Influences: The Late Show Special

So, this week I told Courtney that I was a Metallica fan and that she pulled me out of that and that was true. Her band (and the Melody Maker coverage of the scene) totally changed my outlook on music in a short couple of months. Her appearence on The Word in 1993 was a pivotal moment for me in music.

She shook me out of a hard rock phase that was dominated by Guns N' Roses, Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Pantera and Sepultura and where I still wanted to respect these bands, my heart turned towards the more feminine side of rock. The Sonic Youth's of this world, The Nirvana's (although it wouldn't take until the summer for me to really fall in love with them through Courtney), the L7's etc. I got a taste of this at the Faith No More Show at the Sheffield Arena in '92, where I was completely blown away by L7, who were fresh off their appearence on The Word that shocked the country when Donita bared all.

I had this old school friend called John who was a few years older than me who turned me onto bands like Faith No More and Metallica and Guns N Roses and wanted to turn me onto many new wave and grunge bands coming over the airwaves of Northern England. John was my main output for alternative music in 1992, solely he championed many different bands to me when )after a respite of four years) I one day turned up on his doorstep with my Shakespears Sister and Fuzzbox records. It took a lot to strive me away from what was still essentially an ingrained desire for an over produced melody. But then with John's influence and a particular music television experience from shockingly of all places, BBC2, something clicked in my head that opened my mind and my ears.

The source of this change on the starved region of terrestrial TV was this early version of what was to become Later... with Jools Holland that stemmed from the already established Late Show culture programme.

Screened in August of 1993 (two years after supposedly, The Year Punk Broke), this Late Show Special were a host of what they considered (and what most were already well aware of) to be a new wave of american bands dominating British culture through the music industry and (for the first time) showcased to many who didn't have access to MTV, because apart from The Word, who hadn't had a lot of these bands yet, this was the first time many had come across them. Musicians that were to (it would turn out) influence popular music for years to come.

I didn't realise this at the time but it turns out that this programme was a compilation of bands that had appeared on the music part of the show over a couple of years before it was shown. Watching the show now brings back memories but also is a bit weird seeing these really famous bands and personalities early on in their career while they were still mega passionate while I sit here thinking about their influence on music today.

As the presenter Tracey Macleod says quite rightly, "the 90's music scene has been turned upside down by the emergence of a whole new generation of American bands," and this was quite right. Nirvana, Pearl Jam and yes ok... the whole "grunge" media movement not only put to rest and drove the nail in the coffin of the hair bands in 91 and 92 but the whole new trend in the UK of acid house and baggy bands such as The Shamen and The Charlatans and The Happy Mondays were suddenly faced with the prospect of the once adoring music weeklies who previously chased them suddenly turning their backs on Manchester and looking towards Seattle... sorry Everett, Olympia.

She was (of course) referring to the shift of alternative rock in late '92 to early '93 to the mainstream that has never really ebbed away. America has never really got over grunge. This paved the way for the second wave of punk rock in bands like Green Day and Rancid which in turn held the door open for the My Chemical Romances of this world etc etc. It may have subsided in this country with the resurgence of dance music and Big Beat with Fatboy Slim and the new breed of boybands from Louis Walsh and Simon Cowell and their cute late PM Sat Night television reality shows that prey on the single mothers and the council estates of this land for popularity but now we find that there are a new breed of bands favouring guitars and more and more kids in school recognise where the future in music really lies. No longer do they get beaten up for wearing the wrong band T-shirt, for in 2006, music and appreciation and taste has come full circle in acceptance. This can only bode well for the existance of the race.

Anyways, here are some clips from that groundbreaking show. There's a prize for guessing how many of these bands have split since their early 90s breakthrough.

'Feed the Tree' Belly
'Been Caught Stealing' Jane's Addiction
'Dollar Bill' Screaming Trees
'Bullet in the Head' Rage Against the Machine
'Alive' Pearl Jam
'Rhinosceros' Smashing Pumpkins
'Drunken Butterfly' Sonic Youth