Ugly Rumours

[faceless]

George Galloway is rarely seen in the House of Commons - he says he prefers to give speeches and interact with the public. The shy and retiring MP's extra-parliamentary activities have included meeting Saddam Hussein, castigating US senators and going on Celebrity Big Brother - where he wore a skin-tight red leotard to dance with transvestite singer Pete Burns and pretended to be a cat lapping cream from another contestants' hands. What next but releasing a hit single? Galloway has a record out on 1 January - a re-release of the Edwin Starr hit "War" ("Huh. Yeah. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing" etc) which is "a musical referendum" on Blair.

Gorgeous George is pictured above in the pop video, sporting one of the more restrained costumes from his dressing-up box. The plot, such as it is, concerns the spoof reunion of Blair's student band, Ugly Rumours, at a Beatles-style rooftop gig. Cue the arrival of Sgt Galloway to investigate noise disturbance. "Anthony Charles Lynton Blair," he says, "I'm arresting you on the charge of spreading Ugly Rumours, which have led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people around the world."

Pre-orders for the 79p track (20p goes to the Stop the War Coalition) can be placed on Galloway's website. Sadly his vocal contribution is limited and most words belong to The Drifters vocalist Patrick Alan. Still, let's hope it fares indefatigably in the charts.

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story from HERE
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It was an original hit for The Temptations, so this report from The Independent is incorrect. I did some searching and found a few versions. Click the links below to hear them - on listening as an impartial bugger I'd have to say the Edwin Starr version is the best even so...

Here's a quote from Edwin Collins - "War' was originally recorded by the Temptations, it was buried on one of their albums. But then a lot of mail came in, mostly from students, asking why they didn't release it on a 45. Well, that was a touchy time, and that song had some implications. It was a message record, an opinion record, and stepped beyond being sheer entertainment. It could become a smash record, and that was fine, but if it went the other way, it could kill the career of whoever the artist was."


The Temptations
Edwin Starr
Frankie Goes To Hollywood

[janbo1960]

I always like the Edwin Star version

[eefanincan]

If I'm not mistaken, Bruce Springstein also did a version.

[janbo1960]

I like the Harry Secombe version.....

[faceless]

[mickyv]

Just did my bit by pre-ordering a download, but I must admit that I rate this new version after the original, and the original after the Springsteen version, well he is the Boss after all !

[nekokate]

I've pre-ordered my copy and I'm going to let as many people know about this as possible.

I personally think the song is crap, but this is one occasion where the overall message is far more important - if we can pull of the miracle of getting this to number 1 it would be great!

[faceless]

Here's the video clip from Youtube

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[faceless]

George more popular that Justin Timberlake (and Blair, obviously!)

The Ugly Rumours single War - on which George Galloway features - will debut in the mid-week music chart this Wednesday at Number 6!

Thanks and congratulations to everyone who helped put it there. But the task now is to make it Number 1 at the weekend and show Tony Blair what the country thinks of him. It's a musical referendum on Blair, the war and the plans for Trident.

Thousands of people on Saturday's march in London bought the download, propelling it into the chart after George made his appeal to the massive crowd. Text Peace1 to 78789 - make sure all your friends and contacts do! - and we can take the single to the top of the singles chart. Look out Gary Barlow, cry your eyes out Justin Timberlake!

(from the official email)

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that's great it's got to #6

[Colston]

I wonder whether it will still be at six on Sunday.

Lots of publicity and the mass purchase on Saturday... will it have legs?

[Sheffman]

... I've just noticed it has got a mention on the ITN evening news! ... nice one

[faceless]

Here's the report from The Guardian...

Anti-war anthem heading for the top 10
Rosie Swash
Wednesday February 28, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

The indefatigable George Galloway does pop up in some unlikely places: Celebrity Big Brother, Saddam's palace, the UK singles chart... yes, you read that correctly. The Bethnal Green and Bow MP looks set to shoehorn cover band Ugly Rumours into the top 40 this weekend with a cover of Edwin Starr's War, thanks to the efforts made by his Respect party and the Stop The War coalition. During last Saturday's anti-war marches in London and Glasgow, protesters were encouraged to download the song, which is "performed" by a Tony Blair lookalike. Although Galloway himself isn't actually a member of Ugly Rumours, a send up of Blair's university band, his Respect party have been central to the song's success, heavily promoting it through their website.

If the single does do as well as anticipated (it reached number 6 in the midweek charts) then a duel with Take That is in the offing. When approached on the matter by the Independent, a spokesperson for Galloway was in a characteristically bullish mood: "Gary Barlow better work his arse off over the next few days because we will."

War was originally released around Christmas without much success, but thanks to changes in the chart rules relating to downloads, it has generated the 5,500 needed to make it into the top ten. Speaking to the BBC, Ben Grey, the song's producer, said, "We wanted to try and reach the people who might be more into watching X-Factor than listening to politics. Marches and rallies can be dismissed and ignored but a hit record will mean everyone is talking about this issue."

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Nice of them to be so disparaging of it eh?

[popinjay]

No publicity is bad publicity. Smartarse critics in the media can say what they want, but at the end of the day, they're just a handful of overanalytical people, up against five thousand people who have brought the song. At the very least, the Stop The War Coalition has made some money from it.

[luke]

[faceless]