Click here to see just how awful Mr. Koobas Drummer Guy was
Really, Mr. Koobas Drummer Guy? Really? You couldn’t bring yourself to at least pretend that you were rocking out with as much joyous abandon as your bandmates? You couldn’t take advantage of the fact that you didn’t actually have to play anything? You could have pretended to twirl your sticks, or play the drums with your feet, or at least bite your rockin’ lower lip every once in a while. Look at your band mates, Mr. Koobas Drummer Guy. Check out the bassist, throwing down some serious dance steps and — for Christ’s sake, he’s acting out the freaking lyrics back there! The weird blonde guitar player has got a shit-eating grin plastered across his face, and has — holy shit, what was that?! Did he just stop playing in order to bust a major Carnaby Street fop/dandy move? Singer dude has the serious rock lip biting ‘tude down cold, keeping the band from flying out of conceptual control. But you, Koobas Drummer Guy — you’re terrible. Where’s your energy? Do you even care about the song you’re pretending to play? Sheezus, you’re awful. Just hang it up, Mr. Koobas Drummer Guy. You suck. You’re ruining it for everybody. Booooo!
Ok, sure, but having only ever heard one song by these guys (a decent version of “The First Cut Is the Deepest” on Nuggets II) I gotta say this sounds great. Nice first-lp-era Who/Pretty Things/Faces quasi-Shel Talmy production sound. Do they have anything else half this good, HVB? ‘Cause I’m liking this a lot.
Yeah, isn’t that song amazing? I’m only familiar with a few tracks on their *one* eponymous album, and they’re not this good. This one, “Face,” was a non-album B-side I found by accident. It’s a rocker! A raver!
You have to admit it’s much easier to mime with an unplugged guitar than it is on drums. The drums will actually make sounds if you hit them, and I believe drummers were told not to make much noise while miming. Also it’s much more difficult for a drummer to hide the fact that what he’s ‘playing’ now isn’t what he played on the recording. Plus they’re in France, where rock is appreciated anthropologically but not actually lived in real time, so I think we should cut the guy some slack. Like misterioso I think the track itself sounds cool.
My favorite part is when the bassist is practicing his moves during the french interview at the start.
You can also hear the drummer thinking to himself, “Why do I have to be the ONLY one wearing a striped blazer?” The performance is just one extended pout.
Finally got a chance to watch this with all the attention it deserves. You’re right: the drummer really misses his chance to enjoy that happening scene with his bandmates.
The secret star of the show for me is the geeky kid dancing on the right of the quintet stationed on a riser. Although he’s not half as hip as his mates, he’s got AWESOME moves and really soaks in the limelight and his chance to shine among the Cook Kidz. Love that kid!
What you apparently don’t know is that the drummer had just received word of the 1967 Stockport Air Disaster, in which a British-Midland flight crashed, killing 72 passengers and crew. He was told of this tragedy immediately before the performance started and the rest of the band wasn’t informed until after they got off the stage.
Go back to the beginning of the video and look at him sitting there in darkened silence, trying to comprehend the senseless loss of so many of his fellow countrymen. At the :30 mark, you can see him start to pull himself together, straightening his tie, while the bass player dances in the background, not yet aware of what has happened. That he gets through the performance at all is a testament to the strength of his character.
Anyway, are they performing inside a giant Wonderbread wrapper?
Great number! Drummer boy should have gone the Keith Moon route, and made a silly, exaggerated joke out of having to mime to the record….spoilsport.