REVOLVER Remember Heathers, the black comedy with young Winona Ryder which sort of came and went back in 1989?
Well, over the years Heathers has become the tour bus film of choice for discerning musicians. It's all because of an in-joke that no one got the first time around.
Much of Heathers' dialogue is taken directly from song lyrics by The Replacements, and the unnoticed clue is that the film takes place in at the Westerburg High School - more than a nod to the name of The Replacements singer, Paul Westerberg.
If ever you ever find yourself at one of those musical training courses advising greedy and talentless little brats how to pursue a career in the industry, you could simply present The Replacements story as what not to do and who not to do it to.
Take their name. The Replacements were originally called The Impediments, but after upsetting every music promoter they crossed paths with, who all vowed never to book them again, they just changed their name - and got away with it.
Even as The Replacements they would get so heroically drunk before every gig that they couldn't play any of their own songs. The one song they could all play reasonably proficiently while totally hammered was Bryan Adams's Summer of '69, which says more about the musical structure of Adams's song than the levels of The Replacements' inebriation.
When it came to naming their albums, they took a novel approach. They would drive around in a van listening to the radio and at any given point would announce that the next song that came on would be the name of their new album. Hence, their classic 1984 album, Let It Be.
The Replacements' relationship with their record company wasn't the best. When the label told them it was releasing some of their material on the (then new) CD format, the band broke into the studio, stole all the master tapes of their work and threw them into the nearby Mississippi river.
This may not appear to be a very clever thing to do, but it later transpired that the studio was located right beside Prince's house, and the band thought that if His Purpleness saw a load of master tapes floating in the river he would fish them out, listen to them and reconsider his whole musical approach.
And on it went as The Replacements managed to piss off the entire industry with their refractory ways. At the centre of the storm, though, the band were releasing sui generis material. Left of the Dial, Bastards of Young, Here Comes a Regular and the still astonishing Alex Chilton are some of the best songs of the 1980s.
Inevitably, The Replacements slouched apart rather than actually breaking up. Their last concert together has become known as the "It Ain't Over Till the Fat Roadie Plays" gig, as each of the band member's place on stage that night had to be taken over by roadies as the show progressed. A bitterly titled best of, All for Nothing, appeared a few years later.
It's some cause for celebration that the remaining members of a band who had it all but didn't know what to do with it have just reassembled to record two new songs, which will appear on the forthcoming Don't You Know Who I Think I Was? retrospective. By buying this album you will be helping to atone for the sins of the music industry.
