Talk:The Mekons

Mekons.de
Will remove the url mekons.de since it contain a exploitive code to iexplorer6/outlook6 and imediately install trojans and hi-jackers.
 * I know the guy who runs the site and I let him know about the problem and he repared it today. --BarbD 14:23, 25 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Nobby Knape! Acwilson9 (talk) 08:07, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

Band membership
The Tom Greenhalgh page mentions some other band members - Kevin Lycett and Mark White - not mentioned here. Is this the same Mark White who was briefly a member of ABC (band)? --RichardVeryard 12:47, 15 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Don't think so. Guy Hatton 11:24, 16 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Briefly? According to this site he was a member for 12 years. Regardless, AllMusic Guide says it is the same guy. The Secretary of Funk 07:33, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
 * I think AMG is probably (not for the first time) talking out of its arse. According to the ABC article, Mark White was in the band in 1980 and they were at the height of their success around 1982.  The Mekons Mark White was in the band from the first single in 1978 to "English Dancing Master" in 1983.  I suspect whoever wrote the AMG entry just assumed that there was only one Mark White from northern England in the early eighties.  --ajn (talk) 09:37, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Whether he is the same Mark White or not, he still needs to be mentioned on the Mekons page, along with Kevin Lycett.--RichardVeryard 00:15, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
 * A lot of stuff needs to be added to this page. The Secretary of Funk 08:02, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Anyone want to take on adding one of those band membership and recording timelines? If so, how would Mitch be classified - MC/backing vocals/dancer/denied-US-entry? Would the bifurcation with the revived "Mekons 77" be shown as two separate timelines? (Don't forget Sophie Bourbon - JOKE.) Acwilson9 (talk) 20:04, 27 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Acwilson9, I for one would be delighted if you took this on. Ceoil  (talk) 23:06, 27 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Well, Ceoil, what would we do about Mitch? and the bifurcated band? Aside from album liner notes, where are the sources for who was playing what when? (I suppose we could ask Ken, Jon, and Andy, but would we trust their memories?)  In any case, I myself am unlikely to get to this any time soon. Acwilson9 (talk) 05:40, 16 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Actually, Nobby Knape and Terry Nelson might be more reliable sources. When I can, I'll ask them. (We'd also need to consider temporary touring substitutes, including, but not limited to, Robbie Fulks and Jean Cook. Acwilson9 (talk) 08:07, 13 May 2020 (UTC) -- Jessica Billey was guest violinist in SF March 24, 2004 ("Punk Rock" tour, per J Neo Martin (d.b.a. earcandleproductions) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2VZ0IBbL1I . Acwilson9 (talk) 19:23, 27 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Perhaps neither a complete band-member list nor a timeline would be practical without doing "original research" directly into this article, which, for excellent reasons, is a Wikipedia no-no. And, it now seems unlikely that Nobby (nor I, even in retirement) would now dig up all of that data and put it onto his Club Mekon page, as an intermediate external source.  (Nobby's http://www.mekons.de/mekonhom.htm is the most comprehensive (and only?) Mekons info website, but it is now somewhat out-of-date.) Acwilson9 (talk) 20:27, 19 February 2022 (UTC)
 * This page https://mekons.de/history.htm - which can be reached directly from Nobby's https://www.mekons.de/data.htm - might be a start. Acwilson9 (talk) 04:07, 10 May 2024 (UTC)

Pop culture references
I bring this "Other Bands Referencing The Mekons" section here for discussion:


 * The 1990 re-issue of Too Much Joy's album Son Of Sam I Am contains a track entitled "If I Was A Mekon", a tribute to the band.
 * On 1993's Hey Drag City, a compilation released by Chicago's Drag City Records, Will Oldham's contribution was a song called "For the Mekons, et al." This track was included on Lost Blues and Other Songs, a rarities compilation he released in 1997.

This section is, for all intents and purposes, a trivia section (and a rather paltry and pathetic one at that), and as such, violates Wikipedia policy. I think nothing is lost if it is deleted altogether. --- RepublicanJacobite  The'FortyFive'  21:05, 29 November 2007 (UTC)


 * (The section was deleted.) Could revive it as a "Mekons' (friends') tribute" section... Notably, in 2016 Oldham released his Mekons-covers Fanatic Voyage by his "Chivalrous Amoekons" - see Will Oldham discography. The Sadies have also covered the Mekons. Acwilson9 (talk) 20:17, 27 April 2019 (UTC)


 * The Trash Can Sinatras apparently covered "Ghost of American Astronauts". "The Great American Cover-Up 2020" does the Mekons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFv8ZxnsrLY . Acwilson9 (talk) 08:07, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

"The Mekons" vs mekons
Per this interview with Jon Langford: TL: So, before we go further, I need to clear something up. Is it mekons or The Mekons? Because I see it both ways, and my OCD is getting the best of me. JL: Just mekons now. I think we just—people say The Mekons all the time but we’re identified as a band as mekons lower case. Unmake (talk) 11:18, 21 March 2020 (UTC)


 * It's not obvious to me that Langford meant this seriously. For example, see how it's typed on his, Timms', and the band's fb pages. Acwilson9 (talk) 08:07, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

Tributes to the Mekons?
Should we add a section on tributes to the Mekons, or is that too trivial? (I don't know what Wikipedia's policy is on band tributes.) Examples might include Are there any others? Acwilson9 (talk) 03:37, 15 October 2020 (UTC)
 * The Sadies, under various pseudonyms (e.g., "Eagletons"), opening for the Mekons as a Mekons tribute band at almost every concert of the Mekons' 25th North American anniversary tour in 1992 (but NOT for the Mekons' Friday afternoon acoustic show at the Chicago Cultural Center);
 * 2016 album Fanatic Voyage by the "Chivalrous Amoekons" (Will Oldham, a.k.a. Bonnie "Prince" Billy);
 * "The Great Cover-UP 2020": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFv8ZxnsrLY.

Archive of old Talk page content
Most old "Talk:The Mekons" stuff was moved to Talk:The Mekons/Archive 1 on January 29, 2022 by User:Lowercase sigmabot III. (I have no idea why.) Acwilson9 (talk) 18:36, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Because the top of this page has a within which is the parameter old(365d) which basically means that any thread that hasn't been posted to for one year is eligible for archiving. That archiving template was added by  in . -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 23:52, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
 * I suggest that in this case we restore the material, and also deactivate that particular archiving template for this particular page. Some of that archived stuff has yet be fully addressed, but might be addressed in the future, by myself and/or other interested editors.  Just because it's "eligible" does not necessarily mean that archiving it at a given time is a good idea.  (Many other Wikipedia articles' Talk pages have still-useful material that is many years old.)  Acwilson9 (talk) 01:38, 6 February 2022 (UTC)
 * If nobody has replied in a year, is it likely that a reply will yet occur? -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 08:49, 6 February 2022 (UTC)
 * It is not necessarily UNlikely. And, I, for one, being old (69 years) and of spotty memory, find the persistence of passive reminders to be helpful. Acwilson9 (talk) 23:21, 9 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Thank you for explaining how this archiving (of which I was not previously aware) works. After perusing Template:Talk header and Help:Archiving a talk page, I have reset the auto-archive lag period of this Talk page from one year to five years. I also copied back into this Talk page some, but not all, of the old material that had been auto-archived. Acwilson9 (talk) 21:34, 12 February 2022 (UTC)
 * No, you didn't. First, the archive_age parameter of the is a display parameter, the archiving bots ignore it. Second, if you restore archived threads to the main discussion page you must also remove them from the archive, otherwise you have two copies of the same threads, and in time these duplicates will be in the same archive page. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 22:54, 12 February 2022 (UTC)
 * : OK.  So, just now I have reverted everything back to January 29, 2022, in part by hand, both here and in the archive.  Then, I changed the  from 365 days to 1827 days.  If I understand all of this correctly, the archiving bots will periodically go through all over again, rearchiving every complete section that has been inactive for more than ~5 years.  (BTW, this archiving via  reminds me of the less user-friendly aspects of my so-called "smart" phone... (Long ago, I myself was a computer programmer, and was pretty good at it.)) Acwilson9 (talk) 01:51, 18 February 2022 (UTC)