Nicky Wire recently lamented the lack of politically minded bands out there in his brilliant Quietus conversation with Tony Benn and Simon Price. Perhaps it will only be a matter of time though; Britain’s generally pretty good at turning social turmoil into powerful reactionary music.
Notwithstanding the odd stand-out song like Elvis Costello’s Tramp The Dirt Down or The Pogues’ Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six, I’ve never been a huge fan of explicitly political music (I’m ignoring my ill-advised flirtation with The Levellers in 1990). I always preferred Billy Bragg’s lovesongs to his Red Wedge, and The Jam never quite did it for me the way they paradoxically did for David Cameron. But so many of Britain’s defining bands have been inspired by frustration with society (Joy Division, The Smiths, The Stone Roses, Manic Street Preachers, Arctic Monkeys to name but a sprinkling), I would hope that the forthcoming worse-than-Thatcher cuts might just prompt someone out there to pick up a guitar. In the ugly face of injustice, you can only spend your Saturday nights being spoon-fed capitalist pop by Simon Cowell for so long.
John Harris rightly bemoans the rustic authenticity of Mumford & Sons and the “comically abstract” Everything Everything as worryingly toothless representatives of the current scene, and admittedly it’s hard to see where the next angry young men and women are coming from. But we’re yet to feel the full impact of the coalition’s policies; the talk is frightening, but the reality won’t kick in until next year – perhaps then we’ll hear a passionate voice sing out amidst the chaos. In the meantime I’m off to write a song about Nick Clegg.
July 4, 2011 at 6:05 pm
So I saw Nicky Wire the other day, outside Sony’s offices, having a cigarette (him, not me). He had luggage you’d be allowed to take on Ryanair without additional charge, the sort with the extendable handle and wheels for convenience. Looked pretty much like an ageing ad man, expensively but banally dressed, slight paunch, and a facial expression suggesting he wanted to be somewhere else. Do men as they age all have to end up more similar than different – even those who once seemed defined by being a bit ‘other’? Not knocking him, just wasn’t perhaps what I expected – he always seemed destined to be a bit more Jagger than Watts.
July 17, 2011 at 6:59 pm
Perhaps you’ve been hanging around too many ageing ad-men Stu… I dunno, I reckon Nicky has remained pretty militant in his rhetoric since the early days, and certainly his stage-wear is as subversive as ever. And it’s no wonder he needs one of those trolley-bags – the size of the bloke, I imagine he must be prone to back problems.
Interesting you make the Stones comparison. Charlie may look like an extra from Ever Decreasing Circles but musically, unlike Mick and Keith, at least he’s had the courage to diversify. Perhaps looks can be deceiving.