Blog: Don't Ever Come Near WC1

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What what what? Is it a Bad Review?!? Well, sort of, it's a review of my gig at the 12 Bar a couple of weeks ago. He likes "Things'll Be Different" and "The Girl Who...", which is all very nice, but seems to be a bit upset about the "comedy" nature of songs like "Never Going Back To Aldi's" or "Hey Hey 16K", or indeed the PANTO content of "Easily Impressed".

Well, fair enough i guess - annoyingly it's a fair review withour GLARING ERRORS, so i can't just dismiss it, but I do think it misses the point a bit. Yes, the Audience Participation bit in "Easily Impressed" may seem a bit cheesy or corny, but GOODNESS ME, it's a LIVE gig, not a RECITAL! I'm not interested in people coming along to TAKE NOTES, it's supposed to be fun, isn't it? Similarly, I'd say "Never Going Back To Aldi's" and "Hey Hey 16K" are two of the MOST substance-filled songs I've got - they're each ABOUT something very real which matters A LOT. In the case of "Hey Hey 16K", as we DISCOVERED recently, it's about the otherwise little heralded LIFE HISTORY of thousands of people!

The trouble is that people aren't really USED to there being GAGS in songs, or if they DO hear something that makes them (or somebody else) laugh, then they immediately dismiss it as "comedy" or "novelty". This is not a reaction you get in ANY other form of (hem hem) The Arts, now is it? Nobody dismisses Pride And Prejudice because of all the LARFS (and anybody who doesn't think it IS full of LARFS should go and read it again - actually, just read it again anyway, as it is GRATE), and although Shakespeare is full of jokes that aren't particularly funny any more, it IS still full of them.

But in the KRAZY WORLD OF ROCK there is still this po-faced attitude that it has to be Serious, and being Serious somehow translates as being po-faced, vague and boring, where a LYRIC that actually SAYS something real and direct about ACTUAL LIFE is not allowed, but one that repeats the same old dreary cliches about the same old dreary things (c.f. all Nu Metal, The Charlatans, Stereophonics, all cod-Blues/pretend 80's punk bands except maybe The White Stripes etc etc the USUAL in fact) is Serious ROCK and should be sternly applauded. With added NODDING.

And it's not just cos it is THE MUSIC either - yr young people's RAP music is PACKED with jokes and OBSERVATIONS on Actual Real Life. The FOLK MUSIC, the real proper stuff that is, not the Sanitised ROOTS nonsense, is a long LITANY of hilarity and RUDENESS. Good gracious me, "The Queen Is Dead", supposedly the CORNERSTONE of yr EMO genre features the songs "Vicar In A Tutu" and "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others", doesn't it?

So yeah, as i say, although i appreciate that not everyone is going to be DOWN with the... um... HIBBETT MASSIVE, I think it would be GOOD for the Mental Health of The Nation if people could look BEYOND the pursed-anus viewpoints of the dreary mainstream, and let the JOY of ACTUAL ROCK into their lives!

Yeah!

posted 15/6/2004 by MJ Hibbett

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