Rockist Git Frank Turner and the horror of the live version of "I Still Believe"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9AjYIgcphg&feature=related

everything about this is so disgusting

Hahah

i should do a poll about the things that frank turner believes in

oh god he says fuckin' "gramophone" jesus

what a terrible fuckin song

that dude probably like joe strummer & the mescaleros a lot

Something touched him deep inside
The day the Spin Doctors died

it appears plaid shirts are key elements of this belief system

shame he doesn't believe in writing good songs

I used to know this guy slightly when he was in Million Dead or some band before that, he was outstandingly pretentious.

oh he was in a band? is he like blink-182 dude that discovered jesus springsteen?

Congratulations Brits. You finally have your own Daughtry.

It's insane how big this fucking tool is. I mean he's playing at Wembley soon. This guy. Skrillex. Ed Sheeran. Mumford And Sons. I feel like cashing my fucking chips in. It's like 1997 all over again.

Hello Hooray, what a nice day, for the Eton Rifles, Eton Rifles...

i only managed 8 seconds of the vid so i won't be hearing the song

i hope somebody runs over his balls with a steam roller, soon

a proper authentic steam roller running on sea coal, obv

Turner was educated on a scholarship at Eton College, where he studied alongside Prince William, and later went on to attend the London School of Economics where he read History.[2] His father Roger Turner, is the son of Sir Mark Turner, formerly chairman of high street retailer BHS, and had himself also attended Eton before becoming a City investment banker, while his mother, Jane, the daughter of a bishop, is a primary school headmistress.[3]

^ Punk fucken' rock, people

well yeah, basically

make that a convoy of steam rollers btw

I STILL BELIEVE...in music not made by black folks or people with vaginas.

Listening to this makes me dislike Bruce Springsteen

just gonna up the stakes for ilxors in the US

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwGbx82tMv0

and the UK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEowBvFlcvE

thank me later

gonna check out prices for steam roller hire today

'who would have thought' - some etonian

Christ what an arsehole. Doran's right - this guy + Mumford + Sheeran is just too much.

For the record, I don't care how posh anyone is until they start pretending to be horny handed sons of toil. So this is one of the first reasons why I'll hold him down when the steam rollers are coming.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4jfwTI_0Bw

And Million Dead were OK, nothing more.

As with Sheeran there seems to be this hideous overlap between singer-songwriter cliches and bland observational comedy. He could be on the Now Show.

I was supposed to be reviewing Ed Sheeran for NME but they (label/PR) point blank refused to send me a copy. Which kind of shows you how much genuine affection and support for him even his own people have.

it really does feel like both ed and frank are the power brokers in the so called "music industry" saying : "will this do, cos we just don't care anymore"

fucking dreadful, and to think i stopped listening to miles davis to see what the fuss in this thread was all about.

never heard of this guy at all. Assumed at first he must be american due to the thread starter. Has this guy sold a lot of albums then?

until john said "It's insane how big this fucking tool is" i thought this was just another rebecca black styled net thing ..

never heard him ..

http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/image-library/square/250/f/frank-turner-album_06,11.jpg

Financial Times hardcore?

aah now I remember, I did see this cock on tv at a festival recently (Reading? probably). He had that FTHC backdrop onstage.

ahh .. have seen that cover in fopp, but never looked at it properly.

Haha, the logo rules but the dude is not backed.

His whole existence befuddles me. A flannel sporting posh British guy who champions Roots Rock and American Hardcore? I wasn't even aware they allowed rock music in England.

"england keep my bones" is a weird promise/threat

chile can have mine

xp rock music was invented in england (then given away)

observed as early as the late 80s: the jam and the clash were very popular with rugby players/fans = mainly posh foax (not posher than me, but posher than you)

IT'S A POP SONG ABOUT ETON! (the only one)

Oh shit, that Half Man Half Biscuit cover ;_;

I would love to watch all of Electric Wizard pull Turner's rib cage out through his anus and then beat him into a coma with it.

hey HMHB and Shellac are both cool bands I wonder why more people don't cover their songs - well I'm gonna do something about that

England keep his bones but make the rest of him into a ginsters pie and shoot it into the sun.

but in a derogatory way

A ginster's pie-radise. Amirite?

I used to know this guy slightly when he was in Million Dead or some band before that, he was outstandingly pretentious.

― |III|||II|||I|I||| (Matt #2), Thursday, 20 October 2011 22:51 (Yesterday)

I know someone who was friends with him when he was in Million Dead, but they drifted apart as FT got more popular and more dickish and indeed pretentious to go with it. All things considered, he must be at unimaginable highs of pretentiousness nowadays.

I have both the CDs that Kneejerk (his band before Million Dead) did and they are not bad as wide-eyed Britisher imitations of Refused go but the lyrics are just this witless overreaching teenage jumble of pretend Situationism

like I say, an imitation of Refused

btw what's the deal w/ M@tt using the phrase "rockist git" in the title of this thread

"rockist" is old-school shorthand for someone who believes a very particular tranche of music -- in this case "roots rock" -- is "real music", and that his own "realness" (despite class background) can be ensured by bad mimicry and the "correct" gestural tropes

"git" is accurately descriptive

It's also a subtle play on the phrase 'rocket-powered ginsters'

Just seen that video. Oh my god. Oh my dear god.

BTW, this guy is apparently headlining Wembley Arena next year O_O

this is another one of those dudes who i read about in kerrang (dont ask) like two years ago and i thought "well, this will never be a thing" and now it's apparently a thing and please england dont send him to america :'(

For a start, you can't bang on about "fuckin' rock'n'roll" and then pump out that kind of limp guitar pop.

my track record in guessing which horrible altrock dudes will actually become popular is just terrible. a record label should hire me as some kind of anti a&r man.

You can be the people's a&r man and protect us from faux punk bro-folk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rfnv97Uz8-Y

The funniest thing about this is the bassline.. oompa loompa doompa dee doo

omg that shellac cover. mencap ima kill u.

its bringing back memories of so many horrible open mic "JUST LET ME DRINK IN PEACE" nights circa 1999 to 2004. except it would have been a sensetive chumbawumba cover.

^ give him time on that one i guess

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWwdAtReCAQ

The straining, throaty, white male rock vocal is possibly my least favourite sound in the known universe. OP video is hilarious though and those lyrics even out-conservatived the intro. But the "Build Me Up Buttercup" cover was where it went from amusing to painful, not cool NickB

Frank Turner, Elliott Smith And Nick Drake are all so amazing

HerSilkScarfGagsMe 1 week ago

Hoping they've got Frank on suicide watch, just in case.

"rockist" is old-school shorthand for someone who believes a very particular tranche of music -- in this case "roots rock" -- is "real music", and that his own "realness" (despite class background) can be ensured by bad mimicry and the "correct" gestural tropes

"git" is accurately descriptive

― mark s, Friday, 21 October 2011 11:57 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol thx Mark, it was more that it seemed an unusual turn of phrase for star ilxor "upper mississippi sh@kedown"

mimicry is contagious

upper mississippi sh@kedown tomorrow: "'Ere, what's this geezer up to? 'E's avin' a larf, innee?"

there is no fucking way i am listening to the Shellac or Foundations covers.

elephant in the room: this guy is clearly a stupendous choad, and yet he is a stupendous choad who is presumably getting v. paid and laid. i see his angle. we shd consider the tens of thousands of human beings, many of whom live and work amongst us, who think this is the soundtrack of their lifes.

like i am usually the first to pile on about the subjectivity of taste and the importance of context in listening to music, so why does this particular kind of thing make me wanna google sarin recipes?

Perhaps it's lyrics like

The ladies of London town
Go flowing through these streets like water
Running little streams down to the river.
They wash the dirty ground, they sweep me off my feet,
But like an English summer, they'll soon be gone forever.

Yeah, well life is about love, lost minutes and lost evening. About fire in our bellies and about furtive little feelings. And the aching amplitudes that set our needles all a-flickering. And they help us with remembering that the only thing that's left to do is live. . After all of the loving and losing, after all the heroes and the pioneers. The only thing that's left to do is get another round in at the bar.

You've got a generation raised on the welfare state,
Enjoyed all its benefits and did just great,
But as soon as they were settled as the richest of the rich,
They kicked away the ladder, told the rest of us that life's a bitch.

some lyrical platitudes can be alright tho? maybe it's platitudinousness thinking it's a manifesto that irritates

Oh yes these are most certainly manifestos.

Once an honest man could go from sunrise to its set
Without encountering agents of his state or government
But a sorry cloud of tyranny has fallen across the land
Brought on by hollow men, who did not understand
That for centuries our forefather have fought and often died
To keep themselves unto themselves, to fight the rising tide
And that if in the smallest battles we surrender to the state
We enter in a darkness whence we never shall escape

ah, it's like the Levellers never came into their inheritances and took up seats in the House of Lords

And that if in the smallest battles we surrender to the state
We enter in a darkness whence we never shall escape

Conservative Party manifesto right there.

I know what NV means. Normally I reserve disdain for artists but with Turner/Sheeran/Mumfords their passionate fans are actually more annoying for thinking this is any way profound and not ghastly and wrong.

You've got a generation raised on the welfare state,
Enjoyed all its benefits and did just great,
But as soon as they were settled as the richest of the rich,
They kicked away the ladder, told the rest of us that life's a bitch.

― antiautodefenestrationism (ledge), Friday, 21 October 2011 13:48 (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

interesting definition of "us" here

A few things wrong with his history of the welfare state there.

i blame his education

id never heard of him until today idk

i hadn't heard of him until last night.

great days.

rockist git is a thoroughly unamerican pejorative it's like calling him an infernal bounder or sthing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iFEa7pRO1o

Infernal bounder would be taken as boosterism by any red blooded English person. Like, ah, gangsta for instance.

if in the smallest battles we surrender to the state
We enter in a darkness whence we never shall escape

so he sticks to the anarcho-syndicalist bits of the NHS, that's cool.

This is my new most-hated music. Looking forward to my gf's tween daughter's inevitable move from her current Ed Sheeran fixation to this git. I accept that youth has to make its own mistakes.

Most I can say is that enjoy the awkwardness of the hmhb cover not coming off or making any sense to the audience, except one bloke at the back. Haven't punished self by watching shellac one yet.

For a start, you can't bang on about "fuckin' rock'n'roll" and then pump out that kind of limp guitar pop

Yeah, I thought of that Mr. Show sketch about the rap musical with no rap.

btw what's the deal w/ M@tt using the phrase "rockist git" in the title of this thread

― We All Had Guess Papers (DJ Mencap), Friday, October 21, 2011 6:39 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol i thought about asking if i was using it right! i mostly just wanted to convey that he was from the UK and get UK ppl to comment since i had never heard of this choad before and i figured he was a big deal over here...

basically i wanted stuff like that eton background and all that

upper mississippi sh@kedown tomorrow: "'Ere, what's this geezer up to? 'E's avin' a larf, innee?"

― Science, you guys. Science. (DL), Friday, October 21, 2011 8:20 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

oi mate....full stop.

you should just have called him a cunt in the thread title then we would have got it

had assumed this guy was american. guy in my work who listens to flogging molly and shit likes him. has a t-shirt with the black flag logo and frank turner written on it. eugh.

also this is the only "i still believe" worth listening to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw3MO4E9gVA

You know I was WAITING for someone to reference that. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw the thread title.

OI MATES SOME PLAID SHIRT PONCE IS ALL OVER THE NEWSY WEWSIES, COVERING RISE ABOVE BY BLACK FLAAAAAG, I"M GONNA MAKE ME A 'ORRIBLE POST ABOUT IT TO ME ILXOR CHUMS, ALSO BLOOD SAUSAGE IS DELICIOUS.

^ Luke Haines lyrics

I for one, would not be surprised if Mr Haines formed a band called Blood Sausage Taliban.

up the irons!

damn jam in glasgow and Ned mindmelding sweaty sax guy...

Frank Turner would be a great name for a grillmaster.

Jesus what a fucking horrible voice that man has

as you were

This is me speechless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfvPk4_hBdc

Keyboards
The Hold Steady

ahahahaha

I now realise that the most stuck-up, pretentious dickheads I meet on my way through life are far more likely to achieve success than anyone else, because that's what audiences respond to. Why, I don't know, but there it is.

somewhere - somewhere that's definitely not Wembley - New Model Army are crying :-(

The keyboards part of that rant is funny because he pauses for half a beat, because he really doesn't believe in keyboards but he quick realized he has some sclump playing keys for him and he has to say it.

if the guy that comes out to play harmonica with the cutoff sleeves and trucker hat is english I don't even know what to say

I've not seen the clip but there's every chance that's Ben Patashnik editor of Rock Sound, who is, for the record, an extremely nice guy, as much as we have differing views on music.

Tutor on a music course I was in this morning told students "I'm really into Frank Turner at the moment". Chewed lump out of my lip.

Frank Turner would be a great name for a grillmaster.

― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Friday, 21 October 2011 18:55 (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol missed this booming post

this Voice of the Youth thankfully seems consigned to the backwater of public radio over here, along with most of our own homegrown "roots" doofuses.

but i'm still a little worried.

yeah hopefully he'll be like sub-shooter jennings big

THIS MACHINE WAS SUPPOSED TO KILL FASCISTS BUT IT'S JUST MAKING THEM SNARKY

lol

man I was really really hoping this would be a Brenda K Starr cover

wow. really wish I could un-see that video.

http://www.huckmagazine.com/features/frank-turner-interview-short-stories/

This is pretty old but... wau.

How comfortable are you having your name next to Relentless Energy?
It’s fine. To be honest with you, I’m more comfortable with having that than having something that was state funded. As of my personally ideology, I’m much more comfortable with private companies than I am with something that basically backs up its funding with the threat of imprisonment. So I’d rather do this than something at the BBC.

In the film you say that you’re punk rock and you’ve come from DIY background. Do you think some people might question their enthusiasm for you when they see your face next to the Relentless brand?
They might do. I can measure out in one hand exactly how much I give a shit. It’s their problem, not mine really. Delving into political philosophy here, but I get very frustrated with people who publically have issues with private companies and then have no problem at all with the state funding stuff. The bottom line is the British Film Council [sic] gets its money out of threat of violence towards citizens, which is why it’s infinitely worse than money that comes from some fizzy drink. At the end of the day, I don’t actually give a shit, but if you made me choose between those two methods I think that state funding is much more of a greater evil on society.

boil this motherfucker alive

I know I certainly consider Sex Lives Of the Potato Men to be a cultural threat of violence, but not as much as Frank Turner's terrible music or thoughts.

What a surprise, rich "anarchist" actually libertarian douchebag shocker

what does he mean about the violence?

He means wah wah I don't like paying taxes

Except for defence!

I don't know why e.g. Billy Bragg is so tight w/ this fellow

What the actual fuck?! What a dick

I can measure out in one hand exactly how much I give a shit

why is he holding units of shit in his hand

u know what isn't violent neoliberalism that's what.

well it's not violent on his family's country estate, that's for sure.

Only £37.99 for this

https://www.kingsroadmerch.co.uk/media/catalog/product/cache/4/image/265x/5e06319eda06f020e43594a9c230972d/f/r/frank-turner-jchc-hoodie.jpg

I assumed it was going to be this
http://www.backstreet-merch.com/images/products/bands/clothing/frnkt/bsi_frnkt17.gif

More "anarchist" fun.

http://moonandbackmusic.com/archives/1323

FT: Something that I find increasingly as i get older is that, ironically enough, there’s a real mainstream political opinion within the music world, which is broadly left wing and if you’re not left wing you really better not mention it, because people will get real fucking shirty with you. To start with, most people don’t seem to understand what the difference between left and right is. For example, the BNP are a hard left party. I consider myself a libertarian, I consider myself to be pretty right wing and I get shit for saying that out loud. I was thinking about it the other day, I was thinking about how, quite often, I do keep myself to myself on the subject because I can’t be fucking bothered to have some guy look all shocked at me because I think socialism’s retarded. Then I actually thought hold on a minute here, one of the many things that everybody preaches, which I sincerely agree with, is fucking stand up for what you believe in. I strongly believe that Che Guevara was a racist, homophobic, murdering thug and I strongly believe that people who wear U.S.S.R. t-shirts are as offensive as people who wear Nazi t-shirts to me because, in fact, they killed considerably more people and I’m fucking passionate about that kind of thing. So I was like I should actually write a song about this, because I do firmly believe it. I do firmly believe that leftist politics lead to the misery of many, the crushing of the little guy and all that kind of thing. I mean, it’s important for me to say that in public because I believe it strongly and that sometimes in life you’ve got to fucking put your foot down.…

IC: Who’re you gonna vote for?

FT: Well, I don’t know. I don’t want to vote for the Coservatives because I think David Cameron’s a shit and the reason he’s a shit is as statused as New Labor. I think New Labor are one of the fucking worst things to happen to this country ever, pretty much. I think, arguably, particularly with the signing of the Lisbon treaty it’s actually the end of about 800 years of continuous parliamentary history. I think the people responsible for the signing of that fucking treaty without asking the people of Britain need to burn in fucking hell.

they killed considerably more people and I’m fucking passionate about that kind of thing

I always thought that "shirty" referred to second base, via this Madness song:

Once went out with a London girl
Dirty weekend in a hotel
Broke it off when she got shirty
She was twelve and he was thirty

libertarian mourns passing of continuous parliamentary history

Libertarian is a wanker shockah.

think you need to read his quotes in an authentic sloaney bray to get the full flavour

just saw that quote on Facebook, assume it's doing the rounds there and elsewhere

I am frustratingly sure I have a punk zine from c. 1998 with a column/letter (same difference tbh) in which teenage Frank drips with leftist invective - may look again this evening

The fun doesn't stop there:

http://www.huckmagazine.com/features/frank-turner-interview-short-stories/

think you need to read his quotes in an authentic sloaney bray to get the full flavour

I also imagine him hollering "HEAR YE, HEAR YE" before each of his responses.

Guardian summary. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2012/sep/04/frank-turner-right-wing

God to think I had to explain to a group of people just how odious this vom-inducer is the other day...

I'd barely heard of him before the 'lympix opening ceremony, and thought he seemed pretty innocuous there. But now, what a monstrous cockfarmer.

is this like Weller's we're all voting conservative of old?

Even more odious, I'd say.

In that Turner seems like an even less liable chap.

Likeable

xps depends, did people take til about 1980 to notice he said it?

aw I had a lawyer joke all cued up and ready to go

Weller made one comment, primarily as a wind-up - Turner talks about this at length and reads Hayek. It's up to you which you find more odious. Personally, I can't stand anyone who whiffs of Atlas Shrugged so I'd take Weller's old school trolling any day.

I'd barely heard of him before the 'lympix opening ceremony, and thought he seemed pretty innocuous there.

there was nothing innocuous about that shit

Just found out he went to the LSE. Guess he'd have been in the same year as me. There's an incredibly strong, incredibly odd, libertarian vibe to the study body that, by and large, isn't shared by the staff. It's the only university i'm aware of that has a Hayek society. Might explain where some of this comes from more than Eton.

Browsing on a music messageboard earlier today, I came across a thread devoted to Frank Turner, which linked to an interview he gave last year.

haha

Yeah. Last time I linked to something on ILX in public there was an anguished debate about whether this was what the world needed, though. So this time I kept it to "a music messageboard".

Was asked to write the blog by an editor, after the Twitter stuff all day. Was a little reluctant, cos it's old news, but I've never seen this stuff picked up in the mainstream before; took the MP tweeting about it for it to be worth bringing up on a blog, really. Someone from the Independent tweeted that they'd got rightwing stuff from him in an interview, but it was nothing like as extreme as the stuff in those interviews I took from. Took care to quote at length precisely so people couldn't say I was taking him out of context.

Expecting to be unable to look at my Twitter for a couple of days once the fanbase mobilise.

also paul weller was in the jam and this fuckstain is some kinda prep school fake working class Sir Punklesworth Cougar Mellencamp III who writes godawful music

ahh i didn't know it was you!

xp

countdown to a duet with Nicki Minaj starts now

Wiki reckons Turner went to Eton on a scholarship. Even though his father was an investment banker and his grandfather was chairman of British Home Stores. Which suggests he might not have needed a scholarship.

depends, maybe his father was a terrible banker

Like that matters

american libertarians are at least explicable within that country's history & tradition of anti-federalism etc, so within certain limits deserve pity as much derision

libertarians from countries other than america are peculiarly hateful

idk if i'm willing to buy that distinction but it is interesting

let's take over the thread on this useless cunt to talk about the old right

a paleoconservative congressman from idaho vomitting all over their shoes in the restroom of a hooters has more dignity than frank turner could ever even aspire to

jeez ithappens give credit where it's due, what this board needs is dozens of frank turner acolytes.

this guy is a remarkable all-time tool.

If they turn up even the most mild-mannered posters would be zinging them.

For example, the BNP are a hard left party. For example, the BNP are a hard left party. For example, the BNP are a hard left party. For example, the BNP are a hard left party.

Norman Tebbit tried a few times in the past few years to promote that line.

They should lock this guy and Bobby Gillespie in a room with a shitload of booze and record what happens.

and MIA

And Nicki Minaj.

And Hinder

frank turner would probably try to sodomize bobby gillespie with a vodka bottle

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Turner replies: http://frank-turner.com/blog/2012/09/schmolitics/

Checking his "following" list was quite good fun, BTW. James Delingpole! Toby Young! Guido Fawkes!

Turner replies: http://frank-turner.com/blog/2012/09/schmolitics/

"I don’t consider myself “right wing” either."

Right, yeah, no idea where people got this idea from, apart from you saying "I consider myself to be pretty right wing" in an interview that one time.

today has fucking sucked, actually

i cried a little bit

I wonder about people who pick up the BNP policy document and say "yes yes all that, but what are their economic policies like?", I mean, who cares?

also:

http://images.45cat.com/shakin-stevens-cry-just-a-little-bit-epic-2.jpg

Chris T-T is friends with this douche? Many sadfaces.

labelmates and I think sometimes bandmates as well

Likewise it confounds me that someone like Billy Bragg would want to associate with this guy....

It's one thing to be outspoken about politics as a musician or minor figure. Also to explicitly incorporate that message into your music under the guise of a ragged "man of the people" despite this image representing roughly the antithesis of what you're all about. It's another thing entirely to write a butthurt missive that backtracks on a number of points with the excuse that you were "running your mouth" off.

Like it or not, if your name is synonymous with political music*, and you go around posing as a grassroots freedom-fighting philanthropist**, and then you start spouting idiotic nonsense explicitly denoting your neolibertarian rightwing allegiances (whilst hypocritically slagging off Blair's regime which has more in common with your fucked up viewpoint than you seem to give it credit for)***, don't expect any sympathy from anyone who might have once thought you were actually a decent, well informed, benevolent chap who makes decent music****. Crying it off and saying your music isn't supposed to be political and you aren't rightwing and you weren't thinking properly when you said that stuff about the BNP is an even bigger load of toss.

*which it is
**which you do
***which you did
****which you aren't and never have been.

tbf it took dedicated shit-talkers who sit on the internet all day nearly three years to discover a smoking gun wrt this guy's political leanings, so I'm not sure what intimate knowledge you expect Billy Bragg to have

also I kind of feel like this kind of under the guise of a ragged "man of the people" and posing as a grassroots freedom-fighting philanthropist rhetoric is p unhelpful if you're trying to construct a serious point and not just doing drive-by zings

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-K2LtSuD5VDQ/TfxE_YOzMbI/AAAAAAAACxo/4w0Du7SMrfg/s1600/bobrobertscover.jpg

JoshuaHelmer

5 September 2012 2:23PM
Response to brian68, 5 September 2012 1:59PM

This might not mean a huge amount as its anecdotal but about 5 years ago my friend interviewed him for university radio and I sat in the room and listened in. He turned up in a battered van with just his band mates in tow (so quite obviously wasn't drawing from his priveleged background) and proceeded to have a very open and honest discussion with my friend for about 45 mins.

I can safely say that Frank Turner is the most intimidatingly intelligent man I have personally ever met. He's completely humble and down to earth too and has worked his butt off to get where he is today. He is literally one of the hardest working musicians in the world

I can safely say that Frank Turner is the most intimidatingly intelligent man I have personally ever met.

Perhaps more accurate than he knows.

literally working really, really hard on his terrible, terrible records.

I dream of owning a battered van. And having mates.

but will he ever live like, um..

i know my use of "Git" was controversial, me being american and all, but i feel vindicated

Turner's bass player is one Tarrant Anderson, from Oxford. One Tarrant Anderson won 343 votes as the Conservative party candidate for Headlington ward in the 2004 Oxford City Council elections. I do not know if they are the same person.

i was gonna ask how many tarrant andersons could there be, but then...

also paul weller was in the jam and this fuckstain is some kinda prep school fake working class Sir Punklesworth Cougar Mellencamp III who writes godawful music

^ enjoyed this

Based in Oxfordshire? Could be 'closely related' but apart from that:

re:Tarrant Anderson
He is also a director of the tour bus hire company Vans For Bands Ltd

Battered Vans a speciality...

i know my use of "Git" was controversial, me being american and all, but i feel vindicated

― Jandek at the Disco (upper mississippi sh@kedown),

I think it should be changed from git to cunt, me being Scottish and all, but I feel it will be vindicated.

Twitter exchange after Steven Adams of Broken Family Band/Singing Adams asked Tarrant Anderson if he was the former Tory candidate.

@singingadams yup I stood as a paper candidate while researching a thesis on party organisational reform. What of it?

@_sleepingsouls oh I get it, you weren't a serious conservative party candidate, it was for a homework project.

@singingadams MPhil in Politics thesis. In the Bodlian Library in Oxford if you want something to send you to sleep

that doesn't sound like complete bullshit at all

i'm sure he did get a thesis out of it. but paper candidates are still put up by the actual party. i suspect they don't invite people doing theses to just fill the slots.

Did I ever tell you about the time my Dad stood as a paper candidate for Labour and accidentally served 2 terms?

Yeah, you have to be a party member to stand, and also be "in" with local party organisation. Standing in the first place hardly something that happens to you by chance.

What I don't understand is why these gits are being so evasive about it. Being a Tory or a Libertarian nitwit is not a crime (yet) but I guess evading and dissembling are good old fashioned Tory values they are intent on emulating.

oh god my friends from an old message board who love, like, the get-up kids/fun. in 2008/cursive/streetlight/that band with the civil war album/childish gambino love this dude. i always thought he just did harmless poppy folk punk. i was so wrong

I just listened to that song for the first time.

*stabs ears with pencil*
*throws away entire music collection*

*gets real*

ookej... frank turner and luke turner are not the same person, then.

They're pretty much the opposite of each other

everything about this is so disgusting

Was wondering when Mr. Bragg would say something:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/08/frank-turner-political-post-ideological-culture

yeah, that felt inevitable

tbh his don't seem like the kind of statements that require this guy to be slandered & libelled and so on. soft tories who haven't thought about much are people who also exist!

eh he seems like someone who's thought about a lot and come to many very stupid conclusions.

thought about it a lot and doesn't come to the same conclusion as ilxors

Yeah, I'm sorry, this isn't an innocent young kid who hasn't thought about shit. He's 31 years old FFS. If he has thought about it and come to these stupid conclusions, he's an idiot. If he hasn't thought his positions through, he should be old enough to realise that he shouldn't be speaking about them in public. Otherwise he's an idiot.

And what he said absolutely does not amount to saying there's no difference between Labour and the Tories. Labour haven't had any Socialist leanings for a very very long time. A 31 year old who talks about politics should be able to understand that. Fuck, a ten year old who talks about politics should be able to understand that.

And pandemic, there's an awful lot of stuff he's said that is rampantly deficient in facts - it isn't just a difference of opinion.

ya i dunno that ilxors are alone in being opposed to blinkeredly and stridently cack-handed libertarianism.

ilxors hate radicalism

One of the problems is that for someone whose stated concern is individual liberty is the way he used words used to diminish individual so casually - "retarded". And in this YouTube vid at 5:25 he calls Gordon Brown a "stupid Scottish one-eyed bleating illiterate socialist cunt". He's entitled to despise Brown, but "one-eyed"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntqydh5EaN4&feature=youtu.be

turnerian anarchism is a bit too much for we squares it's troo.

Dunno where that video has gone. Try here.

This thread desperately needs random Frank Turner googlers.

plz bring us your insights, westillbelieve262

I don't know how much there is for random googlers to get their teeth into. He doesn't really deny the political position that he's coming from and it's such an odd viewpoint in the UK i'm not sure how comfortable his fanbase is in defending it. Most of the responses i've seen are just "it's not fair to judge him because he disagrees with you".

I've just been through several pages of Googling "frank turner" and this doesn't come up.

he's thirty-one? oh wait

yeah it's the way he applies this quintessentially american ideology to an old class-bound european society because now he makes cash his essential venality requires a rigid defence of property rights but simply being a conservative is anathema, so the polarity switches from ~radical~ socialism to ~radical libertarianism~

nb i am not sure if i have ever heard this wateman's music, unless i clicked on one of the embeds upthread and have thankfully forgotten it

Frank Turner reminds me very much of my first boyfriend Henry. We met at a student party; everyone else was getting drunk and dancing but he was simply sitting on the stairs strumming an acoustic guitar looking into the middle distance like some very lost soul. He was gently singing a song called What the thunder said which he told me was inspired by The Wasteland and when he sang it was like time stopped. I think what Henry and Frank both have in common is an ability to give a voice to the unspoken and to speak for a generation. Both are literate and understand the likes of Chaucer, Kyd and Marvell but both can also relate to the man in the street; after a date with myself Henry once spent nearly 10 minutes talking to a homeless man on Coldharbour Lane. Give praise that people like Frank, Mumford and Sons and Emmy the Great even exist today and bless us with their music.

otm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvR6d08L3nc&

omg

not to detract from that amazing artifact but at what point are we as a society going to stop acting like conversing with homeless people is the height of compassion

brb going to talk to a homeless person about kyd

It probably wasn't 10 minutes talking to a homeless person. It was 10 minutes talking at a homeless person. About Ayn Rand.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/british-folksinger-frank-turner-on-why-he-hates-jo,86178/

Hate to say, but he doesn't come across as a complete and utter total cunt in that interview. Mind you, he isn't talking politics so maybe that's why.

hoped this was just gonna be about how he hates someone called Jo

standard issue challops. or "challops".

feel like you could probably reconstruct that interview nearly sentence-for-sentence from old ILM posts

I hate Imagine too and dog latin and Mencap p much otm, but still

a certain strain of material disdain that can only result from being really fucking rich, which is intensely patronizing

a guy who sings "imagine no possessions" while having a room full of fur coats vs an Eton-alumnus "rock star" who thinks the state shouldn't fund anything for anyone, because if they can't afford to get anything they want or need the good old capitalist way then it must be entirely due to their own personal failings

I was going to say "one of these worldviews is doing more damage" but no, buying real fur by the roomful is shitty and really fucking damaging - but Turner says he has "no problem with the man collecting fur coats. Whatever floats your boat" so I mean if FT sees the fur coats just as "owning stuff" then my point (albeit not a very interesting or well-put one) stands

Great news!

Frank Turner has released an intimate new documentary charting his incredible personal journey from erstwhile frontman of seminal UK punk group Million Dead to internationally recognised solo artist. Directed by Gregory Nolan, and told in Frank’s own words, ‘The Way I Tend To Be’ offers fans an insight into the formative years of one of the UK’s leading musicians.

Amidst previously unseen footage, Frank explains his beginnings from his first hardcore band Kneejerk, to being front man for UK punk iconoclasts Million Dead and their anarchic and energetic live shows, also talking at length about the burnout that eventually steered him to become a solo artist. From humble beginnings and extensive touring of the UK, Frank’s burgeoning talents as a solo writer and performer began to resonate with a small but fervent fan base, but breakout success followed in the wake of a string of critically acclaimed albums, resulting in a recent 12 month period in which Frank headlined a sold-out Wembley Arena show and performed by invitation of Danny Boyle at the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony.

Currently on tour in Australasia with a sold out run of UK dates to follow in April ‘The Way I Tend To Be’ is an insightful and arresting documentary for new and diehard fans alike.

This fucking guy and his raggle taggle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2X9wel01kE

"Nevermind Owt"

I was hoping he had something interesting to say about Thatcher

what, like "she was great but not really right wing enough for me?"

seminal UK punk group Million Dead

lmao

thread title still gives me enjoyment and lols when it shows up

He's so real, you guys, he's definitely part of the New Authentic movement (Lumineers, Mumford, Of Monsters and Men, et al)

But where can we buy the suitable trousers?

He already has a song called 'Thatcher Fucked the Kids', general gist seems to be 'working-class children are awful'.

how would he know? not like he went to school with any

Ooh, ooh, I have found the trousers!

http://rusticauthentics.tumblr.com/

"an artisan lifestyle brand" ffs

Genuinely can't tell if that's a pisstake or not. Admirably straightfaced if it is.

I was hoping he had something interesting to say about Thatcher

― g simmel, Friday, 12 April 2013 11:52 (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

My experience of politics in public has been universally sh*tty – being inundated by tidal waves of ignorance and hatred. So I have no interest at all in getting involved in that discussion, thanks.

xp yeah that's some smartarses who've nailed the tone I think

Finally, there’s been some commentary on your political beliefs in the past – where do you stand on Maggie Thatcher?

My experience of politics in public has been universally sh*tty [PEOPLE DON'T AGREE WITH ME] – being inundated by tidal waves of ignorance and hatred [PEOPLE WHO DON'T AGREE WITH ME ARE STUPID]. So I have no interest at all in getting involved in that discussion, thanks [PEOPLE WHO BUY MY RECORDS MIGHT BECOME AWARE THEY DON'T AGREE WITH ME AND STOP BUYING MY RECORDS].

must've been weird finding out people disagreed with his politics, i bet it never happened to him at school

http://authenticmovementcommunity.org/

i love it when i find out about new things

http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/music/its-a-punkfolk-thing-frank-turner-interview-8569713.html

Frank's had "FREE BORN" tattooed on his knuckles! Bless!

PRIVATELY EDUCATED wouldn't fit

lol

And the Manchester Evening News:

"Who wants to be that old guy in the corner of the pub telling the story of how he almost played the Olympics Opening Ceremony?”

But, Frank, who wants to be the libertarian sitting in the corner of the pub telling how he backtracked on his assertion that state funding of arts is oppression in order to play the biggest state funded arts event we've ever hosted?

Frank's had "FREE BORN" tattooed on his knuckles! Bless!

I liked that movie with the lions too

(is this a "sovereign rights" nutter buzzword?)

Sorry, these guys:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_citizen_movement

Gotta get their name right, doing otherwise is clearly taking advantage of a legal loophole to discredit them

i love those guys, i dream of running into people like that in the wild one day

of course when you do you want to run away after about 30 seconds but

UK members of the Sovereign Citizen Movement: Lester Pigott, Lord Ashcroft, Jimmy Carr, Gary Barlow.

I've had to speak to some 'freeman' people. It was kinda lol but mostly sad - most of them seemed to have other mental issues going on.

This fucking guy. I despair for the human race sometimes *weeps bitterly*

Frank Turner Reviews The Singles
"It made me want to stab myself in the face..."

http://www.clashmusic.com/features/frank-turner-reviews-the-singles">=http://www.clashmusic.com/features/frank-turner-reviews-the-singles

The fact that he didn't is a grave disappointment.

Ha I recently had my hair cut by one of the guys from Arches. He was telling me about his band then, and this is the first time I've seen them mentioned elsewhere. What a load of shite! He does a good haircut though.

I soooo want to bag on this asshat on fb, but I have a friend who's an "I've tattooed his lyrics on my body!"-level fan and she'd probably unfriend me and lose my number if I did that. He's just such a rich target, though! In the grand scheme, WGAF about Frank Turner, but it pains me not to go in on this clown whenever I want.

which Frank Turner lyrics does she have tattooed on her body

"Love is about all the changes you make and not just three small words."

:/

could be worse tbh

https://www.facebook.com/FrankTurnerTattoos/photos_stream

Does he rhyme it with "turds", "birds" or "girds"?

GOOD GAWD

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a6/e9/74/a6e974df1299ae8d54ddc04e7684d93c.jpg

nightmarez

I'm gonna pretend that all those "I Still Believe" tats are for Tim Cappello.

"...three small words."

Fuck off cunt

"Nashville Tennessee"

From the heart of the Southern Downs, to the North-East London reservoirs,
From the start, the land scaped my sound, before I'd ever been to America.

And if I knew anybody who played pedal steel guitar,
I'd get them in my band and then my band would get real far,
But I was raised in middle England, and not in Nashville Tennessee,
And the only person in my band is me.

A simple scale on an old guitar, and a punk rock sense of honesty.
I cannot fail, I've got this far with no knowledge of mid-west geography.

And if I knew anywhere where I could drive in a straight line
For hours in the desert, I'd drive for hours at a time.
But I was raised in middle England, not in Nashville Tennessee,
And the only person in this car is me.

And yes I'm in four-four time, and yes I use cheap cheap rhymes,
But I try to make a sound my own.
I know I don't break new ground, many have travelled this sound,
But I try to make it sound like home.

Well I've been to Texas state, I didn't think it was that fucking great,
And Nebraska is just a bunch of songs,
Holloway and Hampshire where I belong.
And I don't know anybody who plays pedal steel guitar,
All the city roads are twisted and I do not own a car.
I was raised in middle England, not in Nashville Tennessee,
And the only thing I'm offering is me.

Richie, please.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x72GyoWs3r8

Can't I just spend the next four years at a punk show?
I want to spend the next four years in the front row
Because if the world outside is going to shit
Then you will find me in the centre of the circle pit
I'm going to spend the next four years at a punk show

Can't I just spend the next four years getting wasted?
Maybe if I drink enough whisky shots I can face it
Because if we're welcoming in World War Three
Then I'm waving goodbye to my sobriety
I'm going to spend the next four years getting wasted

What do we do if they don't represent us?
What do we do, do, do?
I thought that we were winning the war against the homophobes and the racists
You can't be serious man, we can't be this fucked
Well I'm sorry, old friends, I guess it's time to suck it up
Don't go giving up now, here's what we do:

We can't just spend the next four years in a safe space
I'm going to spend the next four years getting outraged
So every single day let's find a brand new way
To let the motherfuckers know that we can't be swept away
I'm going to spend the next four years on the barricades

A change is going to come, and there's nothing to be done
A change is going to come, come, come:
The only thing to choose is to decide which way you're going to jump
So don't give into the hatred; don't give into the fear
Pour yourself a shot of anger to go with your beer

Let's be the sand in the gears for the next four years

wait shurely he got the governments he wanted?

who could have guessed that, of all the horrors of the last couple of weeks, it would be the reminder that frank turner exists that would push me over the edge into full-on existential crisis

everyone who wrote one of those "Trump being elected would actually be good in some ways because it will inspire some kick-ass protest music" hot takes should be forced to listen to this once a day for the next four years

lmao i had no idea there was a frank turner thread on ilx

his last record was very good

great song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB4Avdlz3lk

his last record was very good

this is utterly beyond the pale

lmao

that song is awful

back to the emo thread with me

lmao i had no idea there was a frank turner thread on ilx

Welcome to ILX's Frank Turner thread!

why is frank turner so bad and hated

i feel like this thread is a pretty good primer tbh but in brief

- privately-educated but presents as a horny-handed son of the soil
- that rarest and most ridiculous of things: a british libertarian
- his songs are fucking awful

his last record was very good

― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Thursday, 2 February 2017 13:08 (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Closest I've ever come to FPing for something as innocuous as an opinion on music tbh

lol i would luv 2 be banned for enjoying a few frank turner songs

tbh if it wasn't Brad I'd've pulled the trigger

wonderful non-git John K. Samson's only tour date here was opening for Turner and it was such a bummer.

Classic thread made doubly classic by Brad's late entry into it.

every time i've only just forgotten about the existence of rockist git frank turner this thread gets bumped ;_;

this thread reminds me how good Billy Bragg is.

saw Jason Isbell in Oakland on Friday night...opening act none other than Frank :/

the crowd was super into his nonsense but i could not stand him. it was like if a shitty magician became a singer in a Kiss coverband, it was veering deeply into Paul Stanley parody territory
(I NEED A VOLUNTEER FROM THE AUDIENCE TO PLAY HARMONICA)
(EVERYBODY CLAP YOUR HANDS) (
EVERYBODY SING LIKE THIS: OOOOOOHHH)
(THE CROWD IN MONTANA SANG WAY LOUDER THAN YOU GUYS, I THOUGHT OAKLAND COULD DO BETTER)
All this endless interactive nonsense, it was maddening
Just fuckin sing your shit and if we like it then maybe we'll fuckin clap how about that

and i have always found it super annoying when the opening act comes out & plays like they're the headliner.

doesn't sound very libertarian

he's moved on to the nuremburg rally phase of his career

The Quietus posed the questions to Albini w/r/t to FT

Are you aware of Frank Turner's version?

SA: I don't know who Frank Turner is.

He's a sort of libertarian Billy Bragg figure from Hampshire with a fashionable beard.

SA: That sounds horrible. I like the actual socialist Billy Bragg. What's his name? I'm going to Google this fucker after we're done. However bad it is, whatever cringing I have to do when this is over, it's on you.

He introduces his version by saying how much the song chimed with his own "situation in life" which makes you wonder if he's one of those dudes who's maybe not getting it.


SA: Everything you've said to me makes me think I want this guy to jump in well but I haven't actually heard his music and I'm not familiar with him so I'm going to maintain the indifference of ignorance for now.

i take some small measure of solace in imagining frank being crushed by albini's pre-emptive dismissal

iirc some punter got mad at me for using the word git in this thread title

lol waht

iirc some punter got mad at me for using the word git in this thread title

― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, September 18, 2017 11:57 AM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"Oi mate that's our word you best be keppin outcha gob right? As you were."

Classic thread made doubly classic by Brad's late entry into it.

― The Doug Walters of Crime (Tom D.), Monday, September 18, 2017 2:53 AM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you're welcome

found this in the billy bragg guardian article linked upthread

[quote]Frank Turner reminds me very much of my first boyfriend Henry. We met at a student party; everyone else was getting drunk and dancing but he was simply sitting on the stairs strumming an acoustic guitar looking into the middle distance like some very lost soul. He was gently singing a song called What the thunder said which he told me was inspired by The Wasteland and when he sang it was like time stopped. I think what Henry and Frank both have in common is an ability to give a voice to the unspoken and to speak for a generation. Both are literate and understand the likes of Chaucer, Kyd and Marvell but both can also relate to the man in the street; after a date with myself Henry once spent nearly 10 minutes talking to a homeless man on Coldharbour Lane. Give praise that people like Frank, Mumford and Sons and Emmy the Great even exist today and bless us with their music.[/quote]

ysi?

just remembered, quite unprompted, that this guy existed and frankly it's ruined my weeked

Dead? No.

Now a published author...

https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9781/4722/9781472257857.jpg

The brand new memoir from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Road Beneath My Feet.

Taking 36 songs from his back catalogue, folk-punk icon Frank Turner explores his songwriting process. Find out the stories behind the songs forged in the hedonistic years of the mid-2000s North London scene, the ones perfected in Nashville studios, and everything in between. Some of these songs arrive fully-formed, as if they've always been there, some take graft and endless reworking to find 'the one'. In exploring them all, Turner reflects with eloquence, insight and self-deprecating wit on exactly what it is to be a songwriter.

From love songs and break-up songs to political calls-to-arms; songs composed alone in a hotel room or in soundcheck with the Sleeping Souls, this brilliantly written memoir - featuring exclusive photos of handwritten lyrics and more - is a must-have book for FT fans and anyone curious about how to write music.

... it is, of course, his second book.

who could have guessed that, of all the horrors of the last couple of weeks, it would be the reminder that frank turner exists that would push me over the edge into full-on existential crisis

― for sale: steve bannon waifu pillow (heavily soiled) (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 2 February 2017 10:46 (two years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the verdict is in on frank turner's live version of 'i still believe', folks

https://i.imgur.com/OXoD79Y.jpg

checks out

user sirgreendown pegged this eight years ago

I STILL BELIEVE...in music not made by black folks or people with vaginas.
― SirGreendown, Friday, October 21, 2011 12:43 AM (seven years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

_ who could have guessed that, of all the horrors of the last couple of weeks, it would be the reminder that frank turner exists that would push me over the edge into full-on existential crisis

― for sale: steve bannon waifu pillow (heavily soiled) (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 2 February 2017 10:46 (two years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink_

sorry about that