What do we reckon about Bis then?

[Pauline Walnuts]

Chrivens, what a hater! You can like Bis AND the Spice Girls you know.

The only memory I have of S. Wells was him slagging off the group Swells for stealing 'his' name.

[Kankurette]

I actually prefer the Spice Girls but FFS, I like plenty of ~serious~ music as well.

Bis never said anything about liking John Major in that interview. One of the lads said something about him getting elected and Swells went 'ahhhh so you're a Tory then ahhh'.

[holyzombiejesus]

I think it was Steven Wells who reviewed the debut single by Blueboy on Sarah Records as "a limp wristed song about being sad" when it was actually about Clause 28.

[Brundle-Fly]

I remember Swells cunting Vic & Bob in an early 1990s inky interview. If I vaguely recall, he said that their absurdist comedy didn't come from any anger or disenfranchisement, like Milligan or Python, but was just vapid whimsical bollocks.  Oo, it's bitter out.

[Kankurette]

Python? Angry? Really?

I mean, I don't love Bis on the same level as Space and I hate Kandy Pop, but they were pretty harmless. And like...attacking them for a lack of class consciousness? Cerys Matthews was a posh girl, she was far better off than most indie musicians, and Catatonia never sang about politics, except maybe on Fuel, but Swells loved them and didn't call Cerys a fat bitch. Odd fellow. He also did an article about Belle & Sebastian which was a huge rant about how shit they were and how they were miserable snobs or something.

And no shit Bis liked cartoons and stuff. So what? Ash were obsessed with Star Wars. It just seems a weird thing to attack them over.

[Shaky]

I ignored these peeps back in the day and wrote them off as a novelty act, but been blasting Data Panik Etcetera for a couple of days and by Christ - it's really good!

[ajsmith2]

I remember when Swells reviewed Anal Cunt live and his conclusion was that they'd be one of the greats if they just 'laid off the anti PC stuff' or words to that effect. Ok then.

[kngen]

He interviewed Consolidated, a band that couldn't be accused of being apolitical in any sense, and just went on and on about them being vegetarians. 'Scratch a vegetarian, find a fascist' was a phrase he liked to bandy about. He was just a contrarian prick with a head like half a bawbag.

[Kankurette]

It's not my fault vegetables are so delicious. :(

The NME's cuntishness could be entertaining but sometimes it got ridiculous. Like the 'lol Manda Rin is fat' thing.

[Wacky Homemade Badges]

The Chart Music crowd, Kulkarni, Stubbs, Price and Bee, weren't generally known for that kind of writing, though. I'm pretty certain they've spoken out against that sort of thing when they've retrospectively covered old issues of music mags from the time.

Hmm, memories may vary. I remember Price as being very much of the school that if you're not one of his sort of bands, then anything's fair game. I've posted this example of his fiercer writing (http://sarahrecords.org.uk/le-jardin-de-heavenly/) on here before, but it's got extra relevance here cos Heavenly did a great split single with Bis (their side below)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6SJS7OOZi8

[jobotic]

Heavenly were great. Still that ruining a Talulah Gosh encore, what a man.

[PaulTMA]

What is he getting at with the '"Amelia" (I bet that is her name)' stuff?  Why do folk round here like this knobber?

[jobotic]

I guess she thinks she will have chosen it as it sounds cutesy. It is her real name.

She should have changed it to something cool like Cigarette

[Kankurette]

How dare a woman have a girly name. Nice ableism as well. Cunt.

[Ron Maels Moustache]

I have to say I've got a bit tired of Price's constant "accidental" namedropping, especially on the most recent episode, where they just let him fucking ramble on for an hour. He's probably my least favourite out of the CM gang as he's just a bit too full of himself.

[Chriddof]

I think Price seems to have grown up a fair bit since that review, and the same goes for a lot of the MM contributors. Aside from things like the Chart Music name-dropping, he's moved away from stuff like the ableism, at least. He also recently took Alan McGee to task over some some transphobic tweets.

That review certainly is unpleasant and full of odd knee-jerk reactions, but it's best that we don't judge everyone purely from stuff they wrote roughly 25 years ago, and more on what they're like now. Of course, people like the aforementioned Mark Beaumont still seem dubious, and Stephen Wells was such a weirdo he was still like that in 2009; he would likely be ploughing that grim field now had he survived.

[jobotic]

Totally agree, don't want him cancelled just commenting on that shitty review. Tbh I can't remember what anyone wrote like in either paper very well. Think I liked Kulkarni but only remember the others as names. Everett True had good taste and often decent opinions but was so up himself and who he knew that he was a bit tedious to read.

[Wacky Homemade Badges]

That review certainly is unpleasant and full of odd knee-jerk reactions, but it's best that we don't judge everyone purely from stuff they wrote roughly 25 years ago, and more on what they're like now.

Chart Music Podcast is all about judging people for what they were like 25+ years ago tho.

It's complicated, I guess. My instinct is to be charitable, but I also think why should I cut Price the slack he wouldn't cut Heavenly?

[Kankurette]

Everett True's hateboner for Space put me off him. Kulkarni I did like. Still do.

[Johnny Foreigner]

Tedious.

[Pauline Walnuts]

The Stud Brothers* being complete edge, no surface, just edge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LWbQazgfUY



*who apparently are 2 people, not one bloke with a memorable name, everyday a school day etc etc.

[Wacky Homemade Badges]

The Stud Brothers* being complete edge, no surface, just edge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LWbQazgfUY



*who apparently are 2 people, not one bloke with a memorable name, everyday a school day etc etc.

Haw haw haw.

Ben Stud is still at it, altho reverted to his slave name of Thompson. Here he is in Tribune, claiming amongst many other things that music journalism is the highest of all literary sub-categories.

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2019/10/lives-in-sound

I guess if the only other things you've read are a semiotics textbook and The Dice Man, it probably is.

[kngen]

Everett True was always a self-regarding bellend, but I do remember a half-page 'new bands to watch out for' feature in MM on some mob called Nirvana, who he declared would become 'the biggest band in the world' (I'm not sure if Bleach had even come out by this point), and thinking 'Oh shut up, you twat. What do you know?' So, aye, fair fucks to him on that one. But then he probably said that on a weekly basis, and that's just the one that sticks in my memory.

[Pauline Walnuts]

Everett True bigged up Nirvana? wooh! Wonder why he never mentions that? 🤨


Is there a reason why Everett True never does that Chart Music Podcast?

[holyzombiejesus]

Everett True was possibly the worst of them. His attitude towards females in bands was fucking deplorable, just a horrible sleazy bloke. He tried to get on his high horse when Riot Grrrl became popular but he'd already been slobbering over Courtney Love and championing bands just because he wanted to sleep with the singer for ages by then.

[jobotic]

I don't remember that. I can remember him defending Riot Grrl from its tedious detractors but not his sleaze.

I'm not doubting you though - it all seemed to be about him.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I was very, very drunk one time at the LA2 and stumbled over to True and told him that he looked like the third Blues Brother, albeit with poorly dyed blonde hair, and he took it as a compliment and was very chatty and friendly with me despite me slurring my words and probably being a right old twat.

[lazyhour]

Haw haw haw.

Ben Stud is still at it, altho reverted to his slave name of Thompson. Here he is in Tribune, claiming amongst many other things that music journalism is the highest of all literary sub-categories.

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2019/10/lives-in-sound

I guess if the only other things you've read are a semiotics textbook and The Dice Man, it probably is.

Pretty sure the writer of that article was not in the Stud Brothers. What's your source?

[sutin]

Everett True named my gf's band's 2nd album his 2nd favourite of 2012 after Dexys, so i'm cool with him.

[Wacky Homemade Badges]

Pretty sure the writer of that article was not in the Stud Brothers. What's your source?

Ah, I'd got my wires crossed. Ben Stud actually is Ben Marshall, who I've just discovered did a series of articles for Loaded where he re-enacted The Dice Man! Off beam in one respect, on the money in another...