Matthew Bannister explains French Symbolism. Really.
One of the best things about an academic conference about music held in Dunedin is that seemingly half of the Flying Nun artists of the 80s have gone on to become respected academics in the field. Matthew Bannister was the frontman for Sneaky Feelings, and presented a great paper on the connection between The Verlaines and French Symbolist poetry.
The best thing about that, of course, was that Verlaines singer and songwriter Graeme Downes (also, these days, an academic) was in the audience for that presentation.
Matthew sadly ran out of time before he could give his conclusion, as sometimes happens in conference presentations. The chair of the session called the paper to a halt so that there would be enough time for questions.
“Are there any questions?”
I shot up my hand: “What was your conclusion?”
Dunedin Sound intertextuality at work
Later that evening, Matthew played a solo set in which he did some rather nice covers of Verlaines songs — again with Graeme in the audience. Must have been a weird day for Graeme — though I suspect he’s used to having his work closely scrutinised. He was a genius long before he was a professional thinker — and when you write songs about Rimbaud, James Joyce and Debussy you kind of get what you deserve.
On the way to the gig, I bought the (far more prosaic) Sneaky Feelings compilation Positively George Street, on George Street in Dunedin — and then had Matthew sign it.
Big fan of the smart pop stars…
Having a wonderful time, wish you were here.
Tagged: New Zealand, Travel