living in a self -imposed ghetto outside mainstream music? And I 100% accept he’s not getting paid!

              • Yeah, or not? What’s to be gained from doing all this again? And, much as I love you, Lodey, I think starting another pass-agg sarky thread about this whole subject is at least as questionable a move as any one of Bargepole’s reviews. He doesn’t owe anyone an explanation; none of us does.

                • Sorry you feel that way. Think I have explained twice now that my original post was a late night rant which I expected to die overnight. Other people joined in and I, perhaps almost certainly, wrongly continued to stir things up.
                  And yes I do think Bargie owes us some sort of explanation ( I am sure it’s reasonable and fair, just none of us can see it yet) why we get these tsunamis of reviews washing over the blog of records that seem to be of little interest to most of us urbane, good-looking, excellent taste guys and gals.
                  And just to say the record I have listened to in the last week is Mavis Staples. (reviewed right here by Tiggs, supplied by?)

                    • Again, thought I made it clear – I have no doubt whatsoever Barge’s motives are honourable. 11 out of the recent 15 reviews were “supplied” by Bpole

                    • I think he’s explained himself more than once, which should be sufficient.

                      (You’re just still cross about missing out on that wunnerful ’70s CD set, aintcha? 😉)

                    • That’s just it – I don’t think anything *does*.

                      And thanks, my bum IS looking pretty darned smart today, I don’t mind telling you.

                    • Camden Market. Late November, 2017.

                      The man sat opposite me at the bar room table had a face that told a story, its lines and creases a chart of human suffering and woe.

                      As he contemplated the remains of his fourth drink of the afternoon, he seemed a world away, mind on old times, perhaps better, perhaps worse. Victory, defeat – I suspect at this stage it had all become one long blurred line, across which he moved swiftly, erratically, hoping for the best but increasingly fearing the worst.

                      Suddenly, he looked up and fixed me with his remaining eye, icy blue and deep as a miner’s thirst. “So boy”, he croaked. “Ya want to know how it works, do you”?

                      Making sure to return his gaze, I nodded, hoping to god he wouldn’t hear the click as I gently depressed the “Record” button on the dictaphone in my pocket.

                      He drained the dregs and began. “It’s real simple…. the product gets shipped into the docks, see. Then we make copies disappear, no questions asked, real quiet like”.

                      “Where do they go”? I asked. Even as the words left my lips, I knew I’d made a mistake to interrupt. A great white heat seemed to flash momentarily across his gnarled features, a microsecond of rage flickering off into eternity before reason regained her throne.

                      “Not where, laddy – who. The main man. The big B. The one with the fingers in all the pies – oh yes, he’s got all the pies, all right”. I nodded, urging him to continue. He took the bait; “He comes at night. Sometimes with helpers, usually alone. They wear masks, but he doesn’t. It’s like he wants us to see his face, to know that he’s out in the open and he doesn’t care – hiding in plain sight. Boxfuls they take. Whitesnake compilations, a reissued Ultrasound album. The best of Quiet Riot. The Best Fathers Day Album In The World Ever Volume 3 – he’s not fussy, oh no.”

                      “And where do they go next? The records”?

                      At this, he leaned back in his chair and let out a bitter laugh, short, but long enough that I could momentarily taste the sour booze on his breath.

                      “Where do they go? Have you not been paying attention? Just look around you – look at the threads. Hundreds of ’em there are, if not thousands, and they’re growing by the day. He started off writing ’em hisself, didn’t he – but somewhere along the line, somewhere he realised that he’d never be able to stake out the sort of real estate he needed writing solo. Clever, so he is. So he recruits. Don’t ask me where he finds ’em – waifs, strays, scum of the Earth, willing to sell their souls for a free copy of the Deluxe Edition of Frampton Comes Alive! Point is, whatever they may think they’re doing, he pulls the strings. He’s running the show, and the longer the show goes on, the closer he gets to what he really wants…”

                      He paused, suddenly uncertain, and his eye flickered. Something at the back of the bar, or maybe someone. I felt the blood beating in my temples, as the adrenaline surged through me. Before I knew what I was doing, my hand was on his and I was leaning into his ear: “Tell me. Tell me, for god’s sake – what’s this all about….”

                      His eye met mine, and I saw his strength, most of it from the booze anyway, melt right out of him. “Can’t”, he croaked, breaking eye contact and making for the door. “Wait”, I cried, “you have to help me – I have to find him”.

                      He looked back at me with a mix of pity, disgust and raw, animal fear. “No”, he whispered, shaking his head. “You don’t need to find him…. he’ll find you. Oh, he’ll find you”. And with that, he was gone….

                    • That wonderfully creepy Camden encounter reminded me of the first chapter of Robert Louis Stevenson’s children’s masterpiece. Nightmares guaranteed. I will not sleep easy in my hammock tonight.

                      Great potential there! Treasure Island rebooted for the metalhead generation. Instead of pieces of eight, boxsets of Whitesnake…..

                • Nah, doesn’t add up. It must take constant work to keep up contact with whoever lends Barge the records, then he either reviews himself or sends out to his team of stooges….. and presumably he has to earn a crust at the same time out there in the big bad world. Lot of effort methinks.
                  I’ve been asked to ask you if you would mind posting a photo of your (snip, snip – ed)

                  • Since most of his reviews come out at the weekend, that would suggest that it’s a hobby rather than… rather than… whatever the thing is that you keep hinting at without actually articulating.

                    I tried to post a photo of a smartly dressed bottom, but sadly Photobucket is photofuck-ed, and Imgur is Im-disposed.

                  • No-one lends me the ‘records’ – as those who’ve done reviews will be aware, they are nearly all digital thingies.
                    Feel fee to enjoy, or maybe best to just scroll on by, tonight’s offering – and yes, it is just a hobby – like most, presumably, who write on here I do have a proper job! (Perhaps that could be the next big thread – what’s your proper job).

        • Oi, Mr B Little,

          ‘none of these things light my fire’ ?

          Well, if thats your take how will you ever learn which lighter fuel Jimi used to torch his Strat? (thats an electric guitar, btw). Well? The volume of fuel required; its concentration; the cubic volume of oxygen needed to create a combustible mixture over the contoured surface area; the type of wood – solid sitka spruce or conjoined ply; the co-efficient drag caused by the finish lacquer; how to use the best body language to encourage the burn rate?

          If you don’t pay attention here you will never know any of these things.

          Imagine going through your entire life not knowing these kind of things?

  21. Bingo hits the nail so magnificently on the head here:

    “I want to be able to send all that stuff out into the digital ether, and not have to worry that it’s passing some sort of relevance test, because if that’s the case then – as a demographic outlier to this community – I’m in bother.”

    If writers start to worry about “relevance tests”, how dull this place would be.

    I’ve often been accused of fibbing a bit. Now I suspect I might be an outliar. And if I try really hard I might become a demographic outliar. A man must have a dream!

    • There is an argument that we should have all the reviews just to facilitate these tremendously popular threads. Although I suspect it’s the bickering rather than the subject that gets people involved.

  23. Can I just say, I wouldn’t like to see any reviews relegated to a reviews section cos I only scroll through the main blog and I wouldn’t have liked to have missed the R,E,M. discussion.
    As for what should be reviewed, I have no opinion on that

    • If only there was a way of differentiating the heartfelt, here’s-a-piece-of-me reviews like DFB on AFTP, and the gotta-say-something-bland-about-this-piece-of-shit-because-it’s-out-this-week reviews

    • If you like reviews (as I do, to a degree) then surely it would be possible for you to move your mouse approximately 3 inches to the right to read as many as you want should they be deposited there.

      • No, going to two different places on the one site just doesn’t compute, scrolling past is not a problem.

        I don’t like reviews really – that R.E.M. one was of interest because they’re one of my fave bands and I knew the album, I would never have gone elsewhere to discover it

    • No we didn’t – in the old days someone would have announced that they were so offended they were leaving, gone to Facebook to moan about how no one loves them, come back to see if they were being talked about, demanded the admins delete their account, started an apology thread, found everyone had forgotten why they’d left in the first place, and left again. Then come back and carry on as normal. All in about an hour.

  25. Genuine question, not shit-stirring: have the Mods ever commented on the review section or have a position? I’m sure it must have been discussed. Presumably they are happy with the current situation?

  26. (a comment of no help or guidance to the argument, but …)

    I like Bargepole (and Bargepole Inc) reviews (yes, even the “Heard It All Before 70s” Compilations (although, the last one of those was back at the start of August)).
    Those that pique my interest (ie most of ’em) will get read, and possibly bestowed with an erudite Rigid Digit response)
    Most of the time, Barge gets his mitts on some good stuff (tonight: Yes, t’other day: Black Sabbath, Metallica enourmo-box, Cherry Red Post Punk Box Set (yes I did that one)) all before the release date.
    We’re getting advance notification of new stuff.

    On the whole, I trust AW Reviews more than Mojo etc as they are written by someone who wants to write it, rather than just whacking prose out to fill the reviews page

  27. Hold the front page: see Bargey’s review of the latest Yes (Mightbe, anyway) live opus. Written with passion and élan. Lovely bit o’writing. And, anyhoo, it got me thinking, I buy, with money, Boho and Unshod, every month and have a sub to Rock’n’Reel, both of which carry oodles and doodles of star rated reviews. Most of these I ignore on the basis of the content, reading only about those I know or have heard about. Not very many. I don’t pay to come here, tho’ must chuck another tenner in the pot some time soon, as ought we all, to avoid Colin H writing about a mods kickstarter, and read probably a higher proportion. I don’t like the Drivetime Hits (as better described by D.Bob as Tiggers’s Top Picks) type or baloney, or the lesser spotted later releases of Barclay James Dustbowl. But then, I don’t like Yes since about 1975, but enjoyed the review.
    Just saying’.

  29. Just saw this thread.

    The Mary Gauthier record I reviewed was. Bargie pre release. Most comment seemed pretty favourable and it may well generate some sales for her.

    BTW. with some trepidation I sent a link to MRy Gauthier and she was very pleased with the thought in the review and our discussion.

    Wouldn’t have happened without BP sending me the music files.

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