from time:
"American dance star Moby is backing a film about Ian Curtis, the Mancunian singer who committed suicide in 1980. New Order, the band which emerged from Joy Division, have reformed and are planning an album and American tour for next year."
the whole article about british music here:
_______________________________________________ July 14, 2004
US teens get down to British glum rockers By Adam Sherwin, Media Reporter (and heaven knows they're miserable now)
THE CURE and Morrissey, veteran purveyors of popular musical gloom, have reversed a transatlantic deficit by taking British music back to the top of America’s charts.
Chirpy Britpop bands failed to make a mark in the charts, which two years ago had no British entries for the first time since the Beatles entered them 40 years ago. But American record buyers have now discovered the maudlin strains of “gothic” rock.
The gloom-rock revival has given Manchester’s tourist trade an unlikely boost and there are also plans to make a film about the doyen of miserable pop, Ian Curtis, of Joy Division.
The Cure celebrated their 25th anniversary with a comeback album which broke into this week’s Billboard Top 100 at No 7, selling almost 100,000 copies without the backing of a hit single.
Morrissey, the king of glum and former frontman of The Smiths, blazed the trail with his You Are The Quarry comeback album, which has sold 250,000 copies there since its release two months ago.
Radiohead, Oxford’s kings of “complaint rock”, are expected to top the charts with their next album, while the angst-filled Welsh rockers Lostprophets have sold 500,000 CDs. The Darkness and Franz Ferdinand have also broken through.
The revival is credited to American teenagers who find the introspection and anti- social traits of British “gloom rock” the perfect accompaniment to adolescent rebellion.
It led to Morrissey fans from Los Angeles and Australia converging in March on the Salford Lads Club in Manchester, scene of a famous Smiths’ album cover, although some were disappointed about the weather — it wasn’t raining.
American dance star Moby is backing a film about Ian Curtis, the Mancunian singer who committed suicide in 1980. New Order, the band which emerged from Joy Division, have reformed and are planning an album and American tour for next year.
The eponymous Cure album, with its far from cheerful titles The End Of The World and Going Nowhere, is an oddity in an American Top Ten filled with “bling” rap and R&B stars.
The album was considered a farewell gesture but the Sussex band led by Robert Smith have now been booked for an American summer tour.
Andy Pemberton, the British-born editor of the New York rock magazine Blender, said: “It is very peculiar. America woke up and found it was living musically in Britain, 1987.
“The nu-metal craze has died but kids still want alternative rock. This kind of British rock has always carried a strong ‘I won’t tidy up my room’ message for moody teenagers.”
Billboard, the American record industry trade magazine, has run an editorial hailing a “new UK invasion”. It said: “What a difference two years makes. In a dramatic turnaround, we in America are seeing and hearing some great music from across the Atlantic.” Rap act The Streets are tipped to be the first British band in the genre to make inroads on the other side of the Atlantic.
American bands are now adopting the sound and styles of 80s British alternative rock. The Killers, from Las Vegas, became a subject for the BBC Two Newsnight Review with their debut album, a seamless blend of early U2, The Smiths and Echo & the Bunnymen.
By contrast domestic music fans are in thrall to US acts. The British Phonographic Industry said that albums by Americans outsold those by homegrown acts for the first time in 2003. Black Eyed Peas and Outkast dominated sales, while the flamboyant New York outfit Scissor Sisters are this year’s bestsellers.
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im definetly gonna see new order, i dont care how far i have to drive across this country
