'That's it? It's over? I was 30. What a brutal business': pop stars on life after the spotlight moves on
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/apr/16/pop-stars-spotlight-bob-geldof-robbie-williams-lisa-maffia
Found this an interesting article (but might not buy the book). Musicians after the fame and the music has gone. Strange how rock musicians (Robert Plant, Marillion, even Steven Wilson spring to mind) can go on and on (and not just as a nostalgia act) while others just run out of fans and support.
I can really relate to the section in the Grauniad piece that describes Suzanne Vega's bubble bursting in 1990.
I first heard Suzanne's music in May 1986; her single Left of Center [sic] was played on Radio 1. I remember this well, I was on a camping holiday weekend with four friends at the time. We were slightly concerned about the possibility of being caught in radioactive rain, in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster.
I bought her first album and loved it. Would eagerly tape her TV appearances (I still have some DVD transfers from my old VHS tapes). I bought her second album, the one with Tom's Diner and Luka on and liked it, but it didn't quite knock me out. By 1990 I'd just lost interest. I remember seeing ads for her third album, Days of Open Hand but to this day I've never owned it or listened to it.
I don't remember why, but I had a resurgence of interest in 2004 and I bought two of her two most recent albums then, 99.9F° and Nine Objects of Desire and really liked both of them. I remember critiquing one of them on a Vega fan forum - quite a cosy little community back then - and Suzanne herself replied to my post (I'd said that one of the tunes sounded industrial; she said that it was supposed to).
But the next album didn't grab me, and I tuned out again.
Robbie Williams = cunt
Quote from: Slim on April 20, 2022, 10:13:41 PMI can really relate to the section in the Grauniad piece that describes Suzanne Vega's bubble bursting in 1990.
I first heard Suzanne's music in May 1986; her single Left of Center [sic] was played on Radio 1. I remember this well, I was on a camping holiday weekend with four friends at the time. We were slightly concerned about the possibility of being caught in radioactive rain, in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster.
I bought her first album and loved it. Would eagerly tape her TV appearances (I still have some DVD transfers from my old VHS tapes). I bought her second album, the one with Tom's Diner and Luka on and liked it, but it didn't quite knock me out. By 1990 I'd just lost interest. I remember seeing ads for her third album, Days of Open Hand but to this day I've never owned it or listened to it.
I don't remember why, but I had a resurgence of interest in 2004 and I bought two of her two most recent albums then, 99.9F° and Nine Objects of Desire and really liked both of them. I remember critiquing one of them on a Vega fan forum - quite a cosy little community back then - and Suzanne herself replied to my post (I'd said that one of the tunes sounded industrial; she said that it was supposed to).
But the next album didn't grab me, and I tuned out again.
I'm not sure she's released a duff one. Songs in Red and Grey, from around 2001ish is outstanding. A lot if it in the aftermath to her divorce from Mitchell Froom and produced by Rupert Hine, it's well worth checking out.
I really like all of her solo records and she's always brilliant live - she tends to bring the chap who was in Bowie's band for the last decade, his name escapes me, but a brilliant player and creator of soundscapes and atmosphere...