Mel and Kim

martin

----
Mel and Kim? Gods among mere mortals. Mel had liver and spinal cancer and yet never moaned or whinged a fraction as much as these tortured bearded indie dossers. After punks had spent years trying to perfect the ultimate spiked up hair-dos, Mel and Kim just breezed in and effortlessly came up with the best punk barnets ever. And in the lyrics to <i>Respectable</i> you've basically got the entire philosophy of libertarian socialism squeezed into the third and final verse. Their <i>FLM</i> LP is such a classic, it makes the entire works of The Clash sound like a bunch of off duty policemen playing darts down the pub. <i>Are ye with me - or against me on this one???</i>
 

MankyFiver

Well-known member
with you all the way
i remember reading an interview with them where they said they always laughed when they saw someone fall over and I cant help but agree even though its bad
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Yes, but not as good as Neneh Cherry's first album.

Please! Get off the train! The god-like psychotic genius of two Peckham girls and a guy whose megalomania extends no bounds ( Pete "I invented disco" Waterman ) to Rip Rig and Panic and a Face journalist? N**** please.
 

blunt

shot by both sides
Yes, but not as good as Neneh Cherry's first album.

I'd have been totally with you on this, swears, but I stuck it on the other week for the first time in years; and every single tune finds her wittering on, effectively, about how the children are the future, got to break the cycle of hate, got to give them kids a chance, blah blah blaaaaaaaaarggggh...

Suffice to say, it all gets a bit wearing. Shame, cos I have really fond memories of it.

But then Mel & Kim never did anything nearly as rockin' as when Neneh appeared on TOTP with her unborn baby's head all but visible thru the crotch of her white cycling shorts. Caused quite a stir at the time.

Respectable is very close to pop gold. And, yes, Mel & Kim gave good hair.

But Neneh. About to drop. In crazy white cycling shorts. Singing Manchild. She gotta have it.
 

swears

preppy-kei
Yeah, some of the preachy lyrics are a bit cheeseball, but the tunes, the production, (weren't a young Massive Attack involved?) was excellent. "Manchild" has this real exotic melancholy feel about that you don't usually get in chart music.
 

blunt

shot by both sides
Yeah, some of the preachy lyrics are a bit cheeseball, but the tunes, the production, (weren't a young Massive Attack involved?) was excellent. "Manchild" has this real exotic melancholy feel about that you don't usually get in chart music.

I've got a Manchild 12", which has a couple of amazing remixes on it: one by Massive Attack, the other by Smith & Mighty. Awesome stuff.

The singles were pretty much all awesome - I just don't think they play that well together.
 
I love Mel & Kim (look closely at my new avatar for proof!). their greatness is beyond dispute. but the whole S.A.W. thing is ripe for discussion. those productions from around '84-'86 sound annoyingly great, even now (or perhaps starting to sound fresh again...not sure). yet by the end of the decade their music was utterly shit. plus, the whole return of the svengali producer era can be traced to them. now we have to endure Cowell, x-factor etc. S.A.W. killed the punk spirit stone fuckin cold. the shot it between the eyes and watched it bleed to death. those fuckers. i could go on, but i have some important work to do. if anyone would care to pick up the thread...?
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
I love Mel & Kim (look closely at my new avatar for proof!). their greatness is beyond dispute. but the whole S.A.W. thing is ripe for discussion. those productions from around '84-'86 sound annoyingly great, even now (or perhaps starting to sound fresh again...not sure). yet by the end of the decade their music was utterly shit. plus, the whole return of the svengali producer era can be traced to them. now we have to endure Cowell, x-factor etc. S.A.W. killed the punk spirit stone fuckin cold. the shot it between the eyes and watched it bleed to death. those fuckers. i could go on, but i have some important work to do. if anyone would care to pick up the thread...?

Yeah I agree Nick. Pete Waterman's biography is genuinely, frighteningly insane. His obsession with trains, the omnipotence, he is just potted Freud. SAW I always disliked ( I worked in gay bars at that time, and it was ALL that they played, it really starts to grate over a few days, let alone months ) until I read that the tinny production was solely geared toward setting the light systems off in clubs that were sound-sensitive, and I then re-evaluated them, they are a weird trip.
I'd be interested to hear whether people think SAW have had any influence outside of mainstream culture.
 

Rachel Verinder

Well-known member
Mel & Kim were always the ace in the SAW pack; you always felt they really pushed the sonic boat out for them. "Showing Out" is the missing link between Linx and Nitzer Ebb (which latter PWL also produced on the quiet).

"I'd Rather Jack" was also written for M&K but Mel was obviously too ill to record it by that time, so it was allotted to the hapless Reynolds Girls; had M&K done it, Waterman feels it would have gone to number one.
 

Rachel Verinder

Well-known member
Specifically the album That Total Age ("Join In The Chant" etc.) - the regular PWL mix team (Phil Harding et al) are credited but apparently there was direct involvement from SAW themselves.
 

henry s

Street Fighting Man
that makes complete sense...Nitzer Ebb were always sort of a bubblegum industrial band, which is why their stuff seems to hang in there while the Fronts (Line Assembly and 242) of the world gradually fade out...Nitzer Ebb, the dorks of EBM, and all the better for it...
 

john eden

male pale and stale
that makes complete sense...Nitzer Ebb were always sort of a bubblegum industrial band, which is why their stuff seems to hang in there while the Fronts (Line Assembly and 242) of the world gradually fade out...Nitzer Ebb, the dorks of EBM, and all the better for it...

It was more industrial crossed with Hi-NRG, surely? :slanted:
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
This has totally done my head in now. So not only did Pete Waterman invent disco ( "I was on the plane with Giorgio Moroder, right, and I said to him" ( see biography ) ) but he was also the progenitor of Balearic and Acid House with Join In The Chant? I'm really freaked out.
 
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