Paul Oldfield - The Wedding Present - Tommy - Melody Maker - June 16 1988

 

Starting a new series in which critics are rightfooted in real-time, making judgements that prove to be imperishably righteous 

Nice bloke, Gedge, of course - but when has that ever mattered? 

Into Bataille with the Express of New Music

 

This is what I grew up reading, kids! Page 3 of the NME! Or maybe Page 5! At any rate, right up front, not tucked away in some ghetto section like Books, but considered as newsworthy and relevant to the readers's interests as hotshit new band Shillelagh Sisters or whatever other Bad Music Era offering featured in that week's issue. (This is September 1984).

NME literally throwing "filth at our pop kids" to use an oft jokily used phrase of the time (originally a tabloid newspaper headline complaining about the Sex Pistols on Bill Grundy).

That said, I don't remember actually reading this Boy Georges paean at the time. 

I think I found my way to Bataille independently - or possibly it was via some quote or namedrop in a piece on a band (quite likely the dropper in question would have been Barney Hoskyns)

There being this thing called the Internet, you can find traces of documentation about the Visible Silence event at the Bloomsbury Theatre..

Here's Cosey Fanni Tutti talking about GB. And her performance was videotaped and sold. 

Here's a preview in another publication (City Limits?)

Here's Marc Almond's contribution to the event.