Eclecticism is a good thing, so a bit of mix'n'match when compiling the bill for a good old stop/start rave-up should be applauded. Sometimes though, those choices end up being baffling, although thankfully not always to the detriment of the artists concerned.
Take The Tommys for example, an all-girl four piece from Crewe who would probably have been more at home opening for the likes of McFly or Girls Aloud than here. Musically and aesthetically, they're like Green Day after a sex change and a six month re-appraisal at some beautician's country health farm. They sing songs about going out with boys and breaking up with them again and when singer Jessica Bell announces 'The Day The Whole World Turned Chav' as being "about your worst nightmare", the scenesters turn their backs on them in disgust while those of us with a more open mind sympathise by way of a mere wrong place-wrong time riposte.
Next up are Tera:Tora, a band who have been tipped by so many as being one of the brightest hopes for 2006. 20 seconds into their first "song" and my immediate reaction is to check the date on my watch doesn't say April 1st, as someone somewhere is clearly taking the piss. As with fellow "just to be scene"-sters Test-Icicles, Tera:Tora are another example of style over substance, as their shouty-shouty-splutter into nowhere punk/funk crossover sounds like a less interesting We Are Scientists minus any semblance of a tune. Still, the drummer was good, if a little wasted by him being in this band.
Thankfully, there are no such qualms to be raised about !Forward Russia!. Watching this band grow steadily over the past year from bedsit practice room anonymity to the verge of potentially huge commercial success has been a joy to behold, as their mangled no holds barred genre bending exercises in all things chaotically loud threatens to take over Chris Moyles and co.'s airspace in the coming months.
With each song being titled in numerical order as to when it was written - there's no room for the preposterous pomposity of 'Whiter Shade Of Pale' or 'Total Eclipse Of The Heart' in the !FR! songbook - even the initially confusing aspect of devising such a simplistic way of christening your work is beginning to pay dividends. When Tom Woodhead announces the next song as 'Four', half a dozen people let out a cry of "Electric car!" back. More than anything it is Woodhead's onstage mannerisms that make !Forward Russia! such compelling viewing, with more double-jointed twists and turns than an over-used Rubik's Cube and a propensity to physically throttle himself with his microphone lead throughout.
Even more alarming is the thought of !Forward Russia! writing a ballad, which is precisely what 'Sixteen' - given one of it's first ever airings this evening - turns out to be. And more to the point, it's absolutely stunning, possibly their 'So Here We Are' or 'Modern Way', providing further proof that this band are more than just one trick ponies for pretentious scene dwellers to cling on to while waiting for the next bandwagon to arrive.
you're so so so...
...so wrong about Terra:Tora. They're one of the most intelligent and vital new bands about. They might be stylish but it's certainly not to make up for a lack of subnstance- they've got it in spades.
I (almost) had your view of The Tommys, but I've just read the lyrics to 'The Day The World Turned Chav' and if it isn't a thinly veiled attack on working class culture then I don't know what is. I won't be so crass as to assume that The Tommys are all nicely brought up middle class girls, but I find such attitudes horribly condescending and more than a little unpleasant. I know The Tommys are young (and they were extremely polite to us when we supported FR in Wolves), so I'll forgive them, but it's a bit of an unpleasant song really.
Forward Russia are indeed immense. One band that really deserves the hype.
Dave...
As someone who considers himself to be working class, I am quite offended that anyone can be so misled as to think chavs are an accurate representation of working class culture.
I have no idea what part of Crewe The Tommys originate from or whether they've had to work/steal/scrounge or do anything else for a living, but if they've had the misfortune to spend six months living next door to a group of Burberry clad oafs causing problems and trying to set fire to the Mrs' rabbits like I had to endure until recently, then yes, chavs are my worst nightmare.
If you have no idea or experience of what I am talking about then you are in no position to comment.
Dom G.
I fully agree...
Chavism, like it or not, is the new paradigm of white working class culture. That's not to say all chavs are working class, or that all working class people are chavs. But it is (by definition) a term that's used to refer to working class people. It's the latest manifestaion of the culture that brought us Teddy Boys, Mods/Rockers and Punks. It's an alienated response to societal conditions.
And to equate all chavs with stealing and other anti-social behaviour is almost as wrong as it is to link social ills to asylum seekers. There are elements in both groups who are anti-social (though it's undoubtedly a smaller element among asylum seekers) but to tar them all with the same brush is ridiculous and only serves to heighten their alienation and entrench their reluctance to socialise with the rest of society (and thus they continue to identify themselves by wearing Burberry, etc etc).
I think people who blindly follow trends are idiots, and that chav dress is a particularly ridiculous trend. But I don't for one minute think all chavs are nasty people- and god knows I've had enough abuse from them to last a lifetime.
But I could list plenty of times I've had abuse from goth kids who hang round outside the civic centre in Wolverhampton. And, most tellingly, I could talk about the time I was escorting a group of blind and visually impaired children (some of whom had autism) across the square outside the Symphony Hall in Birmingham. There were chavs hanging around there, as well as a load of skaters. All the skaters and chavs made every effort to get out of the way of the kids and let us past. But plenty of businessmen walked right through the middle of us. One went so far as to push one of the children and complained to one of the leaders of the group that we were blocking the pathway (we weren't). It was imperative he got back to his office on time, he concluded, because "he had money to make".
That kind of person is the real cunt in our society.
oops!...
...ignore the subject in that last post! And I certainly don't mean to offend anyone personally here. I know people who've been subjected to horrible abuse at the hands of chavs- and I had a pretty rough time at school from people who would now be considered 'chav'.
True...
that all people of a similar grouping whether that be by fashion, race, creed, musical taste or employment status shouldn't be generalised.
Unfortunately, as with football fans, goths, asylum seekers, skinheads and any other group of people you care to mention, its always a minority that spoils it for the rest and everyone else becomes tainted with the same label.
I don't believe you are out to offend anyone personally - it's just that your initial post did seem to be the usual "attacking chavs is an attack on working class culture" rhetoric that only clueless anally retentive social retards like Julie Burchill spout on television channels like Bravo for a living and then get heralded as groundbreaking, sensationalist journalists!
I can't...
...be arsed getting into long debates about Chavism and all that. I saw the Tommys with Forward, Russia in Manchester and enjoyed wha they did, even though it's not really my thing. They were good enough at what they do - expect them to go down extremely well when Son Of Dork decide to tour (surely they are the PERFECT support for that?).
And I don't wanna jump on the Forward, Russia bandwagon or anything but they ARE amazing. It was like the tenth time I've seen them or summat stupid and they just get better and better with each performance. For once, the hype is definitely justified.
i saw...
forward russia...once...for 5 minutes. Soulless dross.
i read...
handle's post... once... for 5 seconds. Pointless innacuracy.
damn
i meant inaccuracy. dang, now my razor sharp wit has been blunted by my own mispellings.
how amusing.
you owned yourself etc
I'm sure we played this gig too?
Thanks for the review DiS......
I don't recall seeing you....
but I got to the venue rather late - literally at the start of the Tomys set so I do apologise.
what what?
was meant more tongue-in-cheek than it reads back - apologies.
No worries...
If I'd known you were going to be playing I'd have been there!
you have
SUCH bad taste in music
i
saw tera:tora at the dis club on friday. they're absolutely amazing.
thatisall.
I was there too
I thought they were crap. As did the people I was with.