Culture

I was on telly, maybe for as long as four seconds, according to my brother I spoke fourteen words.

The other week I wandered along to a Gresham Flyers gig and there was a film crew there to record The Scaremongers. Between bands Trev Lost, the promoter, grabbed me, the filmer crew were looking for folk to interview, all those years of going to too many gigs must have paid off.

They interviewed about half a dozen folk, and whilst I wittered on for about fifteen minutes, they edited it down to four seconds and then another five seconds of Nat, the other promoter/DJ.

YouTube clip


Or if you wanna watch the whole piece, try The Culture Show on iplayer here, but its only up for a week.

After watching the show, several things strike me, most significantly the sneaking suspicion that the gig and 'The Scaremongers' is a shameless marketing ploy, a publicity stunt to punt Armitage's new book.

This suspicion is founded on the way The Scaremongers have only done one gig, the wee snatch of the bass player saying they've only had one rehearsal, despite the fact that the chattering indie web has been talking about them for months, they've got half a dozen songs and videos up on YouTube, several appearances on Mark Radcliffe's radio show, and dozens of gig promoters screaming at them to play more.

I've been a shy rock star fantasist myself, I had a gig in London once, and there was more than one rehearsal, heck there was half a dozen practise sessions at acoustic open mics and subsequent support shows with mate's bands. With Simon Armitage and The Scaremongers, too all appearances, there's been none of that, and even when he was on stage, he was singing from a lyric sheet. This is despite most of the songs doing the rounds for six months previously.

There's something that stinks about it, that can't just be explained by nerves.

File under Peaches Geldof and Rodnik.