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Old 13-11-2018, 10:16
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darkanddivine darkanddivine is offline
Winterlover
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Wolfland
Posts: 6,982
Yo folks, I expected about 3 responses to this, thanks for all your thoughts! So I suppose I should add my own…

I distinctly remember getting an electric shock down my spine when the “comet” noise came on the first time I heard Tolerate, probably unlike any other reaction I’ve had to a track. After that, to be honest the album could have been 14 hours of Sean Moore trumpet solos and I would still have loved it. I do remember waiting for Top of the Pops to (hopefully) see a plugged in live version, but it was one of those weird live vocals (but with a backing track) only performances.

When the album came out I was literally starting college the same day, so I had to fly into town to buy the one with the fancy silver letters, one that has just about survived until this day. I remember doing that very teenage thing of spending the first night with the thing on repeat poring over the lyrics. I’m pretty sure I thought I’d be able to impress my friends if I knew all the words by the following day. It turns out my level of obsession wasn’t matched by anyone else!

Not long after, I distinctly remember going to a college day out on the train. While my mates all sat around chatting, I went full on anti-social and had the album on. I love the power of particular pieces of music to transport you to a time and a place, and so whenever I hear Black Dog, I’m instantly back on that train with the autumn countryside rolling by.

Like many of you, this was also the moment I finally got to see the band live after a couple of failed efforts on the EMG tours. I didn’t even make the 98 arena tour, but I made it to V99 Staffordshire. I know the footage on Youtube is from the Chelmsford leg, but the feeling around those shows was very similar. Imagine a massive moshpit, even in the VERSES of You Stole The Sun. That’s how massive the guys were at that point. And, as they headed towards KYE it was nice to see that awkward clash between Truth, and them bringing Faster, Of Walking Abortion and Masses into the set. That was a hell of a show (and loud as fuck.) I remember getting back home, and waking up my mum at 2am to come and get me (BT phonecard anyone?) and was in a daydream for about a month.

I did try to get to Manic Millennium but then realised I had about 12p and a BT phonecard to my name, and the idea of sleeping in a train station didn’t sound that appealing. And I had V99 anyway, which was good enough to me.

And that was very much that. Probably more than anything, Truth just fit the mood of the moment at that point in my life. It was an album I could truly escape into. In a way it was almost like a drug I’d been given to help deal with the growing pains of my mid to late teenage years. I’ve probably always overrated it because of that emotional attachment. It clearly has its flaws, but because of the therapeutic qualities it has, and the way the band consumed my brain at that point, none of that seemed to matter. If you get drawn into it there’s no getting out. And I guess for those of us who like it, that might be its greatest strength.
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