In the 80s in our little circle Anne Clark was one of those names... she had some underground hits like Sleeper in Metropolis and Our Darkness, you'd hear her songs in certain clubs...essentially she's a poet who managed to make very engaging, intelligent and quite danceable electro/goth/darkwave tunes out of her meditations on urban life as a growing malaise, world weary reflections, and a sharp and clear voice. Well, seems like she is famous mainly in Germany where her current tour has about 20 dates rather than London, or Croydon, which is her hometown, it's her only UK date and I'm not sure she's played here much before (!). She has a full band these days, still makes records, and her voice and demeanour hasn't changed much, she still has that sharp and clear melancholic voice, and they're all in good form, it's a fantastic gig. Hearing Sleeper in Metropolis which is clearly about the megacity London while actually being in London is a cool experience, I believe many teenage goths back in the 80s in Germany projected their idea of London onto the song... The new material is up to standard too, the sound is great, and at the end of the second (!) encore we even get Our Darkness which sounds remarkably fresh and intact and gets a rapturous reception...Edited to add: this post was actually posted after the 10.11., I just used an unused slot to keep it roughly chronological. Also this is the original "Our Darkness" video, I haven't heard it much in the last, uh, 20 years but it seems to be etched into my head, it's all coming back to me, every single line, it's the sign of great timeless pop music, right?...
3 comments:
Remember Peel playing "Sleeper...", think I have it on a tape somewhere, never really checked her out beyond that though for some reason.
I didn't know Peel was championing her but it's not really that surprising, plus it was too early for me to know about it. Though the first time I heard a Peel show was in 1984 when I was hitchhiking through England on my way to Scotland, someone dropped me at this guy's house who let me stay overnight, and played the Peel show to me, one of the first times I heard the Cocteaus and the Sisters of Mercy I believe, fun times (think on the way back someone told me about X-Mal Deutschland!!!) Anyway, Anne Clark never seems to have gotten the same reception as in Germany and other parts of Europe, she definitely is a cult name over there, her current band is mostly German I believe, and I think she actually lived there for a while. BTW if you still have that Peel tape that would be fun to listen to! (or was it just some of her recordings??)
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