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Many thanks! It was a great time, and also an over-indulgent time. While there was a flood of great music being made, there was also a rise in over-hype thanks to MTV deciding to go big, resulting in a music industry that went a little too mad. Kind of like the rise of Mall Life in The US, actually, when you thought that the party was not going to end, but we all know how business goes when the spinning goes out of control. The eternal Fast Times at Ridgemont High was not to be...in fact, Dawn of the Dead was more of the final reality.

Now onto the reply...

On The Firm...

With Paul Rodgers, I was referring to the physical presence which was more down to earth in presence than the others. Back in the Mid-80's, it was getting to the point where singers were getting visually aware, knowing that their biggest audience in The States was watching MTV. Many of the more successful of the time, including David Lee Roth, Dee Snider, and so on were really playing to the audience, even those who were not as theatrical but still having some noticeable traits such as hitting the high notes and being over-emotive at times, especially with the Big Ballad (could you imagine Jimmy Page writing something like "I Wanna Know What Love Is"? Not really!). Today, I can see those who we can call classic rock fans far more appreciative of Rodgers delivering a good vocal - it was just being in that intense storm of Hair and High Voices of The 80's that drowned out his style. Yes, Rodgers can belt it out in a good way, but I'm talking about Drama-ridden "Trouble in the Bathroom" High Voices in an age of extreme.

I can say that at times Jimmy Page was trying to get things moving on stage (always did), but as it usually is with the younger viewers, the sights were on the singer more and more. The Firm were more 4 Minute song oriented keeping his flash under some time constraints, which is possibly the reason why they were best experienced live than on disc.

* - Sidenote time - OK, there may be some wondering about my thoughts on a more sedate guitarist who made it big in The 80's, Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits. Let's just say that they had the luck to get an eye-catching video for "Money for Nothing", a song with Sting singing that iconic MTV phrase. They were already going OK, but not as mega as the Brothers in Arms era (Come to think about it...maybe they also had a couple of US C/O bin albums in between the debut and that mega-hit...).

As for the Madness article - I was a strong British Music listener in the Early 80's, always taking note of the bands that never really crossed over. Madness were one of my favorites, very much like all of the serious listeners of the new music in the US, and that album was something that only the really faithful got where I'm at, and it was released at the perfect time that the party was done - Dexy's Don't Stand Me Down, Icicle Works not getting their second album released in The States despite getting a Top 40 with their debut (I guess Arista/US were mainly focusing on Whitney Huston and other stars by that time - I think that their "Alternative" division was getting shorted out), a lot of the stars taming their sound for the Mid 80's and usually best known for soundtrack contributions, the Goth Scene starting to be more of a main concern with the more serious listeners (I was headed that way, too).

I'm convinced that those who were listening in The US got Mad Not Mad through the C/O in that "Oh! They had another album out!" kind of way, taking it home, and thinking if it was really going to go to splitsville - which it did for a while until the reunion of Madstock. It was the kind of disc that the few serious listeners of the New Pop in the US got, reflecting that in the height of it's popularity, it was obvious that very few were seriously into it in The States. Wake up time for me, just getting out of High School, but with some great sounds giving me the notice.

A lot of C/O albums from The 80's reflect ends of an era in my opinion. I am interested in them - pointing to a 13-year old me listening to The Monkees' Head soundtrack (yet another C/O of it's day) and finding myself intrigued by the "You know that this is the last time they will be this good, and they're letting it all pour out" feeling. Some of them, like The Firm's album, represents the other kind of "They're aiming for the big time, but something's missing" feeling that which also draws me in.

Connecting this to Mall Life - The 80's and Early 90's led many to believe the party was not going to end, but those who knew the nature of the beast already saw the cracks in the plan. My opinion that the Mall industry's fall in the Late 90's possibly led to the music industry's big downfall may have some truth to it, and you know that a few big stores with a few devoted customers in a time when MTV stopped playing a lot of music could not seriously meet up with the financial demands. The Mid 90's (The Ephedra Generation in my opinion...humm, now what was that about Zombies? "Spun" out people!) was also a time when they were trying to keep people interested with "Alternative" trends trying to keep the business afloat before finding out that a lot of people left and only focused on that they thought were the sure things by '97-98.