Slight Return

A random shuffle threw up Does It Offend You, Yeah? who were one of those bands that briefly jabbed my consciousness in the late 2000s, along with Klaxons, Late Of The Pier and Bloc Party.

 

We Are Rockstars is one of a handful of songs I have, both in it's original and remixed versions. 

I wasn't sufficiently interested to check out their debut album, You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into..., and assumed that the band had dissolved before the end of the decade. Not so, apparently.

 

There was a second album Dontsaywedidntwarnyou and a headlining UK tour in 2011, then nothing until what was billed as a final gig on 12th December 2015, the last song of the set being We Are Rockstars.

 

Then, in September 2021, Does It Offend You, Yeah? announced a third album, We Do Our Own Stunts, was "coming soon". In April 2022, the band premiered lead single, Guess Who Just Rolled Back into Town.

 

However, in pulling together this post ("researching" would be really stretching the definition), I stumbled across The Band Before The Band Before an interview-based podcast which focuses on the "origin story" of bands and their musical journey up to the point of success, whether short-lived or sustained.

 

The series debuted in March 2023 with Does It Offend You, Yeah? co-founder and front person James Rushent. It turns out that host Chas Langston is an old mate, so the choice is less surprising. What was a surprise - well, to someone like me who had never Googled the band until 15 minutes before starting this post - is that James is the son of the legendary Martin Rushent.

 

I've only listened to a bit of the 75-minute podcast so far, but it's one I'll come back to, the brief extract a fascinating and moving insight into growing up as the son of a godlike producer. Rushent was believed to be bipolar (undiagnosed) which had a devastating personal cost for Martin, James and their family. Following a split in the 1980s, Martin Rushent remarried and had a fourth child. He and James worked together in later years, co-producing the Does It Offend You, Yeah? debut with the band. Rushent died in June 2011.

At the time of this post, We Do Our Own Stunts, is still "coming soon".