Magpie eyes hungry for the prize . Early Creation Golden Boys The Loft released just two singles before splitting onstage in 1985. Now reconciled, their debut has arrived 40 years too late for singer Pete Astor to wear his leather trousers on Top of the Pops. But Everything Changes, (More easy going Adventure than sharp cheekboned Marquee Moon) does not pine for lost youth.
Storyboard Time and Greensward Days showcase Andy Strickland's thoughtful guitar work, Dr Clarke essays a Home Counties psychedelia while Ten Years celebrates the quiet joys of 60 something man chat ('divorces and cars... money and teeth' Youthful hubris meant The Loft never became the British Go Betweens but closer The Machine Is On reckpns with any lingering lost dreams.'I've known the answer all along but I've been resting, getting strong.' the long game it seems is one The Loft have played rather well...
The Mojo review for Everything Changes, Everything Stays The Same, perhaps the most belated or else eagerly awauted debut album in Rock & Roll history. For thise whose lives are built around music anyhow. I was in Switzerland in 1985 when The Loft rose without trace to brief Music Press expectation and then imploded onstage mid song while playing onstage at the Hammersmith Palais in support to the Colourfield.
They were just the kind of band that were made for the likes of me. Television meets The Byrds with a paperback of Andrew Marvell poetry in the pockets of their long coats, a cigarette case clicking open for a quick tab between sets. A shot of great whisky or a shared spliff between a sty of huddled heads sat together in aclose circle of chairs before heading onstage.Cool youth.
I'm seeing them in a couple of weeks time at The Cluny 2 in the Ouseburn In the meantime I'm going to run a bath at the end of a gorgeous week of online teaching and then listen to Everything Changes on my TV set as the sun begins its slow descent beteen four and six on a mid March afternoon in Newcastle.
The Loft were probably the band I would like to have been in 1985. Lantern jawed, good head of hair. Well dressed, reasonably handsome and suave. Well read and erudite. Dressed onstage in a polkadot shirt, jeans or leather trousers and great boots. Boots bought at Camden Market on a Sunday morning wuth my hun before dropping into the pub on the lock for a roast and apple crumble with the supplements stretched out between us on an oak table.
Everything Changes is not the album The Loft would have made had they held together and resolved their issues in 1985 and made their way to a recording studio. But its a beuatiful and impeccably delivered record with a solid understanding of how life has a habit of resolving itself in the most satisfying ways. So long as we make an effort to learn and reset the co-ordinates of the ships compass with due care and diligence towards either the open sea. Or perhaps reluctantly for shore. .
These are learned, thoughtful, pugnacious and melodic songs. Wry and content within their skin. Pete Astor knows his Dylan. His Lou Reed. His Tom Verlaine. His McLennan and Forster. He Prince, Strickland and Morgan have refound a touching and determined harmony and I look forward to seeing them in a fortnight.
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