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Tuesday 17 March 2020

Deep One Perfect Morning


This coming Saturday we were supposed to be going to see The Jesus And Mary Chain perform Darklands at Manchester's Albert Hall. Darklands is/was their 1987 album, a record that saw them replace the departed Bobby Gillespie with a drum machine and abandon the feedback drenched treble- fest of Psychocandy with an album that split opinions. Some Mary Chain fans saw it as an exciting next step, an album where you could hear the songs, and audibly make out the guitars not just the overloaded amps, an album with a stripped back, dark sheen but undoubtedly a poppier sound. Some saw it as a sell out. I've got a lot of time for Darklands- the hit single, too pissed on Top Of The Pops to stand up straight buzz of April Skies, the William sung title track and gloom of Nine Million Rainy Days and On The Wall, the sweet sting of Cherry Came Too, the buzzsaw pop of Happy When It Rains and this one...

Deep One Perfect Morning

The gig and tour has been postponed, a response to Coronavirus and the restrictions placed on gatherings of crowds in many European cities. It seems most un- Mary Chain like to be laid low by a virus. The Reid brothers of 1987 would have slagged it off in the music press, sneered at it, compared it to Bono or John Lydon and then got pissed and fallen over. While playing the full twenty five minutes of the gig.

The whole Coronavirus situation is becoming increasingly scary. I was in a meeting after work last night where we planned for the possibility of having to close the school and how we'd deal with and prepare for years and classes preparing for exams. The exam season starts on Monday 11th May, what scientists are saying could be the peak of the epidemic. If we have to close there will be classes who won't have enough time to complete GCSE or A level courses. The tone of the government's briefing last night was very different from the one on Friday and I'm guessing that school closures are moving into when not if territory although the government's advice is contradictory- avoid pubs and restaurants but feed hundreds of children in school canteens, avoid social gatherings but put thousands of children into the same building every day. In the meantime we have both children and staff in self isolation and expect numbers to increase as the week goes on. On top of this our eldest child Isaac is in the vulnerable group and so now moves into a situation where he is to be in self isolation for twelve weeks. We are in very strange times and they're getting stranger.

11 comments:

Luca said...

Here in Italy schools have been closed since February 22. Extensive social distancing is by far the best policy. Read this, please: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/
As for the exams, there are much more pressing concerns right now.
Be careful and stay safe.

londonlee said...

Schools here are closed for at least three weeks. Luckily the wife and I are able to work from home

All the best to Isaac

KevM said...

Wishing you all the best, Adam. Stay safe everyone

Michael Doherty said...

It's such a gorgeous album.

drew said...

God I love Darklands. There were hints that that was the way they were going with the third Peel session but that was 3 years before the album came out.

As for this virus, it's not looking good is it. As KevM says, stay safe everyone.

drew said...

Oh and Luca, I have been thinking of you and was wondering how you were doing. All the best my friend

Luca said...

Thank you Drew, it means a lot for me. Actually, I'm more than a bit worried, especially for my father who's 78,had a heart stroke a few years ago and, to put the cherry on top, suffers from prostate cancer, but as for now my family and I are doing somehow well. If you click on my name you should be redirected to my Godsjukebox page, which I update every few days with a kind of diary for these 'long siesta' days.

Adam Turner said...

Yes, all the best Luca. Sounds worrying. Will start to check in at Godsjukebox.

drew said...

Luca, the link directs me to aa page and asks me for a username and password

Luca said...

Damn. I guess they changed the site's settings. I guess that, if one wants to view the members' pages, it is now necessary to join the community. Never mind, I'll keep you updated via comments on the blog. Again, thank you.

Walter said...

I really love Darklands and it is sad that so many events are cancelled during these days. In Germany school and kindergarten are closed until mid of April. Here are the same loony things going on. We are also told to avoid social contacts with more than two people and lock bank-branches and merge these employees in other branches. I can't understand the contradictions between words and action.