Scritti Politti Birmingham Academy 18th Nov

Green Gartside may be effectively Scritti Politti but he’s not exactly prolific (he’s only released 5 albums)…or a frequent live performer. The gig at Birmingham Academy last week was on (or so he had been told by a member of the audience) the 28th anniversary of their first gig. But as he also said “We haven’t really done a tour before ….our last one was with Joy Division, Gang of 4 and Echo and the Bunnymen.”

I’d been a big fan of their early squat rockin' reggae songs like Skank Bloc Bologna and Messthetics. The trio of Rough trade singles, The Sweetest Girl, Faithless and Asylums in Jerusalem, were clever, ambitious, beautifully sung and wrapped in covers that played with consumerism and design. Either that or they just ripped off the designs for Courvoisier brandy, Dunhill cigs and Eau Sauvage.

The lp Songs To Remember came out in 82, complete with alternative versions of the Rough Trade singles, their b-sides, and a handful of new songs. Getting, Havin’ and Holdin’ contains the lyrics that Wet Wet Wet took their name from. Less controversially it takes Percy Sledges opening lyric and adds a cynical twist, “When a man loves a woman he is happy…Maybe”. Green’s song Jacques Derrida, (yes there really aren’t enough songwriters working within the field of Philosophy, Marxism and girls) has a great line “I was like an industry, depressed and in decline”.

A classic Green dilemma was during the recording of She’s A Woman. It’s a plasticized, synth driven Beatles cover done by a girly voiced unreconstructed Welsh Marxist ex art student Deconstructionist Philosopher and the less than liberal Jamaican Dancehall star Shabba Ranks. Green had done his bit, Shabba was doing his…. but Green had to ponder and consider exactly what meaning Shabba brought to the song when he sang “Love up your woman now”

I didn’t like the sound of the songs after the first album, and still don’t like the production of the hits like Wood Beez (Pray like Aretha Franklin), Absolute and The Word Girl. I still liked the way that he thought about Pop music though, so I’d read the interviews rather than listen to the records. I missed the original band’s gorgeous Pop Soul. I think he still had the touch, the clever, original lyrics, and the understanding of the importance of Pop. But I couldn’t get past the sound. Sorry Green, it’s not you it’s me.

I do really like the new album White Bread, Black Beer though and was really excited about the prospect of seeing them. After all it had been a long wait. The audience at the Academy were definitely old enough to have been through all the incarnations of the band. Babysitting wasn’t an issue, as most of their kids would have grown up and left home.

They opened with Snow In Sun. They did play some older songs including The Sweetest Girl, Skank Bloc Bologna, The Word Girl and Wood Beez. The material was predominantly from the new album, which has a definite Pet Sounds/High Llamas orchestrated feel to it. It still sounds spontaneous as if it was written and recorded at home. Technology and the clever arrangements mean that he can play it live, whereas if he had toured 25 years ago, it wouldn’t have sounded this good, this professional (even when Brushed With Oil, Dusted with Powder collapsed) or this natural.

Green is now sporting a beard that seems to be more of a Black Hole and may in fact exert it’s own gravitational force. Apart from the necessary guitar, keyboards and drums (actually 2 kits, one drummer…he needed an electronic one for material like Wood Beez), the band line up included Dave (who played Keyboards, percussion and turned the pages for Green’s book of unlearned/forgotten lyrics) and Alyssa, henceforth fondly thought of as “Fox On Bass In Pet Sounds T Shirt.”

Robin Hood was introduced as a song about “The end of utopian socialism…. and girls. I think we’re all a bit ambivalent about the end of utopian socialism. I’m definitely less so about girls.” When a member of the audience pulled him up for referring to women as girls Green responded “Women… I Know...cut me some slack.”

In the early days he’d found playing live difficult and traumatic. The Gang of Four tour had ended after Green collapsed in the van with panic attacks in the days before the term “nervous exhaustion” became the publicly acceptable euphemism for “feeling a bit Pete Docherty.” Now he seemed genial and eager to talk after each song. So were the audience. When Green suggested we’d gone a bit quiet someone called out “It’s reverential awe.” I don’t think it’ll catch on as a terrace chant though.

Greens 1990’s were spent immersed in hip hop as shown by the 1999 album Anomie and Bonhomie. Like the Shabba Ranks “Love up your woman” moment the prospect of Green singing Jeru The Damaja and DJ Premiere’s Come Clean was tempting. “We’re really rockin’ some shit now”. He also did Hands Up which he’d recorded with Mad Skillz “Put your muthafuckin’ hands up”. The Philosophy years weren’t wasted after all. Another song segued into a snippet of LL Cool J’s Rock the Bells.

They finished with Petrococadollar. It’s a sparse, ghostly synth rumble of a song, reminiscent of Teardrop Explodes Tiny Children. After the polished pop and hip hop pop years it sounded great to hear him singing songs about love and self doubt using the language of economics (one of their early songs was called Opec Immac). No, there aren’t too many songwriters like Green Gartside

“You can bet your petrococadollar that I won’t remember
I’ve been in the market place since last July”

A brief encore and Green announced they really had to go, as “The Missus is sick.” I’ve heard better excuses but it didn’t matter, as I was still so pleased to have seen a gig that I’d been waiting 25 years for.