Extreme Listening Mode!

Have you ever heard of Tom Jarvis? No? Well, that’s okay. He’s the guitarist in Sheffield’s Reverend and the Makers, a band who sort of mark time until the Arctic Monkeys release a new album (think Stone Roses/Charlatans.) Tom will, most likely, pass as a footnote in indie annals – a sort of ‘drummer from Sleeper’ for the noughties – and is probably booked for the line-up round on Never Mind The Buzzcocks two years hence. But he was literally on tens of people’s lips this week when he announced that he has purchased an ‘ethical’ guitar made, not of environmentally unsound conventional hardwoods, but recycled CD’s. ‘It’s genius’ said Tom. Chris Martin must be suicidal he didn’t get there first. It’s a small gesture, sure, but from small acorns grow mighty trees.

Which should be cut down and turned into guitars. For fucks sake.

ELM has literally never heard anything less bollocks in its short existence. In fact, we are sorely tempted to kill Iggy Pop just so he can turn in his grave. It’s not we are anti-environmental causes, far from it (though I’d eat a whale while wearing trainers made for 0.2p in Thailand if it would annoy Lucy Siegle). But the sheer hopeless tokenism of this is beyond contempt. Radiohead assessing the carbon footprint from their tour? Laudable. And probably useful. Having a guitar made out of old CD’s? Come on.

The question remains why anyone would want to do this. And you have to say for the immense and bloating feeling of worthy self-satisfaction. It’s useless, it’s gimmicky and, frankly, if I was the guitarist in Reverend and the Makers I’d be spending less of my time wondering what my equipment was made of and more of it trying to write a couple of decent songs. I’ll be honest, I’m questioning his motives. I don’t really think this is the work of a committed environmentalist. I know that this sounds a bit reactionary and ill-informed, but that’s what we do here at ELM. You knows it.

I’ll leave the final word to the Greatest Living Scottish Englishman, Lloyd Cole;

Did you really cry
When you saw the hole in the sky?
Did you really hold your head
And hide your eyes?
That’s alright
You might call it ultraviolet radiation
It’s only sunlight
 
(‘So You’d Like To Save The World’, 1994)

Filed under: General Stuff | Tagged: Arctic Monkeys, carbon footprint, environment, reverend and the makers