Velvet Goldmine
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Velvet Goldmine |
| Abbreviation(s): | VG |
| Creator: | Todd Haynes (Director) |
| Date(s): | 1998 |
| Medium: | Film |
| Country of Origin: | UK, USA |
| External Links: | at IMDb at Wikipedia |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Velvet Goldmine is a 1998 movie. Set mostly in flashback in 1970s England, Velvet Goldmine charts the volatile relationship between rock stars Brian Slade (reportedly based on David Bowie and played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and Curt Wild (reportedly based on Iggy Pop and played by Ewan McGregor), described in detail in a 1984 interview with British journalist Arthur Stuart (played by Christian Bale).
The characters and plot hover somewhere between fictionalized autobiography, RPF AU, and roman à clef.
Many fannish terms and expressions developed from the film's more memorable lines, many of which themselves came directly from the works of Oscar Wilde. Wilde also features very briefly as a character in the opening scenes.
Velvet Goldmine Fandom
The fandom mostly focusses on slash pairings. One of the most prominent ships is Brian/Curt, but there's also fan fiction about Curt/Arthur (played by Christian Bale) and Brian's wife Mandy.
The first active fannish community was vglist, a mailing list originally created by Keiko_Kirin on Onelist in February 1999. An invitation-only splinter group, Glitterati, was formed later that year. The Yahoo group AllVGFic was also formed in October 1999.
Although they have been completely inactive since 2007 and 2004, respectively, both vglist and Glitterati still exist:
vglist at Yahoo!Groups
Glitterati at Yahoo!Groups
From May 2004-May 2005, Varda the Message ran "A Daily Dose of Velvet Goldmine Trivia", which has been indexed. Topics covered included:
Script vs Film
Real Life Parallels
Rock & Roll History
Who's (Supposedly) Who
Quotes
Songs
Lyrics
Slang & Briticisms
Cinematic Details
Production Trivia
Period Details
Costumes
Obsessive Viewing Observations
Esoterica
Gaffes
Six Degrees of Cinema (actors in other films with VG actors)
Varda the Message effectively takes the place of pre-LiveJournal fansites which have unfortunately disappeared, such as the noteworthy Venus, The Velvet Goldmine Fan Planet and Kay's Velvet Goldmine Site.
As of December 2012, there are respectively 88 works in the fandom tag on AO3 and 291 works in the same category on FFN.[1] By November 2022 the numbers increased to 350 works in AO3 and decreased to 284 in FFN.
The appreciation for the Velvet Goldmine fandom seems to be something that was consolidated in 2012 and gained strength on the internet later on, being spread among friends as something peculiarly passionate, like a wonderful madness according to the words of one of them:
[museattackattack]
Don’t be sorry! If I started to catalog my past obsessions, and my current, omgggggg. I mean, you were there for Velvet Goldmine. O___O[2]
[dragonmuse]
Velvet Goldmine was totally different as that was a shared wonderful madness. I went to my parent’s basement to watch Velvet Goldmine for the first time, watched it twice instead and emerged a different person. True facts.[3]
Fanworks
Fanfiction
- In the Gutter, Dressed in Glitter, Looking at Stars by julien (julie), Arthur is driven to follow his dreams. He finally quits his job as a journalist, and sets out to write a book about rock star Curt Wild. (Arthur Stuart/Curt Wild - Feb 14, 1999)
- The Day the Music Died by Ladyhawk, Saying goodbye is bittersweet. (Arthur Stuart/Curt Wild - May 2, 2000)
- sometimes, you get so lonely by a_tsumi, The nature of their work forced Arthur and Curt to be far from each other from time to time. (Arthur Stuart/Curt Wild)
Fanzine
- Exceedingly Partial to the Practice (slash)
- Rewriting History (slash)
Gifset and Graphics
- For once there was an unknown land, full of strange flowers and subtle perfumes. The land of which it is joy of all joys to dream. A land where all things are perfect, and poisonous. post by salandered with Oscar Wilde poem – reblog by dragonmuse, Archived version
- Velvet Goldmine (UK - USA, 1998) post by in-love-with-movies – reblog by mckitterick, Archived version
Other
- Ten reasons why you should go watch/rewatch Velvet Goldmine immediately, Archived version (with reblogs and answers from gothiccharmschool, simplybentley, artbyvictoriaskye and minim-calibre)
Archives, Communities & Resources
Archives
- Velvet Goldmine RPF tag at AO3
- Velvet Goldmine (1998) tag at AO3
- Velvet Goldmine category at FFN
- Velvet Goldmine Crossover category at FFN
- satellite of love: a velvet goldmine fan fiction archive by shrift (since May 2003) -- archived link
- Pretty Boys, Unlimited (PBU) (archived) (since November 1999)
- To Sleep Perchance to Dream
- Mace's Corner multifandom slash photo manips including VG content
Communities
Fansites and Webrings
- A Tribute to Velvet Goldmine by Katie Bischoff (include a Six Degrees of VG)
- Velvet Goldmine Random Quote Generator
- zounds * velvet goldmine (intro site) by Roxy Wilde
- zounds * velvet goldmine (main site) by Roxy Wilde
- _________VELVET LIFE (for your dirty glam needs)
- Sebastian Equinox' Velvet Goldmine Compendium
- Kay's Velvet Goldmine site (include a lot of material about the film, like gaffes or recording/continuity errors, trivias, documentary besides a section about the differences between UK and US version)
- The Ballad of Maxwell Demon Webring (index)
- The Ballad of Maxwell Demon Webring (main site)
- The Ballad of Maxwell Demon Webring (the ring)
- The Ballad of Maxwell Demon Webring (the frames)
- The Ballad of Maxwell Demon RingSurf
References
- ^ Data collected by on_verra in December 12, 2012. Pages not archived for future conferences.
- ^ museattackattack (2022-11-28). "Don't be sorry! If I started..." Tumblr. Archived from the original on 2014-01-06.
- ^ dragonmuse (2022-11-28). "Velvet Goldmine was totally different..." Tumblr. Archived from the original on 2014-01-06.