"Found my mecca near Tottenham Hale Station. I discovered heaven in the Seven Sisters Road ..." Saturday Night Beneath The Plastic Palm Trees by the Leyton Buzzards is a work of genius. In terms of capturing a sense of time and place it's perfect. The attention to detail would have served singer Geoff Deane well in his future role as a scriptwriter. "Eddie Holman slows things down. You ask a girl to dance but you get thumbs down. Maybe it's just not your day." It's set in the suedehead London of 1969 into 1970, and what makes it perfect is the contradiction of the Buzzards' blatant disregard for coolness in their delivery when they might have spotted an approaching bandwagon early in '79. Always had a knack for an unexpected bodyswerve Mr Deane, but then who hasn't shaken a tail feather to Modern Romance in the sanctuary of a private party? Kevin Rowland also touched on the suedehead theme, or what he called 'the lost look', in his recollections of growing up in Harrow in his wonderful essay for Paul Gorman's book The Look. I seem to recall Geoff Deane doing a great interview with Kevin Rowland for Arena around the time The Wanderer came out. I'd like to see that again.Saturday, 13 February 2010
Saturday Night Beneath The Plastic Palm Trees
"Found my mecca near Tottenham Hale Station. I discovered heaven in the Seven Sisters Road ..." Saturday Night Beneath The Plastic Palm Trees by the Leyton Buzzards is a work of genius. In terms of capturing a sense of time and place it's perfect. The attention to detail would have served singer Geoff Deane well in his future role as a scriptwriter. "Eddie Holman slows things down. You ask a girl to dance but you get thumbs down. Maybe it's just not your day." It's set in the suedehead London of 1969 into 1970, and what makes it perfect is the contradiction of the Buzzards' blatant disregard for coolness in their delivery when they might have spotted an approaching bandwagon early in '79. Always had a knack for an unexpected bodyswerve Mr Deane, but then who hasn't shaken a tail feather to Modern Romance in the sanctuary of a private party? Kevin Rowland also touched on the suedehead theme, or what he called 'the lost look', in his recollections of growing up in Harrow in his wonderful essay for Paul Gorman's book The Look. I seem to recall Geoff Deane doing a great interview with Kevin Rowland for Arena around the time The Wanderer came out. I'd like to see that again.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I love this record!
ReplyDeleteA nice PS to this post via Paul Gorman of The Look: "Thanks for the plug. I read somewhere that GD's jacket in this clip is from a suit bought from Tommy Roberts' successor to Mr Freedom, City Lights Studio in Shorts Gardens, WC2. David Bowie wore a brown version of the suit on the back of Pin Ups (and had several more, he loved it so much). Steve Jones and Wally Nightingale of the proto-Sex Pistols are said to have burgled the joint and knocked out the jackets on the QT for a £5 each - Adam Ant, then of Bazooka Joe, bought one.
ReplyDeleteWonder whether GD's came via the same route?
The trousers were originals from City Lights Studio. Which has a good claim to being the finest men's clothes emporium ever, in the history of the world. The jacket was in fact from Wendy Dagworthy. We were signed to the same label as all the Two Tone boys and a smart business business move might have been to adopt that revivalist fashion for the promotion of Plastic Palm Trees. But that seemed stupid to me. I wanted to document and remember the suedehead period with some affection. I did not want to revive it. Seems to me that retro is the opposite of modernism. I'd greatly appreciated ska music the first time around and regarded the new groups (perhaps unfairly) as little more than tribute bands.
ReplyDeleteI keep trying to find this on i-tunes and elsewhere, along with another great song that probably fits your site Rossmore Road by Barry Andrews, the Cure meets Elvis Costello.
ReplyDeleteHello Martin. Yes, Rossmore Road is a big favourite - and is featured if I remember rightly!
ReplyDelete