Last Thursday March 5th a Facebook user called Tony Montague posted blurry mobile phone footage of a band performing in the streets of Eastleigh, which he captioned “Buskers in Southampton today brilliant.”
Even though Tony had no idea who they were, in the last five days his video has been shared 47,000 times and had nearly 700,000 views. It’s been copied and recopied to YouTube, and the performers have finally been identified as Cornish busking band Phat Bollard.
The huge amount of interest stems from the simple fact that the song Millionaires – which they perform in the video – hits a satirical nerve and has the ring of truth.
A big part of what makes the chorus so funny is its cheery conclusion “I don’t give a fuck about you” – which is also why the Beeb will never allow me to play it on 6 Music in its present form. Though if they changed it from “fuck” to “toss” for radio purposes all bets would be off – it could easily become a viral Number One.
Meanwhile you can hear and buy the studio version on their incendiary new CD Spare A Little Change – which is available at the bargain price of £12 for 17 tracks, postage included. I’ve just bought it myself and would strongly recommend you to do the same: this kind of talent and chutzpah deserves our support.
I agree 100% with your appraisal of ‘Millionaires’ by Phat Bollard, it has the right ingredients to be huge if only they could substitute f**k for toss! Maybe they will and we will see more of them, it’s great to see a band enjoy making music, being political and making people smile.
Hello .
We have recorded a cleaner millionaires for Tom Robinsons radio 6 show but unsure how to get it to him . Any ideas ? P
Great news! Please upload it to BBC Introducing and I’ll do my best to get it on air ASAP – via http://www.bbc.co.uk/introducing/uploader. Actually please also upload it to us here at FOTN as well – the Dropbox link will reopen on the front page here Monday afternoon. Would love to feature it on our Listening Post here at the weekend…
It’s about time these guys had some recognition. I’ve been a big fan since first seeing them at the Looe Music Festival 2 years ago. You can’t listen to their songs without smiling and feeling uplifted. They are a great fun band with a serious message that we should all take on board.
I don’t really want to be a part in promoting Phat Bollard to being “successful” (inverted comma’s that means rich) but if you haven’t already done so, you need to buy their other 3 albums: Shouting At Seagulls, It’s Not Knitting and Live at the Bread And Roses.
Good luck Phat Bollard. I hope to see plenty more of you in the future…on the streets, or in a local pub that is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MskwYQINIis
NOT giving a duck about something is totally acceptable!!
Did this ever make it to 6 Music? Would love to hear that these guys got a leg up.
Hi guys, well done, Tom for getting BBC to take notice. I also posted the ” Falmouth” version of Phat Bollard’s ” Millionaires” on my FB page on 11th March – thought it was a supremely effective use of irony. OK, I don’t especially like indiscriminate use of the ” F word”… because if you keep using it, you’ve got nothing left to say when things are really f*****g awful… but that’s exactly what they are in terms of this government encouraging big business to get away with not paying tax etc etc, whilst worse off people are truly suffering so much. Hoping to order ” Spare a little change”. As for comments that Phat Bollard don’t pay tax…maybe they don’t earn enough money to. Our society is full of people practising anosognosia ( an insouciant unawareness of the problems and situtation of people around you)… now there’s a new subject for a song, guys! Wishing you success. I hope you’ll get to the South East – I think Canterbury would appreciate you!
My only regret is not finding their music sooner. Uplifting, raw & to the point.
Use of lyrics is brilliant and they can fair play a bit.
Saw these in Padstow 30th july 2015 ………one word FANTASTIC even my 4 year old sings along to em soooooooooo true too !!
First saw the guys at Sidmouth folk festival the other year had a cap full of whiskey bought two cars and had a great time. Best band at the festival just keeps you smiling
That should read CD’ s not cars I wish
See them occasionally in Bristol city centre, they were there just before christmas with a new CD (‘Grapefruit’) – I’d particularly recommend the song ‘Old Doors’ which is incredibly deep and also (I think!) clean.
A very talented band, we see them around here regularly, (in Bude), as a few of them are based around here with local connections, (including my lad Dex!) It’s worth pointing out that Bude is a bit of a hotbed of musical talent. We also have, among others, the incredibly talented singer/songwriter Morgan T Davis, who has an AMAZING voice that blows you away, (although he has temp de-camped to Brighton), Danny Allen, the Far Cry, and Dexter Wyatt, (another singer/songwriter/bass player etc who has great songs and potential). I wish the London based music media would get on their bikes more and look more outside of London, Manchester etc for the new talent. I’m tired of all the samey sounding/looking new young bands, with their silly suits and foppish fringes, that Jools showcases. I want to see and hear something different on mainstream music T.V./Radio!
Best band in the world…. quite frankly…
Appropriately outside BHS
I was in my home town of Chester the other day, and came across this superb band, Phat Bollard, I thought they were excellent, they certainly pulled in the crowds, I’m hoping they will be in Chester again very soon, keep up the good work lad’s.
Phat Bollard were performing ‘Millionaires’ at Bath on Sunday and I was hooked from the very first chorus … genius!!! I bought all 4 of their CDs and it will be an absolute delight to get to know all their other tracks; meanwhile I’m enjoying viewing all their performances of Millionaires on YouTube. Thank you Phat Bollard, for putting a smile on my face, whilst simultaneously conveying a very powerful message 🙂