BOC: Give 'em a break?

[Jon Jarrett]

        Dear All,
                  thought I'd drop my two penn'orth on the subject.
        I personally think the BOC in my collection is the favourite stuff
I own. I'm not so sure the band is the greatest any more though. I saw 3OC
in London in '95, and, yes, they kicked. But it was old stuff, although I
have to say that with Danny Maranda I think they have a bass player to
rule the world with. But without the crazy edge of Al's writing (would BOC
ever do a song called `666 - The Devil Got Your Mother'?) and without
_someone_ stopping Buck writing songs with choruses of the same line
repeated four times over a happy bouncy sound that makes it sound like BOC
are trying to be the Lightning Seeds with a decent bass-line, and
physically forcing him to do heavy stuff again (I got hooked on BOC by
DFtR and Godzilla), they are not the band they were. Though I will still
go and see them next time they make England, to hear the stuff from when
they were that band.
        I hope the new album is good enough so I don't regret getting it,
as I think I probably will if/when I get Club Ninja. I liked Harvest Moon,
I didn't reckon much to See You in Black, though studio version might be
better.
        The way Buck talks about `the band' reminds me of something that
floated through BOC-L last year, that Buck wanted to hang it all up and
stick to Buck stuff, but EB kept persuading him out of it. In which case,
we do owe Eric _some_ thanks! But I think half the problem with 3OC is
that Buck's not really happy with it, and Eric has nothing else to do.
        What Allen thinks of all of it I would love to know, because you
never hear diddly about/from him...
        I don't expect to see Al back in BOC - I mean, no way - but it
looks as if, if BOC ever do rise and reverberate, even a little bit, there
might be a bit more contact between them and tBS. (They might decide they
could pay him his bloody royalties, for a start!) Perhaps DR feels a bit
guilty talking to Al when, despite the band having stiffed him over
Imaginos (among other stuff) he is still doing better than they are?
        It strikes me that if (dream) tBS and BOC ever played a gig
together, or Al did a guest drums appearance or something (like Lemmy did
occasionally for HW on bass), the conflict zone would not be Al vs. DR,
but Deb vs. EB...
        That's all from me, anyway - but next time I play T&M I shall
still think "God, they are good, aren't they!" irrespective of my current
mopes,
       Jazza
 _____________________________________________________________________________
           Jon Jarrett
           Pembroke College Cambridge      "If he really thinks we're the
           (01223 327450)                  devil, Then let's send them to
           jaj20 at hermes.cam.ac.uk          Hell!" (B.O.C., `Divine Wind')
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