Currently I’m recovering from having a big old dose of lurgy. I’m not even sure it wasn’t a dose of Covid. I haven’t felt this sick since the last time (and first time) I had Covid in June 2022. That aside, but perhaps relevant as it may have caused my mind to fester on this statement a little too long.
I’ve just gotten out of the shower and during the 45 minutes it has taken me to wash my hair, shower, and get myself dressed with the lingering sickness causing me to take it slower to get all this “self-care” done, I had been conducting an inner diatribe in my head with how to respond to the quote from Charlie that Neil McCormick used to run with this article.
I am familiar with McCormick, being the early U2 fan that I was but never really had him as one of those “sensationalist” music journos.
I have been riled for the past hour by this Burchill statement used of “everyone shouts about our first five albums but no c**ts bought them.” I responded to this on FB and interestingly enough Brian McGee liked what I had said. And I was formulating even more in the shower. A part of me thinking that, in the scheme of the “good cop, bad cop” facade of the Kerr/Burchill SM corporate machine of today, I really couldn’t cope with the notion of Charlie being the bad one. Honestly! It would be the last bastion if Charlie came across as this ungrateful shite. I wouldn’t be able to take it.
In the end. In the final few minutes as I finished up my bathroom ablutions, I decided it really didn’t matter. That the statement is such a lazy, throwaway remark it really doesn’t warrant any true dissection and analysis.
But it did feel, as a fan of a certain age, like a kick in the teeth. One, if you were following them from the beginning, you were most likely going to every single gig you could possibly go to. Secondly, you DEFINITELY would have bought their music.
I had put this scenario together in my head for Charlie in regards to this statement. An ultimatum, if you will. What would prefer? The small number of fans (in relative terms) that you had (and grew exponentially when people of my age became old enough to buy their own records and attend gigs) bought so much of your early material (quite frankly MORE than the number of fans you had at the time) that you had hit singles and top-selling albums, but then the band sunk like a stone by 1984…OR…would you prefer what you ended up with? That your fanbase grew, the generation below you came of age and gave you a string of number one albums, etc, etc???? The choice is yours, Charlie?
But does it even matter? Well, it kinda does because…let’s have a look at a couple of set lists from last year. One from Aberdeen, the first gig of the year for me (and the forth on the recommenced tour). There were 19 songs from a 24 song set that dated from 1985 or earlier. Ten of these songs dated from 1982 or earlier. If we look at a set list from later in the year, and look at Belfast, there are just 15 songs performed – of which TEN were from 1985 or earlier, and SIX of those from 1982 or earlier (and that wasn’t the New Gold Dream played in whole set list from Edinburgh, mind). If the fanbase is so obsessed with the early material, you seem more than willing to play it for them, yeah?
Anyway, I’ve spent far too much time on this already for such a petty remark.
You can read the whole article HERE. I’m still worried about this documentary being the whole Jim and Charlie story.
Oh, one last think. Neil. Mr McCormick, can we not say they “formed” Johnny and the Self Abusers? They JOINED JATSA, okay? Thank you!
