Geoffrey Oi!Cott – Carry On Oi!Cott (Boss Tuneage)
LP/CD
Out Now
There’s extra to Geoffrey Oi!Cott than cricket and Oi! on this tight punchy punk album filled with double entendres and a contact of nostalgia. Nathan Brown is a convert.
At first look Geoffrey Oi!cott would seem to exist within the cross-over a part of the venn diagram of people that like Oi! and individuals who like cricket. I like some Oi! (non fascist, non ploddy) however past smashing a tennis ball with a bat on the road once I was a child, cricket is simply not on my radar. For that reason I’ve by no means paid a lot consideration, regardless of realizing a few the band as seasoned Yorkshire punk scene veterans. I used to be mistaken. It really seems you don’t want to love cricket to get pleasure from what this bunch of weirdo yobbos end up.
The title, while an excellent pun – presumably a type of “down the pub” moments that begins as fun and results in a band – could have unnecessarily put individuals off. Oi!Cott play punk rock and while there are shades of Oi! of their sound it wouldn’t essentially be my go to except it had been for the title. Having stated that, Pink Alert spring to thoughts (alright, an Oi! band) and on Bus Fare House I couldn’t unhear the 4 Skins being channelled (okay, one other Oi! band). However there are some similarities to later period Angelic Upstarts (Mensi was emphatic that they had been a punk band not an Oi! band) together with Germany’s Oxymoron, Peter & The Take a look at Tube Infants and likewise The Ruts. The music is tight, punchy punk rock with the odd speedy foray into hardcore territory and loads of guitar melodies.
To steal a phrase from my fellow LTW author Ged Babey [link https://louderthanwar.com/77-spears-tears-for-spears-ep-review/], Oicott are “comedy punk with slapstick and greasepaint” or, extra to the purpose, comedy punk with bats and cricket whites. Oi!Cott’s inventory in commerce is double entendres, primarily genunine cricketeing and darts phrases. If I’m not mistaken “The Bowlers Holding, The Batsman’s Willey” was uttered for actual by a cricket commentator.
Pastiche is their area of interest. Simply check out the duvet. It’s a tackle the Carry On Oi! album from 1981 which itself has “saucy” finish of pier postcards as its supply. When the band play stay – together with appearances at Revolt in Blackpool, the ancestral residence of the saucy postcard – they gown in cricket whites. On the rear cowl, the place the unique had a map of Britain with arrows pointing to the situation of the bands they’ve cricket grounds. Oi!Cott are nothing if not constant! They even manged to get Gary Bushell to pose for a photograph with the document on social media when he gave the artwork work his OK. What’s refreshing is that whereas some bands’ thought of humour skirts near hate speech badged as “enjoyable”, Oi!Cott are genuinely amusing with out punching down at anybody. No thinly veiled racism or homophobia to be discovered right here.
It’s not all about sports activities, although. Chaos UK is a memory of rising up as youngsters within the 70s, affected by cultural references – akin to characters from Porridge, Humphreys (“Be careful be careful”), the Pistols look on Grundy. “That is how we grew up, enjoying on the streets” is the kind of dialog you might need down the pub. The music has a few of the complexity of Cunning of The Ruts on the guitar however there’s additionally a tribute to the 70s within the tune. There’s a rock’n’roll revival center 8 and the tune it veers into glam and I reckon there’s a tribute to The Conflict in there, though that might be the glam seeping by that influenced them. It’s a cracking tune.
Whereas Chaos OK is my most popular tune, Milf Oi deserves a particular point out as a double entendre laden ode to Milllefeuille (some bizarre cream cake factor). Somebody is clearly a fan of Bake Off . Given Steve Jones’ revelations about utilizing bakery merchandise as intercourse toys I ponder if that is simply an elaborate confession. What I discover notably amusing is the considered a few of the viewers at Revolt considering that is about Readers Wives for skinheads relatively than cream muffins. I discussed this to drummer ‘Jocky Wisden’ and he responded “Discover me one other punk tune with Creamy Ganache within the lyrics”. He’s obtained some extent!
Beamers made me snort too – my pet hate once I’m on the street. And I’m an lively advocate of claiming the C phrase as many instances as potential in a tune. A effective previous English phrase. They sing about beer too: Gimme Some Head and Yorkshire Blonde being completely harmless and never what your filthy minds thought. Bus Fare House ties all the things up because it closes the album managing to deliver collectively most of their obsessions in a tune about consuming (at a cricket match, natch) and darts (nicely, Bullseye).
I used to be genuinely shocked at how a lot I like this Oi!Cott album. I’m a convert however they’ll by no means convert me to cricket.
Geoffrey Oi!Cott are on Fb and the ablum could be purchased from their Large Cartel website
Additionally accessible from Boss Tuneage
~
Phrases by Nathan Brown. Try his Louder Than Conflict Creator Archive.
We now have a small favour to ask. Subscribe to Louder Than Conflict and assist hold the flame of unbiased music burning. Click on the button under to see the extras you get!
