''Somebody
once said if you scratch a cynic you find a disappointed
idealist. I must be a disappointed idealist. Things
never live up to expectations. As a child you live
in the world of your parents when everything's taken
care of, you’re not exposed to many miserable things.
Only this year, for the first time ever, relations
that I have known actually died, which is really weird.
I’ve never had people dying on me before.''
This
feeling of disappointed idealism extents outside of
his personal life to the world at large, too.
''But
I don't get down, I don't get miserable about it too
much... "
One
suggests that there's a general feeling of pessimism
around music at the moment, Fellows leaps back: ''I'm
not a pessimist. I'm a realist... I think. Optimism
means that you feel the future is going to be better
pessimism means you feel it is going to be worse.
As far as I’m concerned you just try and rationalise
what happens. I can't help it. I'm sorry for the people
who find what we do
depressing, but that's it. It's not realism, its real.''
Kev,
who’s been sitting there very quietly with the rest
of the band suddenly gets agitated: ''what's more
depressing, watching a happy band and getting depressed
by the quality of it, or watching a so-called depressing
band? I'd say the happy band.''
Steve
says people like The Doolies really depress
him.
‘‘It
just seems so false... it's like that Radio 1
thing last night (I wondered when we'd get round to
that), all this fake jollity. It reminded me of what
it would be like in a bunker or a fall-out shelter.
It was just a bit weird, I have never seen things
so desperate, so we must have had a good time. Strange,
I was just wondering what will be doing when we’re
80, sitting round the old people's home playing Closer!''
The
Comsat Angels are maturing into such a powerful band
that they are almost frightening. Their live set now
features five new songs - Be Brave ("and
with Reagan in power we’re going to have to
be..." says Steve when introducing the song at
the Aston University gig) the brooding Dark Parade,
Eye Of The Lens, probably the next single,
Home Is The Range and an untitled one which
is probably the bands strongest musical statement
yet, plumbing the emotional peaks with a dark power
that, incredibly, matches Joy Division at their
best without actually sounding like them.
Fellows
wrote Dark Parade after watching the Iranians
display of American corpses following the Carter invasion
debacle.
‘‘It
was horrifying... the fact that I was able to see
it in such sharp focus as well as the actual events.''
his voice dies to a whisper ''on TV, pictures of burnt
out helicopters were presented quite aesthetically,
which is really strange. I suppose in a kind of sense
its a comment on the media as well.''
Its
an indication that their lyrical concerns are becoming
less ego orientated – ‘‘Less solipsism", as Steve
puts it, provoking the others to laugh at his use
of a long and esoteric word.
‘‘As
far as I'm concerned, they're more direct, its probably
easier to discern the meaning.''
The
band are so modest about their achievements and this
sometimes makes you want to grab them by the lapels
- although their attitude is at least refreshing when
contrasted to the unbridled arrogance of some of their
contemporaries.
Steve
describes their music as going from ''weakness to
slightly strong - I'm personally far more pleased
with these things. Forgive me for saying it, but I
feel we are getting closer to something... I hate
to put it that way. It just seems to be going somewhere
where it hasn’t been before“
The
hyper-criticism seemed to come to a head after gigs,
when they tend to magnify the importance of technical
shortcomings, but when I witnessed a gig on their
home turf - Sheffield - the bands exuberance shines
from the stage.
The
realise they’re climbing to the plateau they know
they are capable of reaching, and it shows.
Total
War sticks together with jigsaw logic. Waiting
For A Miracle is delivered at a gallop - the Comsat's
go Ramones! - with Postcard as an encore,
building like a tidal wave.
Getting
close to something? No, the Comsat's are already there.
Lynden
Barber
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