Johnny Foreigner - Salt, Peppa and Spinderella [Single]

  

Best Before Records

Technically the fith single from Birmingham outfit Johnny Foreigner (third from Best Before Records), "Salt, Peppa and Spinderella" was originally written for a small Kerrang! session at first, but then made it on to their debut album "Waited up til it was light" and then finally as a single.

Controversially given a ridiculously low rank when reviewed by the NME, despite the magazine citing this song as one of the best from their highly praised album previously, 'Salt, Peppa and Spinderella' is a short sharp piece about watching the nightlife activity in their favourite Birmingham chip shop, incidently called "Salt and Pepper". With a gradual building intro, that soon moves into thumping drums, lead singers Alexei Berrow belts in forcefully "We walk out like lions, short on prey", and continues to tell the story quite simply of how they "like to watch the fights break out and end in grief from these cheap plastic seats", with the help of bassist Kelly Southern.

This song is really just a mere ditty about experiences most of us can relate to, and doesn't offer us much other depth than that. However, despite the somewhat edgy subject matter, JOFO successfully romaticise much of it with their pretty prose ('Blackbird on my back again, I caught a shock but my heart's still beating!') to make this song so much more than what it so easily could have been.

For me, and I assume many others, the truely best bit of this song is the crescendo at the end, full with Kelly chanting "doot doot doot doot do do doot doot" and Alexei mumbling his poetry over the loud and distorted guitars and drummer Junior keeping everyone and everything up to speed ("Turn on the real drums"). It's the last minute that make the song another great Johnny Foreigner song, and not just a rare b-side which was it's aim initially.

Great as it is though, it's not really a match for their previous single, "Eyes Wide Terrified", which was a big player in getting most people excited about this band. But a good song none the less, prodominantly for it's instant appeal. I had it as my profile tune on MySpace for a while, it's that kinda song.

The video is great too, although unfortuantely banned on most music tv channels for it's flashing images. Booo. So don't press play if you have Epilepsy please.