West of Scotland-based Mickey 9s have established a reputation over the past few years as a formidable live act and this searing but sinuous cover of the Gang of Four track sounds like a great addition to any setlist. They have added their own inimitable stamp to what is an out and out post-punk classic from the still-influential ‘Entertainment!’ album.
Cleverly changing the words a bit, from third to first person, the direction of the song becomes less of the alienated and detached original (GoF were the original bloody Marxist intellectual performance art students eh, always trying to ruin it) and more of an unhinged personal cry for attention and help.
Under the high-pitched and very Scottish sounding vocal, the instrumentation picks up the funky but scathing guitar/bass tension of the original and runs with it, the result sounding more like mid-period Talking Heads than the immediate post-punk thrash of ‘The 4’ (they were never referred to as that!)…
A great track by a band BM hopes to catch out and about at Scottish festivals this year…