I’ve always enjoyed a dose of dark & toilet humor – I
privately enjoyed reading Viz and listening to the Macc Lads ‘The Lads from
Macc’ CD when I was a youth. So when I saw Kunt & The Gang perform live at
Rebellion Festival it was hard not to enjoy it. It features the kind of lyrical
content that in the context of yesteryear, would fit right into those references,
yet in todays post-woke world, it is grounds for a social media witch hunt. No surprise
then when reading his autobiography ‘I, Kunt: How I became (and remained) and
minor internet hit singer’ that he cites
Viz as an influence, and media outlets refer to his musical output as ‘the new
Macc Lads’. It has its own unique identity beyond that though - and whilst not fit for public consumption, can be enjoyed in its own sub-cultural context.
Having seen him play live three times (twice at Rebellion
Festival, and once at Fab Café in Leeds), I always found that his songs stuck
in my head for many days after the shows. It’s no surprise then to find out in
his book how he uses popular strong structure methods employed by chart-topping
writers and strategies used by people who make advert jingles. In the book he
strips it all bare (not that kind of bare, although there are plenty of anecdotes
dropped in on that front), he provides a fully open insight into his life,
music, and touring life. This is what makes the book gripping – its integrity
and passion for everything he has done. They often say that the best wrestling
gimmicks are those that are an extension of the persons character – well in
this case, reading deeper into the life and mind of ‘Kunt’ – this is what made
him such a great musician/comedian – it is very much that, and not a front for
a bored suburban middle class insurance broker to provide an outlet for his repressed
feelings (you only have to read some of the books written about the Macc Lads
by their fans to witness that in written form – insert sick and embarrassing emoji
here). I digress, his ‘art’ is very much
an extension of the man behind it all, and whether you care to admit it or not,
there is a lot in here (the music and the book) that you can probably relate to.
The book goes through his childhood, life as someone just
starting off in the music business whilst working part time at the council, and
then the majority of it, covering his musical endeavors as Kunt & The Gang,
which is the real highlight - especially the tour diaries & the tales of disastrous gigs. It made me re-listen to some of his classic
material (much of it documented on his two greatest hits album), ranging from
the dark ‘Let’s send Nan to Dignitas’, to the toilet ‘Wank Fantasy’, and if you
want to dive it at the deep end of ‘Here’s how to wind up a gammon for dummies’,
then ‘Meet Jade Goody’ and ‘Shannon Matthews the Musical’ are the dirty heights
of outright wrongcockery / see you in hell epitaphs.
The book and his music are probably fit for certain people,
who can appreciate the Ying and Yang of this world, yet it was pleasing to hear
that all of his output had been added to the National Archives, so this unique
cultural insight into an unreported world will be forever vaulted in the confines
of history. You are probably only going to read the book if you are fan, and
that is probably expected from it’s conception, yet if you are a ‘Kunt’ virgin,
and end up checking out one of the aforementioned songs, then be careful, you
also may get flushed down the toilet bowl, and find yourself secretly enjoying
it and wanting more.
Very educational book in to the mind of borderline autistic singer kunt
ReplyDeleteVery brave for you to post that unknown? I reckon you're a nonce and are scared of Kunt!
DeleteOne of the great literary masterpieces of the 21st century, when we approach 2099 (assuming we've not all been wiped out by coronavirus, or should I say Koronavirus) I,kunt, will I'm sure be in the top 20 biographies written in the past 100 years, no one else has so successfully put into words a life of wanking and crying,pleasuring oneself in a cheap hotel chain or describing someone getting "sucked off" on a building site,
ReplyDeleteMove over Billy Shakespeare your time has passed, arise sir Kunt, the floor is yours, onwards and upwards!
I knew Kunt before he conceived Kunt and the Gang, as I used to sell t shirts and run an information service (photocopied hand-scrawled tour dates and SAEs before I got access to a word processor) for one of the bands he mentions seeing early on. His crowd used to play pranks around Basildon and filmed some of the Nutty Boys gigs they attended in London. One I remember was them placing an advert in the music press for a special club night in Bas that was billed as 'Four Basildon Boys'. Can't think now who they were referring to!
ReplyDeleteAs such the seeds were there over a decade before Kunt and the Gang were born. This book, i, Kunt, is a warts and all trawl through the years of developing a Kunt shaped niche before moving onto recording, playing live locally and then the life of touring 'toilet' venues that everyone real wants to play on the way up, but no-one wants to keep playing if they never go up or (worse still) on the way down. The tedious time when the band isn't actually performing (i.e. the majority of the time) and the seemingly random route a 'tour' may take around a country are aptly captured in this memoir. It took a while, but Kunt eventually managed to turn this ennui into song. Most bands' being on tour songs are utter cack, moaning, tedious portraits of pampered stars and their terrible life. A Lonely Wank In A Travelodge is, for me, up there with The Specials' 'International Jet Set' as songs on this theme that stand out from the crowd.
In doing that it documents a life that barely exists now thanks to Cowell's franchises. Worse still it documents the rise of social media and the way that people could get themselves heard if they were any good, before all the major platforms were saturated by 'unknowns' in their bedrooms, who secretly had the backing of the Brit School and/or record companies with at least a little promotional clout.
Then there's the songs. Hugely funny in the main and often catchy enough that he can change words to the songs to theme them for chart campaigns. See the Nick Clegg version of Use My Arsehole as a Cunt and the Royal Wedding version of Fucksticks.
The book is brilliantly written and would, if it ever escaped the fanbase, appeal to musicians and fans of all sorts of bands who have been through the process and the industry. The nearest equivalent I can think of is the recent Before We Was We by one of Kunt's favourite bands Madness. Both books document the formative years that made them the artists they are. Both are honest, both admit to luck (or lack of it) with timing and meeting certain people.
i, Kunt is quite simply on of the best music autobiographies I have read. In terms of comedy it is second only to Rude Kids by Chris Donald of Viz fame.
Don't just take my word for it, buy it from Kunt directly via his website: http://www.kuntandthegang.co.uk/