FALLING APART, SID VICIOUS, AND THE SELF-PROCLAIMED PURVEYOR OF PERIL

Falling Apart, who hail from Ilfracombe, have shot a music video to accompany their new song – Nanny State. In today’s society, people say “it has to be seen to be believed” all the time, to the point where it’s been devalued. But never has such a call to action been more appropriate.

So watch it now - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQY4HoFoA80.

One might expect blood-boiling rebellion from “THE REAL PUNK EXPERIENCE” as their MySpace unpretentiously parps. What they’ve actually created, is a cringingly flaccid insight into their world, which aims at “angry punk band” but gets lost in painful self-ingratiation and trying to be funny. Since when did punk have a comedic edge?

It also does a fairly neat job of blurring the lines between music video and PR video for Barnstaple's Schofields Solicitors, which seems a curious setting for Falling Apart’s blunderings. Until you learn that the guitarist (who’s old enough to know better than to be acting out his lost youth) works there – nice land. Though somewhat at ends with the anti-nannying message of the song and certainly not very punk. I can’t imagine Sid Vicious dispensing legal advice.

The video narrates vocalist “Dangerous” Dean Davey’s world-weary mindset, fed-up with the rules and regulations that govern society. Though quite how far his performance contributes to his “dangerous” credentials remains open for debate. As he enters the solicitors, he is unimpressed with the lists of rules he is handed and told to follow. But surely this self-proclaimed purveyor of peril could have summoned action more anarchic than gaily hurling some papers into the air before flouncing out of the solicitors’ office?

Maybe it would help if he wore tighter trousers.

The mouldy cherry aloft the half-baked cake arrives midway through the video. Pause it at 1’27” and the observant among you will notice that as The Man is dishing out his rules that Davey must abide, “Regulations” is spelt incorrectly. Priceless.

Delusions of grandeur are always funny. And laughing at them always ushers a feeling of guilt. At least the boys are trying and I applaud them for being proactive. They also aren’t short of bookings so they’re doing something right, right? But the video does this band no favours, traversing more levels of wrongness than I have ever previously encountered. Falling Apart? I’d say it’s a safe bet.

Falling Apart are playing at The Wellington in Ilfracombe on 8th July – for a full gig list head to www.myspace.com/fallingapartpunkband.