Londoners Magazine

When it comes to music, the Irish have a lot to answer for.

Sure they gave us the mighty Kevin Shields. Yes they gave us Ash, The Undertones, Van Morrison and Clannad. And we can’t deny the impact Sinead O’Conner, Thin Lizzy or Rory Gallagher have had on young musicians around the world.

But they’ve also given us U2, whose latter years have been a mish mash of repetitive crock rock and sermons on “the black babies”.

They gave David Gray a home away from home, providing him with a platform from which to moisten granny fannys. Which in turn opened the floodgates for a million and one singer-songwriters to clog up the nation’s airwaves and shopping centre public address systems.

Worst of all they gave us Louis Walsh and his army of stool pigeons shitting hits into the charts at what can only be a satanicly assisted rate.

But now they give us McBecks, a satirical musical based on the life of London’s favourite punchbags The Beckhams.

Combining elements of the bard’s best loved pot boilers and Victoria’s finest PR stunts, the musical will feature a range of familiar characters including former England manager Sven Goran Eriksson and Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson, as well as pig pleasurer Rebecca Loos.

While the thought of McBecks has been met with dismay by the general public, Londoners won’t stamp on this chicken before it’s hatched.

Writers Gary Cooke and Malachy McKenna have perfected the piss take musical, most memorably with <em>I,Keano</em>, a musical about Roy Keane’s adventures - or lack of - at the 2002 World Cup.

Still playing to packed houses in a country where going to the theatre is akin to coming out of the closet (unless it’s Blood Brothers, or something staring Miley), the show opens in Dublin in the New Year.