Unauthorised item in the bagging area

Saturday 9 October 2010

Churchill Was A Shopping Bag


Back in 1987-ish I used to have a pile of video cassettes permanently by the tv in case one of 'my bands' suddenly appeared on the telly- occasionally someone would make Top Of The Pops, or one of ITV's attempts at doing a similar show (The Roxy springs to mind), Friday evening and then Saturday morning with The Chart Show (which had an indie chart and dance chart in a three week rotation, along with a metal chart) but also more promising programmes like Rapido and the two series of late 80s heaven that was Snub. There were also a few late night weekend slots- I remember seeing The House Of Love playing live on a slightly worthy forerunner to The Word called World Music Cafe (I think). We were spoilt a bit as well here in the north-west. Granada had several music shows, including The Other Side Of Midnight which had the first TV appearences of The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays. Thank the lord for Anthony H Wilson. At the start of a presenters sentence a video would be slammed into the recorder and Play and Record pressed. I accumulated several video compilations, which are in a decaying state in a box in the loft. These videos travelled to university with me where after a night out we'd stick one on and enjoy. Or shout at.

This song, Only Losers Take The Bus by Fatima Mansions, was one of them. There was a video featuring Cathal Coughlin lip-synching while tied to a chair under a single light bulb. The song jarred a bit, in between either something Madchestery or JAMC or something similar. I'm pretty sure the clip came from Snub and may well be on youtube, but in the half arsed way I do things here haven't checked. Also the mp3 isn't of brilliant quality. And I've never understood why Churchill is a shopping bag or anything else about this song, except the bus is clearly entry level public transport.

Only_Losers_Take_The_Bus_(Dump_The_Dead).mp3