Rattling through my thesaurus pretty much like Paul Morley used to - and Tony Parsons evidently never did - in a pronounced struggle to distil the unique charms of Terrorvision down to one adjective, one word above all others keeps looming large. Yeah, as a phrase 'bubblegum rock' was an obvious contender but it's already been snaffled-up by every other paid-by-the-word chancer roaming around out there in freelance land. It'd be somehow dishonest and downright scummy if was to grab dotmusic's shilling by taking advantage of such a WELLWORN cliche. One word though does the Terrorvision lads proud and that one word is a big, sweaty, slobbering 'GORMLESS.'
Gormless for sure but also polish-yer-windows-missus brilliant. 'Come Home Beanie' is what Nirvana might have sounded like if Kurt had hailed from Bradford and got off on curries. 'Friends and Family' is Wizzard with a big daft hat on, 'Sometimes I'd Like to Kill Her' is sunnier and fruitier - no not that way - than a Sea Breeze enema.
Overexcited chords and we've-just-scored handclaps, glam-offcuts and diamante dockies stomping on your kitchen table till it gives way and wakes your mam and dad up... what more could you possibly want from a pop group? Go on admit it, you prefer this to Radiohead any dreary day of the week dontcha? Stop living that lie and let's put Terrorvision up there where they belong, slap, bang in the middle of that empty plinth in Trafalgar Square mooning at tourists and making a hot, frothy racket.
As far as bubblegum rock goes then Terrorvision are pretty f**king peerless. (See, the way to do it is slip the cliches in at the end when everybody has given up reading the review anyway and flipped back to their Gail Porter website. It's how Morley used to operate, trust me...).
Taking their forebears as Slade, The Raspberries, The Wonder Stuff and The Wildhearts, 'Good to Go' will probably sell jack sh*t copies. Further proof if it was needed that the world has indeed gone mad and we're heading towards the apocalypse. And on
that cheery note...
