David “Yorkie” Palmer has an illustrious place in post-punk Liverpool pop, part of the scene since the Eric’s days and finding fame with Space in the 1990s. He now records under the name Moongoose.
The article reads as if it got cut quite a bit by a careless subeditor. “Steve” appears without explanation but is, presumably, guitarist Steve Powell.
Interview with the Balcony
Melody Maker, January 3, 1987
Turning voyeurism into art, THE BALCONY impress Penny Kiley. Pic: Gary Lornie
NOT every group has the video for one of their songs featuring two people in chicken suits copulating. Not every group knows Chris ("Letter To Brezhnev") Bernard as well. In fact, one of the chickens in the video for The Balcony's "Too Late" is Chris Bernard, who also directed. That came about simply because he'd liked the group and asked to do it and later the track was used on the Brezhnev soundtrack too.
The video (film, to be strictly correct) was censored before it could leave the country and, when displayed to record company types, had the effect of making them leave the room. Now Chris Bernard is making another video for the Balcony's "Redder Than Burning Coals", one of the tracks on a new single, this time featuring the band themselves.
"It's quite weird and dead funny," says singer Dave Palmer about the film, which is one way of describing the band as well.
"I like the idea of a Balcony overlooking things and observing and not actually taking part in things," explains Dave.
There's also a play by Jean Genet called "The Balcony" which inspired the name, and the group's played gigs in Liverpool and Manchester along with a performance of the play. That too is quite weird and dead funny. "A review described it as the best dose of syphilis you could get," says Dave.
Is that what the group's like?
"Er, no… but it was taking situations like misery and desperation and not necessarily making fun of them but bringing a comical aspect to them.
“The outlook of the lyrics and the play are basically similar. The only trouble is, with PAs it doesn't always come over. I've been thinking of bringing a little neon sign that says 'appreciate irony now.' It is beginning to come over." Dave admits "As soon as you start making a prat of yourself on stage, people start getting the joke."
And, as Steve puts it: "There's humour in the music anyway." The idea is that, not only does the music reflect the words, but the words reflect the music. So "Redder Then Burning Coals", about a drunk, has a drunken guitar solo and, on the record, out on Liverpool's new Pink Pop label, a drunken party into the bargain.
Worth falling over for, definitely.
Back in the 21st century: Pitchfork and the future of music journalism
Everyone’s been talking this week about the demise of Pitchfork. The writing was on the wall since it was sold to Condé Nast, and now the company has decided to merge it with men’s magazine GQ. Because, you know, only men are interested in music journalism.
If you look at what recently happened to Bandcamp, there’s a lesson in this. If you want your thing to survive, and your staff to thrive, don’t sell the company.
Pitchfork wasn’t such a big deal on this side of the pond. Or even for everyone their side either, as Wayne Robins points out.
But the news has raised questions (again) about the future of music journalism, not least among the music writers here on Substack. Matty C has written a good piece called The Death of Music Journalism.
The discussion goes back a long way. In 2015, I wrote a blog post called Criticism and context: why we still need professional reviewers.
In the Substack era, when publishing models are changing, the word “professional” could be replaced with something else, like “serious”. Otherwise, what I wrote then still stands. We still need knowledgeable, passionate music writers who know what they are talking about.
But maybe we don’t need the Condé Nast version.