I’m burying the hatchet with The Ordinary Boy’s. I can’t be too disgruntled about the way they inexplicably shot to fame on the back of an intellectually crass game show that exaggerates the importance of celebrities.
Preston wasn’t a celebrity before he went in the ‘Big Brother’ house, and neither were his band ‘The Ordinary Boys’, whose previous hits ‘Talk Talk’ and ‘Week in Week out’ had been upheld as working class anthems among indie fans, but that was as far as their celebrity status went.
“This is for anyone who thought we were cool before we were famous” announces Preston, before launching into ‘Radio Play’ from the 2004 album ‘Over the Counter Culture’. Needless to say the reaction to most of the material played from this album is rather dismal.
The band alternates between the new and the old. Their latest ska releases ‘Boys will be boys’ and ‘nine2five’ are what really gets the crowd bouncing while ‘Week in week out’ fails to impress on any level. It’s a shame as the band gives the old single a cracking delivery.
Preston decides to ask who saw them in the tent last year, and then pointed out one waving fan by saying ‘She wants to think she was here but she wasn’t really’.
Getting back to my original point, the reason I’m happy to bury the hatchet with a band that went from social commentators to media manipulators is quite simply that they’re that much better for it.
The band were always impressive live but just prior to Preston’s stint in the celebrity equivalent of Russian Roulette they were definitely on a way down. While The Dead 60’s had the ska angle covered perfectly Hard-Fi and Arctic Monkeys were both successfully upholding the working class hero image. There wasn’t really room for another Ordinary Boys album, and a weaker one at that.
Thank-god for Big Brother and Lady Soverign then – as the impact on The Ordinary Boys is clearly a positive one. Preston bounds around the stage with a newfound showmanship presumably fashioned by his new celebrity status.
The crowd here is different too. The Ordinary Boy’s used to attract hoards of white, working class, middle aged men, often drunk and happy enough to sing along to ‘How’s the weather...?’. Nowadays The Ordinary Boy’s have a far more varied fan base, and a far greater female following.
A fantastic set and a triumphant return for The Ordinary Boy’s 3rd appearance in as many years at T in the Park.
T in the Park 
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