Sell Out - HecklerSpray

There has been the vague, wet, typical outpouring of mild-ire surrounding an indie band allowing one of their songs to be used in advertising. It’s ‘selling-out’ apparently. And god knows, that’s the worst thing an indie band can be accused of, right?

And of course, there’s a terribly saccharine John Lewis advertisement that’s doing the Christmas rounds this year which features a cover version of The Smiths’ ‘Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’.

Johnny Marr is at pains to point out that the song featuring in a commercial doesn’t sully the memory of the song at all and The Smiths haven’t sold out, actually. And you know something, he’s right to say that it doesn’t sully the memory of the band.

It went on sale at 12.01 AM in most supermarkets, some games retailers and no doubt a few geezers doing the mark-up thing on street corners. Did you get your copy of Grand Theft Auto IV today?

If you didn’t and you didn’t pre-order then, well, tough. Finding a copy now will be like finding a pair of jeans that actually fit properly: not impossible, just flipping difficult.

41 UK shops were understood to have opened their doors at midnight to welcome the obsessed and the wired as they queued up in the cold, gingerly working their way towards the counter only to be told that the guy in front has just bought the last copy. Still if he/she was small enough you could always have mugged them and run off into the night. Someone will have done, you mark our words.