And now for something completely different
Remember this lot? Some of my older readers might, as their heyday was in the late 80s. They are Sigue Sigue Sputnik, and I suppose most of us would imagine the band members were now living blameless lives as insurance salesmen or scratching a living on the edge of the music business. However, dead horses are still being flogged, judging from this Nominent dispute resolution report.
The former lead singer (front, centre) has been touting himself on the net under siguesiguesputnik.co.uk, to the chagrin of what, in the best traditions of Fenian nomenclature, we might call 'Continuity SSS', who lurk at sputnikworld.com:
"The Complainant's Lawyer informed the Complainant the name "Sigue Sigue Sputnik" belongs to the current band members. Mr Degville has recently purchased the domain name siguesiguesputnik.co.uk . He is now advertising his shows as "Sigue Sigue Sputnik" shows on this website causing great confusion among the public. We have written to him asking him to desist and we are currently undertaking legal proceedings against him. Mr Degville has also posted vitriolic and abusive statements on this site by that are defamatory both towards the group and members of the band personally. The site is also being used to provoke ill-will towards the existing group's reputation with a long standing fan base. Finally it is also being used to sell pirate merchandise which breaches copyright".
Mr Degville did not respond to the action, and Nominet ruled against him. The site is now dead, so transfering might take a while yet. Given how extraordinarily cheap domains are, I think Continuity SSS were foolish not to have snapped it up themselves. The broader point is that with a loyal enough fan base a band can trade off a brief window of success for decades, for which I suppose we should thank the internet in particular.
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Perhaps because I am , I now know , an older reader , I find this rather interesting . In one of the William Gibson virtual books a pop singers web complex attains consciousness .( I scarcely have sentience , another recent discovery)..
In “About a boy”, Nick Hornby the hero Will , makes a living from royalties from an ancient Christmas hit always on a new advert somewhere in The East , I think Asia is pretty key in all this actually .The friend in Bridget Jones` Diaries had one hit in the 80s and found this enough to get shagged forever. I saw one of the Bros brothers saying something rather mournful which was that you cease to be “hot” but the pure fame stays forever . That right isn’t it you don’t forget people they cease to be interesting like a pile of junk in the basement .
Sigue sigue sputnik were a truly awful band , wandering this penumbral region of virtual half life like unquiet spirits .I love one hit wonders though.
People are always saying what a tragedy it was that the sublime “Vienna “ was kept of the top spot by Joe Doce and Shaddup you face .
Au contraire Vienna was manure in a raincoat and Joe Dolce was a genius with much to say about life and art . Let us examine the La Dolce Vita
Art Forum examines the work of J Dolce
Hello, I'ma Guiseppi, I gottta something speciala for you, Ready, uno, duo, tres, quatro.
(…………..calling to the muse clearly Homeric in inspiration… ),
When I was a boy just about a fiftha grade, Mama used to say don'ta stay out alate
With the badda boys, always shoota pool, Guiseppi goin-ta flunka school
( Immediately savage social commentary is commenced with the mother making explicit , the moral centre of the piece)
Boy it make-a me sick, everyting I gotta do
I can'ta getta no kicks, always gotta follow rules
Boy it make-a me sick, just to make-a lousy bucks
Gotta a feela like a fool
( the hero chafes at the discipline required for the nation to succeed . Shakespeare dealt with similar material in Henry V part 1, the hero must cast the childish , the Falstaffian aside.)
And the mama used to say all the time,
What'sa matter you, hey, gotta no respect
Whatta you tink you do, why you looka so sad
Itsa not so bad, Itsa nice-a place,
Ahh shaddupa you face
( In the Greek style chorus the emotional counterpoint mirrors the dialectic between conformity and inspiration , resolved with the a plea for silence as the hero struggles to find reconciliation)
That'sa my mama, can you remember, big accordian solo
Ah-hah, play that thing, really nice, really nice
( Critics have struggled to interpret this section but it seems to add a magical opalescence to the piece reaching deeply for mythic archetypes perhaps)
Will we ever see the like again and he even has advice for C should he ever become the pundit he would like to be
“But soona come a day, gonna be-a bigga star
Thenna make a TV shows and the movies, Getta myself a new car
But still I be myself, I don'ta wanta to change a ting,
Stilla dance anda sing”
Will you stilla dance ands sing C …will you ?
( Yup still off work)
The lead singer of sss used to shag janet street porter
how gross is that?
I think JSP was chummy with Tony 'Gen X' James, the Eminence Grise of SSS rather than the lead singer. Each to their own, eh?
I've never heard of this group, but they look absolutely ridiculous. When people are trying that hard to look different and interesting, they look laughable.
There is that, yes. And there's always one who doesn't try very hard. I expect they didn't visit their mothers dressed like so.
Could there be more trouble ahead?
Opposition deadline: 8th March 2007.
JT - it does rather look like it, although this does seem to jar with Tony James's pro file sharing stance as a member of Carbon/Silicon: "The band encourage their fans to share their music on P2P networks, and allow the audio and video taping of their shows. Their first song, "MPFree" is an anthem for P2P file sharing". (stolen from the Wiki..)
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