Fact #169762

Johnny Black (head of Press, Polydor Records) : The first thing you notice at an electronic music festival is long hair. Lots of it, on the young as well as the older fans. Even those with shorter hair have a look of studied non-belongingness to the current fashions. They look like belated hippies, but that’s all right, isn’t it?

For the most part the University buildings are modern and unadventurous, rectangular blocks of glass and pre-cast concrete, overlooking the centre of Sheffield which lies in a dip below. A scattering of trees, showing the browning onset of autumn among their greenery, softens some of the hard edges of the architecture.

There are, as well as a number of live electronic performers, a selection of stalls at which I spent a considerable amount of money on electronic music albums. The stalls were mostly organized by music magazines, small tape companies and even individual bands, including Tamarisk.

It’s a funny little scene which attracts many of the same misfits and social outcasts who become obsessive about computers, CB Radio, Country And Western music and so on. I begin to suspect that the subject to which they devote themselves is not as important to these people as the feeling of belonging to a social group. Much as I love electronic music, these kind of people make me a little uncomfortable because I’ve always shunned social groups. I prefer friends.

Friends are people you like no matter what they like. Often there is co-incidence of interests but that’s not why they are your friends.

Regrettably, I found much of the music today dull. Perhaps it works better on record, at home in an intimate environment. What I did enjoy was the amateurishness of some of the performers. People like Paul Nagle, a 23 year old synthesist, who performed surrounded by keyboards and electronic control boxes all of which trailed a rampaging spaghetti of wires, winding round table legs and snaking across the stage. The overall effect is not so much of a modern/futuristic musical presentation but of peeking into a mad scientist’s laboratory or a hobbyist’s basement.

All the gear was laid out on trestle tables, the stage had no curtain, very nearly no lights, the seats were hard plastic and very uncomfortable. The whole of one wall of the hall was glass and the incoming daylight did nothing to add to the atmosphere.

Most of the performers wore jeans and t-shirts. Obviously they care more about their music than their image but if they ever want their music to succeed commercially, they’ll have to adapt.

The whole event was ruined for me by a continuing stream of distributors, musicians, shop owners and other business types who wanted to meet me because of my position in Polydor Records. I regarded this as an off-duty event and had come to enjoy the music, but I was only able to catch brief snatches. I didn’t see any of Tony Duhig and Jon Field (Jade Warrior) whose albums I love. In the end, I gave up and left without even seeing Neuronium, who were the headline band and the main attraction of the day.
(Source : Johnny Black diary entry)