Sinister: getting old and losing threads

[duke of harringay]

I like all this talk about B&S selling out and I like it because it makes me
think of a few things I used to love about B&S and that seemed to somehow
inevitably get lost along the ways of the last couple of years. See, I used
to totally love the idea that they were totally and resolutely Non-Rock, the
definition of which would be
 ah, well that would be telling. Actually it
would just be boring for the few people interested because they’ve all heard
it before, a long long time ago and for those of you who haven’t a clue what
I’m wittering about (the vast majority I dare say) all I can do is suggest
you go look in the archives because, as people will no doubt tell you, that
is what archives are for.



I’ll try my very best to be brief.



See, I used to love the fact that B&S appeared (and I think that’s an
important word) to shun all the traditional rock media structures, both in
their music and in the way they conducted themselves. There was a real sense
of mystery about the group, a real sense that there was a carefully
constructed Pop myth in the making, and that although the very notion of a
self-creating myth is pretty trad in itself, it was refreshing that the
reference points were unusual; the Felt references, the obvious Love
suggestions (cropping up again I rather think, on one of the few current
moments to make my heart sing), the Postcard obsession, the notion of
political intent through action (and inaction) rather than rhetoric. The
shrinking from the limelight if you will, the darkness of the soul
illuminated by the brightest lights. If you know what I mean.



I mean, I am not kidding here; I was fucking OBSESSED with this band for a
long time and for sure they will always mean a lot for being instrumental in
making me delighted about Pop again, but the fact is that because there was
no real obvious mediated image of the band; no real notion of them BEING
anything except whatever you as an individual wanted, well, because of that
they could be, and were, EVERYthing. All at once.



The fact is that I’ve not felt the same way since the release of Arab Strap,
a record I loved for the great moments and detested for the weak links. I
wasn’t really prepared for B&S to falter I guess, which is completely unfair
and is my problem and my problem alone, but hey
 It was almost as though by
knowingly trying to be too many things all at once they were suddenly
incapable of being very much at all, and to go from being all things at once
to that, well, it’s kind of a shock is all. It’s funny, I don’t know why I
think of a Rodney Allen song now, but in a tune called ‘Why Are You Being
Different Now’ (which was kind of about being a teenager in love with a
future beauty queen) there’s a line that goes ‘the things that made me fall
in love with you disappeared when you saw them too’ and I think that kind of
sums it up for me.



Do I think that B&S are selling out, or ever will sell out? I really don’t
know. I don’t like to use such statements much anymore because it seems to
me to be a pretty lazy knee jerk reaction to things that are not in your
control, and indeed why should they be? I think they have been lumbered with
a great deal of mediated ‘meaning’ and that as such they very certainly seem
to have changed the musical and cultural geography of the land (I guess this
is more a global land I mean, not just the UK), it’s just they don’t really
mean much to ME anymore. Personally I think they should have REALLY stopped
doing interviews, released a lot more records at regular intervals, and only
ever played out in chip shops in my home town. But that’s just me, and I’m
notoriously selfish and difficult to please.


As it is I think they’ve committed the far greater sin of just wasting time
and making records that are at best still quite terrific but too often limp
and antiseptic and laboured and self-knowing. And it troubles me more than
you’ll ever know to say that they’ve ended up too often sounding like too
many other bands, none of whom are really very good. Maybe that means they
‘sold out’ and maybe it means they got old and lost the thread. And god
knows that happens often enough
.





Keep the Faith in Pop



The Duke



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