Good news, people. This year's Mercury Prize shortlist has a light sprinkling of musicians over forty. Now there's been a lot of fuss over 52-year-old Paul Weller's album, Wake Up the Nation, but as far as I'm concerned the best thing about it is guest drummer Glem Cattini. This 72-year-old percussionist played on Benny Hill's 1971 hit single Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West), a song I loved as a wee child. 'He may be old,' says Weller, 52, 'but two takes and he was fucking sorted.'
Anyhow, enough of the moodiest man in pop, let's get back to the shortlist. Three cheers for Manchester band I Am Kloot who've come up with a breakthrough album in their mid-forties after 10 years of hard graft. That's Not My Age has a penchant for a heavy northern accent - Mark E Smith, Alex Turner, John Lennon, John Bramwell - and hence has seen the band more than once. Mr TNMA (a southerner) has grown to love them too. After hearing The Sky at Night, produced by Elbow's Guy Garvey and Craig Potter, The Blog Widower rushed to the computer to buy tickets for their next London gig. Who can believe then that this sumptuous album was downgraded from five stars to three in the Observer Music Monthly (RIP) reviews for being 'too northern for our readers?' As if. Excuse me while I put on my a flat cap and take the whippet for a walk.
Click here to see a fabulous I Am Kloot video starring ace northen thesp, and Manchester United fan, Christopher Eccleston
Photo: I Am Kloot
Paul Weller quote from Q magazine, February 2010
11 comments:
A lady after my own heart! I adore a Northern accent. The Smiths were my favourite band of all time.
How the heck can anything sound "too Northern?" only a London publication could say such a thing, bloomin' Southern softies!
Interesting about Weller's drummer and anything featuring the divine Christopher Eccleston's got my vote. xx
I am Spanish, but my husband is from newcastle.
Love your post, always fresh an inspiring.
Un abrazo
sacramento
Thanks for introducing me to a new band-- am listening to their songs on YouTube now, and I think I love them. :D
Must get hold of the latest Paul Weller album. Loved the single that was played all the time on Radio 2 recently. xx
Too northern? Hysterical! Almost as funny as Paul Weller calling his drummer old.
And I was/am a huge Smiths fan too. The idea of anything musical being too northern does not compute.
Do The Observer not realise that us Northerners can read now?
心中醒，口中說，紙上作，不從身上習過，皆無用也。..................................................
Paul Weller is 52? Good Lord. I've had a crush on him since I was about 15 ...
And should add that I lived, once upon a time, in North Yorkshire, so the more Northern the better! I'm off to buy the album.
I was a big Smiths fan too and New Order and Echo & The Bunnymen - I won't go on, but Mr TNMA (a huge Rolling Stones' fan) has told me I should have said Ian McCulloch, not John Lennon!
In the words of Mark E Smith, perhaps the Observer team should 'Hit the north!'
This post reminds me that I was recently bemoaning the fact that it's too late for me to be on one of those "40 under 40" lists.
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