6. Sex and the Ritual Practitioners / 203
Gendered Spectatorship / 204 The Groupie as Sexual Predator / 207 Indie Versus Mainstream: Groupie Troublesomeness / 212 Offstage Behavior Mirrors Onstage Spectacle / 216 Come Together / 221 Sing for the Moment / 225 The Tricksters / 228 Indie Coyotes and Foxes / 240
Afterword: My Music Is Your Dirt / 242
Appendix 1. NME’s Top 100 Albums of All Time 251
Appendix 2. NME’s Top 50 Albums of the 1980s 255
Appendix 3. Select Magazine Survey, 1994 257
Acknowledgments
So if you’re lonely, you know I’m here waiting for you … Franz Ferdinand
This book has been a long journey. In some ways, it feels like an album that took ten years to create. I am very grateful to many people for their intellectual contributions and support during the research, writing, revision, and rethinking of this book. I would like to express my profound appreciation to my academic mentors: Alessandro Duranti, Jacques Maquet, Douglas Hollan, Janet Bergstrom, Donald Cosentino, and Stanley Walens. I would also like to express special thanks to Diane Drake Wilson, Ann Walters, the eloquent Lucy O’Brien, the gifted Derek Milne, and also Barry Shank for his brilliant comments on the earlier versions of this manuscript, which made such an impact and pointed me in the right directions. My thanks go to Alison McKee for her thoughtful copyediting, and to Sarah Thornton, Charles and Majorie Goodwin, Paul Kroskrity, Phillip Newman, Emanuel Shegloff, Elinor Ochs, Roger Bowerman, Ronnie Rivera, Steve White, Sharon Denner, Kit Crawford, Kim Yutani, Chris Giannotti and Jim, Allison Anders, Todd Silke, Terrylee and Eric, Tara Veneruso, Scott Scofield, Peyton Reed, Rick Bowman, Brian Almazan, Amy Nelsen, Rachel Walens, Peter Weingold, and the Museum of Jurassic Technology for their consistent support, advice, and constructive comments on this project. I would also like to thank the editors of the Music Culture series for including my work. Wesleyan University Press has been extraordinarily supportive and constructive throughout this process, and I thank Suzanna Tamminen, Poe Benji, Sarah Blachly, Ann Brash, Leslie Starr, Stephanie Elliott, and Alison Lerner. Special thanks to my family for driving me on: Barbara and Halei LaPearl, Gregg Fonarow, and Charles Fonarow. I would also like to thank my students, who were so passionate about what I did that they had me create the “indie list” and playfully introduced me as their professor at shows. For them, this publication was never soon enough.
There are many people involved with music in both Britain and North America who contributed immensely to this project by granting me access to their lives and work and sharing their experiences and perceptions of indie music and music performances. I would like to thank all of my interviewees for taking the time to discuss their passions, their experiences, and their thoughts on music. In the United States, I would like to thank Marc Geiger and Mark Newman for supporting me since the early days of this project, and Joe Janecek, Jo Lenardi, Michael Nance, Julia Kole, Zack and Barbara Horowitz, Ralph Cavallaro, Martin Devon, David Kucher, Candy Tobagen, Jason Pastori, Mark Neiter (whom I initially met behind the DJ deck at UCSD’s radio station), Danny Benair, Piper Ferguson, Richie Williams, the brilliant Gina Davis, who laughed her way through the chapter on the music industry, George Couri, Steve Ferguson, Bill Ingot, Brian Bumbery, Brenda Hutinson, Liam O’Neil, Mark Sovel, Christine Biller, Andrea Canter, Melinda Mondrala, Alan and Wendy Sartirana from Filter, the amazing Mike McClain and Christine Karayan at the Troubadour, the gorgeous women of Goldenvoice, and the wonderful Blood Arm crew—Nathaniel Fregoso, Zackary Amos, Zebastian Carlisle, the silver-tongued Ben Lee Handler, and the remarkably observant and insightful Dyan Valdés.
There have been many people in the British music industry who have added immensely to this project by granting me remarkable access and privileges within the music community. Thanks to Mean Fiddler, Neil Penguilly for his brilliance in booking the Reading/Leeds festival, SJM, Barry Hogan and Helen Cottage at Foundation/All Tomorrow’s Parties, Bob, Raye, and Paul at Metropolis, Dave Bedford, Bob Brimson, Colin Hardie, James Endeacott, Sonja Commentz, John Mulvey, Chrys Meula, Miranda Sawyer, Ian Watson, Neville Elder, Susie Babchick, Phil King, Alan McGee, Michelle Kerry, Noel Kilbride, Murray Chalmers, Colleen Mahoney, Leslie Felperin, Tim Jonze, Nick Shepherd, Sermon Management, Cerne Canning, Max Conwell, the Harding brothers, Fraser Lewry, Chris Bowers, Simon White, Shawn Conner, and everyone from the old Suede Management, including Charlie, Wendy and Eddie, Bernard, and Elisa. I offer special thanks to Janet Gordon at Mute, who found me counting people in the pouring rain outside the Garage in Islington and invited me into her life.
My research experience was indelibly enriched by my extended Domino family. I am especially grateful to Laurence Bell for asking me to work for the best independent company in the world, for embodying the very best that independent music represents, and for always making the distance between Los Angeles and London seem small. I still remember fondly all the mornings of storytelling over coffee with James in Domino’s first “real” office. Thanks as well to all the other Domino people—Mitch, Harry, Hamish, Bart, Julie, Jackie, Gary, Kris, and Matthew Cooper, who also designed the cover of this book.
I want to thank all my friends from the Thames valley who were around long before this project began: those Oxford friends from the golden triangle of indie music, especially Jon and Rachel Burton, Nick Burton, Laurence Colbert, Mark Gardener, Giles, Neil Halstead for always being a shoulder to lean on, Ian McCutcheon and his wonderful parents, Terry and Linda McCutcheon, who have long awaited the fruits of my labors, and Rachel Goswell, my girlfriend abroad who always makes me feel as if no time has passed since we last spoke.
I would like to thank all of my friends from up north: all of the New Order crew, the extraordinary Peter Hook whose generosity is matched by his quick wit, Becks, Jack and Heather, Bernard, Sarah and the kids, Andy, Rebecca, Steve, Sarge, Roger, and Coatsy, and those people who made my time in Manchester interesting and eventful—the lovely Vicki Potts, Jay Beard, and the exuberant Jules. Thanks also go to my family in the north, the extraordinarily kind and welcoming Elizabeth and Marshall Cunningham, who always brought me special treats, tea, and newspapers, and Grandma Cunningham, who had an honest laugh and gave me bread to feed the sheep.
My friends from Glasgow contributed immensely to this project, not just with their words but by making my time there and abroad so filled with joy. Thanks go to Marc Percival, who bridges the world between academics and music with such grace and who always provided a warm place for me to lay my bags, to my favorite tricksters from Mogwai—Stewart Braithwaite and Grainne, who can make me laugh harder than anyone else, Dominic Aitchison for his appreciation of the merits of Sonic the Hedgehog even in a festival field, Martin Bulloch the pirate, John Cummings, and Barry Burns. I’d particularly like to thank