Babasonicos

You weren't there that night
You didn't get it right
You weren't there that day
I know you will never know
That the lady got no soul
She got no soul

Lyrics by:
Brown / Tunon / Kebleris

Available on:
Golden Greats (4.04)

Details:
Babasonicos is quite a weak finish to Golden Greats. The title comes from the name of the group of musicians in Argentina whom Brown collaborated with for the track. The song is a statement towards the air stewardess ("the lady got no soul") from his 'air rage' incident aboard a British Airways flight from Paris to Manchester in February 1998*, for which he was imprisoned for 60 days in Strangeways jail. Ian was alleged to have used threatening behaviour towards an air stewardess and the captain of the flight. He allegedly told the stewardess, "Don't wave your f*****g hands at me. I'll f*****g chop them off" and upon intervention of the captain, told him to "piss off and have a shave, Pugwash". When the plane was coming in to land, he allegedly ran and hammered on the cockpit door for 20 to 30 seconds. Ian's response to these charges is to be found in this BBC News article from 1st February 1999:

At his trial he admitted telling British Airways stewardess Christine Cooper he would "chop her hands off" - but said it was meant as a joke. He also admitted tapping on the cockpit door, but it was to try to get the names of the crew to complain about their treatment of him. (BBC News Online, 1st February 1999

Released on Christmas Eve, 1998, Ian maintains that he was wrongfully imprisoned and Babasonicos is a protest of his innocence, with his indignancy overwhelming in the vocal delivery (this is the only redeeming feature of the song; musically, it is an uninspired effort). Ian Brown's version of the event can be read below:

"She [the air hostess] asks me if we want duty-free and she waves her hands dismissively. So I says 'don't wave your hand at me.' So she says 'OK' because she knew there was no need. So I say 'Sorry, it's OK but if you do it again I'll chop it off.' Five minutes later, the captain runs out, right up to the kid who's sat next to me, nose to nose [saying] 'Who's got a problem ?' I said 'I've got a problem 'cos she's got no manners.' He said 'It's my plane and I've had to stand up.' 'So go and sit down.' So he went and sat down and that's when he phoned the police. They said I was pissed out of my head and I'd gone wild, but I don't even drink." (Ian Brown speaking to Muse magazine, 21st April 2000)

In February 1998, on a flight from Paris to Manchester, Brown became involved in an argument with a stewardess. She summoned the captain, and Brown, complaining that the staff were rude, hammered on the cockpit door. On landing, he was charged with threatening behaviour on board an aircraft. He maintains that he was made an example of: "To send a message out not to mess about on aircraft - but I never messed about on no aircraft. I didn't even swear." That October, he was sentenced to 60 days in Strangeways prison. He bristles with indignation: "I got the same as Gary Glitter. I was sent away for words I'm supposed to have said, and I didn't even say the words they put me away for. He had 4,500 images of kids..." He trails off, shaking his head. "And me and him get the same sentence." He says that, when he was taken from the courtroom, the jailer wouldn't jail him, because he'd seen the Roses play. "He said, 'It's Ian Brown, I can't do it, I love 'im.'" (Ian Brown speaking to The Guardian, 2nd February 2002)

This incident was not to prove Brown's last run-in with the law. In 2005, he was arrested for assault during a San Francisco gig, but no charges were laid.

This is a webpage on the band Babasonicos:

http://www.mantra.com.ar/Entrevistas/babasonicos.html (the page can be translated here).

* In the same month, Liam Gallagher was involved in an air rage incident on a Cathay Pacific flight from Heathrow to Sydney. Speaking to the press about the incident, Liam's response - "If I ever meet that fucking captain again.. I'll stab him" - was quite close to Ian's (alleged) words to the air stewardess on the plane. An air rage incident that Ian Brown draws parallels with regarding sentencing is that of Peter Buck (guitarist with R.E.M.) on a British Airways flight from Seattle to Heathrow, in April 2001. Buck's position was benefited by having Bono as a character witness in court and was found not guilty, acquitted of all charges at Isleworth Crown Court.

"If you’ve got money you stay out of jail, don’t ya ? Look what the guy from R.E.M. (guitarist Peter Buck) did on a plane. He was raging drunk and attacking people, but you’ve got Bono and a load of millionaires in a courtroom. There’s a footballer over here called Vinnie Jones who threatened to kill all the stewardesses. If I’d have gotten expensive lawyers, I would have walked out of the courtroom, simple as that." (Ian Brown speaking to Richard Thomas, djmixed.com)

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