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A QUICK DISS OF MY HOME COUNTRY IT'S always easier to figure out what you don't like than what you do, so . . . The new breed of Camden-based, heroin-obsessed UK bands; the drunks and the bullies, the loafers and the boorish; the men the men the men; okay albums being hyped out of all proportion cos that's what the UK music press thrives on; Q and Vox and (the well-written) Mojo and all those titles for dead people to read in their two-up, two-down coffins; Select - the Hello! of the British indie world; MTV Europe with its complete lack of imagination and not quite complete control - thanks to the much-maligned UK music press; the homegrown grunge bands, especially Bush . . . Artists who are continually encouraged to recycle the past (hello, Suede, Pulp, Blur, Gene, Elastica and the rest of the fucking country) by the press because that's what they feel most comfortable with; critics who only listen to music being made by people who share the exact same white middle-class backgrounds and reference points as themselves; Sleeper; Marion; PJ And Duncan; Ned's Atomic Dustbin, obviously; the weather, the royal family; everyone who ever listened to and enjoyed R.E.M. or Genesis . . . Get rid of all these and then - and only then - might the UK have a reasonable chance of discovering rock utopia |