And they were quite good live too - I saw them on two consecutive nights on the Fine Art Of Surfacing tour in '79 at the Liverpool Empire a good time was had by all. I think Geldof references those concerts in Liverpool in his autobiography - Is That It? as realising it was the highpoint of the band's career.

Oh, come on. He is a singer. 95% of singers are obnoxious gobshites. I say this as an obnoxious gobshite singer. Most singers aren't singers because they have got good voices, they are singers due to the desire to be onstage and the inability to play an instrument.

At least, Geldof did something with his obnoxious gobshiteness.

Bored of Education wrote:


95 per cent, eh?

Successful bands usually have a singer who has charisma despite no obvious vocal talent. Morrissey and Bono have that quality even though their singing makes me want to puke.

Other examples: The Doors, Rolling Stones, The Clash

Exceptions: Them, The Beatles, The Beach Boys...any harmony group...the charisma is definitely backed by oodles of talent.

Apart from the fact that I lumped myself in there in the present tense, I meant vocalists who don't play other instruments. Having said that, there are some vocalists who play instruments who are obnoxious gobshites as well




Too low?

Bored of Education wrote:

For goodness sake, have a look at his daughters' names...

Good point, well made, he's a a serious fucking wanker

I suspect that that was more Paula's doing. After all, the pattern continued with Hutchence's daughter.

This mightn't necessarily rule SFW-dom out, however.

Does Adele really deserve to be bracketed with Bono, Morrissey and Sting? Even if she is potentially that awful (is she?), the comparison seems to belittle the consistency and longevity of the big three.

I mean, the bloke from Babylon Zoo was an utter twat, but one couldn't rank him alongside figures who have performed at the SFW heights across four or five different decades.

It's the tax thing

I'd somehow missed that at the time. You're right; she does qualify for fast tracking.

She paid her tax, which means she's paid for more hospitals, schools etc. than etc., she just moaned about it, but I have never known anyone, of any political persuasion, be overjoyed at paying taxes.

She didn't offshore it or quietly do a Compass Point, unlike many a popstar who doesn't get flak.

Presumably she'll be recording in a tax dodge dot on the map next time.

I don't presume, but if she does, she'll be doing the same as many OTF favourites. Until then, all she's done is complain, and pay up.

The most all this qualifies Adele for is "gobshite" status, really. She was asked a question, and answered it honestly.

In the same situation I might have said something similar.

Yeah, it's easy to dislike Adele because of the massive gap between the hype and the actual quality of her music. She might buy into the hype a bit, but that's what pop stars do. She's certainly not in the league of Bono though.

No, really, her music's crap but I am happy to damn her for and

The Brit School is tax-payer funded isn't it?

Adele's not crap, but then again nor is she (artistically) worthy of the colossal, overblown hype that follows her every move. But then, every now and again in pop culture, this does happen to someone (shall we say) 'less likely'.

I think her comments were naive and misguided at worst. If she's saying that state education in the UK needs a serious looking at, well I'd not disagree with that. However, I'm not sure she is saying that - so 'take advice from elsewhere' would be my suggestion to her management.

Fuck off, squeaky, and don't let the door hit your arse on the way out if you want to piss off somewhere less taxy.