So REM have broken up!
I was never a big fan, in fact I wasn't a fan at all. I did/do know some of their more popular stuff but that's about it for me. I did however, find it amusing that their breakup made headlines on the evening news on our nation television station. Is there nothing else going on in the country or world that could have been reported?
But that news induced a very interesting and funny radio program today about teenage crushes and bands breaking up, and how the two together can cause havoc to the emotions of boys and girls everywhere. And not just teenagers, there were 'older' fans ringing in telling their stories about the bands they followed everywhere and the lengths they went to to meet their idols, and being crushed (emotionally not physically - although that did happen to somebody's foot at a concert!) when it was all over for the band! I was amazed at how involved some people got with certain bands.
It brought me right back to my first 'teenage' crush/groupie-like state!
I was one of the Tartan Army. The name given to the followers/fans of those five boys from Scotland. I remember being allowed to go and see 'them' when they came to Dublin at the height of their popularity. I was only about 14 or 15 and went with a few of my friends from school. Imagine, I was allowed to go without my big sister! (There is no way she would have gone to see them, she was way too cool for that lot, but she did bring me to see Queen a year or two later when they came to Dublin, after I had long since forgotten about my teenage idols, and gotten a bit cool myself!) Anyway back to my little band of groupies, we were a sight to behold. Covered from head to toe in Tartan and complete with stupid hair cuts!! Tartan hairband in our mad hair and tartan scarfs tied around our wrists. Of course we thought we were the best thing since....since....well since whatever was the best thing that went before us!!
I remember it as if it was yesterday, getting ready, ironing the tartan trimmed trousers, the ones that I made my mother alter to make them look exactly the same as the ones that the guys in the band wore. The bus journey there, admiring the other girls tartan outfits (being secretly jealous if theirs were better than mine), queuing outside - in a very orderly fashion - being let in, screaming running for the best spot, having a coke, checking out the tartan clad guys, waiting, more screaming, more waiting, the lights going down, even more screaming, we could see their sneaker clad feet under the curtains (yes there were curtains on the stage) and then as the excitement built, the music started, OMG the screaming, and then the lights went on, and then we couldn't hear anything after that, only screaming......
Of course there was the fainting too! Not me, no way, I wasn't going to faint and miss any of the excitement. But the amount of people that did faint was crazy. A constant stream of girls being passed over our heads towards the exit. A girl from my year in school was with somebody who fainted. She was a hero the next day in school....
The Bay City Rollers! (SIGH!) Gosh, when I tell people now that I liked them, they laugh! But I am not ashamed (no really, I'm not :-/ ). I just remember that mad night and the fun we had. Of course I have been to many concerts since, and I have even heard the music at some of them!! But I will never forget my first one....BIG SIGH!! I remember crying into my little tartan scarf when they broke up, I was inconsolable...
I think they are back together now and still tour, with a different line up, how funny is that? Only nearly as funny as those tartan trousers, and ridiculous haircut I used to wear....I'm sure I have a picture somewhere. I know I still have the trousers, I'm just waiting for them to come back into fashion!!
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