Tenacity: “Determination, single-mindedness, commitment… continuing to exist” the dictionary tells us. An admirable quality. Well, unless you’re in the music business.

Ok, perhaps a bit harsh. But just as Mozart’s best work was done by the time he was 25, Leonard Cohen is still bounding onstage at the ripe old age of 80.

There are a few reasons for this coming to mind (apart from needing 500 words by Monday evening). First was the startling revelation that Van Morrison is (a) still alive and (b) 70 years old. I thought he had turned that age not long after Them split up. Certainly anyone who’s seen the old goat in concert swears that his old man grumpiness and general appearance puts their own grandpa to shame. Consider this – he’s ages with Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks, most recently spotted bouncing around stages with Franz Ferdinand, and innovating as much as they did in the 1970s.

But there’s nothing to put 20 years on you than mainstream
music radio. Xfm, a supposedly ‘alternative’ station, has had a complete facelift. I’d hesitate to use a word like ‘revamp’ which would imply some new and exciting format. Instead, like an audio version of the Wheeltappers and Shunters (ask yer grandad) they have found a home for Chris Moyles (41 going on 55), and added into that mix Johnny Vaughan and Vernon Kaye (Jeremy Clarkson was busy). ‘Bloke FM’ as it might as well be known is unashamedly aimed at the male 25-44 demographic, which if not breaking some sex discrimination laws, is surely contravening something. And all this just six months after Loaded magazine gave up on account of being past its sell-by date. Expect wall-to-wall Oasis and Beatles as well as the up-and-coming sounds of Mumford and Sons. Oh,and the Kaiser Chiefs too you might expect, given that Ricky out of that Leeds popsters is also on the presenter list. Perhaps his stint on The Voice has left him too lacking in credibility to remain at 6music alongside Jarvis Cocker and Iggy Pop – the Beeb’s digital offering another home for semi-retired musical folk.

Radio X’s slogan, by the way, is ‘Get into the music”, ironic given that Moyles and pals have little interest in anything that might drown out the sound of their own voices. But can it really be ego that drives on the likes of Keith Richards (71) or David Bowie (68). Motorhead’s Lemmy – 69, you know – hit the headlines with a lung infection lately, so spare a though for Jet Black from the Stranglers, now 77 and needing oxygen to get through even slower tunes like ‘Golden Brown’.

I recently ventured to Dundee to see an old favourite band, Spare Snare, celebrating the 20th anniversary of their debut
album. Singer Jan lives in Glasgow so rehearsals and gigs are sporadic, but the band still record, with a very retro red vinyl 7” on the merch stall. It might be clever lighting that obscures the passage of time for the headliners of the sold-out show but they leap about perhaps more energetically than they did when they started out. At the end of the set they resolve to reconvene in another 20 years. In a wheelchair-accessible venue, obviously.

Now that’s commitment.

Damn Teeth
Damn Teeth
(Good Grief)
Squawling feedback? Check. Banshee-like wailing? Check. Drums that sound like the undead pounding on the doors of Hades. Yup. That’s all in the opener ‘Rubbed Out’, but happily, there’s still enough in the remaining nine tunes to interest as songs develop. ‘Appendage Rot’ comes across like a really cheesed-off B52s while hints of angular guitar bands like Gang of Four permeate any tune that doesn’t sound like The Fall when they were good. ‘Sick Receiver’ on the other hand could be an Arcade Fire track rejected for sounding a bit too much like it was recorded at gunpoint. The four-piece sound at times like they are all pulling in different directions, but that only adds to the chaotic fun.
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