Saturday, April 09, 2011

Embed and breakfast man: Longpigs

The other great Sheffield band of their generation, and deserving more than just being a footnote in articles about Richard Hawley, let's spend some time looking at Longpigs.

Somewhat surprisingly, Crispin Hunt doesn't merit his own entry in Wikipedia. Even Geraldine Newman has an entry in Wikipedia; why Hunt's time leading the Longpigs and subsequent career working with the good, the bad, and Newton Faulkner since doesn't make him significant enough isn't clear.

So, after four solid years of singles, which, without ever quite making it to the toppermost of the poppermost managed a fairly distinguished series of chart placings, it all just crumbled away. Dee Boyle quit; their label imploded; America had decided it didn't really care for British bands that much.

It's astonishing that we're able to generate bands as good as Longpigs, and then more-or-less ignore them. We're like people signing up for allotments and only realising we never went back to harvest them when the council sends us the letter telling us they're taking the land back.

Let's kick off with She Said from TFI Friday. If ever you need to define a British band by its time, place, and never-quite-living-up-to-potential, the first question to ask is 'did they appear on TFI Friday?'



Buy
The Sun Is Often Out
Mobile Home

Longpigs online
Last FM
Spotify

More to come this weekend
Crispin Hunt on Never Mind The Buzzcocks
On And On
The Frank Sonata
Lost Myself
Jesus Christ Live
Tendresse


1 comment:

PeterD said...

As an 8 year old The Longpigs were the very first band my daughter ever saw.

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