Greedy Pigs Wallowing in the Mud

I watched a superb documentary the other night on BBC18 about the history of British Music Festivals and it has to be said, they have a tainted past and a pretty dark future

From the early days of Glastonbury to today’s version there is an absolute world of difference between the two and once again, yes, you’ve guessed it: they’ve been ruined by money!

Gone are the days when people only cared about the quality of the music compared to today’s uber-rich and over pampered Z List celebrities comparing how much they spent on their brand new Luis Vitton welleys!

Rolling around in the mud twenty or thirty years ago was basically down to the fact that the people doing it were out of their faces on some serious acid and had an outlook for peace and love. Today’s crowd do it to gain personal notoriety with a good chance of gaining a bed in the following year’s Big Brother household!

The music seems like a mere back drop to the money making machine as the organisers are quicker to sort out sponsorship deals quicker than they are to book the bands! But of course, the organisers will never tell you that as they don’t want to lose face with the ‘old guard’ who still see it as a last bastion of hippyism!

As for today’s bands, none of them really grind on my balls that much, but one thing about festival appearances really does: stage invasions!

A good few years ago at one of our gigs in The Picket, Liverpool, there was a sort of stage invasion led by a good mate (you know who you are, Jones) and the truth is it was a fucking right laugh! When you see it done now on the likes of Glastonbury or the V Festival by the likes of Iggy “Sell-Out” Pop and The Kaiser Chiefs, you can’t help but think it’s a load of pre-planned carefully orchestrated bollocks!

Now I know the festival scene of today has obviously changed a lot since the dark days of Altamont and Woodstock with regards to safety and the lack of knife-wielding maniac Hells Angels, but you really can’t help but think they have had their hearts and soul ripped out and replaced with corporate bank-rolled by big companies (who also avoid paying tax, no doubt) who really don’t have anything in common with music apart from the fact that they’re there to promote their product! You scrub my back, I’ll do an encore!

Now I know it’s not all doom and gloom at most festivals as some people do actually love going to them and they do generally have a good time. Good for them! But things do need to change as, the truth is the world of music and, to a certain extent, light entertainment is slowly but surely losing its integrity and respect from the public who buys their records and attend their concerts/festivals as the public ARE being ripped off by the companies who supply them with over-priced food, drink and above all tickets and shows from musicians who are simply in it for the money who gladly produce half-arsed performances in a country that is already blighted by constant shit weather!

Doesn’t sound like a good weekend to me!

No wonder people go on caravanning holidays with their guitars and a crate of Carling!

Mol

Back in the Saddle

Many of you avid readers of Mol’s Sound Words may have noticed my absence from the rather murky world of internet blogging of late! The truth is I’ve been busier than Ryan Giggs at a family party!

As well as having to plan my forthcoming wedding, trying stop my nearest and dearest friends from skinning my arse bald on my stag night and having to endure the possibility of having to work somewhere else than my home town, I’m also back in the saddle of the music world!

Watch out kids, The Outriders are coming to a town near you!

A few months back Mart, Ben, Stuart, Me and Dr Mark Slade MBE made a decision to form a new super group from Huyton’s finest musicians and do a few decent covers and the truth is over the last few months we have a had a fucking ball!

Being together again and practicing in Crash not only breaks up what can a pretty boring normal working week, but gives you a true sense of male camaraderie.

Taking the piss out of each, ripping each other, putting up with the contents of my arse and having a general good laugh is a lot less hassle and ten times more enjoyable than being in an original band and the hassles that come with that (writing songs, choosing what songs to do, etc, etc).

Basically the whole vibe is better and the songs come quicker as everybody knows them! It’s just then down to the case of how good you actually perform them and the truth is that we actually are pretty fucking good

As yet, we haven’t done any gigs, but we’ll soon be ready to play. Just need two or three more songs and we’re all yours. Numerous venues have been mentioned and the possibility of seeing us play before I am wed is a very good one!

So, next time you’re out and you see a bunch of slightly old fellas playing covers in a pub and it doesn’t exactly ‘float your boat’, don’t just dismiss them and think “they’re fucking shit” or “silly arld bastards, go and put ye slippers on and smoke ye pipe”– take into account that they are a bunch of fellas doing what they enjoy = having fun

That is, and should be, the way of all things

Mol

Smart Arses or Tight arses?

This week sees the much anticipated release of the new album by the Kaiser Chiefs called The Future is Medieval! ... Yawn!

But, I may have to hold back the “yawns” here as there’s a bit of a catch to it by our smart arse Indie popsters as it’s quite unique in the way that there has been no advertising or promotion in the run up to the release for the album at all. There’s also another interesting factor to this album

When you go on line (to the Kaiser’s own website, of course) to buy the album, the consumer is given the option to buy (rather bizarrely) ten songs from the choice of twenty for the princely sum of £7.50

Then, once you’ve created your ‘playlist’ the website then gives you the option to create your own album cover. It’s like a mix between Play School and an ipod

Bargain? I don’t think so

Although it does come across as being a bit of a smart arse idea from an ever changing industry, it also wreaks of being yet another gimmick from what sounds like another desperate attempt to boost sales and interest in a band struggling to come to terms with what to do with their money (they bought their own studio in case you were wondering)

But, the implications of the latest round of “my ideas is better than yours” in the ever competitive fields of Indie music could well be taking things to promote your new album just that little bit too far in my opinion

What next?

· Guess the title of the album?

· Guess the title of the song?

· Make up your own song/album title?

· Name the band?

· Name the band members?

But, I’m afraid the Kaisers have had their parades well and truly pissed on as a few weeks prior to the release of The Future is Medieval (which no one was supposed to know about) some naughty internet hacker leaked the album on line for the whole world to listen to and the Kaisers hopes of creating a totally unique way of releasing album were well and truly fucked! Bugger!

So, what happened next: That’s right, they did an interview and started kicking up a massive fuss about how people who leak albums are wrecking the music of music (bullshit) and, of course the real reason they are so pissed off is that they are losing their hard earned money from people obtaining the album for free courtesy of some geeky hacker called Derek who spends all day in his bedroom/loft conversion wanking off over series 6 of Doctor Who and of course finding ways to download albums that haven’t been released yet

On a person note, if I were in a very successful band like the Kaiser Chiefs, if I wanted to release a secret album, I’d certainly go the very extreme measures to make sure the likes of ‘Derek’ didn’t get his grubby little hands on it and invest a lot of my hard earned money to prevent that happening!

So, instead of thinking up such elaborate ways to release an album and thus guaranteeing applause and all-round pats on the back from your smart arse geeky mates, I’d suggest you look more into guaranteeing your future releases are NOT leaked on-line for the whole world to listen to and NOT to buy as frankly it’s not big and it’s not clever!

Either that or I predict a riot!

Mol