Topic: Sandi Thom (The Great Rock N Roll Swindle?)

[mwude]

Though if this turns out to be a Chris Morris or Bill Drummond joke, I can see I'll be rather ashamed of myself.  I do regularly consider that possibility - it's so fucking naff I sometimes wonder how it can be anything else other than a piss-take.

If only that were true.  I know her drummer & guitarist fairly well as they were previously in a band with my flatmate.  I've never met her myself but my flatmate has and describes her as an "fucking horrible stuck-up cunt" and that was long before she became succesful on the basis of these extraordinary lies and piss-weak song . He formed that opinion of her the first day he met her about 4 years ago and nothing has changed in the meantime.

[Part Chimp]

Though if this turns out to be a Chris Morris or Bill Drummond joke, I can see I'll be rather ashamed of myself.  I do regularly consider that possibility - it's so fucking naff I sometimes wonder how it can be anything else other than a piss-take.

So if it was all a terrific KLF weeze we'd all laugh and nod knowingly, realising they'd pulled the wool over our eyes once again? But as it stands, this is still some kind of PR trick that's been pulled a la "Doctorin' the Tardis," just not by someone as 'cool' as Bill Drummond.

[Oscar]

So if it was all a terrific KLF weeze we'd all laugh and nod knowingly, realising they'd pulled the wool over our eyes once again? But as it stands, this is still some kind of PR trick that's been pulled a la "Doctorin' the Tardis," just not by someone as 'cool' as Bill Drummond.

The difference in attitude comes from the intent behind it. Bill Drummond (not sure he counted as "cool") did his tricks to see what was possible, to play with the idea of success, as a result he often did stupid things but not for cynical reasons, not to rip people off, but to play with them. His motives came from curiosity not from wanting to make money  - when he made a load of money he burnt it.

The reasoning behind Thom is making money, nothing more That is what makes it cynical, unoriginal and (for some) very depressing.
Probably if this was done because some people truly believed that she had an incredible talent that people would enjoy listening to, then we'd all be happy with it, but because she is utter toss it feels like buying a bag of onions because a clever salesman told you it was gold.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Did that money burning thing actually involve real money? I thought it was just a performance art sort of thing with fake notes. He could have given it to charity if it was real.

[The Mumbler]

Did that money burning thing actually involve real money?

Wasn't it the amount they lied about?  I heard (annoyingly, can't remember where or from who now) it was about £10,000 rather than millions.  Burning ten grand doesn't sound that impressive, but claiming it's four million does.

[Oscar]

I think the problem with knowing what they burnt is that Bill Drummond revelled in lying - as far as I could work out, he was obssessed with the idea of causing chaos, and part of acheiving that was by spreading lots of different rumours. What I read is that they burnt a million quid, but that is as likely to be a lie as anything else.

[Brutus Beefcake]

£10'000 could still feed and clothe a lot of people.

[The Mumbler]

£10'000 could still feed and clothe a lot of people.

True.  Not really their finest hour, I have to say.  I'd have preferred a new LP.

[Part Chimp]

The difference in attitude comes from the intent behind it.

I was responding to 23 Daves' point that he's "regularly considered" that this could be a Drummond/Morris prank. Which tends to infer that this is the kind of stunt that's on their level, otherwise why would he consider that?

[lazyhour]

Re: Comments that Drummond could have given the money to charity etc.  I've always throught that this was part of the point of the money-burning stunt.  Artwork is bought and sold for millions and millions of pounds every week.  Money going from rich pocket to rich pocket.  I believe that the money-burning was intended by Drummond to be a kind of piece of art.  Surely there's not much more validity in admonishing him for burning his own money than there is in taking people to task for spending obscene amounts of money on Picasso doodles.

Or it might have just been me who drew this conclusion from the thing.  I suppose my point is that there's an awful lot of money in the world that never gets near starving children, so the financial and humanitarian implications of Drummond's act are microscopic.

It also makes us challenge our own perceptions of the value of money etc etc blah blah culture show.

[23 Daves]

The difference in attitude comes from the intent behind it.

I was responding to 23 Daves' point that he's "regularly considered" that this could be a Drummond/Morris prank. Which tends to infer that this is the kind of stunt that's on their level, otherwise why would he consider that?

Well, it was a rather flippant comment in the first place - it's more on the level of Aaron Barschack or Marc Wootton than Morris or Drummond, primarily because the track just isn't funny or inventive however much you read into it.  If Morris genuinely did come back with an ironic single from a busker whining about how life wasn't like it used to be where people were punks or hippies and it went to number one, I think we'd all agree that he'd lost it and probably even ask to have this site closed down.

Incidentally, both Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty have been responsible for an awful lot of rubbish, and their credit on anything wouldn't necessarily make me think the project was worthy, least of all nowadays.  Have a listen to Solid Gold Chartbusters "I Wanna 1-2-1 With You" if you really want an idea of how low Cauty can sink at least, even when he is laughing up his sleeve.  I'd never, ever give the seal of approval to anything I thought was terrible in the first place just because someone I'm a fan of turned out to be behind it.

[Sovereign]

don't really care to be honest, even if she is marketed it doesn't make her music any more interesting. Its just jangly MOR guitar shite, not bad but nowt special. Infact, seen as I downloaded it of the web, I sorta hope that some PR firm did spend millions on her, just so my audio-theft feels that little bit sweeter.

[Ciarán2]

Did that money burning thing actually involve real money?

Wasn't it the amount they lied about?  I heard (annoyingly, can't remember where or from who now) it was about £10,000 rather than millions.  Burning ten grand doesn't sound that impressive, but claiming it's four million does.

During the Omnibus programme on the K Foundation, the suitcase of ash was taken to a lab for analysis. It was verified that the ash was consistent with what one would expect of charred banknotes. Some of the noted were still partially intact. They weighed the ash and suggested that approximately £10-12,000 worth of ash was there.

[Darrell]

Those lyrics remind me of They Might Be Giants' Purple Toupee which was about someone reminiscing about a time they couldn't actually remember.

Haha! God yes, it's uncanny.

I remember the year I went to camp
I heard about some lady named Selma and some blacks
Somebody put their fingers in the President's ears
It wasn't too much later they came out with Johnson's wax
I remember the book depository where they crowned the king of Cuba
Now that's all I can think of, but I'm sure there's something else
Way down inside me I can feel it coming back

Purple toupee will show the way when summer brings you down
(Purple toupee when summer brings you down)
Purple toupee and gold lame will turn your brain around
(Purple toupee and gold lame)

Chinese people were fighting in the park
We tried to help them fight, no one appreciated that
Martin X was mad when they outlawed bell bottoms
Ten years later they were sharing the same cell
I shouted out, "Free the Expo '67"
Till they stepped on my hair, and they told me I was fat
Now I'm very big, I'm a big important man
And the only thing that's different is underneath my hat

Purple toupee will show the way when summer brings you down
(Purple toupee when summer brings you down)
Purple toupee and gold lame will turn your brain around
(Purple toupee and gold lame)

Purple toupee is here to stay after the hair has gone away
The purple brigade is marching from the grave

We're on some kind of mission
We have an obligation
We have to wear toupees

[Harfyyn Teuport]



When the head of state couldn't play guitar

The head of state was, and still is, the Queen. It's undoubtedly true that she could not play guitar in 1969 or 1977, but to the best of my knowledge she hasn't picked up a passion for the plectrum since.

[The Boston Crab]

Yes, it's pure dogshit. I'm particularly averse to that mid-Atlantic drawl too.

How anyone can attempt to sing those lyrics without cringing themselves to death is beyond me.

I saw a clip of her on T4 desperately trying to prove her credentials instead of answering the (admittedly shit and guided) questions and part of my brain and body just wouldn't register that a person could be so desperately full of shit.

[humanleech]

Pop music is not interesting. There are very few exceptions to this rule, and this is not one of them.

[Part Chimp]

That's quite possibly the most inaccurate statement I've ever read on here.

[TJ]

In an otherwise pispoor documentary abot Britpop on BBC4 last night, the theory emerged that pop these days is 'democratised' - ie, pop stars are no longer untouchable figures ready to be hero-worshipped like Hendrix or Jagger, but blank canvases onto which we can project whatever we like. Hence, Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue - pop stars who represent both everything and nothing. I thought this point was interesting, but it was thrown out as a mere afterthought in the closing minutes of the show.

I know it isn't a popular book around these parts, but the closing chapter of John Harris' "The Last Party" makes a similarly pertinent point; that bands like The Smiths unlocked a whole 'lost' world for their fans, of the works of musicians, poets, writers, artists and film-makers that they'd never heard of, and that Pulp and Blur were probably the last of that kind to date, with post-Britpop bands considering it more important to make as big a first-week sales impact as possible than to create a cult around themselves. Personally, I'd say Belle & Sebastian and possibly Gorkys/The Super Furries also roughly fit that bill, but aside from that he's got a very strong point.

Incidentally, I always thought 'Doctorin' The Tardis' was supposed to be a pisstake of recent trends in house music. The title, the Glam Rock samples, the Steve Walsh bits, the seemingly arbitrary choice of TV theme...

[Ray Le Otter]

This is very amusing:

Sandi Thom's Tooting:
http://www.popjustice.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=417&Itemid=147

[TheWizard]

Do you what else annoys me about this, the single reached #55 last October.

[Jemble Fred]

Macca's said he's proud of her, etc. But then I'm sure he'd claim to be proud of the Crazy Frog if he'd been through LIPA, it's all good exposure isn't it.

[Ciarán2]

Haha, the Popjustice piece is very good.

[chand]

Label boss insists it's all legit

"The only guerrilla marketing tactics employed were when the flyer was sent out to over one million email addresses, which is hardly revolutionary," he said.

Ah, they just spammed a million people, right.

The sticker on the front of her album says "the singer who webcast to the world from her Tooting basement", just in case her face, voice and song were so bland you kept forgetting who she was.

It's kind of strange that she's being being promoted as an exciting new prospect who's famous thanks to her embracing of this exciting new technology, while her single moans about how all new technology is shit and everyone should release stuff on vinyl cos it's for real.

[23 Daves]

Do you what else annoys me about this, the single reached #55 last October.

That's really interesting, is there any way we can check that out?  Surely that would mean she was signed at the time as well...

[sam and janet evening]

Haha, the Popjustice piece is very good.

It is, but as a (well, nearly) Tooting-ite myself I must point out that it's not the  (fairly infrequent) shootings that you need to watch out for, it's the regular Friday night stabbings. We do so pride ourselves on routine.

My boss described Ms Thom's new record as sounding "like a Gap advert".

[TheWizard]

Chart runs down to #75 can be accessed at  http://www.polyhex.com/music/chartruns/chartruns.php. The orginal single is available on Amazon.co.uk still.

[Ciarán2]

Do you what else annoys me about this, the single reached #55 last October.

That's really interesting, is there any way we can check that out?  Surely that would mean she was signed at the time as well...

He ain't lyin'. Current edition of Guinness Book Of British Hit Singles confirms it... It was on an indie label, have forgotten the name already.

[buttgammon]

Do you what else annoys me about this, the single reached #55 last October.

That's really interesting, is there any way we can check that out?  Surely that would mean she was signed at the time as well...

He ain't lyin'. Current edition of Guinness Book Of British Hit Singles confirms it... It was on an indie label, have forgotten the name already.

The book says it was Viking Legacy. It doesn't sound familiar.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Dosn't it occur to Sandi Thom that she can be a punk rocker with flowers in her hair?

And if she's mourning the lack of edgy polemic in today's pop, I fully expect her second single to be an angry commentary on the shooting of Charles de Menezes. It won't at all be a generic bit of Alanis Morrisette-style MTV-friendly angst-rock, oh no.

'When God saved the Queen she turned a whiter shade of pale' - that's the worst bit. Two rock references forming a 'clever' line that doesn't make any kind of sense on any level, metaphorical or otherwise.