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.

Marr took to twitter to answer disappointed Smiths fans (is there any other kind of Smiths fan?) and claimed that the memory of the group hadn’t been sullied at all.

He said:

Writing ‘Please Please…’ one Friday in ’84 is one of the best memories of my life. This ad has not sullied that memory one bit.

He went on to criticise the fans who had been…

“bitching and moaning whilst, wait for it, watching X Factor”

And Marr is absolutely correct in his assertion that the use of a cover of a Smiths song in a television advert doesn’t sully the memory of the band because, the point here is that we’re dealing with a band so gaspingly overrated, so mediocre from top-to-bottom that any use of their song doesn’t harm their legacy, rather, brings the fine reputation of John Lewis down.

That’s right. Lovely John Lewis who sell all those nice things are now associated with dismal, vacant 6th form poetry shot through faux-kitchen sinkery and a collection of faces so long that you could trip over their chins.

Poor ol’ John Lewis. Being lumped in with those talentless berks.

Follow hecklerspray on Twitter or join our Facebook group if anyone is still daft enough to use it

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.

The critics have been collectively wetting themselves over the free-roaming, violent epicness of GTA IV. With good reason – it’s great. We have a copy at home and another just sitting in its cellophane fading by the sun. If anyone wants to offer us a good price (say, a steady supply of body parts that fetch top whack in China) then we are open to offers.

Grand Theft Auto IV is predicted to thrash the staggering first week sales of sci-fi shooter Halo 3 last year. That’ll be at least $300 million then; that is a computer game grossing more cash than most big budget movies. How times have changed since Manic Miner and Double Dragon. If you have never heard of either of those we are going to kill ourselves.

So, with GTA IV expected to shift six million copies on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 in its first week alone, this is undeniably maker Rockstar‘s biggest hit to date.

Controversial or not, we have never found bashing people in the face and stealing cars more fun. Heck, sometimes we even play video games too.

Read More:

Grand Theft Auto receives acclaim – BBC News