Comments on: A Bunch Of Fuckwits

By: the scowl » Blog Archive » “Western Bridges” redux

the scowl » Blog Archive » “Western Bridges” redux — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 00:56:12 +0000

[…] (I’ll have a review of O’Neill’s Down and Out on Murder Mile — which is definitely worth your time — on Lit Mob fairly soon, for what it’s worth. Also worth a read: Phonogram’s Kieron Gillen on Kenickie.) […]

By: Phoenix d-K

Phoenix d-K — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:41:39 +0000

Damnit, i was 16 and never ever got to see them live, the news of their break up was pretty devastating, but in a sly way i hoped they’d then move back to sunderland and i’d get to see them at some point (never did, missed them by minutes on occasions according to friends)
very much one of those bands, i completely echo your sentiments, i dont think many (any) bands since have made me feel “ooh” and devoted to them as Kenickie did.

oh, i just remembered, i did see Johnny X once in Newcastle, coming out of a hairdressers, i was then 23 and realised i’d embarrass him and me if i even referred to him as the infamous Johnny X

sad world without Kenickie, now im going to spend a friday night drinking cider, wearing black cherry lipstick and listening to my also-scratched-to-hell At The Club

By: Chris Rice

Chris Rice — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 10:01:58 +0000

I only ever saw them once, when me ‘n Jon DJ-ed the Melody Maker 80th birthday thingy at the Astoria, but I’ve yet to see a band with funnier between-song banter, even if I never loved the tunes quite as much as you do.
The world is a sadder place without them, certainly.
I wish Lauren was still singing, too. Whilst she’s a decent presenter, she’s never been as funny as she was with the rest of the band, and I get the feeling that the corporate world has dulled her slightly.

By: Spiritus Ex Machina

Spiritus Ex Machina — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:47:26 +0000

I’m capturing this when I should be thinking of bed and sleep and dear Cthulhu the soon to happen weekend because I’m listening to The Sundays when I know I should be listening to The Flatmates or even better See See Rider, when while surfing I found [url=http://gillen.cream.org/wordpress_html/?p=1653]this meaningless but truthful rave[/url], I’d call it a rant but I guess Kieron might have had a few before posting, but yet it’s terribly important.

This isn’t exactly about Kenicke (however they were so painfully brilliantly beautiful and this uncaring world didn’t get it because everyone else is a moron), what Kieron touches on affects so many people’s reactions to so many bands. When Will Sin’s death broke, I cried not just for his passing, I cried because The Shamen would never be great again (sure they got into the charts, but they weren’t great), The Flatmates physically assaulted each other on stage and the peroxide blonde movement became The Primitives (yes their early work was painfully brilliantly beautiful but look what happen to the blonde movement after Crash… it crashed, so ending the rise of See See Rider who at this moment in time should be consuming your first born as tribute to their latest opus, damn you Tracy Tracy, we never even got a See See Rider album because of you).

And uncaring stupid people called Sarah Records ‘fey’ and ‘gentle’ when every release came with a nails to hammer into your head because they sounded so painfully brilliantly beautiful but even Morrissey was too scared to get that nasty and brittle about life.

But at least some bands are still worth championing for. Okkervil River for their de-construction of fame and personality. Rasputina for those who are still fucked up Goths at heart. PJ Harvey because the new album should never, [i]ever[/i] sound like the last album (a sin even as an ardent Nick Cave fan I can accuse him off, which BTW is why PJ pwns my soul rather than Nick).

Which is of course why I’m a Romantic, it should always be perfect. Yeah, it ends (mainly due to stupid moron people getting involved, but such is the nature of stupid moron people), at least we got a glimpse of the painfully brilliantly beautiful. We get to spend decades on the ‘but what if’, yet Kenicke, The Flatmates, See See Rider, Sarah Records and all the painfully brilliantly beautiful acts I could list here (like brave Birdland, Green On Red, Pizzacato 5 [don’t get me started on how the world was cruel to them] and others), however for those who were there, those who gave our very souls to them so they’d have the opportunity to steal more of our spirit … well… of course I regret their passing, I think the stupid moron people should be shot for ruining the art and finer world these bands would have given us. But I can’t be bitter because to this day, I experienced something painfully brilliantly beautiful and it still lingers on, not as a memory, but as part of me, a sum of my total.

So, they didn’t fail, we didn’t fail. They were and still are painfully brilliantly beautiful. Thank ‘em.

(taken from a post to some mates late at night so apologies if rambling)

By: Alistair

Alistair — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:12:00 +0000

I saw them without realising when they supported the Ramones, who I was really there to see. They were alright, I suppose.

By: rich_trenholm

rich_trenholm — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:02:22 +0000

Kenickie fucking ruled. Yes it’s sad that they’re no longer with us, but take comfort in the fact that Come Out 2nite is at Number 1 in heaven, and it makes Elvis weep every time while Sid Vicious and Johnny Cash have a punch-up over who’s fitter, Lauren or Marie.

By: Rob K-L

Rob K-L — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 08:58:04 +0000

It’s true
To you
It must seem sad
I know
It all
But I’m not sad belive me
‘Cos I choose not to be

It still makes me smile and want to cry at the same time.

By: James Hunt

James Hunt — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:30:31 +0000

I was getting really into Kenickie just at the point they split up, and ended up stumbling deep into Manics fandom as a result of having a vacant spot for “one of those” bands that needed filling. Never got to see Kenickie live, but I did get to see Lauren do a set at Reading 2000 which was almost as good (to me, at least).

Literally a week ago today I was on the tube and realised, to my utter astonishment, that I could hear that the guy next to me was listening to Come out 2nite on his MP3 player. I was about to be impressed, but almost as soon as I realised, so did he, and he reached into his pocket, pulled out the MP3 player and skipped the track. I’ve seen some depressing things on the underground, but even as desensitised as I am, that’s the sort of thing that’ll ruin anyone’s day.

By: Flossie

Flossie — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:46:20 +0000

Despite Simon mentioning it to me the other week, I entirely forgot about this. Although I did walk past both the Astoria and the pub the scary internet fans met up in before the gig this evening. Spook!

Erm, yeah, What everyone else said.

By: Simon

Simon — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:51:51 +0000

I was talking about this - in person! Blew my mind, it did, especially as we were waiting to see Future Of The Left at the time - with Matt Sullivan the other week, and I put forward that there really hasn’t been a band anywhere near their special aura, all the contenders being too try-hard, not try-hard enough, too in thrall to Being Indie* or make the classic mistake of equating Kenickie with three chord shouting because working out all the other stuff might involve investing emotion. Kenickie knew you could pretend to be live-fast-split-young dayglo grrrls as long as you had emotional reinforcement if anyone dared to probe deeper.

Now Lauren’s openly not interested in making any more music and, it seems, is increasingly trying to make out that those were her young and foolish days. I hope she did look into that Phonogram thing further.

* Apparently Slampt have made a documentary for their whateverth anniversary which prominently features t’Nix. Ha!