Reading Festival: Radiohead, KoL, some other bands and a Talent Search
I’ve had a lot of friends who went to Reading this year and they have been Tweeting and Facebooking their favourite, and least favourite, bits of the weekend. Now, I’ve managed to missed most of the BBC3 coverage as I’ve not been too interested in festivals for the last couple of years, mainly because the only bands that play are “Flavour of the Month” bands rather than bands that have worked hard to get where they are today.
So imagine how shocked and excited I was when I found out this year that Radiohead were headlining the Sunday! A real band headlining at Reading Festival?! Surely not (that hasn’t happened since MUSE headlined a few years ago)!
So I watched the coverage of Radiohead on BBC3 last night. I have to admit I nearly shat myself when I heard they opened with Creep (again, @RadioheadNews on Twitter was spilling the beans before it was on BBC3) and then shat myself again when I actually watched it. The whole set (or rather, the few songs BBC3 showed of it) was unbelieveable. If that isn’t an example of how to do things RIGHT, then I don’t know what is. Certainly walking off stage after 50 minutes when people have paid over £180 to see you headline on the Friday isn’t a good example to set, but we’ll let Kings of Leon off as they apparently redeemed themselves at Leeds last night instead.
So once I had my fill of Radiohead on BBC3, we were subjected to the Lost Prophets. I cannot imagine a worse fate than theirs and La Roux’s. Imagine them both being told “Yeah, you’re headlining a couple of tents at Reading on the Sunday”. They must have been over the moon, especially the Lost Prophets who have been off the radar since they got spectacularly dropped form their label. Then, imagine the two acts saying “SWEET! So who’s headlining the main stage?” … um … Radiohead… “Oh, crap…”. Then the sense of dread kicks in that they’ll be playing a tent to about 40 people while everyone goes and watches Radiohead.
Sadly, that wasn’t the case, but equally it seemed to keep a lot of the “Trendies” away from Radiohead fans and people who have the right to call themselves music fans, so I suppose that can only be a good thing.
But lastly, BBC3 subjected us to a band that Reggie Yates tipped to be the next big thing (quite what he knows about that, I’ll never know, as he said Thom Yorke was acting like a “rapper” on stage… ). On screen comes four goth-geeks going under the name of “The XX”.
I’m going to let you look them up for yourself. But all I can say is that I work with artists who are struggling, talented, but getting over looked. Never getting a break, trying their hardest, producing some of the best music I’ve heard. So why is it that they can’t get a break? Well, check out “The XX” and then you tell me how THEY deserve to play Reading Festival ahead of bands with substance, talent and, above all, a personality. I could not BELIEVE what I was watching. Four of them, stood in a line, looking so miserable: HEY. YOU’RE PLAYING READING FESTIVAL. CHEER UP! I’m usually not very outspoken about bands I think don’t deserve what they’ve got (not in public anyway!), but this was just too much for me. Watching this band play some sort of weird electro-inspired “music to kill yourself by” without any hint of enjoyment, charisma or emotion made my blood boil.
The music industry is suffering and has less money than ever before. Now I know why; it’s being wasted on bands like this that will release an EP of five tracks, then get dropped as soon as the next “trendy” band appears. Bands like this, and bands like Vampire Weekend, The View, Wombats, La Roux, Noisettes… They will all be gone before next summer (I think The View have already gone, actually). Now, this isn’t their fault. It’s the labels for being fickle and for making bands think it’s easy to make a living out of music by all playing the same thing or by exploiting the latest trend. Well, trends come and go quicker than every before and in turn, so will those bands.
So this only strengthens my commitment to work with artists who I think will be around longer than four months and one album. I am now on a mission to find the first band to record in my new studio, AudioBeach Studios, in October. I will record, mix and master two tracks FOR FREE for the right band. The right band will be talented, have a personality, be able to control their egos, have fresh ideas and, above all, be working really hard to get to where they want to be.
I’ll announce more info about my “Talent Search” later in September but start thinking now if you are the right band or if you know of the right band to benefit from a top-quality single/demo.
