He Bangs The Drums
- 27 Aug 07, 12:41 PM
As a young, music-obsessed fella, I used to spend my music holidays fretting about the new tunes I was missing back home. I remember getting back from Spain in 1981 to hear 'Tainted Love' buzzing out of car radios and bedrooms, a sweltering marker of the age. Next year and I returned from two months away to learn that the western world had gone collectively mad for 'Come On Eileen'. My best ever summer tune would be the Balearic ideal of 'Barefoot In The Head' by A Man Called Adam.
It's not such a massive deal anymore, but some old instinct still finds me looking around for the song that defines the season. And right now, I can't hear anything more pertinent than Ian Brown and 'Illegal Attacks'. You may know this guy as the former voice of the Stone Roses, the born-again King Monkey who fixed up a decent solo career in defiance of a wonky voice and a scattershot attention span. Since then he's been jailed for air rage, has said some objectionable things about gay culture and has delivered a few Manc-minded classics. Without Ian Brown there would be no Liam Gallagher, but hey, we can't blame him for everything.
His new single is a sustained rebuke to the war-mongers in the Middle East. The tune is reminiscent of earlier tunes like 'F.E.A.R.' and 'So Many Solidiers' and the self-righteous skank is what you might expect from a long-time reggae fan. I'm not sure that his analysis of Al-Qaeda is terribly profound, but at the the end of this tune, as Sinead O' Connor takes up the refrain and the body count rises, you feel satisfied that at least somebody wants to say something with a pop song. Give that man a banana.
Anyway the holiday was quite restful and I avoided a computer monitor for almost two weeks. The eyes were confused and then pleased, while the head achieved a nearly-forgotten state of clarity. The greatest indulgence was to read, hungrily. So I finished the last volume of the Dark Materials trilogy before taking on the elegant murk of Gore Vidal and Palimpsest. The last challenge was to tackle Underworld by Don DeLillo, a gig that's defeated me in the past. Well, I'm 700 pages in, and just 100 to go. People, I think I'm gonna make it.
Stu Bailie presents The Late show on Radio Ulster, every Friday from 10pm until midnight. See his playlist here.
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