If you are one of the seven or so people who read this blog regularly, you may remember a few months back I posted a youtube clip of the band Skin Deep. Skin Deep was Mick Whitnall, of Babyshambles', band waaaaaay back in the '80's. And it fucking ruled. It sounded like Madness. Today, I accidently stumbled on another goddamned gem of Mick's.
Here's how my stupid youtube story goes. Completely bored at home, I decide, "Fuck it; why not check my myspace and email and perezhilton.com for the 23rd time today?" So I sat down and fired up the old itunes to keep me company while I wasted time on ye olde internet. I skimmed the old playlist and decided to listen to Teenage Fanclub's "Songs from Northern Britain". I exhausted all my stupid, regular websites and was so into what I was listening to that I decided to wikipedia Teenage Fanclub. Amongst other fun facts about the band (their first album was noisy??) I discovered that the song from the intro to Micheal Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" isn't actually Camper Van Beethoven doing "Take the Skinheads Bowling", but rather Fanclub covering Camper Van Beethoven.
With this little discovery, I decided to go to youtube and watch Camper Van Beethoven's video for the song. (Which is actually rad, btw. In the video they literally take skinheads bowling.) On the little sidebar of related video's I saw options for tons of fun skinhead clips. I clicked on one called "Skinheads in Carnaby Street London" cuz it looked coolest and maybe more vintage. It turned out to be a clip from a German news show. From what I could decipher, the program was letting viewers in on the history of skinhead, and how real skinhead culture comes from Mod and Jamaican rudeboy culture and all that. Anyway, at :38 seconds into the video, a very familiar face pops up. Mick Whitnall! Bear in mind, this video is from the very early nineties; at least fifteen years before he found fame with Babyshambles. Towards the end of the video, it makes like it's going to interview him or something and in German says something I translated to be something like, "Mick, singer of Jamaican ska style band, 100 Men." Right then, the video ended. With no "Part 2" to the original video offered, I had to look up 100 Men.
What I found was this most impressive video you'll find below. Good old Mick singing lead vocals in a rad rocksteady sounding band. He didn't sing lead in Skin Deep, so this was my first time hearing his doggone voice at the forefront. What a badass, no?
So, anyway, while a lot of guys my age are busy completing medical school, or cooking dinner for their kids, or wrapping it up at the law firm; this is what I do with my time.
2-22-08 UPDATE: I probably should have addressed how everyone in this band besides Mick and the drummer are complete tools. ESPECIALLY the bass player. My bad. How about when either Mick or the drummer aren't on screen, you just close your eyes and enjoy the music?
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2 comments:
Um, how about this was a way very seriously good post !!! Forget babies and paper pushing, keep on imbuing us with quality material.
great stuff, i used to know mick when me and my dad had a stall at camden. he worked with my dad after i moved to the states.
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