Cubscouts are screaming, needing icescreaming and all the pleasures of June
I’m in a parked car, flowers seem friendly and people in hall ways feel walls.
Now it is night time, maybe we’re cruising avoiding the anti-cruise.
Oh I don’t really know where we are.
Three simple tones on the piano. Not a guitar riff intro, but a piano kicks of the debut LP of the guitar band we’ve come to love. Ten years on it illustrates the ever-changing nature of Turin Brakes. Never choosing the straight road ahead, but experimenting and doing things when necessary. It may not always be easy but ten years on it’s clear that whether you are an optimist or not, Turin Brakes are making music for all kinds of people. For young and old, for men and women. Whether you feel lost in the world and need to find your space, whether you are scared of big decisions or want to face the road ahead without any fear. Turin Brakes offer a soundtrack for all of us. And it all started with The Optimist LP. It all started with three simple piano tones.
This next month we’ll look back on the complete Optimist album. Expect stories and tales about the songs, the record, the videos and even the live gigs. Many fans have already send in their story and you can still send yours to ethersite@gmail.com. This month, all stories will be featured on this blog, afterwards they’ll move to their own space on the internet for everyone to see and read. All stories are beautiful, very personal, inspirational and sometimes even emotional and I feel honoured that so many people have responded to the Call for Optimists. Before the month of inspirational stories kicks off, I would like to say “thank you” to everyone. This is an on-going project and everyone’s contribution is VERY welcome.
Tomorrow (2 March) we’ll start properly – with the first fan story. The order of contributions is the order they arrived in my inbox, with a few exceptions for dramatic effect (the final entry will be from a very special someone).
I hope you will enjoy reading these contributions as much as I have done and that you’ll feel that this project does The Optimist LP justice. As you will come to realise, The Optimist LP has influenced a lot of lives (or maybe you know this already because it has influenced yours). From today, these stories come together in The Optimist Gallery, so that they may never fall into oblivion.
[Ether Site Update] THE OPTIMIST LP | 10 years | The Gallery Starts – https://www.turinbrakes.nl/news/2011/03/0…
Still my favorite album after 10 years.
Un vrai coup de coeur !
Je rêve d’un concert à Nancy… Please please please guys !
I wonder if Olly and Gale ever dreamed the LP would still be this popular 10 years on ? Some of the greatest songs i’ve ever heard are on the optimist and i still never get tired of listening to it. Thanks, and good luck with the future boys 🙂
a great album!
thank you for continually making the music that you want to make and giving my ears a lot of joy! please keep on making albums like you have done until now and come to Belgium sometime (saw you guys in Eindhoven last year and it was magic!)
I heard Toxic Girl by Kings of Convenience and loved it. A friend gave me the single and I bought the album. Loved it. My friend said, if you like KoC then you’ll like Turin Brakes. He was so right.
I bought The Optimist LP and was initially slightly put off by references to WD40, syphilis, HIV. I soon got passed that and indulged in the beautiful guitar sounds, melodies, harmonies and atmospherics. I was smitten and from that point on was compelled to listen to everything they released. To this day TB are my most watched live band. I remember catching them at the V festival just prior to the release of Ether Song. The experience in that tent was the closest to religion that I’ve ever experienced.
Thank you TB
My favourite live moment of the times I’ve seen Turin Brakes was at Glastonbury in 2003. Playing the main stage at about 4 in the afternoon, they’d come one stage and played a couple of songs without speaking to the crowd. The music died down and there was a pause before (I think) Olly leant into the microphone and announced in a slightly waivering voice: “I don’t mind telling you, we’re absolutely sh*tting ourselves up here!”
Big cheer from the big big crowd, great gig. Thanks!