This Sunday, when the Album Club convenes to discuss the Sex Pistols solitary studio effort, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, we will welcome a new member, Charlie with the Face On, or Charlie Face for short.
Shortly after a special guest appearance during our discussion of David Bowie’s Low, Charlie Face submitted a formal application letter for the Club’s consideration. ILoveDisco resented his suggestion that liking disco is some kind of problem which needs to “be admitted,” but welcomed another disco supporter nonetheless. Swedish Oxers and Ms. Mistoffeles quietly questioned Face’s name dropping of Cock Robin, but Plan B advised they’re an old school punk/new wave band, not early 80’s beta porn as the name suggests. And in the end, we decided Charlie Face’s omnivorous appetite for all types of music, his fearless admission of liking Maroon 5 and Train, and his British accent made him an excellent new addition. Plus, Cuban Pete needs another Eurythmics fan to geek out with when we get to the 1980’s.
Face’s application letter follows:
Dear Venerable Members of the Album Club,
I would be honored to be considered as a permanent member of your worthy institution and hereby explain my credentials for applying:
I am a Brit who has resided now in the US for 15 years and have been a music fan since my first bought record - T-Rex’s ‘Hot Love’ in 1971. My music taste swings wildly from glam rock in the 70’s, disco (yes, it does have to be admitted), through the new romantics and synthesizers of the 80’s and 90’s - everything from Madness, Heaven 17, Ultravox, Simple Minds, Split Enz, Eurythmics and ABC to the Cure, Human League, Cock Robin, Lloyd Cole, The The and Fine Young Cannibals. But after spending 7 years in Germany in the 90’s, I do have a penchant for French, German and Italian pop of that time too - France Gall, Eros Ramazzotti, Falco, Achim Reichel.
During the 80’s and 90’s in the UK I was a music presenter and record librarian at a major hospital radio station (community radio) with a regular oldies show. It was a soft rock, easy listening station to best suit the music tastes of the patients but we had a black list of records we couldn’t play - anything that might remind patients of their predicament, so no ‘First cut is the deepest’, ‘Suicide is painless’ etc(!). More recently I’ve been into Train, Maroon 5, Nellie Furtado, Dido, Peter Bjorn and John and Beyonce…
I hope this does provide an introduction to my musical taste, and I do believe I can provide some valuable musical insight and opinion to the Club from the other side of the Atlantic, so hope you will consider my application.
Thank you in advance,
Charlie Face
