Ben Elton, Rik Mayal, Lise Mayer, "Bachelor Boys � The Young Ones Book"
Sometime about a year and a half ago Fishbone was playing down the street from my house. I got very excited about it, as I hadn�t had a chance to see them in a long, long time. Frankly I didn�t know they were still around. After years of releasing bad albums I thought they might have hung up their hats for good.
So I started bouncing around the walls all day waiting for the show, blasting their old records. My roommates asked me what the hell I thought I was doing, jumping around like a goof, listening to Fishbone. I continued bouncing, screaming over the stereo about how they were playing right down the street that night.
Alan, instead of getting excited, told me about how bad the band sucked the last time he saw them play. I didn�t believe him. I have never seen a bad Fishbone show. Never. And I�ve probably seen them around eight times. Fishbone has always been equated with fun times in my life. I set a personal record for the number of stage dives in one night (19) at a Fishbone show.
Back when I was 16, Brian Snapp and I would drink by the railroad tracks before going to One Step Beyond on their dance nights and request Fishbone, knowing that was a closest they would get to playing a punk song in-between their death rock playlist. (And they still wouldn�t play it until we started screaming �FISHBONE!� whenever there was a break between songs.) Two of my friends played Fishbone at their weddings and we skanked all over the place in our suits and tuxedos. (By the way, both of these guys have missed the last two Fishbone shows I went to � one more time and you�re outta the gang.)
When it was time to leave, I suppose my enthusiasm caught hold of my roommates, as they went with me. And the show was fantastic. I felt vindicated.
Anyhoo, Fishbone played last Friday, at the same place. They had played a couple of times in-between that last great show, but they were charging over 15 bucks for those appearances for some reason. I mean yes, I love Fishbone, but that doesn�t make me a sucker! But they finally brought the price down to a semi-reasonable ten bucks, so I played old Fishbone records all night and jumped around my room until it was time to go to the show.
And they sucked.
Really fucking sucked.
The band that usually jumped around more than me in my room stood in one place looking bored for the most part. They played mostly new stuff, and as I said, they haven�t put out a good album in years. Frankly, I don�t mind them playing new stuff. Bands that try and live only off old material can become a joke pretty quickly.
But if you�re going to play new songs, then you should try to make sure that the songs are good! These were not good. Worse, when they did play older songs, they played a lot of the ones I didn�t really like such as �Freddy�s Dead,� and �Alcoholic.� Even worse, most of the people I would normally see at a Fishbone show were either at Cactus Club, probably because they wanted to say goodbye to yet another crappy club, or they were at another show down the street. So, even even worse, that left nothing but fratboys who went to see Fishbone that night.
I finally pushed myself past the crowd making my way to the front, took a look at their set list, found nothing worth sticking around for, and left.
The Young Ones are also something I cherish. Did you know that despite the show being 20 years old and only airing 12 episodes, it�s still being shown on British television? Well, now you know. And knowing is half the battle! I have all the makings for my Vyvian costume, which I�ve used for three years now at Halloween and when I�m suiting up, I play the videos and jump all over the room.
Dean in his Vyvian costume at Halloween. (Note the very "punk rock" sullen expression, which says "I despise your middle-class values and would like to get very drunk and put my fists and boots through things.")
So back to the fucking book. After all this nostalgia, I read this last night. And it didn�t suck, but it wasn�t exactly good either. I�m just glad the show ended when it did, and I hope there aren�t a lot of these tie-ins around. The fact that they let something like this get released says to me that they eventually would have gone to shit if they continued.
Though it may not be too late. After all, it took 16 years before the Dead Kennedys disappointed me. Maybe it won�t be too long before we see a broadcast of The Young Ones Christmas Reunion Special.
Though if they did make one, you know I�d watch it.
