Entertainment For Lively Minds
It's Only Rock(s) 'n' Roll...
It would seem that Primal Scream aren't happy at Home Secretary Theresa May's walking off stage to the sound of their track Rocks at the Tory Conference yesterday.
Here's their statement:
Primal Scream are totally disgusted that The Home Secretary Theresa May ended her speech at the Tory party conference with our song Rocks.
How inappropriate. Didn't they research the political history of our band?
Hasn't she listened to the words? Does she even know what getting your rocks off means? No. She is a Tory; how could she?
Primal Scream are totally opposed to the coalition government, Cameron, Osborne, Gove, Howard, Clegg etc. They are legalised bullies passing new laws to ensure the wealthy stay wealthy, taking the side of big business while eradicating workers rights and continuing their attacks on young people, single parents and OAP's by slashing education and social security budgets, and persecuting the poor for being poor.
We would like to distance ourselves from this sick association.
The Tories are waging a war on the disenfranchised, They are the enemy.
Primal Scream
Whatever their view, it does seem a bizarre song for May - or more likely her 'people' - to have chosen: "Dealers keep dealin', thieves keep thievin'", and all that.
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How about
Swastika Eyes?
Riot City Blues?
Does anyone know...
...what Theresa May thinks of pubs that play their music too loud? I imagine her and Boab would get on just fine.
But I'm sure Bobby et al will happily take the PRS cheque.
Ahem,
it may be different at Party Conferences but I've never seen a sound engineer at a conference make a note of all the walk in music and awards stings he uses so that he can send the information to the PRS. Otherwise Tina Turner, Queen, Kylie and other artists who have recorded "conference classics" would never have to work again.
T'was the Dandy Warhols they played, not Primal Scream
or so I've heard.
That
appears to be the case.
Bohemian like the Conservatives. How apt.
Who chooses their music? Steve Wright?
what song?
Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth?
"Sick association"
Alright, calm down. No one thinks you're a Tory.
He's fine about Nazi salutes, but a TORY?!
Oh, the humanity!
That could have come straight out of the Eye's Dave Spart
What a load of tosh and......
.....typical of Primal Scream, such a cliche.
After all, there's a HUGE difference between Tory policy and Tony Blair isn't there?
Pathetic.
I don't think they
ever gave Tony Blair a lot of love either to be fair to them. They've been fairly consistent on their hatred of Tories over the years.
Consistently bloody stupid.
I mean, sure, I'm no fan of the Tories either, but Primal Scream are just so teenage and petulant and clichéd about the whole thing. It's wearisome. They're grown men - shouldn't they sort of accept that they're just a fairly minor rock band and get over themselves a bit?
Yeah it does sound a bit silly
But I was addressing the Tony Blair point, which I thought was a bit weird.
Agreed.
I just really, really dislike Bobby Gillespie :-)
Really Bob?
You do surprise me... ;-)
Ha.
He's like the avatar of everything I hate in pop music. It's like someone constructed him out of bits of late 70s NME back-issues and breathed some hideous parody of life into the little bastard. I wouldn't piss down his throat if his heart was on fire.
Before
I visited this board I'd never met anyone who disliked either Bobby Gillespie or Primal Scream, it's weird. We used to have long discussions about picking out musicians who no-one in the world could detest. The only group we could ever agree on was Primal Scream.
It's very eye opening
But...but...
...he's so demonstrably objectionable! What's not to hate?
We
all thought he was cool as fuck when we were at Uni. Great frontman in a brilliant band. We liked his attitude. Now I just love the music.
I tell you one thing - when he does one of those features in music press where he talks about his influences, I will go out and buy every single one without question. I have never been disappointed and he's turned me on to some amazing music - Link Wrap, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, the John Lee Hooker LP 'It Serves You Right to Suffer' and too many others to mention.
I have a different level of respect for him since I read Kris Needs' book about the band too.
At the time
for an impressionable student, a band namechecking these relatively obscure, diverse acts was a door into another world. Bobby's article about the Neil Young 'doom trilogy' for another monthly music mag was considered, lengthy and heartfelt. And their politics have always been consistent.
I must also add that BG and the boys should not 'act their age'. They're in a rock'n'roll band. The minute they start doing all-star tribute albums or unplugged waistcoat rock on Jools Holland is where they lose us forever.
Another up for
...Kris Needs' book - Loved it. Some great tales in there
I tried really hard not to hate him, but failed,
I left a great viewpoint in front of the Pyramid Stage and staggered against the odds all the way to what was then called 'The Other Stage' to see 'ver Scream. I battled to a good place from which to enjoy the spectacle. I was anticipating a transcendent hour of glorious rock'n'roll. I wanted mayhem, attitude and angst.
What I got was sloppy and shoddy. They were shit. Bobby was wrecked beyond competency. The ignorant twat. I've hated him ever since for treating me with such contempt.
Say what you mean Bob
stop pulling your punches man!
Bobby G is 50 this year
I suspect he'd get a better hearing if he started talking and acting like his age.
A pedant writes...
Aren't 'ver disenfranchised' those who aren't entitled to vote? Is that really a significant proportion of the population?
Theresa May
is free to do what she wants to do.
Loaded
Well, she's certainly loaded.
Surely a better one for a female home secretary
is Jailbird?
Jail... bird?
[taps mic] Is this thing on?
Theresa May
I would.
But Immanuel Kant
.
Ed Wood
I'm sure.
The Aga Khan
but chooses not to.
Beth
Orton
Ditto Beth Ditto
.
Would you prefer
if he backed the (alledged) unsolicited use of his Stones/Faces xerox by such a steaming set of cunts?
I'm sure any other modern political best pals act passing for a political party would have got one in the balls from him.
I've had plenty gripes about the Bobby over the years.
His "niave" politics have never featured in any of them.
His worship at the temples frequented by the majority here have.
Sorry, I'm not following.
What does the last bit about temples mean? I'm probably just being dim.
Just
the fact he spends too much time worshiping and reinterpreting things past.
Did Primal Scream.....
.....respond negatively to Alan McGee's (short, ugly, really ugly, missed rock 'n' roll and the 60s, gave the world Oasis) comments about the fire of the CD warehouse in Enfield.
If so, I'll cut them some slack.
If not, it's all bollocks.
Are they required to comment on everything that goes on?
Be fair, this incident directly involved them, so they're always going to comment. Alan McGee's a mate of theirs so they're unlikely to come out and condemn his very stupid comments unless they're asked directly, which they obviously weren't.
And you're right, he gave the world Oasis, so he deserves a peerage!
Yes.....
.....if it is so obviously connected to their precious ethics.
How is it?
I'm confused. Their old boss makes a stupid comment - what's it got to do with them? He didn't mention anything about ethics, he said it was funny that loads of shit music got burnt. I really don't see what it's got to do with Primal Scream.
Their purile statement....
....is from some ill-informed, reactionary, class consciousness view.
Yeah?
A very short man with the same DNA, who is pretty much the only thing I know about them, makes a crass comment about a crass incident which will not affect Sony at all but would, if it had happened in 1975, presumably have meant that Ace Records would never have got off the drawing board.
Thought Primal Scream were always socking it to the man, doing it for ver kidz, were.....ahem.....'rock 'n' roll'?
I'd have thought a line distancing themselves from this very short man was well in order.
Instead, they just do the cliched clash thing.
"with the same DNA"
take off that hat you are talking out of.
McGee has nothing to do with the band anymore and what this increasingly desperate and sad man shouts while wandering in the wilderness should be of no consequence to anyone.
clutching at a straw man there
Yeah? No
"....is from some ill-informed, reactionary, class consciousness view"
No, don't agree with that. The band statement (and by the way, everyone's assuming this is Bobby but it sounds more like Mani to me) comes across as maybe a bit Kevin the Teenager, but if you don't support a political party, you don't want them using your song. the only thing ill-informed that I can see is that it might not have been their song that was played, which leaves them looking a bit silly.
That has nothing to do with Alan McGee talking about the Sony situation. When you say 'instead, they...'. It's not like they should have said 'You know what, the Tories are playing our song - we're being asked about it, but we should probably answer the question by talking about an entirely unrelated comment that Alan Mcgee made six weeks ago'. That doesn't make any sense.
I think the key phrase in your argument is 'pretty much the only thing I know about them'. Isn't this about your perception of the situation than anything else? They are no more required to comment on Alan McGee than I am required to comment on the behaviour of my boss from ten years' ago. They have commented on this because it directly concerns them.
For once I'm totally on Chimney's side.
Ver Scream get on me tits but I did once love em. But either way, I think there's no reason to think they're insincere in hating the tories and being annoyed about this. The tories are scum as far as I'm concerned and for all Bobby's faults and fakery at least he 'got to where he was today' by his own merits not by his family's connections. If I was in his position I'd be kicking up an almighty fuss.
Except
Except it wasn't his song. It was The Dandy Warhols' Bohemian Like You.
Nothing could be more reactionary
than some derivative mid-90s retro dad-rock. A perfect soundtrack.
This is great
It's exactly the kind of over-the-top, teenagery reaction I expect from my rock stars to any kind of association with the Tories.
What I'm confused by is...
A) why did Primal Scream think Bohemian Like You was Rocks in the first place. They don't sound that similar do they?
B)Why didn't May play Kill All Hippies instead?
Exactly, Uncle M
This is what I want my pop/rock stars to do. I mentioned on another thread a week or so ago that there needs to be far more idiotic statements from pop stars.
What would we prefer?
"Although we are not Tories (but live and let live, we say), we understand that our music is in the public domain, and after speaking to the accountants we have worked out that we have earned 0.56p for the play. Although we many have been annoyed at first, we realise that we are now in our late 40's, so would hate to appear unseemly! Thanks for listening!"
Would we bugger, give me a badly punctuated, ungrammatical, illogical statement any day. Especially one based on a complete mis-understanding.
Good. Viva rock and roll-lite, I say.
Anyhow...
I presume the track got picked by the same person who told Dave "Call me Dave" Cameron to go on Desert Island Discs and say that his favourite record is "Eton Rifles".
There's a mole in Tory HQ sabotaging their attempts to look young and trendy.
That would be too obvious
I have a suspicion that they really are that clueless. Silly buggers. There was the whole Johnny Marr banning Cameron from liking them thing a while ago. And I'm sure it was William Hague who used "Man Next Door" by Massive Attack as exit music to be equally slated for doing so?
Politicians and
their ilk really should desist from trying to appear trendy, they live on a different planet from the rest of us. Anyone recall Kenny Everett urging young Tories to give Michael Foot's stick away back in the 80s ? Agree with Bob on Bobby Gillespie, he's also a useless frontman as well. Is it churlish to point out the poor English and sloppy punctuation in their self important sermon from mount righteousness ? 'The political history of our band' - go and have a lie down boys, for God's sake !
And
"let's bomb russia".
Wow, kenny, you are really funny and anarchic.
If he really objects
he should take the royalty for the use of his music and donate it to an appropriate cause.
Gretchen Peters did this when Sarah Palin used her song Independence Day during the 2008 campaign. She donated the royalties to pro-choice organisations.
Palin & her people clearly hadn't listened to the lyrics. The song is told from a girl's perspective when she witnesses her mother killing her abusive father:
Let the weak be strong
Let the right be wrong
Roll the stone away
Let the guilty pay
It's Independence Day
Kill All Hippies
I love Primal Scream, one of the best live bands I've ever seen on a good night and one of the worst I've seen on another.
Bobby is a cock but he's a lead vocalist in a rock n roll band - its the law.
And don't forget that refused to fly to Luton to do TOTP's cos the airport "wasn't rock n roll enough". Thats far stupider than this.
Love Music, hate Nicola Roberts
No!
Nicola Roberts is ace!!
Just reading through these posts..
.. glad you brought up Nicola Roberts. The irony has not been lost on all of us.
I think I'm being dim
Enlighten me?
*whispers*
I have no idea.
I only bought her up to wind Bob up. I'm testing his parameters to see how his "not getting dragged into an argument" medicatiuon is working.
Although it could be that his attack on Bobby for lack of talent and being a construct may be something taht could be levelled at pop poppetts like Ms Roberts who are a talent vaccum at the heart of a massive marketing, producing and media machine. Pop music was ever thus but to see it done so blatently these days and to still swallow it H,L & S is something I can't do.
See this?
This is me not rising to it.
;-)
No
it isn't....
It would appear
that it was.
:-)
Give him time
I'm playing the waiting agme
Aww, the waiting game sucks, let's play Hungry Hungry Hippos!
He's been busy
over here today, so you may have a point.
Dead right, DFB
They are both best and worst. I can't think of a more exciting live experience than when I first saw them in 1992. I also can't think of anything more disappointing than the Glasto when they had to have the plug pulled because they wouldn't stop playing.
But on Nicola Roberts, we must go our separate ways.
There's nowt..
..quite like a Scream thread is there? The Tories seem to have been the best marketing dept Boab and the boys have had for years.
And then today...
...they played 'You only get what you give' by the New Radicals at the end of Cameron's speech. A nice, 'big Society-y' title, no?
Oh, apart from the lyrics at the end:
'You're all fakes, run to your mansions / Come around, we'll kick your ass in'
You'd think, given the way in which every bit of the whole event is so stage-managed, they'd read ALL the lyrics to a song. What are interns for?
(Forgive me. For work I've been to all three conferences. I am jaded, depressed, and have a cough.)
All three conferences?
You poor, poor man. How long will it you to sober up?
XTRMNT-HER!
That description of the effect of govt policies seems a quite reasonable rant to me. If I'd created some form of art work and had it used in such a way I'd be a bit peeved I reckon, but then I would have checked it really was my work that was adopted.
I have decided Bobby Gillespie's all right since his appearance on that classic albums show where he was funny and smart and his recent interview in The Word was enjoyable also. I think I was previously swayed by predictable Massive post 70s curmudgeonly tendencies. Sometimes you just get caught up in the conformist infectious fervour that breaks out here from time to time. The view of him as too cool for school, name checking all the right people is a bit of a lazy one - his taste is actually pretty wide ranging and reflects a genuine and knowledgeable enthusiasm that is to be commended I feel.
well it's all swinging handbags here isnt it?
Firstly, the Tories were rather silly to use the track but Primal Scream should thank them for the exposure. It might help shift a few more units of Screamdelica. Where else do they get that sort of air play these days?
Secondly, that statement they issued is indeed a load of Dave Spartesque Trotskyist bollox that belongs in the early 1980s.
If you want a tune that's more appropriate to Tory policy these days how about.
Cuts like a Knife (Bryan Adams)
Carry on as you were.
Dont necessarily agree with
Dizzy Gillespie but we are kind of being duped. The Tory press announce a 'Freeze on Council tax' as if it is the second coming. It's not a freeze you fucking morons - we are paying unchanged rates of council tax for substantially less services. Isn't that an increase?
yeah right on
primal!
Those bloody facists!!
Theresa May obviously needed someone who
sounded like a whiny, yelping cat to illustrate her immigration speech.
I went to a party once
where Bobby Gillespie was DJing.
It was a hot day. Everyone was outside. No one danced.
Let me guess...
MC5, The Stooges and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Let's get this party started! Woo!
Primal Scream
Rock & roll cabaret.
Nah, that's just a couple of songs
Loads of bands get stick on here for always sounding the same. Primal Scream go way beyond cabaret, taking loads of influences and creating something new.
Great chord changes in this one too
Really?
For me, Bobby Gillespie is just a talentless music fan playing in the dressing up box of his heroes. He goes through genres like Chelsea go through managers.
Well
I guess that's the dividing line - whether you think it's bourne out of enthusiasm, passion and a love of all different kinds of music - which I think is evident from hearing him speak, his interviews and the Kris Needs book, or whether you think it's just a front.
Gah! there's only one thing for it. I'm going to put together a Primal Scream playlist on Spotify!
Those are some mighty pretty words, young missy
but that dog don't hunt
Turns out
it wasn't Primal Scream : http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/oct/05/primal-scream-theresa-may-mi...
it was The Dandy Warhols (Bohemian Like You ).
You
Could
Not
Make
It
Up.
Brilliant!
That's all.
.
.
Hurray!
The Dandy Warhols have waded, nay staggered, into the fray with a similarly well-argued response.
Are there any right wing bands that might be appropriate for a Tory conference?
Full story here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/oct/07/dandy-warhols-theresa-may?in...
Ted Nugent?
Maybe she should've come on draped in a flag, to "Stranglehold".
Good work, those Warhols
Use of a slightly childish insult, such as "jerk-off?" TICK
Reminder that one of your faded band has a stupid name such as Taylor-Taylor? TICK
Slightly dated belief that only lefties are creative? (I still believe this a bit, to be honest) TICK
Well done, Dandy and your Warhols. Pop star behaviour of which I approve.
Also...
Belief, by implication, that you yourself are "creative, visionary [and] fun to be around", despite the evidence of all your records and, in the case of the last item, the film "Dig": TICK!
Top marks.
Fun to be around?
Here, the inner sleeve of The Dandy Warhols Come Down features a shot of keyboardist Zia McCabe squatting over a puddle of piss.
That's all the evidence I need.
Ha!
Pithy & dumb. Much better than Gillespie's response. I reckon leading Tories should walk on to 'Send the Buggers Back' by Half a Shilling.
Did I hear The Lovecats when CallmeDave left
the stage? Surely Bob Smith wouldn't like that? They should be forced to have their conferences in silence.