Magazine - Real Life (1978)

Saw them in '79 at the Paradise, Boston. What a band. McGeoch....what a monster guitarist! Gone way too soon.

 

Oh yeah, baby! Thanx, I'm playing it right now.

In my all time top 3 favourite punk/new wave albums (Ultravox: HaHaHa and Skids: The Absolute Game are the others).

I remember The Light Pours Out Of Me on Whistle Test. And Peel played the whole album one night, in blocks of 3 tracks. I spent weeks asking for it in my local WHSmith's until they finally got it in.

 

Damn! Didn't realise I've got it on shuffle, and Parade's just come on as second track. That's just not right.

 

Incredible musicians..incredible band..incredibly influential..

 

There's a 2018 reissue on vinyl. How is it soundwise? Seems like a Virgin release.

 

Same question here. I'd like to know more about the new vinyl edition. My old copy has more crackles than music.

 

Could anyone take that fourth studio album seriously? I tried it again just now and it's simply terrible!

Maybe just me, it's very different, maybe too much change of direction?

I could listen to The Honeymoon Killers just the once but the rest... meh!

 

I love the fourth album!

 

Good for you!

 

Not the best, for sure, but pleasant. Of course not as good as the Howard Devoto 's first album.

 

Magic, Murder & The Weather isn’t terrible, it’s ok.

No Thyself on the other hand..........

 

Love it!

 

Excellent album though the four (?) Peel sessions are probably the better indicator as to how great they were. No Parade or Motorcade though.

Thinnest, wobbliest piece of vinyl that I ever bought that wasn't a flexi disc. That was presumably down to the 1978 oil crisis and the escalating cost of vinyl.

 

This thread shows that at one time Howard Devoto was one of the movers and shakers, so how come after Magazine he had a solo career that quickly fizzled out and then left the music industry?

 

Mmm, without checking, my memory is that it was on Virgin with the blue and white label?

 

Initial pressings were on the blue label, but very quickly changed to the green/red, it could well have been one of the last Virgin releases on the blue label. My copy was green/red.

The reissue from a few years back had the blue label.

 

'The Great Man's Secrets' always draws me back.

 

Ah the mighty Magazine! They never had the commercial success that their music deserved.

I have all five studio albums and Play and Devoto's solo on vinyl plus the "Maybe it's right to be nervous now" compilation on CD which has the Peel sessions and various live and alternative versions of songs.

The first three are magnificent, the fourth I like but not as much as Jerky Versions... No Thyself is definitely a level or two below the others.

Never saw them in the 70s/80s (did see the Buzzcocks/Joy Division tour mentioned earlier). Got to see them several times after the reunion, was it really 2009!!

Great band, definitely top 10 for me, maybe even top 5. When I'm in the mood I often play the first three albums in order back to back.

 

Yes that's better. I haven't tried No Thyself. Should I?

 

No Thyself is ok, probably better than what most bands could produce but it pails in comparison with the early albums.

 

The Bernard Szajner "Brute reason" album with Howard Devoto is a wonderful record.

 

I had that, bought when it came out. I used to work with someone who had a good friend who was Howard Devoto’s partner. I was quite impressed by that fact and asked if he might sign the sleeve for me. Next time she went to visit her friend she took my sleeve along to get signed. I told her it was one of the best singles ever made. She handed it back to me a few days later with it signed “To Greg, best wishes Howard Devoto” (funnily enough Arthur Precarious isn’t my real name!). My friend said I’d told her “it was one of the best singles ever made” and she tells me that Howard smiled and said “It is”.

Sadly my wife at the time sold it for 20p at a car boot sale. We are divorced now.

 

100%

 

I bought this album in London when it came out, and loved it. Here I am in the USA in 2020, still enjoying it!

 

I found this compilation at my record store last year for $5. I'm sure most everyone here is familiar with it. There are some nice alternate single takes ("Shot By Both Sides", "Rhythm Of Cruelty") as well as many B-sides and stray tracks. Very much worth picking up.

Magazine - After The Fact