It is nineteen years to the day that the dreadful news permeated the world. Our Princess Diana was dead, and nothing would be quite the same again...
The musical landscape in August 1997 was dominated by boy-bands (Backstreet Boys, No Mercy, 911, Boyzone, OTT), BritPop (Oasis, Suede, Ocean Colour Scene, Blur, Chumbawamba, Stereophonics), R'n'B (Shola Ama, En Vogue, Mary J Blige, Coolio, All Saints; and Will Smith at No 1) and a clutch of classic club acts (Sash, Gala, DJ Quicksilver, Todd Terry, Ultra Nate, Livin' Joy) - but this was also an era when some more "introspective" acts rose to the fore, such as Radiohead, The Verve, and The Beloved.
And, most appropriately on this sad anniversary, it is to the latter we turn for a little moment of retrospection:
Love is just a state of mind that we leave behind
It's just the sun rising
Indeed.
RIP Diana, Princess of Wales (Diana Frances, née Spencer, 1st July 1961 – 31st August 1997)
Lovely - its brought it all back, I was in my prime as a club kid then, 1997 - and of course Diana's death floored us. London Pride that year was terrific, as was going back to Heaven afterwards to see Ultra Nate, Adeva, Rosie Gaines etc. We loved the Substation clubs, Barcode in the west end, and more, more more.
ReplyDeleteI was there, too - but we saw Miss Nate and Miss Adeva (together with Texas, Gina G, Dannii Minogue, Erasure, Holly Johnson, and the Pet Shop Boys!) at the Pride Party on Clapham Common. And yes, it is true, many a black armband was worn in the gay bars later that year in honour of Diana... Jx
DeleteYES - I was at Clapham Common too, it was one of my best nights. We were all quite stimulated, Holly was terrific and then The Pets came on and the fireworks went off. Blissed out !
ReplyDeleteWhen Neil Tennant sang the opening line "There's a place for us; Somewhere a place for us", I can remember the tears streaming down my face - a mixture of pure joy and sadness over "absent friends"; this being the midst of the worst years of AIDS, of course. Jx
DeleteOMG, that was my feeling exactly. My partner of 10 years, a disk jockey from Brighton, had died the previous year, and most of my 80s gang - that whole South London crowd I knew from The Two Brewers, The Market Tavern etc - were no longer with us either, including my best friend since we were teenagers in the 60s.
ReplyDeleteAlso in the words of Mr Tennant that year:
Delete"The years perfecting a stance
of measured cool fade into insignificance
the moment one starts to understand
what on earth does it profit a man?"
RIP,all.
Jx
just to add the lyrics of "Being Boring" sum it all up .....
ReplyDeleteI still cry to this day when I hear it. Jx
Delete