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Kasabian or Spinal Tap – can Billy Bragg tell them apart? Kasabian or Spinal Tap – can Billy Bragg tell them apart?
(35 minutes later)
"How this all started was I bought Q magazine on the plane to Finland to read, and I read the Kasabian interview, and I thought, the more I read, the more it started sounding like Spinal Tap," says Billy Bragg. "I started reading it again as Spinal Tap, and it was so funny, I was reading it out loud on the plane. There's Serge [Pizzorno] saying, 'It's a thin line between being funny and being a knobhead', which is almost a straight David St Hubbins quote – and then Tom Meehan talking about his sausage. Between then and Glastonbury, there was a line that Tom Meehan accidentally ran over his dad. I'd had all this in my head, talking about it with my soundman, and in an interview the journalist just happened to ask me what I thought about the headliners, and I said: 'I don't know a lot about them, but the great thing about Kasabian is they're there to remind us how true Spinal Tap is.' It wasn't me setting out to have a dig at Kasabian. "How this all started was I bought Q magazine on the plane to Finland to read, and I read the Kasabian interview, and I thought, the more I read, the more it started sounding like Spinal Tap," says Billy Bragg. "I started reading it again as Spinal Tap, and it was so funny, I was reading it out loud on the plane. There's Serge [Pizzorno] saying, 'It's a thin line between being funny and being a knobhead', which is almost a straight David St Hubbins quote – and then Tom Meighan talking about his sausage. Between then and Glastonbury, there was a line that Tom Meighan accidentally ran over his dad. I'd had all this in my head, talking about it with my soundman, and in an interview the journalist just happened to ask me what I thought about the headliners, and I said: 'I don't know a lot about them, but the great thing about Kasabian is they're there to remind us how true Spinal Tap is.' It wasn't me setting out to have a dig at Kasabian.
"When I took the Manic Street Preachers to task [for their private toilet facilities, in 1999], they denounced me from the stage; they asked Serge what they thought of Billy Bragg, and he just said, "I think it's embarrassing." It's just so sweet. I feel really bad now – like I'm having a go at them for just doing what they do. But you know what he said at their very first rehearsal? He went up to the microphone and said 'HELLO GLASTONBURY!' Once you've got that mind frame on, they really are very entertaining. I've got a lot of respect for them now.""When I took the Manic Street Preachers to task [for their private toilet facilities, in 1999], they denounced me from the stage; they asked Serge what they thought of Billy Bragg, and he just said, "I think it's embarrassing." It's just so sweet. I feel really bad now – like I'm having a go at them for just doing what they do. But you know what he said at their very first rehearsal? He went up to the microphone and said 'HELLO GLASTONBURY!' Once you've got that mind frame on, they really are very entertaining. I've got a lot of respect for them now."
It is indeed a fine line between Spinal Tap and Kasabian – but can Billy Bragg tell the difference?It is indeed a fine line between Spinal Tap and Kasabian – but can Billy Bragg tell the difference?
"I'd love to be a hobbit. I'd be from Shycester. I'd be a really bad hobbit. I wouldn't be like Sam. I'd kill Gandalf, wipe out all the hobbits, marry the princess and claim the throne."BB: "Kasabian." ✔"I'd love to be a hobbit. I'd be from Shycester. I'd be a really bad hobbit. I wouldn't be like Sam. I'd kill Gandalf, wipe out all the hobbits, marry the princess and claim the throne."BB: "Kasabian." ✔
"In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, an ancient race of people … the druids. No one knows who they were or what they were doing …"BB: "Spinal Tap" (as soon as we get to the word "druids") ✔"In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, an ancient race of people … the druids. No one knows who they were or what they were doing …"BB: "Spinal Tap" (as soon as we get to the word "druids") ✔
"I've walked off before. I won't see anyone for days and everyone is asking where I am … I go into my room for two or three days, Howard Hughes-style. I lock the door, order room service, let my fingernails grow and then appear with a long beard."BB: "Kasabian." ✔"I've walked off before. I won't see anyone for days and everyone is asking where I am … I go into my room for two or three days, Howard Hughes-style. I lock the door, order room service, let my fingernails grow and then appear with a long beard."BB: "Kasabian." ✔
"I don't really think that the end can be assessed as of itself as being the end because what does the end feel like? It's like saying when you try to extrapolate the end of the universe, you say, if the universe is indeed infinite, then how – what does that mean? How far is all the way, and then if it stops, what's stopping it, and what's behind what's stopping it?"BB: "This is more tough – I think it's Spinal Tap." ✔"I don't really think that the end can be assessed as of itself as being the end because what does the end feel like? It's like saying when you try to extrapolate the end of the universe, you say, if the universe is indeed infinite, then how – what does that mean? How far is all the way, and then if it stops, what's stopping it, and what's behind what's stopping it?"BB: "This is more tough – I think it's Spinal Tap." ✔
"We play big festivals in places like Poland and Ukraine. So, you can either go for meat you're not sure of, or a Heinz chicken soup."BB: "That's got to be Kasabian – but the best one on that level is Tom Meighan was asked by Q magazine: 'When was the last time you got really angry?' He said: 'Yesterday – I was on a train and I ordered a sausage and it had herbs in it! You don't want fucking herbs in a sausage! What was the name of that fucking sausage?' Someone says Lincolnshire. He says: 'I don't want fucking Lincolnshire!'" ✔"We play big festivals in places like Poland and Ukraine. So, you can either go for meat you're not sure of, or a Heinz chicken soup."BB: "That's got to be Kasabian – but the best one on that level is Tom Meighan was asked by Q magazine: 'When was the last time you got really angry?' He said: 'Yesterday – I was on a train and I ordered a sausage and it had herbs in it! You don't want fucking herbs in a sausage! What was the name of that fucking sausage?' Someone says Lincolnshire. He says: 'I don't want fucking Lincolnshire!'" ✔
"We wanted listeners to address the album from start to finish. It's a natural sequence for the track to be placed there. Most artists would put their single at number one, but within this context it will only work at track 11."BB: "Kasabian? It's getting tougher." ✔"We wanted listeners to address the album from start to finish. It's a natural sequence for the track to be placed there. Most artists would put their single at number one, but within this context it will only work at track 11."BB: "Kasabian? It's getting tougher." ✔
"You can't really dust for vomit."BB: "That's a total Spinal Tap quote." ✔"You can't really dust for vomit."BB: "That's a total Spinal Tap quote." ✔
"We're very lucky in the band in that we have two visionaries … they're like poets, like Shelley and Byron. They're two distinct types of visionaries, it's like fire and ice, basically."BB: "Spinal Tap!" (Cuts us off at "visionaries"). ✔"We're very lucky in the band in that we have two visionaries … they're like poets, like Shelley and Byron. They're two distinct types of visionaries, it's like fire and ice, basically."BB: "Spinal Tap!" (Cuts us off at "visionaries"). ✔