The Indie Verdict: The British guitar bands Keith Richards called “a load of crap”
As one-half of one of the most influential songwriting partnerships of all time and the lead guitarist of The Rolling Stones, Keith Richards has earned more rights than most to be critical of others. After all, he and the band had a significant hand in the musical explosion of the 1960s and the great reset in culture that it produced, meaning that not only did he change the world with his sonics, but that much of what followed can be traced back to them.
Besides his distinctive guitar-playing style and undoubted songwriting ability – which supplied rock with era-defining classics such as ‘Gimme Shelter’ – Richards is most known for decades spent living hard. From drug and alcohol binges to several baffling scrapes with death, this cat has had more than his fair share of lives and has many tales to tell from his meandering existence.
As one of rock’s most respected figures and the man who most closely embodies the trope of sex, drugs and the rest, Keith Richards stands as a somewhat singular entity in the pantheon of genre gods, with his list of deeds legendary and his experiences speaking for themselves. Whether it searing highs or crushing lows, he has been through it all and remained mostly unscathed, affording him the essence of a battle-hardened veteran who holds wisdom mere mortals seldom come by.
This revered position has bolstered Richards’ right to speak plainly, and when he does, it commands attention. Yet, he is not any old sage; he’s a road-weary and once drug-addled traveller with absolutely no time for bullshit or what he deems it to be, anyway. This has seen him tear into various prominent artists from his gilded throne, and once, he brutally undid the new wave of British guitar bands, whom he and the rest of The British Invasion opened the gates for decades ago.
When speaking to NME in 2007 as the indie revival was in full swing, Richards took a shot at the fresh wave of guitar groups, and when asked to name his favourite new outfit, he said: “I ain’t got any, they’re all a load of crap.” He then noted The Libertines – a group spiritually related to his band’s notorious hellraising – Arctic Monkeys and Bloc Party as the worst offenders. They’re “posers” and “bullshit”, he thought, despite their cultural relevance, and said he’d rather listen to reggae, Morrocan music, and, more surprisingly, Motörhead.
He said: “Everyone’s a load of crap. They’re all trying to be somebody else, and they ain’t being themselves. The Libertines, Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party? Load of crap, load a crap. Posers, rubbish. There ain’t nothing out there that’s worth shit. I listen to the real shit. I don’t listen to bullshit. I listen to my shit, baby, Motörhead, reggae, Moroccan music. All kinds of shit.”
That question really animated Richards, with him later giving his best advice to young bands in the form of the cutting: “Grow up.” He then delivered some advice for The Libertines frontman “Pete Doherty in particular”. As Richards isn’t any old commentator and has a preference for being quite unkind to those he doesn’t like, he got personal. He said: “He should shut the fuck up and leave her [Kate Moss] alone. I don’t know the man, all I know is he’s pushing his luck, and there it is”.
Offering some of that frank sage wisdom his career has collected, he concluded: “She’ll live, the boys will die. It’s just copycat bullshit. I did it because that was the way I did it. Now people think it’s a way of life.”
