COME TO REDDITCH AND BE STARED AT BY RAVERS AND HEADBANGERS...
(THE SEQUEL TO "TRENDIES, ROCKERS AND NOTHING IN BETWEEN?")

The defaced railway station sign used to say "Redditch". It now reads "Come to Redditch for Sex, Drugs, Rave and Ragga". Hardly a good advert for Redditch, is it? Yes, other people besides the dreaded trendy find sex and drugs appealing, but rave and ragga? I think not, somehow.

Fact: the majority of people living in Redditch have never heard of any of the bands I listen to. I showed a copy of Issue One of Aquamarine to some people I know, who live in Redditch. They responded with "Is this all made-up stuff?" Of course, I found that statement most amusing, especially considering the fact that these particular people see themselves as "alternative". Their idea of alternative music is a) ambient, and b) metal. I was walking round Redditch's Kingfisher Centre (which, for me, is now pretty useless, due to the lack of Magpie Records, which sold some decent stuff. I guess it had to close because nobody in Redditch had heard of most of what they were selling) in some seventies clothes. This outfit attracted evil looks and hysterical laughter from a bunch of trendy-boys, a woman in her mid thirties, and finally, some tarty looking girl who looks like the kind of person who goes around beating people up. I kept quiet in all cases but felt like saying the likes of "What are you looking at?! If this was 1972 or something, you'd be wearing this kinda stuff!" My mood was not good, due to the heavy rain, which literally soaked me to the skin...

"What's the point of all this?" you ask. Do I think that people who dress fashionably are the scum of the earth, and are so just because they dress fashionably? No. I'm just not impressed by many trendies because most of them are so narrow minded and are actually afraid to dress differently because they think they will get laughed at by equally narrow minded people.

People should wear clothes because they like them, not because they think they should be wearing them, just to fit in.

BACK TO ARCHIVE