vale mr bailey, maybe you werent such a tosser

many moons ago

i saw chris bailey solo

supporting the spectacular johnette napolitano

i was pretty excited about the gig

johnette is a fucking legend

making staggeringly good music with concrete blonde

and then plenty of quality solo albums

and chris bailey was the lead singer of the fucking saints!

sure i hadnt heard much of the later saints stuff

since the mind blowing early punk stuff with the original band

including godlike ed kuepper

but the saints were a big fucking deal

releasing punk records before the sex pistols 

and the same year as the ramones

sadly 

as they didnt come from engerland or murica

they didnt get the credit they deserved

they came from backwards sweaty police state of queensland ostraya

but they were punks from the start

so i was pretty excited to see chris bailey too

unfortunately

he came on stage and wanked on about how cool he was

about how cultured he was

how nobody in the crowd could possibly understand his 'oh so sophisticated ouevre'

he was an obnoxious pompous arse

which further highlighted by johnette

who was graceful, humble and gorgeously self deprecating

the thing is 

he might well have been correct

what he achieved was truly significant

and under appreciated in much of the world

but there no was need to be a twat about it!

i was solidly convaincu

chris bailey equals tosser!

cmq

after his recent death

i heard a long form interview with him

on the radio baby

and he was eloquent, funny and barely up his own back passage

(considering his considerable role in music history)

now hes gone

and another long held certainty is gone with him