19.04.2005 15:34 - A Spot of Venom
I was not cool at University.
I was a Computing Science undergrad, and that, basically, marked you out as terminally uncool. However, I did, at the time, mix with the "in" crowd occasionally, mostly by mistake.
One of these cool characters particularly stands out in my memory. Phil (not his real name) was particularly cooooool. Phil had real ray-bans, and a cool tweed eighties greatcoat. Phil looked a bit like Lloyd Cole, who was then at the height of his fame. Phil had an electric guitar, and a band, in which he sang coooool songs. Phil talked in a nasal-back-of-the throat coool way, that was later made famous by Steve Lamacq.
In my eyes, he was a grade-A 21-carat tosser.
I saw his band once, when they played the Student Union Talent Night. They were crap, but they were crap and cool with it, and in those days that could get you far.
It was quite obvious that Phil was going to end up as the Student Union Entertainments Secretary, so that he could "hang" with the bands, him being so cooool. He did, and he did.
Phil, I have been recently informed, became an A&R man.
I loathe A&R men. The lot of them. As far as I'm concerned, they're turncoats - they picked the easy way out and went over to the other side, and they all think that they're sooo clever for doing so. I wouldn't trust any of them, ever. EVER. I have too many friends who ended up owing lots of money because of A&R man spin. Finding out that Phil became an A&R man has confirmed my prejudices to the HILT.
