Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Everett True upsets an entire country

I used to carry a massive grudge against Everett True, on the basis of a review of The Charlottes he wrote for Melody Maker that I considered had unfairly slighted the band. It was several years later that I found a clipping of the offending review, only to discover that rather than being the cruel trashing I'd recalled, it was just a mild rebuke.

I suppose I'm lucky that this was in the pre-internet era, otherwise I might have instantly sent him an ill-considered vituperative email.

Now Everett has managed to upset not just the fans of The Charlottes, but the much larger category of 'everyone in Australia'. He wrote a blog for The Guardian's music website where he pointed out that not every Australian band brings honour upon their homelands, and has, for his efforts, been rewarded with being turned into some sort of hate figure. Line-by-line denunciations in The Age; burning of True in effigy on Ramsay Street; the revelation that his real name is Mr. T. Legend, that sort of thing:

The Courier-Mail story ran the following day, on page seven (just behind the ubiquitous Olympics), with an accompanying editorial from the paper's music critic - disrespectfully, it was given more prominence than the story of Isaac Hayes dying. It was also posted on the internet, alongside similar stories in the Courier-Mail's sister papers in Perth, Melbourne, West Australia...and, most particularly, on Courier-Mail's parent site.

The Charlottes didn't last much beyond True's judgement. If we were Australia, we'd be worried.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I used to have a lot of respect for ET, until I found out recently that he's been perving over a 24 year old female friend of mine who lives in Brooklyn (something I refused to believe of him until I read the forwarded emails). Now I think he's nothing short of a cock.

ian said...

Given Australia's showing in the olympics, I'm surprised True only got second billing

Anonymous said...

@anonymous

The girl's of legal age so what's the problem? Or are you one of those weirdos who thinks that people over the age of 40 should somehow not be permitted to have sexual urges? Grow up.

Anonymous said...

@duckie

Nah, I don't care about that, but I am less than impressed that he's living with his wife and toddler whilst doing it...

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