New Wave Outpost Forum

My name is Marc Squiers. 39, advertising copywriter, happily married and living in Hawaii--at least for the next week and a half. I'm moving to Portland, Oregon at the end of the month.

Needless to say, I am a huge 80s fan. I'm having a real difficult time relating to any of today's music. It just doesn't move me. Maybe I'm just getting old and I'm resistant to change. Personally, I find 95% of today's bubble gum rock irritating. Little substance, no depth and almost no talent. (Read: American Idol.) I pine for days where members of groups actually wrote meaningful songs and played their respective instruments with an incredible level craftsmanship.

Some of my favorite groups are: The Church, Lloyd Cole (Commotions and solo), Bryan Ferry, The Waterboys, U2, Echo and the Bunnymen, Talk Talk, P-Furs, Ultravox, Tears for Fears, The Ocean Blue, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Coldplay, and one of my all-time favorite bands: Wire Train (hence my user name No Pretties from Between Two Words). These are just a few of the bands that came to my mind.

Besides baseball cards, I also like finding concert DVDs of my favorite 80s bands. I have that cool U2 DVD (featuring early footage of the band that was supposedly lost in a fire in San Francisco but was later salvaged), Lloyd Cole playing in 1983, The Church live and a cool Talk Talk concert from the series Off the Record.

Yesterday I was scouring the Web (to no avail mind you) for ANY Wire Train DVDs or rare live footage. My guess is it doesn't exist. Anyway, to make a long story short, I found this web site during that search. Can you say serendipity? This site is by far the best thing to happen to me since meeting Mark Hollis and members of Berlin in a Portland hotel after watching them perform at the Starry Night.

Just wanted to introduce myself. Any Oregonians out there?

Does anyone know where I could find any Wire Train DVDs/concert footage?

Much appreciated.

Marc

[:D]

Welcome. And thank goodness this topic was not about that Lionel Richie song.

Hey Kim,

Thanks for the kind words.

The try-not-to-put-you-to-sleep answer to your question:

I was born in Michigan. Grew up in Colorado. And moved to the redneck city of Roseburg, Oregon before my senior year in high school (1983). For me, that'

RE: Lionel Ritchie Hello. Puke. Not as putrid as "Penny Lovers" though.

KIM:

Forgive me. I read your bio and visited your homepage. The cafeine's kicking in. Cute kids. Nice pics of Seattle. Which reminded me.

I've also spent some time in Seattle

Welcome. It seems as though you are going to fit right in!

Hey Marc, welcome to the board. I can't help you with the Wire Train stuff but I did want to say how jealous I am that you actually met Mark Hollis because Talk Talk is one my all-time favorites. So, is he like I picture him - a completely tortured nutcas

Someone spotted one of the Berlin guitar players (name escapes me, the pretty boy though) in a Portland hotel lobby. We went in, sat down and chatted with him, and he not only gave us the time of the day, he invited us up to his hotel room to continue our

Welcome to the board! I used to live in Lacey, WA, during my formative teen years (81-85). Portland is super cool! My best friend lives there, along with some other friends, and we visit each year. What a swell city.

I also have travelled to Thailand a

Hello Marc!!! Good to have you around here. I'm sure you'll be glued to NWO from this time on. "No pretties here... no pretties here" (wrong! dead wrong! We're all pretty here! [8D])

I love all the songs of Wiretrain too: The Last Perfect Thing, Skills

Aloha!

This guy has a video: http://www.wiretrain.co.uk/wtnews.htm

[i]"I pine for days where members of groups actually wrote meaningful songs and played their respective instruments with an incredible level craftsmanship."[/i] That would be today.

Welcome Marc! Watch out for frayo though, he's trouble[:D]

HEY! I just realized, thanks to nopretties, I'm not the new kid anymore[:)]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone.

And I stand corrected, there are some good groups out there. It's called displaced anger...i need to get 80s therapy.

"Hi, my name's marc and I can't stand bubble gum rock and 90% of today's music...and I'm stu

Hi, Marc. I'm Paula. I'm new here, too. Other than our love of new wave, you and I have a few things in common. In 1986-87 I lived in Seattle (Wallingford and Capital Hill) and on Whidbey Island in 1991-1997. I also lived in Japan from 1997 to 2000,

Marc,

Great to see an Australian band, ie the Church, is amongst your favourites. I also heartily endorse your admiration of the Psych Furs.

I was living in Sydney when the Church got started in 1980 and knew some friends of Steve Kilbey's. I seem