New Wave for the New Week #16

The line between some of New Wave's goofier records and the "Novelty Song" genre was sometimes a very thin one. Think of The Flying Lizards' covers of "Money," "Summertime Blues," et al., or The Vapors "Turning Japanese," or even The B-52s' "Rock Lobster". The fact that self-parody, a sense of humor, and a sense of fun were integral to the scene caused that line to be very blurry indeed.

Mix in a bit of British Monty Python-esque humor, and you wound up with bands like Yeah Yeah Noh, Stump, and this week's entry, A Tribe of Toffs.

A Tribe of Toffs gave the world one great single, "John Kettley (Is a Weatherman)," and disappeared forever. In fact, very little can be found online about the band save for this brief Wikipedia entry. But what a wonderful novelty they left behind.

The instantly-hummable song states plain fact about Mr. Kettley, who indeed is a weatherman (and so is Michael Fish). The video is no great shakes, but Kettley was good enough to make a cameo in the clip for his uncomissioned theme song.

Not much more to tell you. Enjoy this week's New Wave for the New Week, "John Kettley (Is a Weatherman)" by A Tribe of Toffs, prepare to witness Mr. Motch Bondouch and his amazing cheese and pickle solo, and ponder whether it's worth anyone writing a song about Al Roker...