Wolfgang Tillmans | The W.C. #45: Sleaford Mods

Wolfgang Tillmans

The W.C. #45: Sleaford Mods

New York City, USA: White Columns, 2014

28 pp., 27.9 × 21.6 cm., staple-bound

Edition of 150 numbered copies

The Sleaford Mods are a post-punk duo from Nottingham, consisting of vocalist Jason Williamson and musician Andrew Fearn. They have described their sound as "electronic munt minimalist punk-hop rants for the working class." 

I saw them perform during the Toronto stop on the English Tapas tour. Williamson commanded the stage with a strut that veered into prance (and almost peacocking), while never seeming like an affectation. Fearn - rather than twiddling knobs in a way that falsely suggests a wrong move would topple the show - simply pressed play on his laptop and spent the rest of the song drinking beer, nodding his head to the track. 

The band's lyrics take a passionate, raw, no-holds-barred look at austerity-era Britain.

“B.H.S.”, for example, takes its title from the defunct department chain British Home Stores. When they shuttered their doors in 2016, 11,000 employees lost their jobs, and 22,000 former employees were without their retirement funds. Billionaire retail tycoon Sir Philip Green had absconded with £400 million in dividends and was seen sailing the Mediterranean on a newly-purchased super-yacht (his third) as the last stores closed.

"T.C.R." uses the name of a children's toy race game as a metaphor for the mindless endless loop many find their lives stuck in: 

The trappings of luxury can't save you from the nail-biting boredom of repetitive brain injury

The injury of your useless mind, stuck to the track

Clinging onto years of that's not yours that's mine, give me it

Total Control Racing, TCR

Going round and round, under the bridges

Slowing down, it's all about technique

Hand shandy chic, under five seconds flat

The tragedy of the male-less fucking man

Yesterday, the Sleaford Mods released their 12th LP, UK Grim. In a four-star review, the NME states "their dumpster fire melodrama remains vital". 

The W.C. is billed as White Columns' "in-house 'zine, which functions as codas to our exhibitions and public programs." Previous issues have been authored by Billy Childish, Simon Evans, Aubrey Mayer, Primary Information, etc.

Issue #45 features a text by Scott King, chronicling an obsession with the Sleaford Mods, alongside images of the duo by famed photographer Wolfgang Tillmans. The edition is numbered but not signed (the above copy was signed a year after publication, on 9/11). 

The issue sold out quickly. A second edition of 150 copies was later released, now selling for around $250. 

A third edition is available from the White Columns website, here, for $25 US.