Golden Earring's Moontan Remastered Expansion

uwe · September 22, 2021, 10:03:53 AM

Trust the Dutch to always deliver when it comes to down-home (or up-bone) entertainment.

westen44 · September 22, 2021, 03:07:29 PM

I can only thank God that it was Centerfold, and not Golden Earring that performed in the nude. I didn't see that, though. If the U.S. didn't even allow the cover of Moontan to exist, they certainly wouldn't have allowed Centerfold to be naked on TV.

Basvarken · September 22, 2021, 03:38:24 PM

They weren't even naked.
At least not in this video.

I do remember a tv performance where they wore a trenchcoat and nothing underneath

uwe · September 22, 2021, 03:46:14 PM

Sigh, Dutch TV is culturally unsurpassed, yet easy on the eye.

Vanity 6/Apollonia 6 really could have sued!

westen44 · September 23, 2021, 12:30:38 AM

I just found this. I had never seen this video before. On the comments below the video, the date is corrected from 1989 to 1984.

uwe · September 23, 2021, 05:01:24 AM

Oh my - that is Prince-y, the type of throwaway track he would give to Vanity/Apollonia.

I really appreciate our Golden Earring fan's scientific earnestness in all this:

"I just found this. I had never seen this video before. On the comments below the video, the date is corrected from 1989 to 1984."

So now we know. Not all 80ies disco vids with scantily clad girls are familiar to him. He did not seek out sin, it preyed on him!

And the correct historical placement - 1984 rather than 1989 - concerned us all deeply.

BTW, one of these ladies did become a respectable jazz singer in The Netherlands, will Rob tell us which one?

Me? I like the guitar solo at O1:49, very organic. A stiff performance.

Basvarken · September 23, 2021, 02:23:44 PM

Quote from: uwe on September 23, 2021, 05:01:24 AM

BTW, one of these ladies did become a respectable jazz singer in The Netherlands, will Rob tell us which one?

Laura Fygi.
I never found her a credible jazz artist (because of her Centerfold past maybe)

And yes Centerfold were an obvious (dumbed down) Vanity 6 rip off. Sexy legs but none of the Prince geniosity.

I saw them "live" (I think they were lip syncing along to a tape) when I was a teenager.
Rowan did made my heart beat faster...

Basvarken · September 23, 2021, 02:28:28 PM

westen44 · September 23, 2021, 03:33:47 PM

Laura does very well with the Portuguese in that song.

uwe · September 23, 2021, 08:06:47 PM

Don't be harsh, Rob, her big band performance is fine, who cares what she did with Centerfold almost 40 years ago.

You're not holding part time Thin Lizzy Midge Ure's past as a Bay City Roller rip-off

against his credibility as an artist today either, are you?

Basvarken · September 24, 2021, 12:34:54 AM

Maybe it helps that Midge didn't lip-sync dressed in a bathing suit with pin-stripe stockings, in front of a live audience?

BTW: I only found out years after Phil Lynott had died, that Midge had stepped in for Gary Moore after the latter had walked off in the middle of a tour.
I was surprised to find out he was a bonafide guitarist.

And about Laura. That performance wasn't half bad. Guess I'm not that familiar with the Dutch jazz scene

gearHed289 · September 24, 2021, 09:33:08 AM

Quote from: Basvarken on September 24, 2021, 12:34:54 AMBTW: I only found out years after Phil Lynott had died, that Midge had stepped in for Gary Moore after the latter had walked off in the middle of a tour.
I was surprised to find out he was a bonafide guitarist.

Same here. A seemingly very unlikely pairing. I was already an Ultravox fan when I found out.

uwe · September 24, 2021, 10:09:12 AM

I remember the NME writing about him joining. They were incredulous about it, but of all the hard rock bands that had existed prior to the Punk craze, the NME was most gentle with Thin Lizzy. And they had forgiven Midge his 15 seconds of fame in SLIK - Centerfold might have catered for male fantasies, but SLIK catered for underage girl fantasies, I don't see much of a difference, Rob

- due to his work in the Rich Kids and Visage, he had NME New Wave credibility.

BTW, he's lovely and humble about his tenure with Lizzy.

I also remember an interview by Scott Gorham where he mentioned that Midge - ever the New Romantic - regularly put on make up before Lizzy gigs which first had the others cracking up and then - not to be outdone - following suit after a while! So he taught them about male beauty aspects too.

And when Midge left after the tour and Phil was begging him to stay on because they got along so well, he said another nice and philosophical thing to him: "Somewhere there is a kid in the UK that has a black Les Paul underneath his bed and has been playing to your records note-perfect for all these years. He is the guy you should get, not me. I'm not that player."

And given that John Sykes joined Lizzy (after Snowy White hadn't felt comfortable in the role either) in the end, Midge's words were no less than prophetic.

He's complimentary about Lizzy to this day. I saw him a couple of years ago unplugged on a solo tour covering his whole oeuvre and at one point he announced a song like this:

"I have a dark past. Many of you here will not know this: I once played with Thin Lizzy. That's right, "Boys Are Back In Town"-Thin Lizzy. No, I'm not going to play a Thin Lizzy song with this here (raises his acoustic guitar) tonight, I'm not good enough. But Phil Lynott, he was such a great songwriter ... I tried to write a song about him that is in his style."

And then proceeded to play a beautiful Irish-tinged ballad. (And, yes, he is a bread & butter acoustic guitar pick strummer, simplistic like Paul Weller.)

More about him and Phil (after this thread has brought Centerfold to the glaring light of day, we need to make amends with Rob!):

https://www.pressreader.com/ireland/the-irish-mail-on-sunday/20150816/282213714557087

Basvarken · September 24, 2021, 02:52:56 PM

Yeah I know that story. And it was a glaring omission.
But truth is that Lynott was in a really bad shape already. And despite attempts of close friends (such as Jim Fitzpatrick) to get him back in a healthier shape, Philip was too far gone.
The heroin addiction had already started to get a firm grip on him (and Gorham) with the recordings of the Black Rose album (1979). By 1985 Lynott was way beyond the point of no return.
The success of the reunion with Gary Moore (in 1985) didn't convince him to seek help and get himself sorted either.
I don't think a single slot a the Live Aid festival would have saved him.

uwe · September 24, 2021, 04:15:03 PM

It sure didn't save the 3/4 original Quo line-up. It was their last gig, but Rossi was adamant that Lancaster had to go (after he had driven Coughlan out of the band earlier).