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Blaggers ITA: Crap or Not crap?

Crap or Not Crap?

  • Total voters
    37
Divisive Cotton said:
i remember them and shall always remember them

even if i AM THE ONLY one left i shall remember

remember
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I was taking the mickey out of articul8 asking if anyone remembers a band pretty much everyone on this thread remembers as if they were some obscure jap-noise terror-group. Whatever happened to 'Jack Barron'?
 
butchersapron said:
I was taking the mickey out of articul8 asking if anyone remembers a band pretty much everyone on this thread remembers as if they were some obscure jap-noise terror-group. Whatever happened to 'Jack Barron'?
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I was a bit too young to be properly involved in a scene (in 88-92 I was 12-16). I was getting into the Roses and Mondays even so - I just remember how much better they were than everything else [bar the Weddoes, I hadn't really heard the Fall). I remember thinking at the time that flowered up were just a creation of a desperate London music press trying to muscle in - and failing.
 
I enjoyed them when I saw them live, whether that was due to them or my imbibing I wouldn't be able to say though.
BTTP were well good live for dancing around off your face, cassettes were better than the later releases, and a nice bunch of people I must say. Having seen them again a couple of years ago I must admit I was a bit underwhelmed, sometimes it is best not to revisit your past pleasure so you can keep the happy glow on them.
 
I played with Blaggers ITA from 1992/3 to 1996 ish. Myself and Matty were best mates for years before that and although I had little interest in them when I first met him I was amazed at the effort he (and the likes of Serious steve, Matt Vinyl, Brendan etc also tbf) put in to get them to a stage where they had a showcase with Parlophone re signing for them.

Unbelievable as it may seem Parlophone were about to drop Blur and Radiohead plus others owing to poor sales at thee time and their main A&R guy saw the Blaggers and wanted to sign them. Their guitarist got stage fright and Matty begged me to stand in .. I did played diabolically owing to a half hours rehearsal but the band got signed and Matty asked me to join as a session player. I did and loved plus hated it cos me and Matty were like brothers always rowing about stuff .. mainly music tbf. I am well proud of the Bad Karma album cos it is good and I played my part properly on that and the Manics tour (sort of) plus the Poppies one (loved that and them .. don't think I'd ever heard them until that although Matty probably played me something by them and I might have said it's shite or something).

I was as into it as Matty was when it all went wrong and really thought the band had serious potential (course he used to say I told you didn't I heh) and of course then he snuffed it. He was the real deal and a seriously nice fella and I miss him loads even now. The band carried on after Matty left and went into a metally phase which I stuck with til it petered out .. but even that wasn't bad and if Matty was into it at the time it'd defo have been way way better.

I remember hearing Blur's (what would have been their last album) Modern life is Rubbish before it came out and I thought it was excellent .. Matty didn't like Damon Albarn so he said it was crap lol then it went gynormous and my turn to say 'I told you'.
I didn't rate 'The Bends' but obviously after that what can you say and what with Matty reacting to Dave Simpsons taunts .. namely 'a leopard never changes its spots' the music industry closed all sorts of doors and the end was nigh not least for Matty. Matty had a swastika tattoed on his arse from his youth (not a lot of people knew that) in Oswestry, went to Borstal and read Animal Farm plus other books, became anti fascist for absolutely real and was as serious about that as he was the band.

He was uneducated working class and wasn't very articulate but was highly intelligent and a proper gent and kind person. Drinking with him was a precarious affair mind so I rarely did it. Instead we worked together and argued and laughed lots.

He used to always ask me to go to their gigs and I'd be blunt if I did when they were imo a bit shite. I remember the gig that I changed my mind cos I had to .. it was in Stoke Newington (not the Beckett but further down on the left) and Matty was climbing up the pole in the middle of the pub and the music was tight as. I told him they were great and said they only needed to get spotted now and I was glad to be able to say that and a month later Parlophone signed them with massive (unfulfilled obv plans) and I was the new guitarist replacing Paul the Pig whose bottle deserted him. He came to a gig and said to me 'I saw you playing my riff on Wildside'. I said yeah that's great I couldn't do anything better than that .. he said 'Do you want me to show you how to play it properly?' Class tbf !

Matty Blag RIP
 
When did Ray play with them? I read on here that he was the first singer, but I would have swore that Matty and Tim Wells were the first singers, along with Matt Vinyl, Serious Steve and Jez on drums.
 
rorymac said:
Matty reacting to Dave Simpsons taunts .. namely 'a leopard never changes its spots' the music industry closed all sorts of doors and the end was nigh
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What was that all about? I remember the Blaggers being all over the weeklies, pretty much every week for a while. Then there was a story about a journo (NME?) getting slapped, a piece slagging them off then...nothing at all.
 
Sweet FA said:
What was that all about? I remember the Blaggers being all over the weeklies, pretty much every week for a while. Then there was a story about a journo (NME?) getting slapped, a piece slagging them off then...nothing at all.
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He compared them to Fascists or said that they were no better than Fascists because they used violence against fascists.
 
That and holding a youthful dalliance against Matty?

What was that late night crap chat show Rhona Cameron briefly did, set in a pretend cafe? I recall Blaggers being on that, and holding their own, despite Cameron not really bothering to hide her contempt.
 
Deareg said:
He compared them to Fascists or said that they were no better than Fascists because they used violence against fascists.
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All that but with an added dollop of the political idiocy that if you were once inclined to the far-right (when you young or whenever - whenever) you can never stop being inclined to the far right. You can never stop being a fascist - that left wing arguments and experience of conditions and thinking about them can never overcome that original reaction. You can't unmake fascists. That's really dangerous stuff and Simpson should have known it.
 
butchersapron said:
All that but with an added dollop of the political idiocy that if you were once inclined to the far-right (when you young or whenever - whenever) you can never stop being inclined to the far right. You can never stop being a fascist - that left wing arguments and experience of conditions and thinking about them can never overcome that original reaction. You can't unmake fascists. That's really dangerous stuff and Simpson should have known it.
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it's strange then how some people can be in the swp and then go somewhat to the right - for example, one g. bushell, late of sounds

bushell2.jpg
 
Re Dave Simpson .. It was in Leeds at an after gig party thing which the bands Manic Street Preachers, blaggers and Credit to The Nation .. NME etc assorted journos were at etc etc. I wasn't there cos I'd given up smoking at the time so I was asleep in my bunk on the tour bus outside wherever it was.
I woke up to a huge commotion when everyone came back 'Matty had battered Dave Simpson' .. never heard of him.
Cos I couldn't sleep with the noise I just listened to all the convos .. 'he deserved it .. he was being a complete cunt' .. 'he was provoking you' .. etc etc

I knew it was a bad thing that had happened but I just wanted to go to fucking sleep which I did.

Next day I kept just listening and then me and Matty had a minute together at some stage and I asked him to tell me what happened .. ''He said 'All I did was asked him if he enjoyed the gig' and then he said 'well in my book a leopard never changes its spots'.

Because Matty had said in an interview that he was drawn in by the NF in his youth Dave Simpson concluded that he was always going to be a working class thicko and was typically dismissive of folks with such attitudes. I went mad at him myself and told him he was a fucking idiot for reacting cos as the day wore on it was obvious this was bad news. He told me he was frustrated at being dismissed like that and so did others. I knew what he was saying but I still went mental and we fell out for the rest of the tour more or less.

I wish I had have been there not cos I'm sure I could have stopped what happened but cos I think I might but only possibly .. drink had been taken and Matty was very sensitive to being classed as a fool and quite rightly so. As it turned out there was a court case and Matty was found not guilty owing to provocation.

All I know is that Dave Simpson was entirely wrong .. he might well say he thinks the band is shit and fair enough but sneering at Matty with an air of superiority over what he perceived as a working class div .. I fucking hated that tour if I'm honest but enjoyed it in my own little world all the same.

Matty knew I was right and I knew he was too but broken eye sockets etc were the order of that evening.
Incidentally the Blaggers were (apart from but including Matty and only because he could fight) the least aggressive bunch of individuals you could meet .. next weeks NME .. the Manices were saying how they felt threatened when they saw a bunch of street fighters backstage .. incorrect .. but Matty took all that on board and Dave Simpson pushed all the wrong buttons for no reason.

Like I say though I wasn't there myself but I fell out with my best mate over it and spoke with everyone about it time and time again for months .. so I think I have the correct picture. If Matty was around now I'd still be mad at him but I do still understand.

Heh .. ps .. my favourite Manic was Ritchie .. oh and the tour manager was a guy called Rory .. used to be in a mad biggish punk band I can't remember the name of but a proper tosser.

Fackin musos !!
 
Cheers Onket .. nice to see you too.
Just remembered the band the guy called Rory was in .. King Kurt.

A businessman in a punk band .. yuck !!

'This doesn't happen on my tours'

'You've seriously jeopardised your career'

'Did you know the guys from Eastenders were disgusted' ?

I'm sure they fuckin were Rory you halfwit ! I knew I'd get him back one day on Urban !!
 
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