You sort of prefer it when the Catholic Church does its "if you listen to a Rolling Stones record you will go to hell" thing. It's reliable and consistent and everyone knows where they stand vis a vis The Stones and eternal perdition.
It's the modern types who do your head in. The types who have gone a bit groovy after being over-exposed to Simon and Garfunkel songs during folk masses. Types like Fr Anton Bobas, a Croatian Catholic priest.
You sort of wince uncomfortably when you learn that Fr Bobas has his own metal band. And you wince even more when you learn that the band are called Messengers Of Hope. Fr Bobas is in the news because he has gone off on a solo run about Marilyn Manson. The self-styled "God of Fuck" (Manson, that is) had a gig in Croatia last week and, as usual, religious groups were doing their "ban this filth" routine. It got so bad that seven Catholic priests even offered to pay compensation to the promoters of the Manson gig if the date was pulled. Wonder where they got the money from?
Three years ago though, Fr Bobas had gone to a Marilyn Manson gig in Hamburg. Afterwards he pronounced that it was the best gig he had ever seen. Speaking out in support of Manson, he said that the singer was unlikely to "turn young people into satanists". He added that most of Manson's critics (as in his fellow priests) had never seen his act. Fr Bobas did concede though, that Manson's persona was "rather dark".
It's not just the fact that audience members turn into satanists immediately after a Marilyn Manson show that is so preoccupying Croatian religious groups. They're worried about the "drug addiction and violence" that will follow in his wake. What a nice little troika that is to burden someone with.
For people who are a few llamas short of a petting zoo, this needs to be spelled out slowly. Marilyn Manson is Brian Warner, an ex-rock music journalist who hit the make-up counter, read a few lousy Alistair Crowley books and became the leading panto dame of Goth-shock. It's not music, it's cabaret. Here's how you prove the point - everyone knows what Marilyn Manson looks like; very few are able to name more than one of his songs.
Revolver has nothing against the Manson dude. He is, in fact, a remarkably pleasant and intelligent man. It's all just a big neo-Alice Cooper thing with Manson, with a few "look at me, I'm really evil" stage flourishes thrown in. He gets a lot of grief for his stage act - unnatural sex acts and the smoking of human bones etc. Which is all fair enough, if you're the sort of person who believes the magician really does saw the lady in half.
Manson once said that the only act he felt he had in something in common with was The Spice Girls. How's that for insight? The only problem with Marilyn Manson is with his critics. Especially those responsible media organisations who dragged his name into the Columbine High School massacre. That attempt to somehow link or blame a musical cabaret show for the murder of schoolchildren is beyond contempt.
Still we all love a Salem, and Manson clearly revels in his cleverly choreographed image as a clear and present danger to the fabric of society.
Next Wednesday Manson appears at the RDS in Dublin alongside Iron Maiden. One of the last big gigs held in the RDS was by the perma-smiling, wholesome, avowedly Christian band that is Destiny's Child. The same Destiny's Child who are currently appearing on our televisions in an advertisement where they encourage their young fan base to stuff their stupid faces with nasty fast food. Who's the bigger danger?
