4/4/2023 0 Comments A day without me![]() (Google 'mellotron' now to see what I mean). I discovered a bunch of mellotron racks in the studios basement and I asked if I could go through them. Day Without Me was a monster of a song to mix (I'd STILL like to redo parts of it!) and so there was a lot of time in the studio where I had nothing to do while the engineer cleaned tracks and did those little thing engineers do. We were utilizing the mellotron at Magic Shop the Soho recording studio where the album was made particularly for the clarinet line in Ain't It The Most. Too much to talk about here but I'll give away one secret now for my Bandcampers.beyond the title and epic quality that harkens to the closing track on Sgt.Peppers there's a further Lennon connection. (Please use the comments box to share your thoughts."The album closing symphony. Here's “A Day Without Me” from the very first U2 record, Boy. ![]() Today's Happy Medium Song of the Day was never nominated for a Grammy, but obviously it has a special place in my heart. Maybe even the biggest and best band in the world. And even then I knew, huddled around a friend's crappy second-hand stereo in his dorm room, that whoever was responsible for making this most amazing noise, sound, music… was one day going to be huge. Just slap it on the turntable, crank up the stereo and off you go. Unlike American 45's, the record had an LP-sized hole in the center which meant no messing about with spindles. On the back there was no information about the band - just the producer's name, in a font size as big as the band's on the front (more about Steve Lillywhite some other time). It came in a white picture sleeve with simple, san-serif lettering and a high contrast image of a lone figure standing on a railroad track overpass. It was U2's first musical shot over the bow from their amazing debut LP, Boy. My purchase that afternoon is still with me today. We were like a pack of excited schoolgirls, each with eyes set on a different pair of new shoes! My friend Neil was gonna forsake his fifth pint of the night in favor of a song called “Towers of London” by a quirky band called XTC. ![]() My friend Andy was gonna buy the latest release from Motorhead. My friend Steve was gonna get “Do it Clean” by Echo and the Bunnymen. They go to the record store on the day a song is released and they buy it. The Friday before the show, my friends and I all headed into Exeter's City Center to go to the record store. Exeter's student union was half the size of an average high school gym - widthwise! Now here's the part of the story that always makes people jealous. They were slated to play in the school's student union where, the day before classes began, I had seen a brilliant performance by another band with an interesting name: Echo and the Bunnymen. The fact that they were Irish totally enticed me.Ī few weeks later, the University announced its second campus concert of the year on 7 November 1980: U2. Needless to say, I was in fucking heaven!) On the train from London to Exeter I read a tiny article about an energetic young band from Ireland that was starting to create a buzz. I'd find a rickety table out of the dart board's line of fire and there, in the smokey haze, much to my “mates” amusement, I'd read the paper from cover to cover nursing my pint of Devinish like it was a grande latte-long before such a thing ever existed-and making mental notes of records to buy and bands to see. (This would become a weekly routine for me every Thursday afternoon: walk down to the news stand after my last class, pick up a copy of the weekly music paper for 50p, and then walk across the street to The Vic a rank-smelling neighborhood pub with mismatched furniture and dim lighting. I think the first thing I did when I landed in London was buy a Melody Maker and a pint. My introduction to U2 and love for their music goes all the way back to 1980 and my junior year abroad in England. Five Grammy Awards! Wow! Not bad for a band that's been kicking around for over 25 years! And while I really don't need the Grammy's to tell me what I already know…damn, it sure is nice to be reminded that U2 are the biggest and best band in the world.
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