Me First And The Gimme Gimmes: Are We Not Men? We Are Diva!

Punk’s silliest sausages get in touch with their feminine side.

By Emma Johnston
( Classic Rock )
published

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For the best part of 20 years, Me First And The Gimme Gimmes have cornered the market in comedy punk interpretations of seemingly incompatible songs. We’ve had showtunes, country and schmaltzy pop classics, and now they’ve turned their attention to fierce female torch songs... and Karma Chameleon, but this isn’t the place to start splitting hairs.

As ever, the band – featuring members of Foo Fighters, NOFX, Lagwagon and Swingin’ Utters – give it their drunk karaoke best, piling in feet first with a wonderful aversion to panache or poise.

Lady Gaga’s Speechless is gleefully smooshed into Dead Boys’ Sonic Reducer, Buzzcocks’ Everybody’s Happy Nowadays barges in on Culture Club, Christina Aguilera’s Beautiful zips by in a blur of finger-snapping sass, and My Heart Will Go On is improved a thousandfold simply by replacing Celine Dion with a bunch of daft, hairy, bellowing dudes.

It’s so stupid, presented with such a sweet sense of pure fun, it might actually be genius.

Emma Johnston

Emma has been writing about music for 25 years, and is a regular contributor to Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Prog and Louder. During that time her words have also appeared in publications including Kerrang!, Melody Maker, Select, The Blues Magazine and many more. She is also a professional pedant and grammar nerd and has worked as a copy editor on everything from film titles through to high-end property magazines. In her spare time, when not at gigs, you’ll find her at her local stables hanging out with a bunch of extremely characterful horses.