Thursday, December 17, 2009

Gordon in the morning: Butter man attacks modern world

The pointlessness of John Lydon's attack on something modern is underlined by his bemusing treating of Coldplay and Radiohead as if they were interchangeable, but let's let himtry some of the clodhopping iconoclasm that he feels we expect of him:

He said: "Coldplay and Radiohead bug the hell out of me because it's so soulless. It just seems pointless. It's nice, but it's tosh. They don't care about you. They care about lining their coffers."

Because there was nothing cynical in the sudden decision to reform Public Image just as the bottom fell out of the Florida property market, of course.

Maybe I'm being unfair. Perhaps this railing against bands shaking down their audience is heartfelt, and it's just a shame that Lydon had to wait until he had an interview to promote the slightly repackaged collection of an old album to sell into the Christmas market before he had a chance to raise the issue.

Lord, even Gordon sees through him:
This from the man who has starred in an advert for butter.


6 comments:

James said...

Haven't read the article - I hope he at least came up with an amusing alternative name for each band, based on a strained play on words. You know, "Coldplay, or WE'RE-TOO-OLD-PLAY, as I call them. Because they're too old."

I do a cracking Su Pollard too, if you're interested.

Anonymous said...

"They care about lining their coffers"

Can he actually hear himself over the noise of his own hypocrisy? Does he genuinely believe that nobody can see through his nonsense? I can't believe that he's still saying the same old lies 30 years on!!!

Still I'm only posting to say I can't believe that Gordon Smart is doing a bit of worthy criticism. Good for him. Is this the sign of things to come? Could we see a slightly less glowing review of Ritchie soon? Perhaps not.

John Seal said...

I would rather eat a stick of butter than listen to Coldplay or Radiohead.

Robin Carmody said...

Than Coldplay, yes. But not Radiohead. It is quite true that 'Kid A' left a gap in the market that Coldplay filled, but even at their most conventional, Radiohead were never *pure* soft rock as Coldplay pretty much were from the start.

More generally, it seems harder and harder to believe that 'Metal Box' happened (though I'm eternally glad it did, obviously).

John Seal said...

Radiohead are, IMO of course, the most overrated band of the last ten years. No better than Pink Floyd at their most pompous and least tuneful. Yuk. Pass the butter, please.

Robin Carmody said...

Radiohead and Pink Floyd are both unbearable at their worst ("High and Dry", without which Coldplay may never have had the blueprint to turn into *unapologetic* soft rock, and much/most of 'The Wall' and 'The Final Cut' respectively). Hard to work out which is worse - I don't think those de facto Waters solo albums provided a blueprint for something else built on the same social background but much more blatant and unabashedly Tory (something Radiohead never were at heart, whereas Coldplay always were, they were just waiting for a leader cast in their image, and six months after 'X&Y' they got him) and there *are* some interesting ideas amid all the whining.

However both have also been great, Radiohead *after* those nadirs and Floyd before. Radiohead's worst work was more than ten years ago in fact.

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