Capri-Sun - like hope in a silver sachet

[alexsarll]

Technically adept types: would it theoretically be possible to make an Oyster card virus?

When I first saw that Virgin 1 was on Freeview, I was mainly excited about The Riches. Then I saw a trailer, and...I'm meant to take that accent of Eddie Izzard's seriously? Like I am Hugh Laurie's in House? There's no punchline? Yeah, maybe not. If I couldn't bear My Fair Lady or The Lady From Shanghai, no way can I take it in an ongoing series. So then I was excited about Battlestar Galactica until I realised it was the crappy original, and while I'd love to see Boston Legal, they've scheduled it against The Sopranos. But just before I dismissed this new channel as a bust, I remembered why I was recognising the name The Unit. It's the collaboration between Shawn "The Shield" Ryan and David Mamet about a US covert ops group (I would say Delta Force except these guys appear to be competent, so maybe think of them just as a US SAS), starring President Palmer from 24 as the operational commander and the T-1000 running things back at base. Tense and manly decisions are made, and stuff blows up. The other plot strand is basically Desperate Housewives except not achingly sh1t, with the unit's wives attempting to maintain both a semblance of normal domestic life, and the pretence that their husbands are in some boring logistics division and certainly not off about to get themselves killed in deniable ops behind enemy lines.
It is on Wednesday evenings. Thus far I have only seen one episode (the second of the first series), but I strongly recommend it.

Phonogram readers and the more-or-less sane will note that everyone interviewed in this piece about the Britpop revival is one of the era's war criminals. Why aren't Menswear touring? Why wasn't the return of Marion met with this sort of mainstream coverage?
(Still, even reading a Northern Uproar interview in 2007 can't be as sure a sign of the End Times as a really rather witty piece appearing in Observer Woman magazine)

Am more excited about Black Plastic later than I've been about a club in a while. I think it helps that this month's cover is the front of John Foxx's Metamatic, an album I somehow only discovered this month.

Comments

return of the bands that were never even cool at the time

[charleston.livejournal.com]

I love the way in that article is says that Shed Seven "quietly got back together in February" and started booking small venues... when it's been something of a standing joke for the past 10 years that at least once a year you'll come across a "secret" Shed Seven revival gig in a pub in Camden with about 10 punters...

[guntrip.livejournal.com]

haha, i've heard this from other people as well actually..

my favourite was the way that the tour ads listed the members of the band as if it was the "classic" lineup and someone would care that the original drummer was back.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I felt a bit that way about Duran Duran getting back the two non-John Taylors, but a surprising number of people did seem to care.

[perfectlyvague.livejournal.com]

Sacking Warren for the sake of that Geordie twat who only went and buggered off again anyway was the stupidest decision they ever made (I know Ms. Stone does not agree as she is a first-time-rounder). He spat on stage! And sweated! Unattractively! I like to think that Nick was scowling at him from behind the keyboards, plotting his untimely demise.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Aye. The most annoying bit was when he got a big 'return of the prodigal son' cheer for the guitar part on 'Ordinary World' - IT WASN'T EVEN HIS SONG IN THE FIRST PLACE, YOU OAFS!

Re: return of the bands that were never even cool at the time

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Well, quite. Though the worst thing in the article - and I know I'm not the only person riled by this - was the dismissal at the end of a possible market for Sleeper or Echobelly's return. Sure, Sleeper only had three good songs and Echobelly were mostly atrocious after the first album - but that's still a lot more than can be said for Shed sodding Seven.

Re: return of the bands that were never even cool at the time

[missfrost.livejournal.com]

Echobelly were touring a new album in 2005, and mostly selling out. I only know because Ruth was playing bass for them at the time. She'd just got a job at MTV and had to take a day "off sick" to do one of the gigs, and then was blatantly pictured in the Metro listings the next day.

Re: return of the bands that were never even cool at the time

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

She could just claim to have left since the press picture was sent out, though I grant that it might not be the easiest lie to sell...

If Echobelly did one of those 'don't look back' shows, just playing the first album and b-sides from that period, I'd probably go.

Re: return of the bands that were never even cool at the time

[darkship.livejournal.com]

Yeah: Chris York disses bands with "no artistic merit" and he's the culprit behind SHED SEVEN's latest tour? Is he blinded by, of all things, love for Shed Satan?

Re: return of the bands that were never even cool at the time

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Maybe he just has a really strong sense of irony.

Re: return of the bands that were never even cool at the time

[myfirstkitchen.livejournal.com]

Never mind that, they've been touring up here properly for years, playing university sized venues and selling them out, just choosing the towns they played carefully. They only stopped about three years ago, because Rick got chippy that nobody was taking his solo project/band seriously. Woo, they got the original guitarist back. Big deal.

Re: return of the bands that were never even cool at the time

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Seriously? And people wonder why the North has such a bad reputation...