JUSTIN HAWKINS HATE OF THE DAY

Does Justin Hawkins have anything to say about his own music, as he seems to do little more than list other people's shortcomings whenever he finds himself in an interview. Latest target is the softest yet, James Blunt:

He told Classic Rock magazine: "There's nothing dour or inward-looking about rock music.

"It's all about being extensions of yourselves and expressing whatever it is you want to say in a bombastic fashion.

"If you're tackling a difficult subject then it's a rock band's job to slam it on the table and go: 'That's what I'm fucking talking about!'

"Whereas it's for people like James Blunt to whittle around the subject and dance lightly, being quite cryptic so everyone thinks he's deep.

"Nobody wants to be deep. The only thing that should be deep is our money resource."

"Our money resource"? What? "Coming down the pub, Justin?" "Hang about, I'll just check my money resource..."

While Justin's claims that rock music should always be stupid as cheese will doubtless give hope to many struggling mid-table indie bands, we're not convinced that "there's nothing dour or inward-looking about rock music." Presumably Hawkins has yet to hear, say, Black Sabbath's Paranoid, or anything by the Manics. Or Suicidal Tendencies.

But then a man who spends time worrying about James Blunt like he's a threat probably has other things on his mind. It's curious that Hawkins views Blunt as competition - since Blunt is aimed squarely at the market who pick up albums while they're doing the weekly shop at Asda on the strength of one single they hear being played a lot on Capital Radio or whatever their local equivalent would be. So, that's where the battle is being fought, is it, Ju?

music justin hawkins james blunt the darkness