Artist Playlist – Eccentronic Research Council's "Man Vs Fan mixtape"

Eccentronic Research Council release album Johnny Rocket, Narcissist & Music Machine … I’m Your Biggest Fan is out on Without Consent on 18 May, a concept record about what happens when fans get a little to close to the bands they love. Ahead of the release, Adrian Flanagan from the band – which also includes actress Maxine Peake – has made us this “Man Vs Fan mixtape”. “Here for your masochistic enjoyment is a little Mix tape I have put together as an accompaniment (if you like) to our forthcoming concept album Johnny Rocket, Narcissist and Music Machine… I’m your biggest fan. An album concerning one woman’s obsession with the lead singer of an up and coming band called THE MOONLANDINGZ, in a fictional ex mining town in South Yorkshire called, Valhalla Dale and how this turns in to something much worse,” he explains. “The Theme of the Mixtape is to reveal the two sides of the band/fan coin and other annoyances. That’s why I’ve entitled this particular Mix “the ECCENTRONIC RESEARCH COUNCIL’s Man V Fan Mixtape”. Notes are provided below for the listeners displeasure. Best wishes, your biggest fan, Adrian Flanagan for The ERC, Sheffield, 2015.”

“A brilliant cover of the Napoleon XIV track ‘They’re coming to take me away ha ha’ by French producer and genius, Jean Pierre Massiera. It’s a simple fact, all long haul musicians and artists are nuts, However, the fans of such freakish twonks are even weirder.”

“The Obsessive music fan treats their favorite song and artist like a hypothetical Pullover, this can come across pretty creepish, as Jess Conrad demonstrates here!!”

“Whilst your crumby band are still setting up its own equipment on stage, you are in reality the road crew, and you, the amorous fan, are lusting over a smelly unpaid glorified roadie with a song in his heart and who’s underpants, even cockroaches would run screaming from.”

“The up and coming Lead singer hears this song and everything falls in to place, CHICKS DIG MEANIES, immediately he ‘crawls over 50 good pussies to get to one fat boys ass hole’ rendering himself a two year prison sentence and barred for life from the set of the Late Late Show with James Corden.”

“I believe, that every kind and pleasant comment you throw at an artist, a small piece of their soul dies. I expect the reviews for our new album will leave me completely soulless or more likely, completely invigorated by their shear spite.” [laughs]

“When you create anything that gets any kind of focus on it, your then expected to become a salesman of your work, which more often than not is created by pretty shy, inwardly articulate souls and comes from extremely dark or private places. Next thing, your being asked to stand like a pleb in a thong on a stairwell in Hackney by a photographer and being asked your opinions on politics and global warming. At times like that I end up saying stupid stuff like ‘they should burn all forests down, it might be bad for the environment and wildlife but at least foxes will be able to cover their eyes when they see dogging activity up ahead.” [laughs]

“When your being followed down the street by a fan, it becomes a kind of surreal waltz. You know they are there behind you and you know they will follow you home given the chance and you know that you have to do everything to loose them at the next corner, or, you confront them, ask them why, remind them that a well person probably wouldn’t be doing this, such as ‘why are you following a man with a plastic bag containing steaming hot chips and curry sauce in it, are you hungry or summat ??!!!'”

“Then there’s the opportunist fan, those that ingratiate themselves in to your circle of friends as soon as your getting a tiny bit of public recognition with the soul purpose to get with you on the way up. It’s not flattering having a blood sucking vampire as a new best friend or lover!”

“You then you get the local bands mithering you to work with them and asking you to give them support slots, when only a few months earlier, they wouldn’t of pissed on you if you were on fire. It can be a lonely place this music lark. Sometimes I think ‘If yer lonely, your lucky!’ and Doctor Johnny Clarke is right, ‘the last thing i need is another friend!'”

“We can only prey and hope…”

For more head to Facebook.com/TheEccentronicResearchCouncil.