13. Fat White FamilyChampagne Holocaust
I didn’t want this list to not have something recent in it, for fear of it looking like the £5 shelf in Fopp [laughs].
I bought the Fat Whites LP last spring on vinyl, which subsequently got stolen from my record bag when I was DJing somewhere, which is funny as I had records by Perrey and Kingsley and the unfortunately named Dick Hyman in the same bag that are probably worth a few hundred quid to some Discogs ninny with too much money. Anyway, I took from this unfortunate theft that it wasn’t about the money, they wanted the music, and it’s a brilliant record, from what I can remember [laughs]. Reminds me of lots of things all at the same time like The Birthday Party, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Fall, Manson family demos, etc, but sounds ultimately like The Fat White Family.
I think you have to see them live to get the fuller picture, though; I saw them in a backroom in London playing to 40 maniacs, everyone around me was either taking poppers, sniffing glue out of brown paper bags, jumping on people’s backs and dipping pockets for gentleman’s wallets, and that was just the girls in the crowd [laughs]… It was great, the band were the straightest people there and that’s saying something – the keyboard player played the keyboard whilst lying on his back, using his chest as a keyboard stand [laughs]… Bloody great band, with a good attitude… next big thing? Who gives a fuck?! Just keep doing what you’re doing and keep moving forward.
