Comments on: YOU SAD BASTARD! – Carter Reconsidered

By: Gibby

Gibby — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:43:41 +0000

Any band that attempts to t**t Philip Schofield are instant legends, no matter what you think of their music!!!

By: and everybody elses Mark G

and everybody elses Mark G — Thu, 22 May 2008 10:24:30 +0000

I was on the phone to a friend when Amber (then three) waved a cassette I’d bought in Thailand (a legit EMI one! hey, the legit ones are £2, why buy dodgy pirates for £1? anyroad..) “Straw Donkey - The singles” and wanted to hear it. So I said “um, I’m not sure it’s what you expect” but put it on anyway, and the kids (i.e. including Alice, then 15 months) went totally dance crazy nuts over “Only living boy”, “Glam Rock Cops” and all points between.

I had to tell my friend “It’s not all like this you know” but actually, from that point on it was.

I did get “Worry Bomb” but it’s not right. That cassette is the bomb, not “WB” with it’s free live album (or maybe the live albums worth revisiting? ach)

By: Jef Proudfoot

Jef Proudfoot — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 20:58:42 +0000

Murdoch is a Schofield. I love ‘em to bits but didn’t automatically like everything they did. Never keen on L & T. Loved the gig at Wimbledom Library. Like (most of) their new stuff too.

By: ross a. ferrone

ross a. ferrone — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:49:44 +0000

An interesting viewpoint but remember this.Carter didnt do a Pulp & double ticket prices the minute they had a no.1 album,they respected their loyal fanbase,kept the price down & toured regularly.You also neglected to mention their many great album tracks-’spoilsports personality’ a particular favourite of mine.Having seen them 8 times I never witnessed a poor show,they were all nothing short of brilliant.I just hope they surprise us all & do a Shed7 & announce a Greatest Hits Tour in 2008.Oh & ‘Rubbish’ was one of their finest singles-never should that word be used to describe this band!

By: david

david — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 21:11:51 +0000

I read the review with great interest. Because this is the first person who i have ever met, who ‘went off’ carter. As time goes on, certain friends of mine listen to Carter less and less frequently, but certainly when the music comes out together it is much loved and always as it always has been.
I only read the first 15-20 comments and noted that no one else ever really had enough of Carter, so now i am wondering if this review is really representing a minority of one!

It’s no surprise to me that they sold out brixton gig in quick time with little PR and being lucky enough to get one of the tickets, I can assure you that it was one hell of a gig.

By: bottomley m.d.

bottomley m.d. — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 09:01:16 +0000

murdoch, in the words of john cooper clark,can’t hear you mate, yr mouths full of sh*t!! lol.

By: Mark2026

Mark2026 — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 01:42:01 +0000

I did, and still do love ‘em
Do it fruitbat!

By: Alan

Alan — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 17:58:28 +0000

someone on the guardian blog (Which successful bands haven’t been influential) has a ticket for the upcoming show perhaps. This just showed up on Digg too! And: Warning! Extremely long comments full of people talking absolute cock. Moderate use of the word “influence” and some graphic examples of cockfarming.

also also also, the Comics Britannia thing on BBC FOUR the other day, the episode on the 80s, covering 2000AD and Deadline, kept using the same Deadline cover - yep the Carter one as seen on Rob T’s post linked in the above comment.

dead on arrival, the carter revival.

By: james

james — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 18:05:49 +0000

I discovered Carter about 12 years ago and really got off on them. After a spell away I now listen to them and The New York Dolls mostly while driving - Carter’s Dome Sportova and their Live in Concert 1991-94 compilations belt out all the great songs, along with the NYD’s Return of the New York Dolls: Live From Royal Festival Hall, 2004.(A great album)
There is something about all that anger and rage that I find so captivating,enjoyable and therapeutic yet there is a sensitivity behind it all that is somehow very moving.

By: Rob Townsend

Rob Townsend — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 14:33:34 +0000

This is a good piece about a band that really dissected the indie world.

It inspired me to write an essay myself. Copy and paste this:

http://kingbobbysix.blogspot.com/2007/09/why-i-love-carter-unstoppable-sex.html

Feedback is welcomed.

By: magic mushroom

magic mushroom — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 00:30:27 +0000

get over it. enjoy the irony and naffness of the whole thing. dig out your steeleys and beg, borrow or steal a ticket to the gigs in glasgow and london and yell for 24 minutes or surfing usm for the chance to relive what it was like when you were eighteen!!!

By: z_zadar

z_zadar — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 13:28:53 +0000

Carter USM are one the few band I idologize. Yes, they may be simple and the lyrics may be shouting-political-issues, but that’s punkish. They are punk band, with beautiful pop-hard-core-punk image.
I’ll never forgive myself for not going on that Dom Sportova, Zagreb concert, and I was in town at the moment.

They may be erased from musical history, but it is legendary in some twisted way.

By: bluemonday

bluemonday — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 15:46:49 +0000

carter were never cool but they were *amazing*. i cant wait for the brixton live show later this year, it is going to be so good!

i feel a bit sorry for them for the fact they have been erased from musical history. at the time though they were massive.

By: Thorsten M.

Thorsten M. — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 12:59:06 +0000

I have always loved Carter USM. As a German fan it was pretty hard to get their singles, albums or even merchandise. Carter were more than just music: they were a lifestyle, the feelings of a whole generation. And, of course, they were brilliant musicians.

I’ve spent hours translating their lyrics into proper German, asking friends whose fathers served in the Rhine Army what certain puns COULD mean. I actually don’t know how many concerts I have seen. It were a whole lot - at least for Teutonic Carter maniac.

What saddens me most, is that Tom’s ugly rant willingly forgets about Jim’s wonderful voice, Les’ poignant arrangements and their breathtaking live shows.

I used to be a dedicated fan and I still am.

Unfortunately I won’t have the chance to see one of their shows this autumn, what makes me feel sad.

Love,

Thorsten xxx

By: Lucyp

Lucyp — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 23:30:22 +0000

I am so happy to find fellow Carter USM fans. I was a massive Carter fan back in the day and i still listen to them now every so often.
Falling On A Bruise was a great song which i liked so much i named my blog after it.
I would say Worry Bomb was probably their greatest album which is a damn shame they had fallen from grace by then, The Only Looney Left In Town deserved better.

By: Greg

Greg — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 17:54:06 +0000

They were the best band ever. They only had one gig in my country in 1995 to which nobody went, so they never came again - and when I heard about the reunion gig and started saving for my airplane ticket it had already sold out. So enjoy, those of you who could get tickets.

By: sst

sst — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 12:53:06 +0000

well your opinion is just a rant - makes me think they stole your wife (i am assuming you are a man) - if you don’t like them that is ok. but i never met 2 more honest down to earth blokes in a band. they never claimed to be the best, they never claimed to be cool, they were never fashionable. they laughed at themselves and even appeared in a sketch on newman and badiel about people with comic faces. i think they deserve more respect even if you don’t like the music they tried and succeeded for a good few years.

(yes i am proud to dance to the music that nobody likes.)

By: Murdoch

Murdoch — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 11:26:26 +0000

Unfortunately for me, I saw Crapper the Unlistenable Suck Machine at the Four 4 Wiz gig in March. They were as horrible and porridgey then as they ever were, although they seem to have given up on their ill-advised expermiental hair action. I forgot to say - despite my scattergunning of insults at Carter fans (they REALLY can’t dance) - that it’s my responsibility as a grumpy but fairminded old fuck to acknowledge goodness when it rears its all-too-shy pretty little head, so here goes: you will not meet kinder, more open-minded, community-spirited, supportive, intelligent and tolerant people than Carter fans. The same was true 15 years ago. How Carter ever got these people on side when Sugar gigs were full of the most annoying chin-stroking “appreciators” of music is beyond me, but there you go.

Enjoy the reunion gigs, but remember this, aging pop thirtysomethings - Jesus loves the Stooges and is at best ambivalent about Carter, although I’m fairly certain that given the choice between Carter and nails through hands, he’d say “Gimme that hammer, mate. I’ll do the job meself.”

By: Admin

Admin — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:48:33 +0000

i know of at least 2 commenters here who will be going tho.

By: Howard Rowntree

Howard Rowntree — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 19:14:59 +0000

Well there’s one person who won’t be going to the reunion gig then. Nice to see so many open minded people in England. I always think the worst opinion you could possibly have of a band is indifferance!!!

By: Murdoch

Murdoch — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 14:28:50 +0000

Assume away. You’ll be wrong, though.

I, on the other hand, will be right about MC4. ;)

By: CarsmileSteve

CarsmileSteve — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 14:00:52 +0000

man, he was doing so well until the Megas reference as well…

i assume that the poster is Howlin’ Mad Murdoch…

By: Murdoch

Murdoch — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 13:47:34 +0000

Carter the Unspeakable Shit Machine, as they were known round my way, were more fucking horrible than the first world war. Stupid fucking hair, cycling clothing (Who fucking DOESN’T look like a twat in THAT?) and songs to make one murderous with rage. I cite in evidence the following: Their inept drum programming - clattery lumpen “beats” built by people who couldn’t dance for people who couldn’t dance - made all their songs sound like a drill square at busy time for drill squares, only with some whiny nasal Sarf Lahndan dole-bludger moaning about some shit that’s got fuck all to do with him, because he’s afucking POP STAR, thrown to the fore over the relentless sound of stomping, which if I remember correctly, was just about all Carter fans could do when overwhelmed with a desire to “dance”. Carter’s ghastly pun-ridden lyrics, which the witless cunts who bought this shite claimed were “witty” and/or “ironic”, are enough to make anyone with any fondness whatever for wit and irony choke on their Squeeze records.

Lemme get back to their “image”. Correct me if I’m wrong, but having a manky hippy squatter’s “interesting” hairdo is only a good thing if you’re a manky hippy squatter, which in itself is only a good thing if you want me to come and whack your feckless brains out with a car door, y’bastard. And the cycling shorts and t-shirts!!! Honest to Christ, if there was ever a clothing choice better designed to make some aging scrawny hair criminal (who used to be in the shittest of all shit indie bands - Jamie Wednesday) look even more of a cunt than his hairdon’t and back-to-front cap already did, then I want to know about it.

These arseholes should have been drowned at birth instead of subjecting me and other right-thinking music fascists to their faux-proletarian blethering and hideous tastlesness.

One more thing - I hate the fact that Mega City Four still get lumped in with crap like Carter. Genuinely witty and caring people and bands like MC4 don’t come along every day of the week, whereas you can walk into any student bar in the western world and hear some middle-class twonk twatting a guitar in the most grindingly dull way imaginable while spraying poorly considered puns and hapless low-grade wordplay at his mates and their girlfriends from the stage. Do yourselves a favour, kids. If you see one of them, spoil their evening before they spoil yours.

Oh, and next time you’re at a mate’s house and he brings out his big sister’s Carter cds and says “You might not have heard this, but it’s really good - it’s from the 90s”, punch him in the throat, shove the Carter cds up his nose and then leave, safe in the knowledge that you’ve narrowly avoided a lifetime’s friendship with an unconscionable arsehole.

By: dani

dani — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 08:44:54 +0000

Carter USM is part of my life, it’s still a very important part of me. They are my idols and I still listen to them quite often. I’m from Spain and I also felt alone by the time they were so famous, as no one else in my hometown knew them.

I wish I could understand better English as I don’t get the meaning of so many songs… but the music, no matter if the author of this essay says it’s just all the same, I think it’s really different from anything else I can find in other groups.

And, still, I think the latest songs from the two members once they split up, some of them are worth it, especially the Jimbob ones.

By: Howard Rowntree

Howard Rowntree — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:04:22 +0000

Carter we’re one of those bands people either loved or hated. It’s interesting to note that the music industry seems to have completely forgetten about them and yet they were probably one of the most important bands of the 90’s. And just to show how importnat they we’re their Brixton reunion show sold out within days.