 The Goldie Lookin Chain aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. Broadsheet readers balk at their cannabis smoking, curse word uttering, shell suit wearing image, whilst tabloid readers are enamoured by their charv-esque working class backgrounds, reality TV appearances and comedy lyrics on such topics as mates’ girlfriends (“Your Missus Is A Nutter”), Nostalgia (“Roller Disco”) and, erm, gender bending parents (“Your Mother’s Got A Penis”). The band were dragged from the indie novelty act circuit into the limelight with a combination of catchy songs, familiar samples and in no small part, Maggot’s 3rd place finish in Celebrity Big Brother. However, Maggot’s selection for BB was not as glamorous as you would imagine. “They came to us and didn’t specify who they wanted. We just drew straws”, said Two Hats. “We would like to do more reality TV - like Mytikal In The Jungle - he’s like a caveman sometimes, can just see him hunting animals with his teeth and living under a bush”.
 One thing that can be said about the GLC is that despite being a hip hop pastiche band, they are big fans of the genre. Often their support acts are the street Xing to the band’s comedy Xang, with past appearances coming from the likes of Skinnyman and DJ Flip. Tonight’s support came from human beat boxer Killa Kela, a West Sussex born “real” rap star who, in the opinion of Pharell Williams, is “Impressive. Definitely one of the best beat boxers I‘ve ever seen. Up there with Michael Jackson. Sick man. He’s destined for the stars”. Quite a weighty reference!!!
 The Newcastle crowd were eating out of KK’s hand by the time we got out of the GLC’s dressing room, with Killa cleverly dropping the Town’s name to the delight of the sold out crowd. Mixing comedy in as well, with lines such as “You ever seen Stevie Wonder’s house? Nah? Neither’s he!” Killa’s improvisational accopella rap about the random things the crowd were holding aloft was fairly scripted, as you know you’re going to get phones, cameras, lighters and the like. But Kela’s beat boxing over the top prevented it sounding stale. I was impressed enough to purchase their album when I got home, but it’s hard to imagine how they could capture the intensity of their live performance in a studio. I’ll let you know when I find out.
 Fame has taken kindly to the GLC, from playing small gigs up to the recent one day festival at the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff. This coupled with TV appearances has forced the band to change their act slightly. “We’re on a swearing ban lately, we managed to get through the Millenium Stadium gig without swearing, but I did say Fuck when my mic fell off at the Smash Hits awards. They were going to learn to swear eventually I suppose…” says a sheepish looking Two Hats. “We’ve had to edit ‘Maggot At Midnight’ (the next single), it’s ridiculous the extent we’ve had to change it for a radio format. On the continent you can say what the fuck you like, as it’s the way people speak. I don’t say bollocks, fuck, cunt all the time. The stations should just grow up”. However some crowds in their early career didn’t take too kindly to them “We were supporting Eric Clapton, fuck knows why, and there was an old guy about 60 just sat for the entire set with his fingers in his ears. It was hilarious!”
 Possibly the most famous song the band have written that hasn’t been released is called ‘Shit To Me’, and I wanted to know more about it. “We played it in America and they loved it, but we can’t release it for some reason. Too much red tape. We play it at the start of the set now, so the fans need to be pretty sharp to catch it on their phones”. It may possibly be down to the lyrics, the chorus of which goes “P Diddy means shit to me/Ja Rule means shit me/R Kelly means shit to me/Fuck you, Alicia Keys”. Perhaps if it was only these artists that were slated they could release it, but unfortunately their rage is directed at everyone from Whitney Houston to Britney Spears.
 When the GLC finally get onstage, any semblance of personal space is lost. It’s to be expected, with the popularity of the band soaring and this being the first time many of the fans have seen the live performance. It was a ‘by the numbers’ set for the band, playing favourites from their two albums, mixing in “rare” hits such as Sting’s ‘Alien In New York’ sampled with ‘The Alchemist’ - “I’m an Alchemist/An Evil Alchemist/An Alchemist in Newport”. You could quite easily imagine the welsh octet moving into the exercise video market, as their sometimes shambolic stage presence resembles an early Mr Motivator work out - including a lot of running from one side of the stage to the other, jumping up and down with some healthy hand waving thrown in for good measure. “We wanted to get Trampettes (mini trampolines) but we figured Adam would end up bouncing into the front row in the middle of the rap. We could get an enclosed bouncy castle I suppose…”
 Despite the increase in media coverage generated recently, it wasn’t enough for Atlantic to consider the band a wise investment for the future, and several days after this interview took place the band were dropped from the label. It’s understandable why this was done, with the band’s first two albums combined selling only 290,000 units compared with the Arctic Monkeys’ 450,000 first week sales figures. It seems Atlantic seem more content to pump their funds into James Blunt, with the sappy ex-soldier guaranteeing a high financial return from the housewife market. That’s not to say we won’t hear more from the Welsh rappers, they plan on releasing further material on their own label Gold Dust, as well as a comedy film due out in spring 2007 and various radio projects in the pipeline.
 Finally, and at the request of the band (and not my Editor!), they had one thing they wanted me to report to everybody. “Adam Hussein has real webbed feet. We’re trying to let everyone know. Maybe his dad was a pilot. Or a Duck. Or Merman…”
www.youknowsit.co.uk |
