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When obsession finally pays off
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2007
Dec 13
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We all have bands we love and are passionate about, maybe even obsess over. For myself, I’d say “my band” is Guns N Roses. When I met my wife back in high school I thought “her band” was U2. I know she still loves U2 and there are a lot of U2 albums adorning out CD shelf, but little did I know that U2 was merely a front.
No, her “real” band is New Order. New who, you say? That’s what I first said too. I would come to learn that New Order could be one of the most important bands to ever come along (and that’s not pandering).
New Order is one of those bands that you may not know off the top of your head, but you’ve certainly heard one of their songs. Even naming songs like Blue Monday, True Faith, and Regret probably don’t mean much, but if you heard them you’d know them.
Classified as part of the New Wave movement of the 80s, I’ve come to find that “New Wave” was just a convenient label. New Order, I think, is better qualified as a dance/techno band. Actually, New Order could be responsible for creating electronic dance music…club music…as we know it today. I also came to find that I was tied to New Order more closely than I could have ever guessed even before I knew who they were. My love of Moog music made me only once removed from New Order in the timeline of electronic music.
My little history aside, Jen’s history with New Order dates back to since I don’t know when. We were both too young to recall the height of their popularity and their debut on the music scene in the early 80s, but since her I’ve had to endure many New Order experiences, including a jet setter trip to Chicago to see one of their few US concerts. I now know more about New Order and its members than I ever wanted or needed to know.
New Order’s lead singer, Bernard Sumner, has been the center of her band affection for as long as I’ve known. She knows the birthdays, the grade school history, hell, she even knows where he goes to buy chocolate. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve heard, “I should have been born in England.” You can certainly call it an obsession.
The place for New Order fans on the net was a forum called New Order On-line. It was pretty much the only place to talk about the band, the members, and the music. Having been a lurker on the site for a long time, Jen quickly found that the message board was run with an iron fist. In essence, the forum ended up being a place to only talk about music and technology, not about the people. But Jen, being a fan (and a girl) was most interested in the lives of the people that made up the band, specifically the singer/guitarist, Bernard.
Left unsatisfied with the current state of places to talk about the people of New Order, we combined our powers to create a web site. A place that is less about keyboards and mic stands and more about the lives of the people that make the music interesting.
The result was Barney’s Angels - a forum dedicated to New Order and Bernard Sumner (Barney), and quite possibly the truest form of a fan site ever. I don’t exactly recall where we got the name, I think it was a play on something someone had said in a forum or blog somewhere. Eitherway, it had a good ring to it.
And the site didn’t need to be complex. They just needed a forum, so a forum they got. The site is really just a message board with a nice face. Combine that with the power of Flickr and you got a good hang out spot. The formula is simple, technically. Everything else relies on the members themselves…the Angels. The site took off, relatively speaking, and then what was a crazy obsession finally got validated somewhat unexpectedly in the Summer of 2007.
Author David Nolan, who wrote the book “I Swear I was There,” which told the tale of the first Sex Pistols show, wrote a new book about, of all people, Bernard Sumner. The book entitled “Bernard Sumner: Confusion…” was released in August and accounted the life and times of the lead singer. The first chapter of the book is called “Scuttlers & Suedeheads.” The last chapter of the book is called, “Barney’s Angels.” I kid you not. And there on page 186 in what is to-date the definitive Bernard Sumner biography, is the story of Barney’s Angels…or as Jen likes to remind me, “the book starts with his mother and ends with me.”
We’re all fans of something but rarely does it ever seem to pay off significantly. Obsession usually just sucks money out of our pockets and that’s about it. We take joy in the fact that we are the “experts” amongst our friends, whether it be in music, computers, toys, cars, cartoons…whatever. We spend our money to make that happen but most of us never get past our own inner circle. But Barney’s Angels goes to show that obsession can pay off if you keep at it and find some way to show off. You don’t need bells and whistles either, just passionate people…obsessed people…that like to have some fun.