Love And Rockets — ＂No New Tale To Tell＂

JUL 01 1987 · 12:00

Love And Rockets — ＂No New Tale To Tell＂ (1987) Director: Tony van den Ende Era: Late-80s Alt-Rock Crossover (1987) - Post-punk acts pivoting toward acoustic pop and MTV-friendly production during the height of alternative rock's mainstream infiltration High curatorial value as a documented artifact of the late-80s UK post-punk/alternative crossover, directed by a confirmed MTV-era auteur with a traceable filmography. The video's inclusion in the 1990 'Haunted Fish Tank' compilation confirms its canonical status within the band's visual archive. It serves as a precise aesthetic and cultural marker of the moment when Bauhaus-adjacent acts sought — and partially achieved — mainstream legitimacy without forfeiting subcultural credibility, making it essential viewing for researchers of alternative music's commercialization trajectory. Context: Released in 1987 on Beggars Banquet Records, 'No New Tale to Tell' emerged during a period when UK post-punk bands were broadening their sonic palette for mainstream accessibility without entirely abandoning their underground identities. Love and Rockets — formed from the ashes of Bauhaus — represented the post-goth pivot toward melodic, acoustic-tinged alternative rock. The song's appearance on 'Earth, Sun, Moon' marked a deliberate acoustic turn that resonated on US Mainstream Rock radio and MTV, peaking at #18 on the Mainstream Rock chart and laying groundwork for their 1989 US pop breakthrough 'So Alive.' The video, directed by Tony van den Ende — a key visual architect of the British MTV era — embodies the low-to-mid budget UK promo clip aesthetic: expressive performance footage edited with kinetic urgency to compensate for conceptual minimalism. Director notes: Confirmed via IMDb (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33347449/) as director of this 1987 UK music video with a runtime of approximately 4 minutes. The video was later edited into the Love and Rockets compilation 'The Haunted Fish Tank' (1990). Van den Ende had a prior working relationship with Love and Rockets, having also directed their 1986 video 'Yin and Yang (The Flowerpot Man)' per IMVDb records. The video was produced in the United Kingdom and released on the Beggars Banquet label.