Published: 31/01/2020
BoML Ep18: Jimbo Sorrow Baxter - The Rock The Boat Guy, (The Fuckin' Glorious, The Freaks Union, The Dead Pets)
Big BAD BOML blasts back for 2020 In the company of Jimbo Baxter.
The mouth that launched a thousand ships. In a lot of ways a dream guest as I all I had to do was turn the mic on. Underneath that little chassis theres a growling hotrod brain. A one off and a ball of creative energy that must not be contained. Have you seen this mans wallpaper??
A madcap ball of creative energy. Just in the space of this encounter he’s riffing off plans for videos made, being made and other concepts that fell by the wayside (getting battered by Hull legend Ronnie Pickering). His six guitar lines on TFG records and some of his more avant garde ideas for new TFG songs.
You can hear some of this bubbling melting pot in their debut “Trite”. Self released in July 2018 and imminently to be followed up with a new EP. Jim’s telling me the upcoming songs have more breathing space built into them so i’m imagining he was gagged and bound for periods in the studio.
However, this kind of creative flair and drive doesn’t come for free and Jim hints himself he has to face up to occasional bouts of mental illness. It’s a cruel trade-off and metaphor central, how creativity can build steam like a run-away train but the brakes can’t be thrown on at will. The genie can’t be put back into the bottle.
Happily you can tell Jim is thriving right now in the madcap home of The Fucking Glorious, who are as rum a set of characters as you're gonna find. The lunatics have taken over the asylum and have their sights set higher still.
A supergroup in the naffest sense,
bassist Stiv had his fill of Kirkz-encounters from serving in the Dead Pets and Acid Drop. Beaker, the anecdotal star of this episode, has given years to Lowlife UK. Ben Grimm has put in an innings for Geoffrey Oi’Cott amongst others and Jimbo….well we’ll speak of that later.
If you've been there and done it a few times over then you have a decent idea what you're talking about. The episode title comes from a smart little line he drops in about starting Facebook fires. For a niche music style, there are plenty of punk rock bands and they're all wanting to land the choicest gigs. Jimbo approaches the subject with the candid honesty that he can't turn off. Games get played all day every day, at work, in about any man made community structure. Your face has to fit. Rock n roll ain't above it. The question posed is how do you opt out without cutting your own nose to spite your face. I don't think we get close to the answer. Except logging out from time to time.
If you want to talk about impact on UK punk though then you can't overlook Jim's previous work in the Freaks Union and the Dead Pets. And we don't. These two ruled the roost In simpler times but left an indelible impact on us for one. Both were fired by fiercely creative, driven talents. In the case of the Pets that fire burnt too hot and ended destructively. But in the fables there's a form of comfort too. True skills can get you where you need to be just a surely as the book of tricks.
Tunes:
Airborne - The Freaks Union
The Joys of Triviality - The Fuckin’ Glorious
Staring At The Sun - The Fuckin’ Glorious
Fact-Distract - The Fuckin’ Glorious
Slice of Life - The Fuckin’ Glorious
Never Never - The Dead Pets
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/tfglorious/