The More You Live, The More You Love

After nearly twenty years it still is a treasure chest with undiscovered compartments. Although I’m interested in nowadays bands, I get more enthusiastic when I discover a band from my teens. Discovering B-Movie gave me more satisfaction than hearing a band like Snow Patrol or Keane. Don’t get me wrong I like them both, but discovering something new, for me at least, from the eighties gives me a kick. Volume 2 Bolland – Ouverture – You’re In The Army Now Philip Jap – Save Us When In Rome – The Promise (7”) Blanket Of Secrecy – Say You Will Frazier Chorus – Typical Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – Annex Beargarden – A Seaside Song Paul Haig – Torchomatic Allez Allez - Valley Of The Kings Telex - L'Amour Toujours The Meteors - It's You, Only You Voice Of America - Seikou Dollar - Mirror Mirror The Armoury Show - Castles In Spain China Crisis - 96.8 Sophie & Peter Johnson - Television Satellite B-Movie - Nowhere Girl Human League - Marianne (remix) The March Violets - Turn...

My first contact with photography happened during my high school days. There was a photographic club which mainly worked with black and white films. They had their own darkroom in the cellar of the building near the big cellar room where we held our Friday tea club afternoons, with a lot of good music, and the class parties. I joined the club with a friend and had fun for several years making and developing my own pictures. Sometimes we spent hours in the darkroom to create, for us, the perfect picture. When I left high school and continued intermediate technical school I changed from black and white to full colour photos, but mainly made them during trips or while being on holiday. It wasn’t until halfway the nineties that I started to make pictures on a regular base again. During that period I wrote for a Progressive Rock magazine and visited a lot of concerts and did interviews with the artists. So it was easy to take a camera with me and make pictures during the gigs and after int...

A couple of entries ago I wrote about the re-discovery of eighties music. Since then I’ve been searching the net, the record stores, online stores, second hand stores and ebay to collect music from the eigthies. Last year I did a project which as a result turned into 60 discs full of eighties music found during the last five years. Most of it I wasn’t aware of at that time. So today I introduce you to the first volume of those discs. I hope you have as much fun listening to it as I had with creating them. In the next couple of months I hope to present one on a regular base. Volume 1 Two People - This Is The Shirt White & Torch - Miracle Zerra One - The Banner Of Love Bamboo Industry - Hypnotized Cee Farrow - Wildlife Romance (so ramantic) Cetu Javu - Have In Mind Data - Stop Eyeless In Gaza - Stay Icehouse - Icehouse Fra Lippo Lippi - Light And Shade How We Live - Working Girl (demo) Keep It Dark - Outsider Thomas Leer - International One (B-Movie) - I'll Wait So - Are You Sure...

After a couple of days of nice sunny weather, the weather gods decided that it was time to switch to a wet version for a change. I saw a colleague turn in soaked completely. Within the atrium of our building the rain is pooring along the windows as heavy as on the outside, so our facilities manager has some work for the next couple of days. The funny thing is that immediately you start associating the event with music. So some nice songs popped up which I had to share with you. Alphaville - Summer Rain The Blue Nile - Tinseltown In The Rain Boulevard - Rainy Day In London Crazy House - Burning Rain John Foxx - Europe After The Rain Freiheit - Kissed You In The Rain H2O - Who'll Stop The Rain Bruce Hornsby & The Range - Mandolin Rain Ice Cold In Alice - When The Rain Comes Down Modern English - Rainbow Ends Virgin Dance - Rainy Days The Weather Prophets - Why Does The Rain

During the day I was trying to come up with titles for further entries. Since I was paying some attention about the progressive rock band Marillion it was an easy step to Steve Hogarth their singer since 1989. Hogarth started his career in the new wave / synthpop group the Europeans, which consisted of Geoff Dugmore (drums, backing vocals), Ferg Harper (lead vocals, bass), Steve Hogarth (keyboards, lead and backing vocals), Colin Woore (guitars, backing vocals). The band formed in 1980 under the name Motion Pictures, but changed names in 1981 after Hogarth had joined through an add in the music press. They released three albums before the band broke up in 1985. However their first track "Drink Pink Zinc!" appeared on a compilation album titled "The Snoopies Album" from 1981. Hogarth was the keyboard player of the band and did lead vocals on five out of eight tracks on "Recurring Dreams" and on one the nicest track of their debut album "Vocabulary...

Half the country is on a holiday nowadays. Half the working building is empty and therefore I am able to play my music a bit louder than normal these days. In journalistic terms it's called cucumber time, and you can see it everywhere. The newspapers are slim, the news comes with items, that normally hardly make the news and which are blown up to items to fill the time. Well it seems hardly anything is happening in this country these days. Even the musical world seems a bit quiet these days. So I thought which sleeve describes these days the best way and I came up with Marillion's "Garden Party". Cos besides the cucumber time it's great weather for BBQ's and Garden Parties. It was the first twelve inch I bought of Marillion. Already being a fan of Genesis I fancied the great songs Marillion were making in those early days. I still consider "Script For A Jesters Tear" And "Fugazi" among the best albums made in the eighties. Other neo progres...

A couple of days ago I was finally putting my vynil records in a cupboard again. On the attic we have created a nice listening and relaxing room with my old audio tower, a television, a DVD player and my old collection of vynil records alongside my collection of music DVD's. Going through my special singles collection I discoverd that behind every single there's a story. In the mid eighties I organised trips to major Dutch cities with friends to go on record hunting. Those days it wasn't just the big chains of stores you have nowadays. The Free Record Shop, one of the biggest in the Netherlands these days, was a small one those days, which offered the music lover a lot of import 7" and 12" singles, mostly not available elsewhere and sometimes hardly heard on the readio (I bought all my regular Marillion 12" singles there). They only had shops in big cities then like Amsterdam, Haarlem and Utrecht to mention some. Nowadays every small city has one and you fin...