Let’s hope that I can wrap this topic up today in the brief time allotted. It’s been on the stove for quite a while now, but my available time has been limited of late. We are still discussing the bands that are collected but have never been experienced live.

• Suede – Strangely enough, I started off really hating this group. A friend had given me an Air Mail subscription to the NME in 1992 as a birthday gift. How I wish she had dropped that much coin on actual music itself! Nevertheless, I had this publication delivered to me bi-weekly for a year that coincided with the emergence of Suede in the UK. I was up close and personal with the monumental hype that is part and parcel of the UK music scene in a way I had never experienced before. All before the band had ever recorded a demo or were as yet signed to a label of any kind, I read about how this group was jesus christ on chrome-plated cheater slicks! It wasn’t until almost a year later, when I saw the video for “Animal Nitrate,” that I actually heard a note of their music. Needless to day, it did not change my life in any way, so I blew off Suede as a lame hype supreme for many years. In 1999, I chanced to hear another Suede song, “She’s In Fashion,” from their 1999 “Head Music” album. Surprisingly, I really liked it and bought the album from whence it came. I then heard that album non-stop for a month. Even when I wasn’t listening! I woke up with tracks burning in my consciousness!! This is as obsessive as it gets with me. In short order, I started working my way backward and began collecting. Everything, as is my wont. Most delightfully, I discovered that Suede actually had more B-sides than album tracks and they only had one song remixed! What I didn’t get was a concert by Suede anywhere near my location or even radar. Then, in 2003, they called it a day… except that they reformed this year and are touring again… in the UK.

• David Sylvian/Japan – I was exposed to Japan on Virgin’s “Cash Cows” compilation in 1980 and took an immediate liking to their Roxy Music influenced sound. I collected everything they ever released and when they called it a day in 1983, I continued to buy David Sylvian solo recordings. His solo work became more sophisticated and jazz-influenced as he moved onward. Seeing Japan was never even possible in The States, back in the day. I don’t think they ever toured here. As for Sylvian, here’s where my story gets real bitter. In 2002, I saw that he was playing a date in Atlanta. His last two solo albums were among my favorite recordings of his and my wife really enjoyed them as well, so we were very excited, to put it mildly. We bought tickets for the show online from TicketMonster® and I didn’t even resent the high fees since I was actually getting to see David Sylvian in concert… until the show was cancelled a week or two prior to the event. Ostensibly for low sales! Atlanta, you let me down! Since then, he’s not been within 1000 miles of where I live.

Well, I’ve got T-Z left and I certainly hope that I can wrap this up tomorrow. I’ve got a new Rock GPA® pencilled in next that couldn’t be more timely.