Welcome to The Rodeo

“Dad what was indie like when you were young?”

“Ee lass, indie were vibrant, fresh, different and so dangerous them telly shows wouldn’t touch it wi a line prop”

“But Dad, surely not all of it was great, not all of it was vibrant, fresh, different and dangerous, some of it must have been shit? and why are you speaking in a Yorkshire accent?”

Today’s commute CD is the Blessed Ethel album, Welcome To The Rodeo. An album released in 1995 and one that is owned by my wife. Bought as a result of her enjoying a single of theirs called 2 Minute Mind, a rather splendid couple of minutes of fiery hard rocking. That single isn’t on this album.
My wife introduced me to this band on the very first night she ever allowed me back to her house, she played me 2 Minute Mind and a single by Kinky Machine, she had a thing for Kinky Machine, but I really quite enjoyed 2 Minute Mind, I thought it was pretty good, but maybe I was being polite as I wanted to kiss her. Time has shown me I didn’t need to be polite.
As a result of her enthusiasm for that single we picked up this album in some second hand shop, someone somewhere decided that they had had enough of this album and so passed it on to a charity or second hand shop where it could happily rub shoulders with the likes of Foster and Allen or Stacka Bo.
So what’s is it like? It starts off rather promisingly, in a generic Britpop kind of way, Sleeper is the most obvious influence, at least on track 1, Pullman Car to Venus, its not entirely offensive, but then, and pretty much from then on in, it is absolutely f**king awful, its depressingly bad and you wonder if there is a hidden track, entirely silent as it is only the producer shaking his head at the thought that he will never work in this town again. Not this town, as this town is Stafford and Greggs are always recruiting.
The reason for its awfulness is that it is a very bad example of its time, it is totally of its time and they, Blessed Ethel, chose to absorb the very bad examples of Britpop, the very bad examples of girl fronted rock and the very bad examples of popular indie, this combination results in a third rate bottom of the bill indie band peddling a dreadful album.
On that note, its Friday and so a rather generous 1 out of 10, as I can’t give halves.



Veronica by Blessed Ethel