The wrong sort of crap

Friends of mine have often argued that my musical tastes leave a lot to be desired. Or, to put it another way, that I listen to crap.

And yes, they have a point. Had you chosen to walk into our kitchen at around 9pm tonight, for example, you would have heard me singing along to a bit of Baltimora (he's from Norn Iron, you know).

For me, the key to enjoyable crappy music is the crappy musician or band having at least an awareness of the fact that they might just be a bit crappy. But the moment they start taking themselves a little too seriously is the moment I lose interest.

To illustrate, about three or four years ago, Vanessa and I went over to the MEN Arena in Manchester to see James (the band, not some random bloke) do a huge "homecoming" gig in front of a full house. And they were magnificent.

It was Vanessa's idea to go - I wasn't that arsed, if truth be told - but I was very glad I did. By the end, lead singer Tim Booth (above left) had the audience eating out of his hand and left me mad keen to see them again if the chance ever came along.

And it did about 18 months ago when we made the short journey to Bradford's St George's Hall with expectations high. And James were awful - but not a "good" awful.

It was actually apparent from very early in their set that this was going to be the case after they began with four or five unknown songs and received a flat reaction. But, instead of cranking things up with some of their hits from the 90s, they persevered with Tim Booth cockily declaring that the tunes they were playing "will soon become old favourites." Funnily enough they didn't.

I vowed after that gig never to go to see them again but, of course, I'm fickle. And when I discovered at the weekend that they are due to headline on the Saturday night of Bingley Music Live in September, there was never any question that we wouldn't go (subject to babysitters - since secured) and I bought the tickets at lunchtime today.

But I really hope they play my "likable" sort of crap this time - rather than just crap.