Just saw this tweet earlier, saying "since we tightened up unemployment benefits, all our bands are shite & full of public schoolboys."

So, er, discuss. Is the charts being full of anodyne poshoes another thing we can lay at the door of successive rightwing governments?

got fuck-all to do with it, in my view.

Yeah, you can't really explain away creative activity (or lack of) that neatly. Way too many factors involved.

yes. and, UB was never intended as an "informal arts grant", but was more likely to be used as such by middle class musicians anyway.

there's a correlation between the conservatism of record labels and the economic climate etc. but that's another issue.

aren't hard times supposed to make for good art?

Ah! Hard Times......

Music is always going to have its fair share of poshoes because instruments are expensive and rehearsal space is even more expensive.

And anyway, when the working classes form bands, most people slag them off for being too oafish.

There's always been poshoes in the charts but I don't think Plan B, Professor Green, Tiny Tempah or Devlin count currently so your tweeting correspondent is probably talking from a white indie guitar band perspective

Unemployment Benefit certainly brought us some great music.

The death of the educated poor, proper art schools, what used to be called the counter-culture and the underground press is what has done for British pop really.

That and rock being in its death throes.

Um, i'm not really talking about aesthetics as such , more about popular culture as something people participate in rather than consume and something that in-turn helps define the popular mood and cultural atmosphere. I mean music that's about more than making people just listen to more music, play music or write about music. Maybe we never had anything remotely like that in the UK anyway, even in the late 60's, 70's or early 80's. I dunno. I was either not alive or a child, so I couldn't say. I could well be talking a lot of old shite.

Beltrano Carpinteiro wrote:


Not half.



What a record. The follow up had its moments too but anything after is total shite.

Yeah, great double sided debut single too. My sister had it. Lyrics went over my head really. What the fuck is a tangerine madonna? I was nine years old though.

It's 'ivory madonna'.
And I don't know either.

King is a thing of great beauty.

My Way Of Thinking is the best UB40 tune from 1980 and it's a real shame they put I Think It's Going To Rain on the album instead, which is nice enough but a bit lightweight.

It's bizarre how shit UB40 ended up becoming really, if only Al Campbell had done a Syd Barrett in 1981 history might have judged them all too differently.

Actually, they'd have probably ended up being just as bad, if not worse, in his absence but you'd be able to dichotomise their stuff a bit more the way people tend to do with the Floyd, and then the Graduate era records would get their due props.

They pretty much became a cover versions band after Present Arms, which was a shame because their political stuff was spot-on.
I think they actually toyed with the idea of a name change too.
Probably not good form to be singing about unemployment and police brutality in Brum while sipping red red fucking wine on your yacht in Monaco.

If it weren't for this board, I wouldn't have thought we were supposed to be taking UB40 seriously. If you look at their chart work over here, they're a lightweight covers band.

For me they were up there with the best of post punk.

My five favourite post punk albums are Unknown Pleasures, Specials, Metal Box, Cut... and Signing Off.

It's really, really, good but it's rarely taken as seriously as the other four.

Mat wrote:


No, I don't think you are.

Black British music has never been in better shape. I think that runs counter to E10's theory, what with black people in Britain being overwhelming working class or poor in big cities.

That there is hardly any decent guitar pop about (which is what this is about, basically, and debatable in any case) might be an issue with middle-aged people hankering for the pop of their day, hmmm?