{"id":179798,"date":"2025-09-30T09:55:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T09:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/179798\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T09:55:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T09:55:12","slug":"i-hate-coldplay-they-make-kaiser-chiefs-look-like-geniuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/179798\/","title":{"rendered":"I hate Coldplay. They make Kaiser Chiefs look like geniuses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Louis Stevenson is my favourite stylist. Each book of his is different, but he infuses every sentence with cool intelligence. <\/p>\n

Edith Wharton\u2019s The House of Mirth \u2014 so socially penetrating, so gripping. The novel is a symphony of precise sensations and I defy anybody not to feel enriched by it. I love Lily Bart\u2019s attitude of easy alertness toward every possibility of life. <\/p>\n

The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell. It\u2019s a masterpiece of friendship and it contains multitudes: the whole of Johnson and a great deal of Boswell. Great biography is almost as rare as great poetry and I go back often to this masterpiece just to get a blast of its convivial energy and its human warmth. <\/p>\n

The book I couldn\u2019t finish<\/p>\n

Donald Trump\u2019s The Art of the Deal. Even the commas made me queasy. <\/p>\n

\"U.S.The book I\u2019m ashamed I haven\u2019t read <\/p>\n

Shame is overrated, but I should have read the novels of Haruki Murakami. My daughter tells me I\u2019m missing out. Next summer, I say.<\/p>\n

My favourite film <\/p>\n

The Seven Year Itch directed by Billy Wilder. It pokes fun at men in all the right ways and Marilyn Monroe is a genius. <\/p>\n

\"MarilynMy favourite play<\/p>\n

Bailegangaire by Tom Murphy. I remember taking more and more people to see it 25 years ago and the play has never left my mind. I can still see Brid Brennan\u2019s marvellous face in the Royal Court production, and Rosaleen Linehan sitting up in bed as Mommo. I felt it exactly explained my father\u2019s family in Glasgow and what it means to inherit trauma. <\/p>\n

The box set that I\u2019m hooked on<\/p>\n

The Bear. I want to live among them. <\/p>\n

\"Jeremy<\/p>\n

Jeremy Allen White in The Bear<\/p>\n

AP<\/p>\n

The classic series I\u2019d recommend to a friend <\/p>\n

Brookside. Socially engaged TV was never better. <\/p>\n

The new series I\u2019d recommend to a friend<\/p>\n

The Studio. Seth Rogen is the funniest friend I never had and crazily believable as a film exec. <\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Studio review \u2014 Seth Rogen\u2019s satire is the best comedy of the year so far<\/a><\/p>\n

My favourite piece of music<\/p>\n

An impossible question to answer. There\u2019s all of Bach and all of David Bowie, but if you\u2019re looking for a little musical phrase to send you into life, or out of it, then I\u2019d probably choose Edward Elgar\u2019s Sospiri. He is famous for other things, but this little whisper is perfect. <\/p>\n

The last broadcast and movie that made me cry<\/p>\n

I quietly blub all the time listening to Soul Music, a BBC Bristol production for Radio 4. I love the stories of how people\u2019s experience \u2014 their good times and their bad times \u2014 can be inflected by a single song. The episode on Nick Drake\u2019s Northern Sky had me reaching for the hankies after ten seconds. <\/p>\n

The lyric I wish I\u2019d written<\/p>\n

The perfect disco-punk songs of the band Orange Juice defined my youth. Falling and Laughing is the most joyful evocation of shyness. \u201cI\u2019m not saying\/ That we should build a city of tears\/ All I\u2019m saying \/ Is I\u2019m alone and consequently\/ Only my dreams satisfy the real need of my heart\/ I resist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Edwyn Collins: Nation Shall Speak Unto Nation review \u2014 simply remarkable<\/a><\/p>\n

The poem that saved me <\/p>\n

Tam o\u2019 Shanter by Robert Burns. It made me realise at a young age that some people can bring a whole culture into a piece of work. <\/p>\n

The instrument I played<\/p>\n

My dad brought home a second-hand piano when we were living in a borstal. There was no money for lessons so I learnt to play Chopsticks a thousand different ways under a naked light bulb in the garage. <\/p>\n

The instrument I wish I\u2019d learnt<\/p>\n

The piano, provided it came with the music teacher Nadia Boulanger, who taught Daniel Barenboim, Dinu Lipatti and Julia Perry. Failing that, I wish I\u2019d learnt the ukulele. <\/p>\n

The music that cheers me up<\/p>\n

George Formby singing When I\u2019m Cleaning Windows.<\/p>\n

\"George<\/p>\n

George Formby<\/p>\n

SHUTTERSTOCK EDITORIAL<\/p>\n

What one painting would I would like to own<\/p>\n

There are works by Raphael that could stun you out of your wits, or great modern masterpieces that might replenish your imagination on a daily basis. But if I could only have one painting I\u2019d want Still Life With Cherries and Peaches by Paul C\u00e9zanne because it makes me happy. <\/p>\n

\"Still<\/p>\n

Still Life with Cherries and Peaches, by Paul Cezanne (1885)<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

The place I feel happiest<\/p>\n

Walking down Piccadilly. <\/p>\n

My guiltiest cultural pleasure<\/p>\n

Watching Seventies reruns of Coronation Street. <\/p>\n

\"Jean<\/p>\n

Jean Alexander as Hilda Ogden and Irene Sutcliffe as Maggie Clegg in a 1970 broadcast of Coronation Street<\/p>\n

SHUTTERSTOCK EDITORIAL<\/p>\n

I\u2019m having a fantasy dinner party. I\u2019ll invite these artists and authors<\/p>\n

Sammy Davis Jr, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop, Shirley MacLaine and Nelson Riddle and his orchestra.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019ll put on this music<\/p>\n

You kidding?<\/p>\n

The play, concert and book that I\u2019m looking forward to<\/p>\n

Ian McDiarmid in King Lear at Sheffield\u2019s Crucible Theatre. Radiohead in Bologna. The biography of Anita Brookner by Hermione Lee. <\/p>\n

I wasted an evening watching<\/p>\n

The three-part Sky documentary Boyzone: No Matter What.<\/p>\n

The film I walked out on <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever walked out of a play or a film. Oh, that\u2019s not true. I once walked out of a film called Weak at Denise, not because it was bad \u2014 though the title wasn\u2019t promising \u2014 but because I was meant to be in the screening room next door watching Bernardo Bertolucci\u2019s last film. <\/p>\n

Overrated<\/p>\n

Everybody knows Coldplay are pish. They are total and utter mince. They are inflamed, swollen and possibly gangrenous bollocks, and as sentimental as Mr Kipling\u2019s exceedingly good cakes, except Kipling\u2019s cakes are actually boss and Chris Martin, who was once voted the world\u2019s sexiest vegetarian, wouldn\u2019t know a good cake if the sky was full of them and they began dropping on to him like V-2 rockets. God, I hate Coldplay. They make Kaiser Chiefs look like geniuses. <\/p>\n

\"Chris<\/p>\n

Coldplay\u2019s Chris Martin at Wembley in August, 2025<\/p>\n

REDFERNS<\/p>\n

Underrated<\/p>\n

The American writer Donald Antrim. He should have won a couple of Pulitzer prizes, several national book awards and an honorary knighthood for his novels and short stories. His next novel, My Eliot, is a stone-cold modern classic. <\/p>\n

On Friendship by Andrew O\u2019Hagan (Faber \u00a312.99 pp160). To order a copy go to timesbookshop.co.uk<\/a>. Free UK standard P&P on orders over \u00a325. Special discount available for Times+ members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robert Louis Stevenson is my favourite stylist. Each book of his is different, but he infuses every sentence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":["post-179798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}