{"title":"Self Drive Records","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"good-technology","title":"Good Technology","description":"\u003cp\u003e“1983: It was a different world. The world wide web hadn't been invented yet, Facebook and iPhones were another 20 years away and there were a mere 100 McDonald’s in the UK. Thatcher had just won her landslide victory and the first cruise missiles were arriving at Greenham Common. Unemployment was over 3 million. A hundred years of industrial might was to be scrapped in favour of the deregulated banking and service industries which would make us all wealthy. The burgeoning new technology promised a brighter future for us all. Life would be easier. Culture Club were at number one. Some very popular songs fade over time as tastes change but a great song should be able to speak to every new generation that discovers it. At its core there is a truth. Alternative facts don’t exist despite what the New Right would have you believe. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eGood Technology\u003c\/i\u003e is a very simple three chord song based on a hypnotic kick drum and bass that remain constant and unchanging throughout the entire song. In essence it is a call and response song. For each vocal line telling us of the wonderful new things we’ve got, there is a response from the guitars starting with simple harmonics and building slowly and uneasily to a blistering breathless solo before the pay off. Politically it is pin sharp but there is no tub thumping here. A dystopian prophesy of things to come. It’s all there. It uncannily predicts the power of the internet and social media, environmental catastrophe, reality TV, the fast-food industry and an ever more grotesque arms industry. 40 years on and the promise, like the country, is broken. Public services have been hollowed out to the barest shells. Levels of poverty are unprecedented since Victorian times. The new gig economy has left people who are working minimum wage jobs struggling to survive. Today there are more food banks in the UK than McDonald’s. It seems the right time to rerelease this song to a new audience.” JR 2023\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Self Drive Records","offers":[{"title":"12\"","offer_id":50506850107723,"sku":"2025223","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/RedGuitar_af82097c_thumbnail_4096.webp?v=1727831575"},{"product_id":"good-technology-1982-1984","title":"Good Technology (1982 - 1984)","description":"\u003cp\u003eRed Guitars, indie favourites of the 1980’s, reformed in 2022 for a UK tour promoted by AEG Presents \/ The tour was so successful that the original line-up are recording a new album and planning a tour to promote it for Autumn 2023 \/ June marks 40 years since their debut single “Good Technology” came out and the band are releasing a limited edition, red vinyl 12” extended remix and video to celebrate the anniversary. This CD contains all the tracks from their “Slow To Fade” album plus the four singles released by the original line-up on their own Self Drive Records label. RED GUITARS - one of the finest and most successful bands to come out of Hull - have reunited! With their complete and original line-up, the band hit the road for a run of UK shows in April 2022. Red Guitars were formed around the partnership of singer Jeremy Kidd and guitarist Hallam Lewis. Initially cutting their teeth playing benefit shows for a series of left-wing causes, Red Guitars quickly built a loyal following, before launching an assault on the charts with a series of singles via their own Self Drive Records label that would see them earn national renown. Proving an instant hit with their debut single \"Good Technology\", which shifted an impressive 60,000 copies on their own Self Drive Records label, they went on to top the independent charts with consecutive No.1 hits \"Steeltown\" and Marimba Jive\". Forging their own infectious sound with a unique blend of Indie rock and African rhythms, the band were invited to perform on cult 1980s Channel 4 music show The Tube, the BBC's Whistle Test and six BBC Radio One sessions, two of them for John Peel. Having reached a wide audience by supporting The Smiths on their breakthrough tour, the band went on to perform extensively in the UK and Europe. They released their seminal debut album \"Slow To Fade\" in 1984, but frontman Jeremy Kidd announced his departure soon after and Red Guitars ultimately disbanded completely two years later. “Good Technology is one of those tracks that grabs you by the ears on first listen, the sort of thing that even before it's halfway through you know you love. Tense pulsing background with sharp spikes of guitar, it's clearly not long after early Talking Heads and New Romantics. It swells and spreads expansive and awkward, but the thing that sets it apart and makes it worthy of remembering 20 years on is the arresting lyric.” Dust On The Stylus Blog - “Via one delicious melody and an ominously building beat, Red Guitars itemise the sundry achievements of modern science, from underarm personal hygiene to the hardware of instant Armageddon. In so doing, the song constructs an unforgettable vision of a world that's grown too clever by one-and-a-half at least.” Paul Du Noyer reviewing Good Technology in the NME on 27\/08\/83.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Self Drive Records","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50521579815243,"sku":"2010791","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Red_Guitars_-_Good_Technology_366db52c_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727992446"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/self-drive-records.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}