Like Magic in the Streets: Orange Juice, Aztec Camera, the Go-Betweens, the Smiths, the Blue Nile and the End of Romance

by Tim Blanchard

Like Magic in the Streets tells the curious stories behind the making of much-loved indie LPs: You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever, High Land, Hard Rain, Before Hollywood, The Smiths and A Walk Across the Rooftops. Music that couldn’t have been made at any other time, shaped by the upheavals of the early Eighties.

The book captures the mood of what it felt like to live under the rule of Queen Elizabeth II and Mrs Thatcher in the new-build landscape of flyovers and underpasses, concrete shopping centres and civic parks, to be night-walking under the sodium glare of streetlights to empty bus stations, reeking pubs and spangled discos.

It’s not the story of the rise of indie or how a great musical lineage changed the world. It’s about a short-lived and failed romance, a defeat, and why that might be more important and interesting than any Eighties’ success story.

“A beautiful journey.”
David Scott, BBC Classic Scottish Albums

“An amazing book. I couldn't put it down. Meticulously researched and continuously compelling, I learnt a lot about these five seminal albums I didn't know myself.”
Craig Gannon, Aztec Camera/the Smiths

“I still can’t comprehend how Tim managed to get so much out of me about that time. And then he writes it all so beautifully, with such care and understanding.”
Lindy Morrison, the Go-Betweens

“Like Magic is an enjoyable and illuminating study of five seminal indie albums from the early 80s. I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to produce two of these, Before Hollywood by the Go-Betweens and High Land, Hard Rain by Aztec Camera. Tim has brought together the stories around the making of these albums, giving rich insight to both the artists and the music of the period.”
John Brand, Producer

Genres: Music

279 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2021

Reviews

[AL · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could give some blithe criticisms and lament missing aspects, but instead I want to urge you to just read the book. Blanchard is a wonderful writer and a brilliant researcher, and he’s cool enough to engineer a meeting of all the frontmen in a single space just to end his breathtaking work. I thank him for the wonderful book.

[Bookthesp1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is nothing better than reading the rarity that is decent (Nay excellent) writing about music - in this case the genesis and creation of five classic albums from the 1980s. Blanchard delivers in spades with a confidence and intelligence that is rare and wonderful well realised. The key is in some ways not only to show his love for the period and the music but also to achieve the grain of the era by using an almost novelistic sense of mood, tone and historical record to back up the detailed musical anecdotes, based on a throrough trawl through magazine archives and other interviews. He underpins this with sometimes tangential context but why not write about the essences of Thatcherite Britain; growing up as a teen in the 1980s; Psychogeography as an element of all the items discussed; the influences of reading; literature and culture for people like Grant McLennan or Morrissey. There is much too on the minutae of bands and their equipment, gigging patterns and record labels. The personnel of bands is discussed in detail as is their relationships to the areas they came from and their development (or lack of it) as stars or below par(s) failures- chasing record sales in pre internet Britain. I will forgive Blanchard some oddly sympathetic comments about Mrs Thatcher because his sense of the period is sublime and his writing sings with tonal skill and a love of his subject and muses. He also has a thesis of sorts - the subtitle of the book is the end of Romance and he confidently names the year 1985 as the guilty party as everything shifted towards a more corporate controlled less free period based on the first registration of Internet domain names and Live Aid as a sort of signal that new talent would have to find its own way beneath the existing behemoths of music such as the seemingly revitalised dinosaurs Queen or Bowie or other reliably selling oldies. The romance of the Independent label such as Postcard records or more latterly Rough Trade ( some of which were faked anyway -owned by big corps) was over as was the get in a van and start a band phase- Britpop a marketing creation- the only way was down.
I don't think I have read a better amalgam of period, history and anecdote with some analysis as well all underpinned by love and enthusiasm- Blanchard can write and this is a triumph of sorts- highly recommended. Magic in fact.

[Killian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really wonderful read about an era when music seemed really, really important

[Charles James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting Book , focuses on five LP's from the early eighties
Orange Juice - You Can' Hide Your Love Forever
Aztec Camera - High land ,hard rain
Go-Betweens - Before Hollywood
The Smiths - the Smiths
the Blue Nile - A Walk Across the Rooftops
These are albums I had a passing familiarity with (save for the Blue Nile LP ) . Useful to get the social context and the backgrounds of the individuals involved . Also to listen to the albums afresh . My view the Orange Juice LP good , but not as good as I remembered it . Aztec Camera good but not as good as Love . The Smiths more interesting than I remember it . Blue Nile an essential listen .
The book does give good background , but its political commentary does border on Dave Spart (a Private Eye left wing spoof character ) territory . This would lead me towards a three star review .However the Annex entitled "Further Listening " gives rise to a four star review . listen to the albums listed and you will be well rewarded.

[Andrew Tattersall · Rating 3 out of 5]

A history foreshadowed ?

Five albums from the mid-eighties as the possibilities they foreshadowed or the history they wrote of the times. Four of the five albums were important to me then, and still now. I was there again, in the cold, damp flat far too often.

[Fred Waine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really comprehensive account that introduced/reintroduced me to some great music. Just a shame about the part where he tried to rehabilitate Morrissey and blame political correctness for his reputation falling off a cliff…

[Ipswichblade · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is great if not sometimes a bit wordy but the interviews with the group memebers make for very interesting reading