Guardian Unlimited Slates Ham Sandwich
A blithe take on Ham Sandwich’s Meteor Award win in the Guardian Unlimited music news.
Cheers Sean! You almost had me with the boy-band sentiment. What a travesty that eight years on, lonely spinsters haven’t let go of their plush teddies and fondness for premium-rate competitions and continue to vote for turgid shite as the nation’s favourite.
Yet, the horizon, a glimmer of hope! A motley bunch of hairy, glamorous jammers from a country town producing sounds fit for the Fillmore beat Sony’s golden boy to scoop a trophy recognising years of dedication and belief…the second trophy in their hands that day, may I add, as the release of their debut album Carry The Meek coincided with the Meteor Awards.
Ham Sandwich are not a boring band. I could write you a bio about their hard-won success, Podge’s karaoke lifestyle, their rambling school in Kells, effortless talent and showmanship washing them ashore from a sea of creativity surrounding Ireland’s music in 2008 but don’t need to: that reputation becomes clear to anyone who comes looking.
That Sean Michaels couldn’t be bothered to research the band is blatantly obvious but nonethless understandable. I don’t have time to follow every MySpace link passed my way. However in those cases I avoid unwarranted bitching and hedge my bets. What exactly was Mr Michaels’ point in dismissing this band in one fell swoop on the rather superficial basis of band name?
Considering the article’s initial despair at the outcome of the awards it would have been a wise move to at least give Ham Sandwich benefit of the doubt, if not a listen to discern whether the relevant cycle of manufactured pap was set to repeat.
I find it an absolute disgrace that a music journalist providing a rare window of UK coverage should so flippantly dismiss the efforts of a band and new breed of voting public for the sake of a weak joke. If the punchline was original it may have been forgivable but I’m afraid in this case we saw a chronic case of lazy journalism and to be honest, I expected better from the Guardian.
February 21st, 2008 at 9:49 am
the link at the start doesn’t go anywhere
February 21st, 2008 at 10:40 am
Yeah, the link is for the contacts page. And I did a search of the Guardian unlimited website for Ham Sandwich and couldn’t find anything… maybe they’ve taken it down in shame…
February 21st, 2008 at 10:48 am
Cheers for pointing that out! It’s all fixed now!
February 21st, 2008 at 11:25 am
He’s right about westlife, but the man really doesn’t have a clue what he’s saying about ham sandwich, the album might not hit you straight away(i haven’t had a chance to get it yet) but if he’d seen them live he’d know that they’re going places and have serious potential. Its hard to judge these things from afar and he’s just shown how wrong you can be when you try to.
February 21st, 2008 at 11:48 am
Exactly! You could forgive such transgressions if he had 75 word news brief in the actual paper and was limited by space constraints. I just don’t see how that can be excusable in the freedom of internet publication, where space is never a problem.
His ignorance is appalling. At the very least the band’s name piques the curiosity and gives insight to the not-Westlife origin and stylings of the band…
February 21st, 2008 at 12:11 pm
In fairness, Ham Sandwich is a terrible, terrible name for any band, though I’d imagine their reason for sticking with it is precisely because it will get them more column inches as people like journos like Sean will think it easy of a quick mention/laugh.
And as a band, its hard to see Ham Sandwich doing anything other than a few sold out shows in Whelans in the next year, so he may have a point about them not being a great “Hope” for 2008. Having said that, I’ve not heard the album, only read reviews of it and seen them enough times live to suggest they’re nothing particularly musically interesting, even if yer man trys to dress like a twit to make up for it.
February 21st, 2008 at 12:14 pm
hmmmm…. i would have loved to sent him a message
February 21st, 2008 at 12:22 pm
I think the point of the dodgepot name is to examplify that in the long run, names are merely handles and shed no light on the quality of the music.
I like Ham Sandwich and think the new album’s decent. It won’t set the world alight but I appreciate the ground they’ve covered in merging genres and knitting idea with influence (Smashing Pumpkins) to bring about their own friendly, playable format. The main point here is that they’re polarised from crap like Westlife and Michaels’ original slant on the article was Ireland’s “appetite for manufactured pop”.
I’m not gonna go into the clothes issue. That’s as bad as dissin’ on names!
February 21st, 2008 at 12:22 pm
LOL, Leigh, I did! That’s how you ended up on the contacts’ page :p
February 21st, 2008 at 3:39 pm
He was clearly being ironic when he said “Boyzone (currently on a reunion tour) were on hand to ensure that no Irishman’s appetite for manufactured pop went unsated.”
plus maybe he just doesn’t like Ham Sandwich. Some people probably care about as little for Irish indie as they do for Westlife. not that shocking.
February 21st, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Which is of course fine. No one’s demanding that he like the bands he writes about.
Didn’t sound as if he had a clue who they were or what they do, which is why I think it’s cheeky to dismiss them on the shallow basis of their name.
February 21st, 2008 at 4:11 pm
anyone here up for watching john and nay fight it out in the ring??? i’ll get the popcorn…
February 21st, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Behave, Leighton…John’s a delightful chap, allergic to popcorn tho don’tcha know!
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:30 pm
is it just me, or is it weird that he said nothing about Duke Special, Cathy Davey or to a lesser degree Paddy Casey?
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:35 pm
*nods*
I thought so…for all the Boyzone and Westlife the Meteors weren’t exactly the Smash Hit Awards. It wouldn’t be difficult to find something decent in the other winners, if only to regain some equilibrium. but he seemed intent on a negative slant.
Prat. The Guardian should send him to HWCH08…
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:48 pm
“…Prat. The Guardian should send him to HWCH08…”
are you sure that’s wise..? i can imagine the bullshit detector going off the scale
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Bullshit in Dublin? You must be confusing us with a different music scene…
March 12th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
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