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» Add News | The Three Johns
A side group started in 1982 by Mekons co-founder Jon Langford, the Three Johns, originally made up of Langford, John Hyatt, Phillip “John”
Brennan, and a drum machine, specialized in abrasive, politically charged, danceable rock. Sounding almost nothing like Langford’s main band,
the Johns were a silly-serious bunch of political and cultural provocateurs. Recording during the height of Margaret Thatcher’s ill-conceived Tory
rebellion, the Johns were openly antagonistic to this new, conservative vision of Britain’s future. And while their elliptical and epigrammatic lyrics
mi ...read more
A side group started in 1982 by Mekons co-founder Jon Langford, the Three Johns, originally made up of Langford, John Hyatt, Phillip “John”
Brennan, and a drum machine, specialized in abrasive, politically charged, danceable rock. Sounding almost nothing like Langford’s main band,
the Johns were a silly-serious bunch of political and cultural provocateurs. Recording during the height of Margaret Thatcher’s ill-conceived Tory
rebellion, the Johns were openly antagonistic to this new, conservative vision of Britain’s future. And while their elliptical and epigrammatic lyrics
might not offer the sloganeering that would easily identify them as lefties, certainly there were enough hints dropped along the way to remove
any doubt. Unlike other rock agit-prop, the Johns played a fairly accessible version of polemical post-punk anti-pop that embraced big, messy
arena-rock-sounding guitars and hard, repetitive, quasi-hip-hop dance beats. Perhaps the most subversive thing about the Johns is that, despite
Langford’s and Hyatt’s goofy vocals, they were, in their own weird way, pure pop for now people, especially those who hated Thatcher. With
collective tongue planted firmly in cheek, the Johns took on British and American obsession with materialism, the diabolical Reagan-Thatcher
lovefest, the machinations of the pop music industry, all of it done with a great sense of humor mixed in with genuine fear and horror. « hide |
Similar Bands: The Monochrome Set, Virgin Prunes, The Mekons, Magazine Contributors: helpoemer420,
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