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        Pete Atkin >> Music >> New Order and King at Nightfall
        
(Message started by: Andrew_Curry on Today at 09:35)

Title: New Order and King at Nightfall
Post by Andrew_Curry on Today at 09:35

Today's Guardian Films and Music section has one of those "secret pleasures" lists where you get musicians to 'fess up to liking something that other people haven't heard of. Since they were also asking readers to send in their choices, I was idly thinking about saying something about Mythical America. But too late - since among ther 49 selections is New Order drummer Steve Morris championing KAN.

"Music's secret weapons

Everyone has their special album: the one nobody else has heard of, the one to bring out when you want to amaze people. We asked 49 musicians, producers and writers to tell us about their records to be reckoned with."

"Steve Morris
(New Order and Joy Division drummer)
Pete Atkin - A King At Nightfall (1973)

I was on holiday in Ibiza in the 1970s with my mum and dad when I came across an advert in Cream magazine for the single off this album, Carnations on the Roof, which was about a funeral. The advert was a psychedelic pencil drawing of a hearse. I was intrigued, so I got the album when I went home. It's a funny record that sounds like it was done in five minutes. I didn't realise at the time that the lyricist, Clive James, was the Clive James, but there's an embarrassing picture on the back of him and Pete Atkin looking like geography teachers. It's singer-songwritery but with a strange atmosphere, and the words are brilliant. A lot of the songs have a post-Vietnam feel; there's a lot of death and decay. But it's balanced by whimsical observations. One song is called Wristwatch for a Drummer, which, even before I was a drummer, I thought was a fantastic, surreal image. The notion was that drummers in bebop bands would have a number of wristwatches in order to perform complicated time signatures. There was never gonna be a hit single, but it's got a vibe. I love it, but it has other uses. Put it on at 2am and watch unwanted guests leave."

Title: Re: New Order and King at Nightfall
Post by S J Birkill on Today at 10:00

The complete column can be found here (http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,1888085,00.html).

And hey, some of those guys do remember the pre-punk days: also cited are Roy Harper, Tomita, Leonard Conman, Judee Sill, Electric Prunes and ... Andy Pratt!

Stephen

Title: Re: New Order and King at Nightfall
Post by Kevin Cryan on Today at 10:00

To check the other choices click here (http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1888537,00.html)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: New Order and King at Nightfall
Post by Kevin Cryan on Today at 10:05

Hi Steve,

Two minds with but a single thought. How about that?

Kevin