Metal Pig, Posh Clock
359 words
To be honest, I have to admit that the Goldie Lookin’ Chain joke was starting
to wear a bit thin, and with repeated listens, their back-catalogue was
coming to sound rather amateurish (permissible, I suppose, since they were
at the time amateurs). We’d committed to the gig tickets months ago, and
I’d decided to maintain my enthusiasm until then, whatever mental strain it
took. I viewed the gig as an opportuntity to end the whole thing with a
bang and draw a line under the matter.
It turns out the GLC are outrageously entertaining live. Jokes you’ve
heard before make you chuckle again. 13 men leaping up and down and shouting
really can keep your attention for an hour and a half. What’s more, in my
opinion, enough of them have genuine rap skills to hold their heads high.
A special treat was “Taxi” breaking down into Gazza’s rap version of
“Fog on the Tyne”. Also I enjoyed the enthusiasic crowd singalong to the
chorus of “Shit to Me” (I am too coy to quote the lyrics that resonated
so well here).
The two support acts — Skinnyman and John the White Rapper — I couldn’t
really relate to. Both of these were “serious” rap acts. “Serious” as in
serious, not serious as in “serious clart, what it is roit?”… Both strode
headlong into “issues” based poems that they’d really not thought through.
Skinnyman railed against the teacher who expelled him from school –
but let’s face it, they didn’t throw him out apropos of nothing, did they?
He recited a (true?) story about a girlfriend’s life wrecked by heroin,
ending “BURN THE POPPY FIELDS”. As a sane drugs policy, that needs more
thought.
My real problem with both of these was their willingness to lose the
beats completely, and just rap acapella for minutes on end. It frankly
reminded me of an open mic session at the Poetry and Words tent at
Glastonbury — or the spoken word performances of Atilla the Stockbroker
or “Punk Poetess” Joolz, neither of which have ever impressed me as
entertainment.
Both these acts might work as art — but GLC are a party act, and they
needed a lighter tone of support. They also did well to win back our
respect after a ridiculous wait around between acts. They managed it because
they are safe.