The Bobby Gillespie Bullshit game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7scMC7YSDQ

I'd remember if Ready Steady Go was shown in Scotland but Boaby principally lived in England from the mid-80s.

He was still in Glasgow in the mid 80s though, I don't think he ever persuaded Jim Navajo to leave the reservation and live among the white man to go south of the border.

No need. He was living like a king off his Sonic Flower Groove royalties.

This is cool. My sister just posted this picture on Facebook of her with a young Boaby G sort of eyeing her up in the background. This prompted a torrent of reminisicing about Boab from her Facebook pals which I couldn't possibly repeat here.

http://imgur.com/a/rQqLS

Try it again...

http://i.imgur.com/hRVQBCV.jpg

Probably about 1981?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/13/andrew-neil-attacks-bbc-left-wing-bias-comedy-shows/

Andrew Neil has tweeted some disparaging remarks about Boaby's appearance on This Week. Boaby is not best pleased. A phone call ensues.

BOAB: Here, Neil, whit's the fuckin' sketch here?

ANDRA: Whit? Is there some sort o' problem?

BOAB: Aye, there's a problem! Ah'll tell ye the fuckin' problem! You're the fuckin' problem!

ANDRA: How, whit huv ah done noo?

BOAB: This fuckin' tweet ye fired aff, huvvin' a fuckin' pop at me for fuckin' scowlin' at you an' yer bum chums jiggin' aboot like a bunch o' fuckin' muppets oan yer shite fuckin' show, that's whit! Ya fuckin' wide-o!

ANDRA: Aw... right... er... ah thoat ah'd deleted that.

BOAB: Here, ah'll fuckin' delete you in a minute.

ANDRA: Well, ye've goat tae admit, ye were sittin' therr wi' a face like fuckin' fizz.

BOAB: Can ye fuckin' blame me! Ah'd be fuckin' black affrontit to be seen kerryin' oan lik' that in public, bit o' fuckin' decorum please! Nae wonder mah face wis fuckin' trippin' me!

ANDRA: It wis jist a bit o' fun, Boab!

BOAB: Aye, that right? A bit o' fun? Aboot as funny as cancer, ya walloper.

ANDRA: Here, let's no' fa' aboot this.

BOAB: An' whit's this shite aboot me an' mah "fancy Islington pad"? Where the fuck dae you live these days, Neil, fuckin' Feegie Park? Anyway huv you forgoatten when I came across a burnt-out motorcycle in the street, no wheels, no seat, just a charred metal skeleton. It had obviously been stolen and dumped by a gang of teenage wild boys. It was the most beautiful thing I'd seen since last night's evening sky. You don't find 'art' in galleries, it's all around you. The city is alive and on fire. Long may it burn? Eh? Cuz where me an' Jeremy live is fuckin' nails, man!

ANDRA: Awright, awright, calm doon...

BOAB: Naw, ah'll calm doon fuck all man. Ah'll fuckin' have you bra'! Giein' me oot yer fuckin' lip ower the phone. 'Cause yer joab's fuckin'... ye're sussed, man, know whit ah mean?

ANDRA: Here, you've just taken that verbatim from "The Plumber Tape".

BOAB: Oh, aye, sorry, lettin' the fuckin' cat oot the bag therr.

ANDRA: Listen, Boab, ye can come oan mah show anytime ye wahnt, I'll let ye say whit ye like and dae whit ye like, ah'll gie ye the flair...

BOAB: The flerr?

Andra: The flair.

BOAB: The flerr, ye mean.

Andra: Naw, the flair.

BOAB: The flerr.

Andra: The flair.

BOAB: The flerr!

Andra: The flair!!

BOAB: THE FLERR!!!

Andra: ... hey, haud oan, this is exactly the same He's Fae Paisley/ Ah'm Fae Glesga routine ye did w' Momus on the Primal Scream thread - and naebody know whit ye were oan aboot then either.

BOAB: Aye, ye're right, ah'm beginning tae repeat masel' noo.

ANDRA: Happens tae the best o' us mate - ye'll huv seen the shite comedy routines oan mah show?

BOAB: Seen them? Ah wis part o' wan!

(both laugh)

ANDRA: Aye, ah wis forgettin'! Onywey, ah'll catch ye later, big man, Portillo's pickin' up his boyfriend fae Heathrow an' we're aw gon oot fer lunch.

BOAB: Aye, nae bother, Andra, you take care noo!

ANDRA: Will do!

BOAB: An' be sure tae send ma best wishes tae auld rubber lips, Portillo!

ANDRA: (laughs) Aye, we should aw' go oot for a swally sometime!

BOAB: Count me in, big yin, count me in!

ANDRA: Later!

BOAB: Aye, aw ra best!

(Andra rings off, Boab still on the phone)

BOAB: Aye, that's him tellt, he'll no' be messin' wi' fuckin' Boaby Gillespie again in a hurry ... holl', whit happened therr?!??? Ah phoned up tae gie that cunt a piece o' mah mind and we ended up lik' fuckin' best buddies! He's too fuckin' smert fur me, that's whit it is, that fuckin' sneaky Paisley Grammar bastard...

(wanders off, phone in hand, mumbling incoherently).

Neil, 69, is regarded by some as the perfect host for Question Time, but the job is expected to go to a younger woman.

https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.private-eye.co.uk%2Fblog%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F01%2Fandrew-neil.jpg&f=1

i can now no longer see bobby gillespie without thinking of tom d's boaby

Neil, 69, is regarded by some [cn] as the perfect host for Question Time, but the job is expected to go to a younger woman.

CITATION NEEDED! By whom, exactly?

it's a torygraph story, so one must assume he is the choice of monocle-popping sir bufton-tuftons throughout the home counties

Tom D delivers

I could only get through the first 20 minutes of the BBC4 "Memphis Tapes" doc at the weekend, but stuck it long enough to hear one cracking throwaway comment from the big man along the lines of the UK music press slated Give Out... because "they hate black music".

extremely on-brand

Classic Boab. I didn't watch the show, I think my head might have exploded if I had, but I had it on in the background with the sound down and noticed that Bobby had grown up with Hampden Park virtually at the end of his street - pretty cool for a kid, I would have thought. The fact that they all went to school together is pretty cute I think. Anyway Bob seemed to be enjoying himself.

Think Bobby G was going for the world record for how many times someone can mention they are working class within the first five mins of a documentary

Oh man, I wish there was a way to see this for us overseas viewers. Worth noting at this point that this thread is one of the funniest things on the entire internet. I periodically fire it up and laugh like a drain. Many thanks to all involved.

This Is Primal Tap
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpUVOVDy0iw

The presence of McGee makes the programme automatically unwatchable imo.

Noel being snide about BMX Bandits seems extra cuntish considering they were the only Creation band willing to take them on tour when everyone else on the label refused

The very first thing Bobby says is a risible cliche, about the only way to see the world for a working class guy LIKE BOBBY was to join the army or become a footballer or form a band. I think someone should tell Bobby he was born in 1962, not 1942; maybe also that he's from Mount Florida, not Cranhill; and that his dad was a leading trade unionist who might well have ended up as an MP if he hadn't been a completely useless candidate, and not a binman. So I lasted 38 seconds.

True, most of my mates at Strathclyde Uni back in the 80s were from virtually identical backgrounds as Oor Bobby.

Maybe so, but that's how I remember it - My dad joined the RAF to eventually move down south, etc. It's a cliché to say that it was the only way that could be done, sure.. (I was born in 1961, family from South Shields, etc)

You missed the part where I said Bobby Gillespie was born in 1962 and not 1942?

As the redoubtable everything implied, Bobby's background was absolutely bog standard 70s/80s West of Scotland 'respectable/aspiring' working class, he grew up in a nice area not some hellhole, and went to decent school. I'd say the chances of him having to join the Army were miniscule, bordering on non-existent, he's far more likely to have ended up going to Strathclyde Uni to study Chemical Engineering or whatever.

tbf he ended up doing a fair bit of freelance chemical engineering research anyway

how on earth could such an extraordinary rebel even apply to a technical college? They might have thought he was a revolutionary mixture of Bobby Seale and Trotsky with the moves of Marc Bolan and told him he was too damn sexy for City & Guilds courses!

He goes on to say that his working class background made him strive for financial security, which is why he and the other members of PS were always desperate for hit records. "You had a funny way of going about it for ten years" were my thoughts.

surely there's a height requirement to join the army?

he had hit records as part of the mary chain...

(xp) Bobby too tall? Trying to imagine a Regimental Sergeant Major trying to whip a platoon with Bobby G, Duglas Stewart and Stephen Pastel into shape - one for Viz maybe?

or maybe a Boab from a parallel universe where he went on an NVQ plastering course or got a job on the bins or whatever, but still talked the same kind of self-obsessed, self-mythologizing pretentious rock-star gubbins in the workplace and driving his work colleagues to despair on a daily basis.

Deafened by the chorus of "Aye, right" and "Heard it" that would meet his every utterance. I sometimes feel Bobby's been away from Glasgow too long - therefore I insist Boaby G needed to be invented as a counterbalance and to help keep him grounded.

Whenever I think of Bobby G I remember Justine Frischmann's story about how he was the worst housemate she ever had because he was too paranoid to ever answer the door.

extremely on-brand

In the documentary is it weird that they blipped right over the band's jangly beginnings and went straight to the self-titled record era?

Maybe Jim Navajo couldn't be reached at the reservation?

He gets a tiny mention and they show one pic of the C86 era band, I think.

they shd show a picture of the legend! and momus holding hands

to be fair they shd show that in all music documentaries, as a terrible warning

They should have shown this tuneless, polka dotted fop -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsOKV0GY5B8

tbf part of the narrative was that Gillespie, Innes, Young & McGee (sounds like a Rangers back four from the early 60s) had all been at school together, whereas Big Jim Beattie, being a Native American, was an outsider. Also Jim Beattie was responsible for most of the music in the original band, I think?

a more convincing case for the urgent need of an acid house intervention has never been made xp

If you can bear to watch to the end of the song (or just scroll past) there's some classic early Bobtalk. "Being in a car crash can be psychedelic... looking at the sea can be psychedelic... having sex can be like a hallucination..."

xp lol dying at bobby's monologue at the end of that clip.

I can't be arsed to watch that vid but I saw them - and played on the Give Us a Break triv machine with them - in late 87 and I think it's probably only the goodness of "Velocity Girl" that gave me the interest to pay any attention until "Loaded" happened

I can remember a cousin telling me he was off to see [sic] Primeval Scream at Hudds Poly at some point in about '89 or something. Poor bastard was a metal fan!

I think it's probably only the goodness of "Velocity Girl" that gave me the interest to pay any attention until "Loaded" happened

That's the first 7 years of Primal Scream in a nutshell.

If it wasn't for Gillespie's connection with JAMC and for generally being a guy who'd been around for years and knows people, they'd never been given the chance to make any albums or been on the same live circuit as eg. Felt or the Jazz Butcher or the Pastels etc because Primal Scream were a horrible band with no good songs in those days. Creation was put out their records, and Revolving Paint Dream, Biff Bang Pow, Slaughter Joe and others because they were friends of Alan McGee, not because anyone wanted to hear them.