Gig: The Life and Times of a Rock-star Fantasist by Simon Armitage (Viking 2008)

On The Road 9

A reading in a cinema complex in Sheffield for the Off the Shelf Festival, followed by a Q & A session on contemporary poetics and related literary topics:

Me: OK, one last question.

Man: In a fist fight between you and Jarvis Cocker, who'd win?

Me: Er . . . I've never met him, but from the pictures I've seen I'd have to fancy my chances.

Man: He's outside.

The Next 30 Day Song Challenge - day 05

Day 05 - A song that would make a great national anthem

Is the Jubilee bollocks all over yet? Surely as an ex-pat of seven years standing I should be watching classic episodes of Eastenders in a string vest and my Union Jack underpants at this point? And yet I'm still indifferent to all. I can't even work up the quite justifiable outrage over the cost of the pomp in an age of recession and the outpouring of sycophancy from all and sundry that will be directed at Liz and her hanger-ons.

I guess if you're living in England you can kill two three birds with one stone and leave the Jubilee bunting and flags up for the forthcoming European Championship and Olympics. Great for the pocket and the environment; not so great for that factory in China that manufactures all the Union Jacks and other such patriotic paraphernalia for such sideshows.

That's my roundabout way of saying that I'm not up for suggesting a great national anthem, but I'll always stick by this great song as a candidate for a wonderful workers' anthem. Pretty much for reasons outlined in this old post.

Speed the day when it is Jarvis's head that adorns a postage stamp:

30 Day Song Challenge - day 18

day 18 - a song that you wish you heard on the radio

Originally released in 2006, it should have been that year's sound of the summer but - and I'm hazarding a guess here - lack of radio play meant it never reached its intended audience. If ever a song earned the right to be played on the radio, it was this one.

I still hold out the hope that one day it'll be the beneficiary of a Facebook type campaign and it becomes the number one it so richly deserves. Maybe with 'Cocaine Socialism' as the b-side. (My dreams are still coated in vinyl.)

Such is the world we live in, I can't see the lyrics becoming redundant any time soon. :

The Last Party: Britpop, Blair and the Demise of English Rock by John Harris (Harper Perennial 2003)

Noel Gallagher had turned up at his local polling station to find that he was required to produce one more item of identification than he was carrying. 'Do you want me to sing you a fucking song?' he protested, before celebrity eventually got the better of bureaucracy. That night, though the South Bank beckoned, he remained on the sofa. 'I had a ticket for the Labour Party party, but I had that much fun watching Portillo and the others get done over I stayed at home in front of the TV. It was all champagne and cigars round our house. Meg and me got pissed and went out into the garden and played ['The Beatles'] Revolution dead loud with the neighbours banging on the walls.'

Different Class

This is probably from the Labour stable - don't the cheeky bastards remember Cocaine Socialism? - but I love it nonetheless:

Whatever happens, May 8th I'll still be singing this, though.

Hat tip to Tricky Mickey over at Urban 75.