On Tue, 21 Jun 2011, Andy Farnell wrote:
Marco's disappointment is understandable (sorry if I misinterpret this Marco). When I watched "Top of the pops" as a teenager, like many kids of that age I was outraged that the performers mimed. Sometimes you could see their instruments were just props. It is very insulting to someone who has invested effort and emotion to an activity to see it trivialised to a banal fashion statement. Like a soldier seeing their regimental badge worn as a punk accessory.
That's why, conceptually, my favourite two performances are XTC's Making Plans for Nigel, in which they made a point of hitting a gong that doesn't sound like one, and... oh, the other one is actually from the similar show American Bandstand : Public Image Limited's Poptones, in which they get bored of miming halfway through the song, and just go dancing with the audience.
(But then, I haven't seen so many clips from TOTP and/or ABS.)
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