Friday’s Fraudulent Fripperies
Well, it’s been an interesting week, hasn’t it. There have been some pretty major blow-ups in the blogosphere, posts taken down, people quitting, and some pretty angry tantrums. And fucking fair enough, too, quite frankly.
The weirdest thing about the whole situation is just how disjointed it all is. Ed received a takedown again yesterday for posting a Keane remix which was sent to him by a PR contact and hence, one has to assume, legitimate. That same PR person was baffled and not a little annoyed by the takedown notice, telling me this morning that:
“This is hugely frustrating. All the band/ management/ label wanted to do was to giveaway the CSS remix to a handful of blogs so that fans could get a wee thank you for making the album No.1.”
And as much as I don’t like Keane, this is a pretty decent thing to want to do – definitely how we would all want our favourite bands to be thinking.
What happened with Glasvegas has also baffled and annoyed Columbia UK, who knew nothing about it until the angry reactions were pointed out to them. It turns out it was nothing to do with them: Sony BMG in the States had been the ones wielding the flame thrower.
This pretty much sums up why I hate the major labels. Almost none of the individual people working for them will be stupid, but moving in large groups makes people stupid. None of us, as the saying goes, is as stupid as all of us. Or, from the rather splendid film Men in Black: “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.” While people on the internet have been innovating for them, the major labels have presumably not been standing still, and presumably they will have had some amazing ideas, but as soon as you have large meetings and committees and a legal department, A&R, management, publicity and global strategy all involved then innovation is killed stone dead.
Innovation seems to find it almost impossible to survive meetings. I know this because this is exactly what I see every day in Proper Job. Consequently the major labels, by virtue of their sheer size, are proving virtually impossible to move forwards in this respect.
Then the other side of it: the self-righteous bleating about illegal downloading when they themselves do not even have a coherent internal position on it. The right hand wants the remix out there and the left hand abhors mp3 blogs. Until such time as they know what they are thinking collectively and have an actual, consistent position, irrespective of its merits, they have no right threatening people and interfering with what the rest of the world is doing. Get your own fucking house in order before you start invading ours and destroying our work, you disgusting hypocrites.
There’s another side to this: the bands. Reading The Pop Cop I happened across this particular snippet, and Jason is pretty well connected within the music industry, so I think he is a credible source.
“it’s clear that many people don’t think Glasvegas themselves are immune from blame. In fact, we can tell you that the band have been made personally aware of the situation but have chosen not to comment on it.”
Which says one thing to me: fuck Glasvegas, fuck their careers and fuck their music. Let them rot. They were happy enough to enjoy all Ed’s hard work when they wanted him onside, but now things have changed and the minute this happens they snuggle up to the devil’s penis and lick it lovingly like the loyal lapdogs they are. Not an apology, not an explanation, not even a message of goodwill. They could easily have emailed Ed and simply expressed regret for what happened. They wouldn’t have had to condemn their label, which would have been brave, they could simply have grown a teeny tiny little bit of a fucking spine, or had some grace, or even simple manners. But they couldn’t muster even that, so fuck them. If that’s the particular flavour of jism they choose to swallow, may they fucking choke on it.
This week’s five were chosen by Dylan from Blueback Hotrod, official Toad photographer and all round bon vivant. They continue the theme of large corporations, which seems rather fitting, given the week we’ve just had. If you want to choose the five for next week, just pop me an email. As ever, please do take the chance to de-lurk and say hello. And after all the seriousness, wailing and gnashing of teeth, let’s take the chance to have some fun, eh.
1. Last major-label record bought (Not counting boutique subsiduaries – an act signed straight to one of the industry behemoths.)
2. Last item bought from IKEA
3. Average weekly spend in Tesco. (Or largest supermarket chain in your territory if not the UK)
4. Favourite brand of trainers (that’s sneakers, Americans).
5. Usual watering-hole – friendly local run in person by the landlord and host, or soul-less chain venue owned by an international leisure conglomerate?
What a fine and fitting selection of songs we have this week.
Bill Hicks – Satan Starmaker
Jeffrey Lewis – Don’t Let the Record Label Take You Out to Lunch
Hefner – The Greedy, Ugly People
David Cross – Women, Please Rinse Off Your Vagina And Anus!
The Wedding Present – Getting Nowhere Fast
And one more bonus, just because it’s so appropriate. The man was an unmitigated genius.
Bill Hicks – Fuck Only Artists
1) The Cure-Disintegration (Reissue on WEA)
2) Some pish plant i guess
3) Scot-mid £40-50
4) puma
5) where ever they’ll take my money
my head hurts and i blame Bart
1. REM Accelerate
2. A nice big angle-poise lamp that clamps to a desk. Six quid! Can’t argue with that sort of value..
3. Despite how often I bump into Bart there, I’d like to think it’s less than a tenner.
4. Adidas for posing, Merrell for romping.
5. Oh, friendly local all the way. Take your pick from a number running along Edinburgh’s northern shore!
1) Ben Fold’s Way To Normal, which is on Epic (aka Sony).
2) a “Mikael” (aka a desk).
3) ’bout £25.
4) erm, I’d say Converse, but last time I wore any I got shouted at by everybody because apparently they’re owned by Nike or somesuch megacorp. and as a result made in dirty sweatshops (hey – it keeps the kids off the streets!)
5) The Castle, Harrow-on-the-Hill.
1) I think Paul Weller’s back catalogue. Haven’t bought a record for ages. Kanye West’s latest i got in September.
2) Never ever shopped in ikea.
3) Twenny-odd.
4) New Balance as my feet are wide.
5) The former, Maltings is good.
Great piece….one of your best and strangely coherent!!!
1. Dunno. Probably Like Dylan, it would have been Accelerate.
2 Cup of Tea. Didnt much go for their furniture last visit (4 or 5 years ago)
3
2. Last item bought from IKEA
3. Average weekly spend in Tesco. (Or largest supermarket chain in your territory if not the UK)
4. Favourite brand of trainers (that’s sneakers, Americans).
5. Usual watering-hole – friendly local run in person by the landlord and host, or soul-less chain venue owned by an international leisure conglomerate?
Eh…sorry about that, hit some button that I didn’t mean to…be a good lad and clean it all up for for me…
3 £120 at Asda (the cats get spoiled rotten with at least a quarter of this expenditure)
4 K-Swiss
5 Horseshoe Bar, Glasgow. Probably has some sort of brewery backing, but feels like one run by a landlord
Quality post sir. Much better than my incoherent ramblings last night.
And as someone said elsewhere, the JMC should be issuing copyright violation notices to Glasvegas anyway.
1. Genuinely no idea it was so long ago.
2. 2 waste-paper baskets
3. Carrefour (They’re just as bad). About 50 euros.
4. Salomon always. Best in the world.
5. Il Baretto, Via Aubert, Aosta. Regular meeting place for the small band of indie-loving Scots in this, The Land Of No Decent Music.
1. Gosh, I can’t remember. It’s been ages. Ironically, it may have been Johnny Flynn.
2. Storage boxes. EXCITING.
3. Never go to Tesco (not so much of a political choice, just convenience). Whenever I spend £100 at Waitrose and think that it would be much cheaper going to Sainsbury’s, it never is.
4. Converse.
5. My local, across the road from my house, is a small London-based chain, but it is run by the landlord, so I guess a bit of both. However, I’ve been disturbed lately by their recent habit of playing bad music loudly on weeknight evenings. May have to get a new local…
Hi
1. Kings of Leon – Columbia, sorry. Before all this nonsense started. I won’t do it again
2. Something to keep all my shower stuff tidy
3. It varies massively depending on poverty status – more if i’m poor, less if i’m not. WEird maths
4. Probably nike, only wear to the gym
5. Obviously local – King’s Wark, Leith to be specific. Wonderfully friendly place to drink, great bar staff i hear!!
Yep – most of the staff in the Wark are really nice..
1. Johnny Flynn might be the closest I’ve come for a long time. Even if it is on a major and difficult to download you can always buy second hand from Amazon, rip it, and sell it on immediately.
2. A great big fuck off map of the world that goes up on our wall this weekend.
3. Scotmid, never more than £20 at a time, but probably £70 or £80 over the course of the week.
4. Converse. I wish I could think of something more alternative, but I can’t.
5. In Edinburgh there’s no excuse for spending money in a chain pub. I love the Pond, the King’s Wark (just polished off a whopping great plate of their slow braised chunks of lamb, with the help of a couple of pints of Kronenbourg), The Waverley, The Baillie in Stockbridge and any number of others. I only ever go in Scream pub The Crags on Sundays because my football team insist. They’re all academics and it’s cheap, but I fucking hate the place, despite there being a couple of cute girls behind the b… OW! what was that for honey?
“Yep – most of the staff in the Wark are really nice..”
Yeah, most of them.
Too any accents on the ‘most’ parts of those sentences!
Well some of the staff… phew, you should see them when they’re drunk. Not a pretty sight.
I’d actually have to agree to that!!
with that! Bloody hell, must be friday!! I’m agreeing to nothing!!
You need a pint, lass.
That’s something she usually agrees to.
I’ve got a glass of champagne – that explains a lot i’m sure!
Well it is Friday..
1. I think the last thing I bought from a big label was the last sigur ros album, not sure.
2. A rug, its lovely and sits beside my bed.
3. ASDA – £40 odd.
4. A nice tartan pair of cons
5. The Golden Rule’s a great wee pub, especially the wee downstairs “rule2″ bit (or rule squared, I can’t really work out. I think it’s a wee landlordy type but you can’t be sure. The Bailey Matthew was talking about sadly isn’t an independant, it’s caledonian heritable, they own 300 odd pubs in the city. Great wee boozer though eh, I always find it very hard to leave.
Bollocks. And it is indeed a nice wee pub. Does one owned by a chain count as being as evil as actually being a chain. I mean, some chains are fairly independent franchises and some are run by central command. Any idea which this is? Do the other pubs all behave the same way?
1. Kings of Leon.
2. Swedish Meatballs.
3. About £50 probably. Don’t get me started on supermarkets though.
4. Reebok pump…….obviously not, converse probably.
5. Black Bo’s being overlooked here. great pub. Kings Wark which looks exactly like the Burke and Hare – though some of the staff tend to slag off our chat in the wark . The Shore, Carriers Quarters, Cameo (had to say it for my friend Stuart who manages the place) and ofcourse the lovely scum den that is the City Cafe. It’s like the place Luke Skywalker meets Han Solo in Star Wars but with really plush toilets!
City Caff is really cool, and yes of course, scandalous not to mention Black Bo’s.
a pub is just a place to facilitate the meeting of friends, and of course i have my favourites, but i wouldn’t necessarily not go into a particular establishment because it was a ‘chain’ pub, and anyway there are plenty of wanky independent pubs and loads of good chain ones…..
Listening to Uncle Tupelo on last fm (which happens to be my new saviour at work)….bloody great
Tom – did you post twice with different answers??
I don’t drink on george street. not by choice, just because they always say that i’m “not appropriately dressed”…….which connects directly to converse being my favourite trainer brand I think.
Two different Toms.
nah thats i different tom…..i think….i hope….i dunno….maybe it’s my arse talking
No, no Euan. Please do get started about supermarkets. This thread needs a good rant.
And, I’m reliably informed that the bars in Mos Eisley are all renowned for the plushness of their toilets. It’s something they’re very proud of.
a instead of i
We have two Toms and two Euans, it seems. Although the two Euans are actually the same person, just one appears to occasionally be called the Steinberg Principle and put his email address down as his website.
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=47134399&blogID=127610897
1) Er, Christ I think Bloc Party’s second album. That’ll put you off eh? Do the New Pornographers count? I bought the download so I don’t even know who they’re with.
2) Settee cushion. Because when we bought the settee they were short a cushion. SO we had to go back and I refused to walk all around the shop to get to the back section but, was quite happy to explain to them that I had every right to go in the exit and just get the thing I needed and wasn’t it all their fault for not stocking the required number cushions for settee’s they had, and frankly I was quite grumpy from spending 3 months on a cushionless settee. And also settee is the English word for coach. My wife and Ikea security agree that I’m not allowed back.
3) $180 dollars. So erm, 80 quid? Organic food, so much better for the gut, not so much the wallet.
4) Addidas. Pure German, inner ankle supporting, technology.
5) Jacob Wirth. Pure German, dumpling in lemon sauce, technology.
don’t judge me! ;o)
dylan, it is true that the toilets in mos eisley were never really shown in the film. maybe we should save this chat for the wark and get shonga and angela involved too……
and i’m not getting started on tesco. i worked for them for a while and a more horrible group of people you could not possibly find. i could tell you stories, but i will bite my tongue!
What did you do in Tesco, Euan?
Shonga. Lovely.
i met Shonga last night and she is indeed lovely…..i was drunk…..so prob made a dick of myself…but i reckon Euan would’ve stuck up for me and said ‘Tom is no dick, he’s like this all the time’
I think the two Euans is down to whether or not he’s actually logged into Wordpress. I figured out that was why I was getting the two different little red car pictures coming up..
you didn’t make a dick of yourself because the first band on were too busy making dicks of themselves for anyone to notice anyone else making a dick of themselves. not that you made a dick of yourself. i feel like i am making a dick of myself right now though so will stop.
i didn’t work for tesco, i worked for their planning consultants. they asked me to do lots of things I didn’t agree with and I know some many dispicable stories about what these multi national supermarkets get up to. i got out of there as fast as i could and now spend my life saving old buildings from just such monsters. ;o)
shonga will kill me for calling her shonga again. and angela is actually called ashley I think. was being a dick again.
As long as Tom isn’t called Euan or vice versa then we’ll be fine.
1. Kid A by Radiohead, about three months ago.
2. Lots of furniture and kitchen things for my apartment when I was moving in back in June. I think my favorite is a combined chest of drawers and counter space on wheels that lives in my kitchen.
3. $45, which I think is around 25 quid with the current exchange rate…
4. Puma all the way. They look good, are super comfy, and really last.
5. In Berkeley I drink at home (until November 16, anyway), but in terms of sources of caffeine I refuse to go to Starbucks. I will not condone crap coffee! In Edinburgh I’m partial to Auld Hoose, Greyfriars Bobby, and McEwan’s on Clerk Street.
My sister worked on the deli counter at Tesco when she was about 18. Did you know her?
oh that first band……chaos-pad-tastic-shite
cancel the astronauts were great last night…..wouldn’t you agree Euan/Steinberg?
babygod were not to bad also
Shonga – nice!! It’s been a while since we cleared that one up, i’m so glad it’s resurfaced. I bet Tom is confused now – this is Shonga. CTA were great fun last night. Nice guys too!!
They are lovely blokes actually. I was putting together PR packs with Barticus, Neil and Rob, so I couldn’t make it.
Sarah – are you November 16th? Splendid. I’m November 19th and guess what’s happening in Edinburgh that night? The Rob St. John EP launch with Sparrow & the Workshop and Meursault. What a lineup! Happy first legal beer.
eh? i’m lost
Sarah C was alluding to the fact that her 21st birthday is on the 16th November and she will therefore be out drinking legally in America for the first time, having already spent a year drinking legally over here when she studied here last academic year. Needless to say, she has found it a little frustrating.
Cancel the Astronauts are nice blokes.
And Izzy is Shonga, Steinberg is Euan and Tom and Tom are both Tom.
What’s not to understand?
right i got most of that apart from the Izzy – Shonga bit…..if i was to bump into her again how would i address her?
The Bailey does have your standard head office who set the prices and what not, I’ve heard of Area managers being cocks to their staff and they must make daft amounts of money for some smug gangster type bastard but truth be told that doesn’t bother me to much.
I don’t mean to sound like a dick but every pub has someone who sets prices, some managers are always going to be cocks to their staff (fuckers) and in any successful business someone will make money. The good thing about the bailey, peartree… is they all seem to retain their character, it’s the same problem I have with IKEA, every fucker has a fucking billy bookcase. There’s not going to be any fucking antiques in the next 100 years and I don’t want to drink in a “global” pub.
I suppose what I’m saying is really what Tom said far more elequantly than me, I’d prefer to drinking in the bailey than something like that independant and utterly shit aspen bar.
Sorry, I realise I have ranted far more than is neccissary (especially for a fresh faced newcomer) I suppose I’m just angry that I also have a billy bookcase (and a lovely rug thats beside my bed) x
Shonagh!
I was being incognito, but have failed miserably!
thank you very much people….you’ve got me through a pain of day…..love to one and all….go and buy yourselves a drink and pretend that i bought it for you…..
Dav, dude, rant away man. It’s something of a rite of passage here.
I have four – count ‘em – four Billy Bookcases.
So? You’re thinking, but you haven’t seen how small my flat is.
Shonagh? Izzy?!
No way!..
I do not have a Billy bookcase, but they must be the most prevalent single piece of furniture in Western society at the moment.
I agree about the Aspen – independent and utterly awful. The Baillie is nice and as long as it remains that way I am not too fussed about who owns it.
I take your point about antiques. I was reading something (slightly pretentious) a while back, which focussed on an antique book issue as one of the central plot conceits and one of the characters made the point that no modern books are going to survive for anything like as long as their stitched counterparts. They are simply going to fall apart and then we will have no old books, which is a really depressing thought.
No old books, and no old bookcases to put them on.
Well, apart from obviously all the books and bookcases that are old now.
Aye, sorry, I have left things on a bit of a dampner, especially for a Friday. Good on you for avoiding the Billy bookcase, mine is pine.
pine laminate that is
You haven’t left things on a downer. We are just off to the pub, but my American readers like Sarach C will pick up the baton and find more cheerful things to discuss before this thread peters out, I think we can trust in them!
God bless them, every one!
Of my four Billy Bookcases, i have three different colours.
I have one tall one in the kitchen which has cookbooks on it, along with my collection of branded pint glasses and my chinese dinner set. That one is a kind of darker shade of brown.
I have two medium height ones which are quite wide. They generally have books and DVDs and stuff on, but one actually belongs to a friend of mine. So in reality I have three Billy Bookcases of my own and one that I’m babysitting. Billy-sitting, if you will.
The forth is in the pale wood colour and is in the living room acting as a drinks cabinet.
How incredibly fucking fascinating.
I think Paul from STWOF figured out why there’s been so many takedowns: Hot Topic, Inc. Launches ShockHound, New All-In-One Music Site
Oh damn you Matthew! I can’t believe I listened to the whole of David Cross to hear vagina or anus and was sorely disappointed! But yes, as JC said, well written post!
1. I thought this would be easier, hmm…. might have to go all the way back to last xmas, … Life in The So-Called Space Age by God Lives Underwater (Polygram), but I bought it used on Amazon.
2. Ooooh, we got these awesome white bowls for cereal and soup there in the basement. But we also have 12 Billy bookcases and I’m ordering two more — yeah, our house is a library, geesh!
3. Strict budget since the stock markets crashed, ugh… $100 a week split between Costco (warehouse store with bulk food/goods) and Jewel (supermarket/grocery).
4. New Balance – the ultimate dyke footwear – aside from Birkenstocks of course
5. a lovely local pub, over 50 beer specialties (which is quite rare for our city actually), great food/burgers, and the scene of my weekly “stitch-n-bitch” knitting circle – don’t laugh!
I can’t believe that steinberg guy is euan…. and i had such a crush on euan
what have i done???
Thanks for this post Matthew, have been told that I should be getting an apology email, but I’m still waiting…
1. Pffft, no idea, too much effort to go check.
2. Never been in IKEA as a grown-up but when I was a kid I used to lie about my age so I’d be allowed to play in the kids room with all those plastic balls (age limit was 8). I’m not sure if they still have that room – I remember reading once that somebody hid a snake in once of them overseas, and some kid found it and got bitten. Anyway…
3. Safeway. Not sure – I seem to find myself there all the damn time and each time the cost varies. I can’t seem to get my head around shopping for more than one complete meal at a time.
4. Love Converse. Had no idea there were moral reasons for not wearing them. They’re so damn comfortable though. My old faithful runners (that’s what we call em here – if you’re from NSW they’re called ‘joggers’, ridiculous) are New Balance I think.
5. Pub? Nah….nothing beats a few quiet ones camping by the river or in the backyard while the mozzies hover and the blowflies hum…
Was just checking out these Billy bookcase thinggys because I had no idea what they were and yeah…why exactly are they so popular? They look pretty ordinary to me.
“A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.”
Very apt quote, given the current media witch hunt of Brand & Ross.
Was thinking the same thing myself on the Brand & Ross proverbial storm in a tea cup. Its funny how when times get tough financially the conservative (small c) mentality seems to take over.
The Mirror/Sun/Mail mob have won, let’s show Dad’s Army and Antiques Roadshow 24/7. Well you’re welcome to the channel.
Anyway back on topic…
1. Fence records.
2. Wooden rocking reindeer for the kids £4 and a £6 shoe rack. Random tat basically.
3. Probably about £150 – £200 in Sainsubury’s and M&S.
4. Asics – trainer are for sport not fashion ffs.
5. No regular abode – don’t get out often enough now with having two kids to claim such a luxury.
The witch hunt of Brand and Ross is completely misdirected. They acted like a couple of fannies, but it was still passed by production to go out. That show wasn’t recorded live and whichever idiot permitted it to be transmitted needs to be fired. They need to be told off for the naughty boys they are, but they fault was with the person who permitted it to be broadcast, particularly given those two idiots were in charge.
Here, here, Matthew! It’s not as if that old man has virgin ears! And Agnes, Billy’s are c. h. e. a. p. Steinberg, didn’t you argue with me over punk music or something, Euan would have never done that :-p
1. Coldplay – Viva la Vida and actually I didn’t buy it, my daughter did for my birthday. I can’t remember the last major record label album I bought.
2. Flooring. I’m redoing my house to sell so I needed some inexpensive flooring
3. I don’t go to the large supermarkets. But if I do it’s usually for peanut butter so under $10 Cdn.
4. Sketchers
5. Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto
Btw, I love you, man!
Euan would have never done that :-p
No, he’s far too handsome to have said anything so silly.
Sheila from Toronto. Wow, are you new to commenting here? You must have commented once or twice or I’d have had to approve your comment. It may, unfortunately, be time to disown your daughter if she’s bought you a Coldplay album. Blood is one thing, but Coldplay?
What I want to know is can you get dill chips from IKEA? I bought a packet of these dill flavour crisps from the Swedish shop at End of the Road festival and they were so good. I just need to know where to get them now…
We’ll have to take this point up in more detail later, Tom. However for now, suffice to say that’s like saying a guitar is merely a device for allowing stretched lengths of metal to vibrate.
Next holiday I’m going to Tart’s house.
That’s probably it. Function over form. Value over aesthetic.
Yeah, and they’re minging.
Yay! I win!
Thanks Tart and Dylan for validating my thoughts! I was expecting something spectacular judging from the comments I’d seen so far, and they look like the same thing my friend just bought. She got the same thing at a discount store for about 25 bucks, there were no incomprehensible diagrams to decipher and it only took her 5 minutes to set the whole thing up. Who needs IKEA when you’ve got Go-Lo?
Tart, you are right, I would never do that. Who is this Steinberg alter ego that is ruining my good name?? Shocked.
but to be honest, I don’t ever remember arguing with you about punk music. I have little opinion on punk music. so i doubt it was me or my evil alter ego. If it was, apologies. ;o)
Matthew,
Go easy on SheilaW….
She mentions The Horsehoe Bar in Toronto as being an ace watering hole…..and she’s spot on with that. Great place to see bands for next to nothing as well…..
The thing I find more astonshing than anything else is the fact that the so-called ansamessages were all mocked up – they weren’t even real! Sachs never received any messages, it was all an old radio trick to make it sound like they had called him. & this fact has not been contradicted in the media by anyone (no one from the BBC or the Brand/Ross camp, even though its been confirmed by Sachs, his agent & his awful attention seeking grand daughter) except one or two people who have been told to be quiet & look at the bigger picture. Which is what, exactly? Swearing on radio & talking about sex with someone without them being there to contradict or defend themselves? Whoop-di-fucking-doo. They’ve both said & done worse things in their careers. It’s quite clear thjis is a 3-pronged attack by certain aspects of the paper media against 3 ‘untouchables’ – Ross, Brand & the BBC. Fucking pathetic. A very, very cynical attempt to rid the front pages of the economic problems is one way of looking at it & it’s probably very true – two birds, one dubious stone. The BBC capitulated the moment ‘criminal investigation’ was bandied about by that hellish publicity craving 23yr old, who herself has clearly been egged on & manipulated by the print media. It’s a revolting turn of events & characterises what is fundamentally wrong with the way in which the papers manipulate the slow thinking & the quick tempered elements at the breakfast table.
The fact that Sachs actually knew about & approved the segment in advance of it being broadcast (although, he has since changed his story – both times he was on camera, so the evidence is there – to make him look like the innocent in all this & has now laid the blame at the feet of the producers who sought & gained his approval for airing) makes me incredibly annoyed by the whole debacle.
Whether you like the pair or not, or what they did, is a moot point; they’ve been hung out to dry for the very unpredictableness they were hired for in the first place by a corporation that needs to grow a spine & cultivate some balls.
I hope Ross resigns, also, & teaches the BBC a lesson for being so fucking wet – they’ve now lost (for 3months at least) 2 very popular major schedule TV programs, a BBC3 series, two very popular radio shows, & a flagship presenter for Children In Need. That may mean nothing to anyone who doesn’t give a shit about either program, but the BBC now has to scrabble about to find suitable replacements & that at least gives me an air of schadenfreude.
Well I doubt it will do either of their careers much harm in the long run. That kind of notoriety can be quite good for people, assuming the knickers in a twist crowd care more about money than false outrage, which they probably do.
Undoubtedly. I’m just fucking dumbstruck by the way this fairly innocuous incident has been whipped up into some national shame game & dominated the fucking NEWS for the last week or so. The BBC really needs to be called into account & not in the way or for the reasons the Mail readers are beating their chests over.
Amen brother
Yes, call the BBC to account with a big fat WHO FUCKING CARES? MOVE THE FUCK ON! You hired two idiots, you failed to keep tabs on them, they made dicks of themselves, no-one fucking cares, stop fucking talking about it.
Euan, let’s just have a cuddle and make up whilst Matthew sobers up, eh?
Sure, Matthew, sure.
1) White Stripes – Icky Thump i’d say. Fucking the man is all well and good, but so too is sexual assault to the aural cavity by Jack White’s guitar. Although I often don’t know what label stuff is on unless I’m buying it direct from the label. Speaking of, Is Meursault an official Toad artist yet?
2) A clothes drying rack thingammy. It’s all well and good having a pop at big corporations, but you leave Ikea out of this OK? OK? I think the loss of affordable, swedish-designed homeware would be my primary objection to Communism.
3) About 50 Australian dollars. Which, at the current rate, is around about 2p.
4) Dunlop Volleys for the win. No self-respecting indie kid is without them. And at 20 bucks a pop, no human being should be either.
5) Pugg Mahones, near my university. It’s one of those awful Irish themed pubs. But it has the redeeming feature of having cheap Guinness on tap and of generally being ever so slightly less awful than the other pubs near Melbourne Uni.
You’re referring to the same – ahem – “news” outlets that spent the last year or so talking us all into an imaginary, fictional, totally make-believe global financial crisis, right?
who wants to cuddle me now?? I’m confused. but ok then.
Oh my, I’m rather late, aren’t I? But can I still have some fun??
a) Probably “The Kick Inside” by the luuuuuurvely Kate Bush.
b) A Basisk wall lamp. But I do want to get one of their fabric storage boxes just so I can say to someone “You wanna come upstairs and see my Flört??”
c) Probably around 200 little Canadian dollars @ Stongs, our local grocers. We tend no tto do chains.
d) Do Vans count??
e) The King’s Arms, a rather divey bar with gobs of character, skanky service and surprisingly acceptable, if mysterious, brews. it’s definitely local – no chain would touch it with a bargepole.
“You wanna come upstairs and see my Flört??”
Jesus FiL, not while I’m drinking coffee! Pronounced, of course, in the exaggerated cartoon Swedish porn film style. And Vans definitely count.
Alex, yes they are. It’s weird because we’re too small to provide things like an advance or anything like that, but we pay for stuff that needs to be done – promo copies, manufacture, stuff like that – and me and the band will split any profits we manage to make.
I’d forgotten about the White Stripes though – good choice.
Do vans count if they’re of the Ford Transit variety?
Very hard to ’sneak’ in a Ford Transit.
You could sneak around inside a Ford Transit. Particularly if there were a few packaging crates in there to hide behind.
Although I agree it would be difficult to sneak up on someone while driving a Ford Transit.
1. I buy too many records to really be able to answer this with any degree of certainty – not to mention all the free ones I get for answering surveys and things… but nevertheless, for the sake of argument, I’ll say it was er… Wilco’s Summerteeth. Not new, I know, but I rarely buy new records because of the cost. I wait.
2. A fricking kitchen.
3. £40, but it’s Aldi…
4. Vans
5. The Crown and Kettle, Ancoats cos it’s near my rehearsal space