Guilty Pleasures

A great loss to the music world occurred this past week.

The vast majority would have never heard of him, nor heard his work. Most would probably have been put off by his stage name. He wasn't for the shy.

"Kunt And The Gang"

Back in the early 1980s a quartet from Basildon brought a electronic new wave sound to the nation which, over the years, has influenced a huge swathe of musicians. Twenty years later it was a bloke in tracksuit and hi-vis rattling tunes out of a tiny Casio keyboard that the Essex town churned out.

I first came across Kunt through a Facebook post from a local paper of young mothers, who were picking up their offspring from a nearby Primary School, complaining of a pub advertising the act for a forthcoming gig with the name clearly displayed.

His songs were vulgar, but funny and usually catchy, the first album title 'I Have a Little Wank and I Have a Little Cry' should give some idea as to the content. Some were parodies of existing songs. "I think you'll find that any resemblance between my song Fucksticks and Chas and Dave's Gertcha is just a massive coincidence... " Kunt told one magazine in 2013.

Some of the songs deal with subjects that are - or were at the time - not usually the subject for comedy. Serial killers and pedophilia were reoccurring themes alongside sex and an obsession with Countdown that produced love songs for both Carol Vorderman and Rachel Riley.

He took two swings at actual chart success, reaching no. 63 and 66 with two of his crowd pleasers - Videos here - but any thoughts of widespread fame and fortune were usually hampered by the choice of stage name, let alone the material. Mainstream attention was fleeting at best, Charlie Brooker once name checked him in a column. A couple of his videos made it to late night YouTube compilation shows on TV.

He referred to himself as a 'minor internet hit singer' and he will probably forever remain that. But he deserved so much more and leaves a body of work that should stand the test of time. Unless sex goes out of fashion...