Music Arcades: Sleater-Kinney: The Woods

A few years ago, on Deborah Harry's 60th birthday, I entered the "Mystery Voice" competition on Vic McGlynn's radio show on BBC 6 Music. A few minutes later I got a call, and the following discussion took place on air:

Me: Hello, Vic!

Vic: You all right?

Me: I'm fine thanks, how are you?

Vic: I'm very good. We ought to first of all say thanks very much to Tony [name withheld for privacy] of atomicsounds.co.uk for pointing out that Deborah Harry is actually 60 today. My god, she looks good!

Me: She does.

Vic: Would you consider it after a couple of sherries?

Me: Ummm… [thinking: only if she promised to keep her clothes on]

Vic: I'll be honest with you: I would!

Me: Ummm… I don't know actually. [thinking: I know bloody well, but don't want to sound ungracious in public]

Vic: I'll tell you what, you muse on that over the weekend. Or when you're on holiday. You're off to Sicily for two weeks?

Me: That's right.

Vic: Result! Have you checked the weather forecast over there?

Me: I don't think you have to. I'm told it's just always hot. [It was.]

Vic: Oh, hooray!

Me: So I haven't checked, no.

Vic: Have you packed your Speedos?

Me: I haven't packed anything yet.

Vic: Oh, sort it out, son!

Me: I'm going to… I've got a whole afternoon ahead of me yet.

Vic: All right. Favourite band: Magnetic Fields [Me: yeah]. Favourite all-timer: Neil Young [Me: yeah] And do you actually remember this event happening, or have you read about it since?

Me: No, [hint of sarcasm] I'm not quite old enough to remember it happening, but I think it's fairly celebrated.

Vic: It is. We're going to play you the clip:

"Very nice, you know, I mean that was what, you know, got me out and sort of helped get us off, I think. Because it was against the normal press conduct."

Vic: Right, who's that speaking?

Me: It's Mick Jagger [Vic: It is] And he's talking about a Times editorial; I think it was written by William Rees-Mogg [Vic: splutters] and it had some weird title that I didn't quite get, "who pins a butterfly to a wheel" or something [VMcG: uh-huh] I'm just dredging my memory here, but basically he defended Mick and Keef when they got busted for some, errr, marijuana.

Vic: They did indeed get busted for mari-ju-ana, and it was the catalyst for the trial collapse. So, yeah, you pretty much got that there, and in fact you knew the name of the journalist as well — my god!

Me: Well I could be wrong there, but that's how I remember it. [Thinking: he's not just a 'journalist', you dipstick, he's one of the most influential newspaper men of his generation, and now a life peer.]

Vic: I tell you what, it's a worthy answer though, and, for a prize, OK, would you like any of these: Viva Voce album, we've got Sleater-Kinney, we've got Scout Niblett, we've got Mouldy Lemon [?]. All tailored to your tastes. What would you like out of those?

Me: I'll have the Sleater-Kinney, I think, please.

Vic: OK. Sleater-Kinney. Sorted. Thank you very much for playing. Have a lovely holiday!

Me: Thank you very much, Vic.

Vic: See you later!

Me: Cheers!

Never look a gift horse in the mouth, but I didn't think it was much of a choice. I'd only heard of two of the artists, and I don't much like Scout Niblett. So when I got back from Sicily and this CD was waiting for me, I didn't rush to put it on the player. What little I knew of Sleater-Kinney made me think the music would be mainstream indie. That's all a defence of my decision not to listen, in hindsight. A post-hoc justification is no justification. However, in this instance — when I finally came to listen yesterday — it turned out I was right. Perhaps more noisy indie than mainstream indie, but I didn't like it at all. I put on an Electrelane album to take the taste away.