‘We got a drive-by egging in Baltimore’: Super Furry Animals on making The Man Don’t Give a Fuck
Gruff was the first person I ever met who could just churn out songs – good, catchy ones.I joined his band Ffa Coffi Pawb, but by 1992 they’d split and Gruff and I were living in Cardiff, as were Bunf, Guto and my brother Cian, the other future Furries.We started out doing techno sets, and I had a little home studio where we demoed ideas for songs.Our first singer, the actor Rhys Ifans, slept on a mattress in the corner.I had this Steely Dan album, Countdown to Ecstasy.
There were bits I really liked.One lyric from the song Show Biz Kids – “You know, they don’t give fuck about anybody else” – just tickled me, because I was very immature.I still am.The song is about rich kids in LA partying and doing coke or whatever, but I thought if we took that line in isolation it could be used as a protest anthem.At the time, I was thinking of the John Major government, but over the years it’s proved applicable to every shower that’s come along.
We took the idea to our producer Gorwel Owen.In his studio, he looped the sample and synced a synth to it.Guto did a dub bassline and we just jammed over that.It didn’t evolve into a song until Gruff had an idea for the intro and verse later.It could have gone in a totally different direction – we were friends with Howard Marks, who didn’t like the quiet bits and thought it should just be the loop from start to finish.
It’s a good hook, but I think the way it ended up being arranged makes it a lot more interesting,The demo of the song stayed in the back of our minds for three years – something really cool that we didn’t know what to do with,We finished it when we needed extra songs for singles from our first album,It was all set to come out as the B-side to If You Don’t Want Me to Destroy You,Donald Fagen and Walter Becker of Steely Dan had cleared our use of the sample.
But at a very late stage, a fax came from Fagen’s lawyer [reversing their decision].So we had to quickly write and record a new B-side, Guacamole, to replace it.At the time, we were on Creation Records.When label boss Alan McGee heard The Man Don’t Give a Fuck he said: “This is a hit single!” Some staff were saying: “It’s got 50 fucks on it!” But he didn’t care.Fagen’s lawyer was contacted again, and this time we got the green light – but Fagen and Becker wanted 95% of the royalties.
We thought: “It’s never going to get played on the radio, so that’s 95% of nothing.” So we let them have the lot.We hadn’t accounted for the lack of censorship on Australian radio shows, though.The song got playlisted on Triple J radio station.McGee wanted to release the song as quickly as possible, which ended up being early December, so the song became a Christmas single by default.
The fact it has sleigh bells on it is a coincidence, though – Surf’s Up by the Beach Boys was one of the albums we bonded over as a band, and songs like Feel Flows had that kind of sleigh-bell rhythm,It’s a very flexible song, because it’s vague,The man is the establishment, I suppose, the military industrial complex,The line “Keep the masses from majority” was about how people like Thatcher were able to dismantle society despite more people voting against them than for them, but a few years later we were screening footage of Bush and Blair when we played the song live, and added a loop of Bill Hicks in the intro: “All governments are liars and murderers,”We did a gig in Baltimore and got a drive-by egging afterwards.
I think there were some right-wing kids in the audience who didn’t like what they were seeing.They actually ran out of eggs and had to go and buy some more.On their second go, the show’s promoter managed to catch one and throw it back through their car window.The song changed our gigs, because we had to close shows with it.We’ve tried putting it at the start and in the middle, but it just doesn’t work.
It’s got longer and longer over the years.In 2004, we released a live version with a techno section from Cian that stretched it to 23 minutes.At Glastonbury one year, we were partway through it when a man tried to drive a van through the crowd but had to stop.People were jumping on top and dancing and he was up there pushing them off.Eventually, he realised he couldn’t get down, so he just started dancing himself.
He had some amazing moves,Super Furry Animals’ Supacabra tour begins on 6 May and their early rarities and demos collection Precreation Percolation is out on 8 May
Court rules Coles misled shoppers with its ‘Down Down’ discount campaign
Coles misled Australian shoppers by promoting fake “Down Down” discounts on everyday grocery products, the federal court has ruled in a landmark decision for the supermarket industry.Justice Michael O’Bryan handed down his judgment on Thursday, delivering a significant blow to Australia’s second-largest supermarket chain, which had argued that the discounts represented genuine savings during a period of high inflation.He found the supermarket giant had engaged in misleading conduct, in contravention of the Australian consumer law.The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission sued Coles and its rival Woolworths, accusing the supermarket giants of duping shoppers between 2021 and 2023 by using promotional programs to disguise price increases on hundreds of products.O’Bryan’s verdict in the Coles case – which was heard in February – comes before his decision in a similar trial against Woolworths, which was heard in Sydney in late April and early May and which the judge will rule on later this year
Housing market in England and Wales weakening due to Iran war, say estate agents
Fears of higher mortgage rates and rising inflation as a result of the Middle East conflict are leading to a subdued and downbeat housing market, according to estate agents.Demand from potential homebuyers across England and Wales has shown a “noticeable softening” recently, according to a monthly survey of estate agents by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).Members have told the professional body that buyers and sellers are becoming more cautious, and many agents have cited clients who are worried about whether inflation and interest rates will rise in the coming months, leading to slower sales, fewer homes on the market, and more price-sensitive buyers.The Bank of England warned last month that interest rates may have to increase in the coming months as “higher inflation is unavoidable” because of the war in the Middle East and resulting jump in oil and gas prices.At the same time, mortgage rates are likely to be affected by the current sharp rise in government borrowing costs, as swap rates – which lenders use to price their fixed-rate mortgages – tend to move in tandem with government bond yields
Datacentres using 6% of electricity supply in UK and US, research says
Datacentres are consuming 6% of electricity in the UK and US, with the growing strain of AI on energy supplies prompting community resistance, according to research.The proportion of electricity used by vast warehouses stacked with microchips to power AI and the internet has risen 15% worldwide in the past two years as annual global investment in datacentres approaches $1tn (£740bn) – nearly 1% of the global economy, according to the International Data Center Authority (IDCA).The figures come amid energy shortages in the UK and datacentre developers reporting waits of several years for national grid connections. The IDCA said rising power usage globally was “sparking societal and political concerns” and called on tech companies to become more transparent about their plans for new datacentres to tackle “community frustration”.The Guardian this week reported that developers working for Google significantly misstated how much carbon two proposed AI datacentres would contribute to the UK’s total emissions
Nvidia’s Jensen Huang joins other US bosses on Trump trip to China
The billionaire chief executive of the chipmaker Nvidia, Jensen Huang, has joined Donald Trump’s China delegation after a reported last-minute invitation, highlighting the US’s AI and tech ambitions.Huang will join a roster of US bosses including the Tesla chief executive and X owner, Elon Musk, the Apple chief executive, Tim Cook, and Goldman Sachs’s David Solomon at Trump’s 36-hour meeting with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.The high-stakes summit is the first overseas trip for Trump since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran in late February. The summit is expected to cover topics including that conflict, tariffs and China’s relationship with Taiwan.Huang was not on the initial list of business delegates, according to reports
Ivan Cleary begins long goodbye with a legacy built to last long after he leaves Panthers | Nick Tedeschi
The great coaches all have something special that elevates them above others. Wayne Bennett built his success on connection and an ability to authentically forge relationships with generation after generation of players. Craig Bellamy has a foundation of deifying work ethic and simple communication. Trent Robinson, intellect and loyalty.Ivan Cleary is an engineer, the ultimate believer in process, a coach at once ruthless and relatable who dreamt of building a bigger and more complex machine that could sustain itself beyond the people it was initially built around
Sarah Taylor named England men’s fielding coach while Gay, Rew and Baker are called up
On a day when England named three uncapped players in their Test squad, brought Ollie Robinson out of cold storage and officially confirmed a new selector had joined the set-up, perhaps the most significant news was the identity of their fielding coach.Sarah Taylor, the former England wicketkeeper, will be in charge of the fielding drills during the three-Test series against New Zealand that begins at Lord’s on 4 June – the first female coach to work in the men’s senior setup.The fact that Rob Key, the England men’s team director, almost mentioned it in passing was fitting for a coach who has quietly risen through the ranks. Taylor, 36, has held a number of roles in the men’s game since hanging up her gloves five years ago, including spells with Sussex men and Manchester Originals in the Hundred.This latest post is just for the New Zealand series initially but may continue through the summer
Australian workers have been hard done by and tax reforms in the budget only begin to return some fairness | Greg Jericho
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