The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

Menu

Navigation

Actors who sing, AKA Eighth Wonder turn out not to be

by 79 Comments

As I live in a flat with a young family, my vinyl is alphabetised and somewhat crammed into one IKEA unit which means, if I pull out a record by Echo and The Bunnymen something like the 10″ mix of I’m Not Scared by Eighth Wonder will come out as well. Man, when did I buy that fucker and what was I thinking?

I’m being a touch cruel, because it isn’t at all bad. I mean, how could it be, written as it was by “imperial phase” Pet Shop Boys? But boy, Patsy Kensit turns out to be no Neil Tennant when it comes to delivering a deadpan song.

Actors though… A bunch of them can technically sing; let’s face it, if you find yourself performing in west end musicals you’re going to need a fine set of pipes, but have any of them been genuinely good at this rock or pop lark? Why are so few people who are good at performing in one sense so terrible at performing in another?

Feel free to post any good examples you can think of…

Shopping

by 148 Comments

The High Street is open for business. Debenhams has closed. And now we can all go out, we can see that there are plenty of other ‘units’ boarded up. My, there are some very big gaps in town/city centres. Footfall was falling well before the pandemic. It seems unlikely that those big retail units are going to be fully occupied any time soon.

When I was a teen, I’d regularly go to town just for something to do. I’d wander around and browse. Of course, there were plenty of record shops for me to visit but I’d look at clothes, watches, anything really. There were precious few places to eat. Plenty of pie shops but the only hot food available was in a chippy or the top floor of a department store and then strictly at lunchtime. I used to take my own sandwiches.

Now, I don’t browse at all. I go to shops for something specific. Buying clothes online has been hit and miss, so I prefer to go to an actual shop. More than 90% of my music is purchased online (the record shops don’t have what I want any more). I don’t think I’d ever buy jewellery » Continue Reading.

Pet Shop Boys vs. The Divine Comedy – the arched eyebrow war

by 37 Comments

As part of my year-long music writing blog, I am trying to demolish deeply-held prejudices about music, and one of those is that, while the Pet Shop Boys write great tunes, their lyrics are overrated. I thought I would ask the Afterword cognoscenti to inform me which would be the best song to confound my misjudgement (Being Boring, maybe?).

But then I though, let’s make this a bit more fun. While I don’t particularly rate the music of the Divine Comedy, Neil Hannon writes very impressive lyrics (see clip). Every now and then the Afterword used to do band duels (Cream vs. Hendrix, Roxy Music vs Talking Heads, Fairport Convention vs. Pentangle vs. Steeleye Span, etc*).

I haven’t seen one of these artificially-contrived wrestling deathmatches recently, so – it’s a fine May weekend (well it is here in Bonn). So why not draw out your keyboard epee and mouse foil and get fencing*** on this fraught issue?

Pet Shop Boys or The Divine Comedy?

Fight fight fight!**

——————-

*Obviously the former in all three examples

**Not really channeling my inner Quaker here

***And no fence-sitting, please.

Sometimes you’re better off dead, there’s a gun in your hand and it’s pointing at your head

by 21 Comments

You think you’re mad too unstable Kicking in chairs and knocking down tables In a restaurant in a West end town

The former Smash Hits writer and his pal gave their song ‘West End Girls’ a second shot at success 30 years ago today. (yes. Thirty. Years. Ago.) kicking off a fabulous career on pop’s merry-go-round. With that wonderful opening couplet sung in Tennant’s distinctive nasal deadpanned way that either infuriates or beguiles. Like any writer Neil knew how to kick the doors down and grab the listener’s attention from the off. The simplistic backing creates a sinister and edgy atmosphere, that jazzy sax and feale backing vocal melding with the electronic bassline. Pop music at it’s very best.

And most importantly – you can’t hear any beards