‘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
Royal Opera House calls for release of Georgian bass singer jailed over democracy protests
The Royal Opera House in London has urged Keir Starmer to intervene in the case of Paata Burchuladze, a world-renowned bass singer who has been imprisoned in Georgia since October on a charge of leading a coup against the country’s authoritarian leader.The 71-year-old has performed at the Royal Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera House in New York and collaborated with the likes of Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo and José Carreras. He was arrested after joining a protest outside the presidential palace in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. Last week he was given a seven-year jail sentence which Burchuladze suggested to the court was equivalent to a life sentence given his age.Burchuladze became a rallying figure at nightly demonstrations against the government’s perceived pivot away from the west last autumn
‘Using his Terminator voice, Arnie said: “Your song. Give it to me. Now”’: Bad to the Bone’s creation – and aftermath
Before Bad to the Bone, we just played obscure blues songs from the archives. But when we toured with the Rolling Stones, I noticed the reaction to their Start Me Up. I said: “Man, we’d better hurry up and write an original song with a catchy intro or, five years from now, people will go, ‘Oh yeah, George Thorogood – wasn’t he good at playing Chuck Berry or something?’”Bad to the Bone is a male fantasy. Let’s face it: every guy wants to be bad. We were raised on Hollywood movies and all those tough guys, like Bernardo from West Side Story, or Howlin’ Wolf – we opened for him in 1974 and he had a ferocious reputation
What is a ‘Scientology speedrun’ and why is social media suddenly obsessed with it?
Ima, if someone said “Scientology speedrun” to me I would think about Tom Cruise in tight shorts. But that is not what is happening, is it?Not quite, Cait. The Scientology speedrun appears to have spawned in March when content creator Swhileyy filmed himself rushing the Church of Scientology on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. That video gained 90m views before it was deleted.Since then, groups of mostly young men have documented themselves charging into the LA centre, pulling in millions of views on TikTok
Joseph Fiennes on parenting, politics and banning children from social media: ‘Stand up, Keir, this is your kids’ generation’
He’s played English titans from William Shakespeare to Gareth Southgate, but what does the actor really think about the country today?The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.We are at a corner table in a breakfast place in Chelsea, Joseph Fiennes opposite me on the banquette with his jack russell, Noa. “Dog duty,” he says, apologetic
The Guide #242: Everyday Hollywood film comedies have faded but can they make a comeback?
There was a striking moment during this week’s episode of The Rewatchables, the wildly popular film-recap podcast that I reach for when I’ve had my fill of history/football/glum current affairs pods. The episode was revisiting 90s comedy There’s Something About Mary, a film that in some ways holds up hilariously, and in others has aged about as well as a bottle of semi-skimmed on a summer’s day in Death Valley. As part of the episode, the podcast’s panel were going through their favourite comedy films by decade and were spoilt for choice – until, that is, they reached the 2020s, when they seemed to collectively draw a blank. “The Drama’s pretty funny …” one offered tentatively. Finally, host Bill Simmons cut through the umming, ahhing and awkward silence to get to the heart of the matter: “Do we have comedies any more? What happened to comedies?”Yes, what did happen to comedies? Or rather, what happened to the “everyday” American comedies like There’s Something About Mary that once set up a permanent frat house residence in cinemas? You know the ones I mean: those that took a familiar real-world situation – teens trying to lose their virginity, a man clashing with his girlfriend’s dad, a maid of honour struggling to arrange a hen do, stunted adolescents refusing to fly the nest – and stretched them to absurd and lurid extremes
Ah, ah, ah, ah - I saved my dad’s life with a little help from The Office and the Bee Gees
When my father collapsed suddenly, an episode of the US comedy in which Steve Carell does CPR to the tune of Stayin’ Alive sprung miraculously to mindIt was a boiling hot day last summer, four days after my dad’s 73rd birthday. Mum was plating up dinner and Dad was on the sofa complaining about how stifling it was. I was meant to head to work, for my job as a personal trainer, but decided to take the evening off. It was just as well: as I turned back to Mum, Dad collapsed backwards and suffered a massive cardiac arrest.Mum was hysterical
‘Hold the line’: Burnham tells allies in parliament he still has options to return
‘It’s more incrementalism’: Starmer’s safe king’s speech fails to quell mutiny
Starmer has ‘full confidence’ in Streeting despite health secretary’s allies saying he is planning to resign – as it happened
Labour politicians should put the country before their party | Letters
Labour lost the vote of small business owners like me | Letter
King’s speech might be the last word on Starmer as reluctant monarch does his duty | John Crace