LDN Is A Victim - discuss...

I listen to the epynonymous track every now and then but meh

sounds like a couple teenagers making themselves giggle in a bedroom somewhere.

I know who's behind this.

Who (and WTF) is it?!

As a "joke" as such, I don't really find it very funny, just sort of pathetic. I do agree, if this is fact their premise, that all these people who fake accents (or a certain chav "look" in their videos) must be called out as such (and for sucking and lacking genuine creativity in general).

The fact that there are some actual people of that social class who happen to have that accent for real are making some very good music makes it all the more sickening (or could that possibly be the point?!).

If the premise is to sneak in all of their mates names into a viral internet phenomenon, then I dislike it all the more. If there is any way I can sneak in a mention of how talentless and overrated Kate Nash is here, hmmm well I guess I've done that.

Speaking as a US citizen with no real stake in the attention grabbing olympics, this song is kind of a hilarious journey into the London media hype fishbowl.

I promised his mother I wouldn't tell. It's tempting, but I shan't. I've heard of some people barking up a ludicrous tree, which is actually way closer than they'd think, but in an opposite (and unknown) direction.

It's Danny MacNamara?

Maybe I'm cynical but it seems that someone in Lily Allen's camp is probably behind it. Either way it's pretty direct publicity, not just from the song but from the inevitable "Lily strikes back" stories that have been in the papers.

Not Lilly's camp.

a bunch of lads in the h4wley arms were playing this through a shitty little ghetto blaster t'other...month and waving it in people's faces and stuff. guess it's funny twice.

well, once

nick are you actually bragging about knowing who did this?

It's someone who knows Guardian Guide journalist L***** C**p*r, or else she would have written a "OMG LONDON MUSIC SCENE REPORTER SHOOK" article about it, correct Nicholas?

*wouldn't

welcome to like weeks if not months ago.

it's by someone who's heard of jack penates or whatever the fuck he's called, which narrows it down to about 500 people.

musical equivalent of wikivandalism, only rubbish.

the guardian have run about 20 pieces on it. it's them that're making it run! honestly who gives a fuck.

I wouldn't think Lily's camp would have any reason to even bring up the subject of being a fake chavette.

I just wish I understood a bit better what the point of it is.

I'm not from England but many of my friends are. They told me about this but I don't entirely get it unless maybe it's just not well-conceived or well-executed enough to "get" in the first place. Seems a bit half-baked to me. I was hoping some of the UK folks on the board could school me.

saxby it seems you actually DO 'get' it!

how is being a "fake" chavette any worse than say the fake thug pose of so much hip-hop? So-called touristic art always keeps things from getting too boring imho.

how is being a "fake" chavette any worse than say the fake thug pose of so much hip-hop? So-called touristic art always keeps things from getting too boring imho.

Interesting point... I am not exactly clear what you mean about "so-called touristic art" because that is not a term I have heard before but I think I understand what you are getting at.

(1) Is it really the mission of great art (or even good pop music) to avert people's boredom?

(2) I am old enough to remember the furor over Malcolm McLaren's "utilization" of African "background artists" for his "Soweto" video and while that video did avert people's boredom for about five minutes, and is arguably the height of what I imagine "touristic art" to be (and you will get an earful here if you bring up Sublime Frequencies!), I thought it was a bit distasteful (even for him, and I LOVE HIM!).

(3) Faking a chavette pose when you are really a posh kid gets at delicate issues of class that normally don't get discussed in England (from what I gather from my English friends, who oddly enough are a mix of posh and some who "are of Cockney descent".) All have expressed complete disdain for Lily Allen (because obviously that is what we are talking about here mainly), not for her music (which I like actually) but for being "fake". Seems that is a quality people in England don't like? Anyway, just as in the U.S. we try to keep the issue of "class" out of the public dialogue (c.f. My Paul Fussell's book, apparently people in England don't fancy it much better as a topic to be discussed over tea. I can see why the Guardian keeps harping on it then. Perhaps these lame-ass DIS scenesters have struck a real nerve?! Social class in England?! WOT?!!

(4) Speaking broadly, fake hip-hop gangstas from the US are poor, black and live in the ghetto. If not that, then they are discriminated every day by institutionalized racism. The only thing "fake" about them is some of the fictions (c.f Kodwo Eshun) that they create, which I would argue are largely valid given their environments. They are not faking entire vistas of social class. Also, I wouldn't want to be put in the position of defending their lousy music because it doesn't alleviate my boredom either but I don't find the comparison too apt.

well obv "MY" Fussell book is here and you can't have it...

darn bb code hijinks!

i like london

the city

there are only posh people and cockneys in england? i went there once and i saw other types of people too

my friend who lives in london says that this is something to do with frank lampards 'people', whoever he is

but i also heard a rumor that it was adam from stars of the lid

frank lampards 'people'

fattys????

hahaa lol well you know lukey just imed me the lamps & jt rmx of this so i guess thats kinda conclusive

man i just saw that kate nash video on youtube..is like prime era dawn french

Anyway, just as in the U.S. we try to keep the issue of "class" out of the public dialogue (c.f. My Paul Fussell's book, apparently people in England don't fancy it much better as a topic to be discussed over tea

you think? why? when i was over in england class seemed to be very prominent, i thought it was pretty good they were aware of it and didnt sweep it under the carpet

and british people have ALWAYS wanted to mimic and pretend to be working class, this is no different. what seems a bit different is the change from the idea that working class people have style (living for the weekend etc involved a certain dressing well that all good subcultures have - the mod scene etc), to this idea that working class people are 'chavs', a figure of fun, something to be played at for a while

but maybe thats more a london thing than a british thing. because london, for all its merits, has never EVER struck me as a particularly stylish city in terms of its people

there are only posh people and cockneys in england?

Did I fucking say that?!

I said that my friends were, perhaps strangely, one or the other.

YMMV

my friend who lives in london says that this is something to do with frank lampards 'people', whoever he is

Frank Lampard is a fucking soft posh Chelsea geezer so I don't know what you're on about. (His shot is nice when he actually gets one off tho).

No wonder England hasn't won the Cup since 1966, even though EVERYOHE KNOWS they had the team to do it this time round.

"yeah, hey let's now go to a 3-5-1 for this match"... fukkin idiots. Ever hear of a 6 foot 7 guy putting in a header?! Yeah keep him under wraps!

Stomp someone in the nuts and have the captain come off crying in the 54th minute for absolutely no reason like some little bitch. (then try to market his bitch ass in LA!) Best set play in football but otherwise raw soppy cunt.

What this has to do with anything musical will be interesting to learn from you, however. Are you making a parallel between Chelsea and, say Crystal Palace? I might actually buy into that if you play it right...

no, i dont really get what you mean? wouldnt a parallel be west ham though?

Definitely not Frank Lampard, although I guess it's not beyond the realm of possibility for the person concerned to know Lampard (in the way that anyone who lives in London might know anyone else who lives in London). Haha, this is quite amusing. Lex - not bragging, just enjoying the intrigue cos the truth is both really banal and really fascinating in an odd way.

and if i get that right then i really have been hanging out with british duders too much

well, what's your point innit

its furter upthread geezer, yea?

I don't see it bruv

You ain't got shit upthread

plus you don't even know what fucking chavs are! To use the term "working class" in connection with this betrays that.

saxby you're overthinking this massively.

At least Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were funny when they did this 130 years ago.

What, in the "L S Bumble Bee"?

"Ooh, druggy druggy!"

Definitely not Frank Lampard, although I guess it's not beyond the realm of possibility for the person concerned to know Lampard

Was the track recorded by a small group of Americans grieving 9/11?

plus you don't even know what fucking chavs are! To use the term "working class" in connection with this betrays that.

-- Saxby D. Elder, Tuesday, 22 May 2007 06:54 (1 hour

read a little closer, dear saxby
and you will see
that i never said that, dear saxby
how could you think that, of me?

Wrong again, Dom.

With some serious stalking of my old blogs and ILM posts it's figure-out-able who this is, I reckon.

ie

this idea that working class people are 'chavs'

ie, i dont think this, but cartoonish 'chav' like playacting is merely the latest in a long line of the middle class 'slumming' it, and playing at being working class. it is not whether i get it wrong in saying this, it is whether 'they' get it wrong, with such cartoonish lampards of it. and that maybe this is partially because in a post-manufacturing society, we (or, they, the middle classes) dont know what working class people actually are, dear saxby

frank asked for this the last time we went to movida but the dy didn't have it

they don't call them djs there. they call them dys. i don't get it.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/what/film/exile/img/keyimage.jpg

A hipster, yesterday.

Pashmina otm

The idea that gangsta rappers are all from the ghetto strikes me as deeply naive.

Me too. Thankfully, that isn't at all what I said.

Speaking broadly, fake hip-hop gangstas from the US are poor, black and live in the ghetto. If not that, then they are discriminated against every day by institutionalized racism. The only thing "fake" about them is some of the fictions (c.f Kodwo Eshun) that they create, which I would argue are largely valid given their environments. They are not faking entire vistas of social class. What I would add is that while places like Columbia, Maryland might not be the ghetto per se,

Thanks to everyone who answered my question. BTW, I don't think of this as a "song", but just a gag that I wanted to know more about. Knowing who is actually behind it, if true, in the end doesn't really interest me only because I don't know these people. But thanks for spilling just the same. Could the guy from Talk Talk really be wasting his time with this sort of foolishness?

Seems like just a pointless piece of shit, which is basically what I thought when I asked the question. I still don't understand how Frank Lampard's name came up (unless there are two?) but I did notice it was awfully silent after my analysis of English football went down.

hey 696 all good yeah? I ain't about beefin, just in-thread micro-scrappin. safe yeah? easy bruv...

I listened to the track. It's shit. Witless, joyless, boring shit.

OTM indeed

IT'S NOT MARK HOLLIS, BTW. THAT WAS A JOKE.

MATT JOHNSON!

BELOUIS SOME!

What I would add is that while places like Columbia, Maryland or Paterson, NJ might not be the ghetto per se, they might as well be because they are like the HOOD, man, just not in a major market.

(Sorry, I forgot I started that sentence when I hit the button)

No need to shout! I get it, a joke... funny as shit

wait a minute... wasn't nick southall responsible for that boycott the nme campagin a few years back? hmm...

i thot that was doomie

You know my (soon to be) ex wife actually made the name up over a curry in Borough Green. I was really struggling to think of something that might work. I kept thinking of Play, but of course there's a PlayStation mag with that name. Eventually she said, 'Why not Playmusic?' History was made over that curry...

i think she was merely indulging him by that stage of the relationship.

The boycott the NME thing was me, aye. Doomie? He's written for the NME, hasn't he?

Alex knows who this is but at the time of the debate last week didn't know the significance of who it is, which is what makes it funny.

it's louis....?

DING DING DING

Is LJ therefore the first ILxor to make the Top 40?

b-sides don't count?

I KNEW YOU WERE GOING TO SAY THAT!!

"That's two things!"

Well, to be fair, it doesn't really.

C'grats!

ldn is a victim is from venus, i'm from mars. i have no idea what the fuck this is about.

this must be how chinese people feel when they hear paul barman

the answer at last for anyone who cares

http://www.myspace.com/skylinemusicuk

Wow, their "4 serious this time" music is even crapper.

i couldn't even summon the energy to google/myspace the 'proper' band.
ta for saving me the effort bodrick.

i don't even know who the fuck that is

We know that last year's acclaimed A1-D1 album is by Gescom

BREAKING NEWS! GESCOM EXIST! Someone alert 1994 and tell them to relax.

This was revealed last year but no-one bothered to revive the thread coz who cares?

Anyone care to tell me what Mouthy was getting so excited about upthread? Maybe the man himself could.

Hahaha, dude is indeed called Ali Fletcher. I know his mum. Her surname is Fletcher. His dad's surname is most definitely not Fletcher.

Ali Fletcher's mum gets mentioned in a chapter in one of the books written by his dad.

Oh bloody hell just spill it. Y're not Popbitch you know.

Nope; I promised I wouldn't cos it'd cause the guy grief if people knew who his dad was. It's guess-able.

So we've ruled out Alan Fletcher, Dexter Fletcher, Darren Fletcher and Ronnie Barker's character in Porridge, that's got to be good going for those who care, right?

I'm not normally one to flaunt my ignorance of things but this one passed me by TOTALLY. I'd never even heard of it until Friday.

It was pretty rubbish, to be fair.

Has his dad heard of his band?

Nope; I promised I wouldn't cos it'd cause the guy grief if people knew who his dad was. It's guess-able.

-- Scik Mouthy, Tuesday, April 1, 2008 8:18 AM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Lemme guess: Tory MP?

Salman Rushdie.

Alan Rusbridger.

Not a Tory MP, no. Maybe it's Nick Clegover, who has possibly left a trail of not more than 30 children around the country?

I have no idea if his dad has heard of his band or not. I don't think his dad has much to do with him; certainly he didn't.

Ian Lavender.

Geir Hongro.

my sister -- who i suspect is one trigger-incident away from becoming an indie-moustache chick -- knew who this was about a year ago and i still couldn't be bothered to find out.

I've made it really obvious elsewhere.

who i suspect is one trigger-incident away from becoming an indie-moustache chick

WTF

Chris Kamara?

I bet his daughter rocks an awesome moustache.

An unbelievable moustache, Jeff

It's more likely to be Mark Lawrenson's daughter TBH, she's way past that whole indie moustache thing and just sits there all eyerolling disgust.

Where the fuck has this thread gone in the last six posts?

Upwards

she's way past that whole indie moustache thing and just sits there all eyerolling disgust.

my kind of gal