Beyond the starting line
indie4me begins with British independent music in 1977. Origins looks just beyond that line, at the artists the scene documented here repeatedly named, borrowed from and built upon.
They sit outside the archive's usual remit, but inside its story.
Origins
In Britain, The Doors were a minor act who never had a hit while Jim Morrison was alive. Their highest UK chart placing came twenty years after he died. This is the story of a band the British took seriously only once they were safely historical — and then built half of post-punk out of.
Michele Harding · Pre-1977 · Los Angeles
Origins
He had the Velvet Underground before Britain could buy them, mixed the Stooges, produced Lou Reed and saved Mott the Hoople from breaking up — all in about eighteen months. What British indie took from David Bowie was never the costumes.
Michele Harding · Pre-1977 · London
Origins
Everyone repeats the line about the first Velvet Underground album: nobody bought it, and everyone who did started a band. The truth is more interesting — and the story runs through a Welsh mining village, a London acetate, and almost everything British indie did afterwards.
Michele Harding · Pre-1977 · New York