Why is John Lydon still
given air time? The same tired soapbox of yore, the same drivel, the
same pseudo-anarchy, the same lack of point. On a recent BBC Four
documentary he trotted out the received line on New Wave, pouring
stock ready-mix scorn on The Police, accusing Sting of being
interested in money, of being less than a gentle Buddhist “...when
there's a dollar in it!”, nudging, winking, nodding, grinning, eyes
bulging, pantomime Dame played by tedious pub boor. Yes, we got the
clever-stupid act when you did it the first time. You're not nineteen
any more man, grow up. PIL made some good records, and to be fair,
musicians generally make more sense on record than they do in person,
but he does insist on being a social commentator so he should be
judged with the same degree of rigour as any other pundit. The man's
an embarrassment.
On
Question Time he scored easy brownie points by railing against the
political class as a whole then lost them by ranting over members of
the audience. He hopes to be seen as impish but he's merely rude and
incoherent. He likes the idea of being an agent
provocateur, a malcontent, a mischief maker, an eternal stick
in the craw of the establishment. His responses are always framed to
show how he's a bit different, you see. Bit of an individual.
“I'm not speaking as
a middle class twat from Tring here, I'm from Finsbury Park, I'm a
working class solid boy, me”. And there it is, it had to come out
at some point. Kept in the back pocket for ready access like a
schoolboy with a catapult: populist class-war dick-sizing . It just
made him seem desperately old fashioned. Which he always was. Recall
that this is the man who described Human League as 'trendy hippies'.
This great revolutionary was a reactionary, brandishing the
establishment musician's tool of choice, the guitar, against the
innovation and limitless potential of the synthesizer.
Unbelievably, and it
makes me almost physically sick to admit it, it was a relief to
listen to the odious Louise Mensch. At least she waits her turn.
4 comments:
I too watched those Punk Brittania docs. Mostly people trying to sound plausible and deliberate about stuff they did instinctively and accidentally over 30 years ago. It was interesting to see so many amphetamine chiselled faces disintegrating and ballooning in seconds. Did you spot our old slum basement studio landlord playing bass in The Pop Group in the 'new wave' episode 3. P.s. I loathe THE JAM. x Lord Dragon
That's exactly right; when people are interviewed about their music they indulge in ex post facto rationalisations of non-rational processes. I've found myself doing exactly the same thing in interviews, and have to check myself, then I've started telling the journalist about that very fact, and unfortunately what makes for an interesting interview is very often not the truth.
Ah, so the Exp. Pop Band came out of the Pop Group did it?
Dan C. who sub-letted us the 'Logic House' basement on Kings Square (Where all our equipment rotted with damp) was/is bass player in The Pop Group - no connection with the experimentals.
Oh. All this time i thought he was in the Exp Pop Band.
My books still smell of that place. My room smelt for a year afterwards as aresult of the books smelling. It was a fucking daft idea storing shit in there. Poor Bugs has only recently shifted that deathly green pallour he built up from years in that shit hole.
Post a Comment