The war of words between ex-Slumberland managers, Martin ‘Earnest-person’ O’Neill and ‘passionate’ Paolo Di Canio took a
further twist today. O’Neill, who responded Di Canio’s criticism his players
fitness levels by labelling the Italian ace a ‘managerial charlatan’ was
accused by Di Canio of behaving like a football charlatan for almost being
relegated despite spending £40 million on additions to the Wearsiders squad!
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| How the Charlatans might have looked with O'Neill and Di Canio in the band |
Tim Burgess, lead singer with 80s indie-rockers the
Charlatans, hit out at the ridiculous claims by the managers - “neither of them
pair were ever members of our band that I can remember” he said “although after
the release of ‘Tellin Stories’ things got a bit crazy and there are some gaps
in my memory – maybe O’Neill played bass for one or two gigs but I don’t
remember any Italians playing with us”. Burgess also took time out to emphasise
that the Charlatans, like Hammers boss Sam Allardyce, actually hail from the
West Midlands.
The ‘debate’ took a further twist when a spokesperson for
the original San Francisco Charlatans – the band often charged with inventing
the Frisco Psychedelic sound – said that they had simply had enough “just cos
we’re hippies, folk think they can use and abuse our name however they like –
it’s just not cool man”. Drummer Terry Wilson, who had to leave the band for a
period to serve a prison sentence for Marijuana possession, was said to be
particularly furious with O’Neill for trying to boost Di Canio’s profile by
linking him to the sixties vibemeisters.
Former Hammer, Stuart ‘Psycho’ Pierce, who was a teammate of
Di Canio during the nineties was unable to shed any light on Di Canio’s
possible role in the Indie music scene. Pearce, a big punk rock fan, is best known
for his appearance on the front of a live Lurkers album as a berserking
audience member, has also met the Stranglers on over 30 occasions and was
unable to recall Di Canio expressing any interest in joining him on any of these
visits – “ I would have thought that the shared emphasis on organ accompaniment
would mean that the bands shared many fans” Moreover, “Di Canio was always on
time for training and the like so I really doubt if he was moonlighting as a
rocker at that time and everybody knows that the most prominent rocker from the
Hammers of that era was Slaven Bilic”
Meanwhile, top Druid Rocker Julian Cope tried to calm
matters by reminding all concerned of the deep and penetrating meaning of the lead
single from his 1988 ‘My Undergound’ album which surely emphasises the various
possible interpretations that can be applied to the phrase ‘Charlatan’ depending
on which inner voice one listens to. “As far as I’m concerned, they are all
behaving like rather spoilt little Charlotte-Anns” he said, using a vocoder
device for no particular reason anybody could fathom.
Ur twistin my melon, mannnnn!
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