scouserdave
10-12-2006, 07:30 AM
Source (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/entertainment/previewsandreviews/tm_headline=how-the-icicle-works-made-their-return-on-the-wave-of-nostalgia-&metho
d=full&objectid=17882299&siteid=50061-name_page.html)
How The Icicle Works made their return on the wave of
nostalgia
YOU want to examine the schizophrenic nature of the modern popular music fan's relationship with nostalgia, look no further than
Liverpool songwriting legend Ian McNabb.
The 45-year-old Newsham Park troubadour has spent the best part of 16 years ploughing a solo furrow after the
dissolution of his previous band, the late and lamented Icicle Works.
But now, 25 years after the inception of the band, he has resurrected the name
and rounds up an anniversary tour with a celebratory show at the Carling Academy in a fortnight's time. And it seems the fans are back again.
Tickets
are shifting quicker than ever, but McNabb is at pains to understand the difference between the old music and his solo career.
"That's the magic of
nostalgia," he says. "We are selling far more tickets now than we did on the last Icicle Works tour - but I suppose if you leave it long enough people will
come back and pretend that it is 1988 again.
"There are four times more people who have wanted to come out for this show than solo shows, but they'll
only come out if I only play songs I wrote before I was 28."
A songwriter's songwriter, McNabb's critically-acclaimed Neil Young influenced guitar
pop has been admired by many inside the industry and the buyers of Britain's glossy music magazines. What he wants back now are the fans that finished with
The Icicle Works.
"I suppose I would like this tour to bring back on board some of the people who fell off the ship. I'm hoping the people who would
never go and see Ian McNabb but will because it has Icicle Works on the ticket will come back again. I'm going to give them a big show, with two hours of
music, and let them know that I have a solo career and if they like The Icicle Works they will like my solo work. The only difference is that I am 45 instead
of 25."
While McNabb is eager to recruit fans to his new music, he is gratified with the esteem in which The Icicle Works is held.
He says,
"People have great affection for Icicle Works songs, and not just the songs - they remember a certain place or time where they were when they heard them
first.
"I can kind of understand the affection they have because I have had to go back and listen to the albums again to relearn the songs and I have
been asking myself: 'What was I doing when I wrote that song?'
"I went through a period of not wanting to listen to The Icicle Works but now I have
had to, I have a real affection for them now."
Icicle Works folded at the turn of the 1990s as the Madchester scene took over the popular
consciousness, meaning many new wave and old style indie rock acts had had their chips.
"Manchester did for us what Punk did for 1970s rockers," says
McNabb. "I remember we did a tour in 1990 which was successful, but we were seen as the old guard, we were completely out of it and I didn't fit in
anywhere.
"And that was despite the fact I was a couple of years younger than Clint Boon, from the Inspiral Carpets, and only a couple of years older
than Noel Gallagher. You can't make yourself fit because people won't buy it, so you just have to hold your hands up and take it. I sort of disappeared for
a couple of years and then came back in 1993-94 with my solo albums."
Having not fitted in anywhere, McNabb slowly evolved into an internet cottage
industry by his own admission. Selling records online, the digital age has been kind. Now putting together his memoirs for a future book, he says, "I always
wanted to be a Scouse Neil Young, I was one of those sort of artists who was never interested in being part of the fashion; Icicle Works became fashionable
for a very short time and that enables you to cut corners and get up there.
"We were only really going four or five years and it was pretty
action-packed but when it started dwindling we packed it in. The last Icicle Works album went Top 40, so we didn't wither on the vine. We got out before it
got too depressing."
Strangely, McNabb and The Icicle Works could be back in fashion after all this time.
d=full&objectid=17882299&siteid=50061-name_page.html)
How The Icicle Works made their return on the wave of
nostalgia
YOU want to examine the schizophrenic nature of the modern popular music fan's relationship with nostalgia, look no further than
Liverpool songwriting legend Ian McNabb.
The 45-year-old Newsham Park troubadour has spent the best part of 16 years ploughing a solo furrow after the
dissolution of his previous band, the late and lamented Icicle Works.
But now, 25 years after the inception of the band, he has resurrected the name
and rounds up an anniversary tour with a celebratory show at the Carling Academy in a fortnight's time. And it seems the fans are back again.
Tickets
are shifting quicker than ever, but McNabb is at pains to understand the difference between the old music and his solo career.
"That's the magic of
nostalgia," he says. "We are selling far more tickets now than we did on the last Icicle Works tour - but I suppose if you leave it long enough people will
come back and pretend that it is 1988 again.
"There are four times more people who have wanted to come out for this show than solo shows, but they'll
only come out if I only play songs I wrote before I was 28."
A songwriter's songwriter, McNabb's critically-acclaimed Neil Young influenced guitar
pop has been admired by many inside the industry and the buyers of Britain's glossy music magazines. What he wants back now are the fans that finished with
The Icicle Works.
"I suppose I would like this tour to bring back on board some of the people who fell off the ship. I'm hoping the people who would
never go and see Ian McNabb but will because it has Icicle Works on the ticket will come back again. I'm going to give them a big show, with two hours of
music, and let them know that I have a solo career and if they like The Icicle Works they will like my solo work. The only difference is that I am 45 instead
of 25."
While McNabb is eager to recruit fans to his new music, he is gratified with the esteem in which The Icicle Works is held.
He says,
"People have great affection for Icicle Works songs, and not just the songs - they remember a certain place or time where they were when they heard them
first.
"I can kind of understand the affection they have because I have had to go back and listen to the albums again to relearn the songs and I have
been asking myself: 'What was I doing when I wrote that song?'
"I went through a period of not wanting to listen to The Icicle Works but now I have
had to, I have a real affection for them now."
Icicle Works folded at the turn of the 1990s as the Madchester scene took over the popular
consciousness, meaning many new wave and old style indie rock acts had had their chips.
"Manchester did for us what Punk did for 1970s rockers," says
McNabb. "I remember we did a tour in 1990 which was successful, but we were seen as the old guard, we were completely out of it and I didn't fit in
anywhere.
"And that was despite the fact I was a couple of years younger than Clint Boon, from the Inspiral Carpets, and only a couple of years older
than Noel Gallagher. You can't make yourself fit because people won't buy it, so you just have to hold your hands up and take it. I sort of disappeared for
a couple of years and then came back in 1993-94 with my solo albums."
Having not fitted in anywhere, McNabb slowly evolved into an internet cottage
industry by his own admission. Selling records online, the digital age has been kind. Now putting together his memoirs for a future book, he says, "I always
wanted to be a Scouse Neil Young, I was one of those sort of artists who was never interested in being part of the fashion; Icicle Works became fashionable
for a very short time and that enables you to cut corners and get up there.
"We were only really going four or five years and it was pretty
action-packed but when it started dwindling we packed it in. The last Icicle Works album went Top 40, so we didn't wither on the vine. We got out before it
got too depressing."
Strangely, McNabb and The Icicle Works could be back in fashion after all this time.