Easy, it's the Sparks.

Nope.

The Darkness?

Franz Ferdinand

That's the best guess yet, Mr B. But still wrong.

I can't hear any Bugsy Malone influence in The Darkness, I have to say.

Fratellis.

Of course it's The Fratellis. Well done, Mr M.

That was all rather exciting, wasn't it?

The Fratellis

Can we have someone I might have heard of next time? I realise that it's my fault for not having been remotely "with it" for manys a year but even so...

I marvel at Assistant Brighton's enduring ability to remain enthusiastic about constantly "new", "new", "new" music, but to me it's no different to what we've all heard time and time again. It bores me to death. Still, takes all sorts.

'Now it's time for Trends. Our weekly look at what's "with it". This is for people who are "far out". So if you think The Kinks are simply a bunch of spotty adolecents making a horrific dirge then you're obviously not "far out"'

Round The Horne 1964.

(I like The Kinks but I love the joke.)

> That was all rather exciting, wasn't it?

Not, I suspect, a word that turns up very often in fratelli-related discussions.

Oh, I love the single.


Mark, Round the Horne was a ground-breaking comedy show. For all that they might have taken the piss out of music fans wanting to do the latest new thing, I don't think they'd have been too keen on prefixing all their jokes with "I say, I say, I say!" I also note that you don't ride a penny-farthing.

That being said, if you like The Kinks, and Mud, there's a good chance you'll like The Fratellis. They're a tad retro.

Hey I'm not against the modern. In fact only this weekend I've aquired these Frattellis fellers' Long Player via the medium of "the internet" (ahem) and have put it on my "mp3 player". I've already listened to one side but I think the stylus may have worn out. I'm going to give it another whirl today via electro-magnetic speaker technology just after I empty my pipe by thwacking it against my heel. It's got a good beat.

Don't you look at all your CDs which you rushed out to buy on the day they came out 10-15 years ago but haven't listened to since then and wonder what on earth you were thinking? The utter crap that I own. Sure I've got plenty of good stuff too but that tends to extend beyond my own era, filtered through the critical sieve of time. So I'm wary of that for one thing but then, like I say, I feel like I've heard it all before. I gladly hearing the new bands that appear on the Mark Radcliffe show, like how those 10-15 year old bands used to appear on The Graveyard Shift, but I just don't have the desire to rush out and own that music anymore. I'm not saying my experience is universal by any means and other people my/our age should be same, heaven forbid, but I can't say I understand the deisire that's all. Someone of a Harry's Place type position would insert some boilerplate about "consumer capitalism" at this point but money for old rope will do. That's not to say some amazing new talent or movement isn't going to breakthrough at any moment, i might but it's much less likely since technology as exploded entertainment into microscopic niche areas which means new waves don't have to breakout all over.

Anyway I'm continously exploring "new" stuff too, it just happens to be rather old.

I just don't have the desire to rush out and own that music anymore.

I think that's because music is only central to your life for a very specific period of time - the standing on a milk crate in your bedroom shouting "I am the king of pain!" period, when you buy the NME not for something to pass the time, but for the life-changing words of your favourite pop/rock stars. At that time, you will quite literally die if you miss a single news snippet.

if you like The Kinks, and Mud, there's a good chance you'll like The Fratellis.

I beg to differ. Like all sane people I love the kinks, and there's always room for a bit of glam rock stomp. But IMO the fratellis sound like lager louts doing Mud at a karaoke night. There's no wit, no verve, nothing but the feeling you've heard it done before, better.

I reckon Marilyn Manson's carrying the glam torch these days :)

Mind you, I don't understand the appeal of Razorlight either. Surely one Boomtown Rats in a millennium is enough?

There's too much music now. It's time to stop so we can all catch up.

There's too much music now.

LOL. I've heard Danny Baker say that exact same thing!

I think that's because music is only central to your life for a very specific period of time

Wise words. What, sort of 16 to 24 give or take I guess. Sheesh I bought 'Q' every month for about 12 years and lapped it up. It's crap now but maybe it always was to a 33 year old. I wonder if people who weren't so obsessed notice the transition into old fart quite to starkly?

> the fratellis sound like lager louts doing Mud at a karaoke night.

I know! It's fantastic!

"I marvel at Assistant Brighton's enduring ability to remain enthusiastic about constantly "new", "new", "new" music"

Ha ha, I think I'm probably woefully out of touch, actually - I have noticed that the bands I like, although new, do tend to be made up of people around my own age - ie late twenties / early thirties. I suspect that most NME readers would recoil at my enthusiasm for the bands I like... And rightly so.