Album Review

The Business – Mean Girl

• 23rd Apr 2008

“Oi!, street rock, punk, whatever you want to call it” states the press release. Well I know what I want to call it, but there might be kiddies reading.

Old geezers The Business have come up with three new songs and unearthed five old ones for their Mean Girl EP. The title track is strangely camp, like Jilted John does The New York Dolls. Or a Status Quo covers band covering The Stooges. Till The End takes bad vocals to the extreme (I would refer the band’s harmonies but the word seems entirely inappropriate in this case) while 1-2-3 had me counting the seconds to the end and sounds like your-drunk-uncle-sings-The-Sex-Pistols.

The rest of the EP comprises a live session recorded at The Marquee in 1982. Apparently “The Business were the only Oi band to play The Marquee”. One wonders why. The set opens with Loud, Proud ‘n’ Punk, the c-word and then thankfully the rest is mostly unintelligible. Blind Justice might be a searing indictment of the British penal system for all I know. Suburban Rebels helps illustrate why the genre is named “Oi!” and Harry May seems to be about a bloke called Arry May. Finally, Smash The Discos is mainly based around the phrase “Smash the discos, smash them up”. Move over Noel Coward.

Seeing as the birthplace and spiritual home of Oi is the backroom of a pub, it would probably best be appreciated there. Now don’t send Micky Fitz, Trots, Tosh and Bundie round to get me. I like my kneecaps.