The two bands have variously clumsy and bracing things to say about class, race and Britain – but they are at least connecting to something bigger than themselves
On the face of it, two British indie bands being locked in a war of words about class-consciousness might seem like egoistic farce. On deeper consideration – idly scrolling through Twitter, imbibing the day’s beefs and reading various blogposts – it was. But the rivalry that has emerged in recent months between London band Fat White Family and Bristol band Idles also struck me as being indicative of a wider conflict – one at the heart of electoral politics.
Earlier this year, Fat White Family frontman Lias Saoudi lent his voice in support of Sleaford Mods when the Nottingham duo accused Idles of working-class appropriation. Saoudi went on to elaborate in a Facebook post that “the last thing our increasingly puritanical culture needs right now is a bunch of self-neutering middle-class boobs telling us to be nice to immigrants; you might call that art, I call it sententious pedantry”.
