The Common Swings Juvenilia 2

So more juvenile nonsense from the Common Swings' archive:

Most of the Common Swings' stuff I'm posting here dated from 1999, which was the peak of my fondness for Belle and Sebastian. Hence the two slightly hackneyed variations upon Spinal Tap that form the first two strips here. And alongside my fondness was a more than slight vexation with one member of the band: a vexation that still continues. And that member? Ithobel sodding Campbell, the namble-pambler herself. I still maintain she has one of the worst voices in contemporary music, and her hipster aloofness and bloody stupid twee head bands seemed to be the one major source of irritation in my otherwise heady love affair with B&S. These last three cartoons are but the tip of the iceberg, as my then collaborator Sarah Clarke will confirm...

I'm quite chuffed with the second cartoon here. Not because of the content - because, as ever, it's still hackneyed musical punnery - but because the art skills are a lot better than I seemed to remember I had back then. Brian Eno seemed to be a shoo in for comedy nonsense as I was working on the early Common Swings' ideas. Not sure what the Aphex Twin stuff was about though...

And finally some very silly one off jokes, of which there were a lot. And it also says a lot that I thought one time member of the Fieldmice and the driving force of Another Sunny Day, Mr Harvey Williams, was worthy of this many jokes. Also: 14 Iced Bears were pretty much my go to band for silly indie schmindie jokes during this time because it was such a wonderfully silly name. The Arab Strap strip was an attempt to go for something along the lines of Sir Rowley Birkin ("I was very, very drunk at the time") on "The Fast Show"... and remember the days when Gomez were getting 9 out of 10s in NME? No? Blocked it out? I wish I could. I bought some of the bleedin' cod middle class wibbling comedy blues' nonsense... oh the folly of youth...

More tomorrow. Sorry.