Update
Got the latest issue of Q - it had a review of a new live Birthday Party album and a couple of books I might try + check out (including an oral history of metal music tho' when I looked at the preview on Amazon I was very disappointed to see it didn't include a chapter on glam/sleaze). They also had an interesting article on how the music business is now trying to get loyal fans to pay out more + more as an antidote to ppl downloading stuff for free (which namechecked Amanda Palmer) - I think it's true to an extent, I've seen more + more bands do the VIP meet + greet packages (plus Amanda herself was offering to play at house parties on the Theatre is Evil Kickstarter, I think the starting price was £5,000 so what a lot of ppl did was all get together and chip in a certain amount rather than just one person paying the full amount) and offer amazing box sets including all kinds of extras. But a small part of me does find it a bit unfair that fans who aren't well off are going to miss out and it can end up being a bit of a competitive thing (as in Oh you could only afford that - well, I could afford the super duper extra special limited edition).
They also had an article on the halcyon days gone by when musicians could just sign on the dole for ages and not have to bother looking for a job and just work on their 'riffs' and swan around looking moody in leather trousers (*cough* I remember the 80s). Suffice to say successive governments soon put paid to that.
They also had a big feature on Britpop w/bits from Luke Haines (His book is really good), Suede and Bob Stanley of St Etienne (I remember him DJing at the 1st Manics gig I went to back in 1991) I have mixed feelings about Britpop - I feel it started off all sexually ambiguous and arty and intelligent then Oasis came in and fucking ruined it for everyone. I think the success of Britpop changed alternative/indie music for ever and made it all so much more mainstream and OK, I could maybe just about begrudgingly admit Oasis were an OK band (tho' not my thing at all) but all the ones who followed after them were a bunch of troglodytes in anoraks who dragged everything down to its lowest common denominator. I was never really a big fan of much of the Britpop stuff apart from maybe Pulp and Suede and a couple of other things. Most of the stuff I liked at that time wasn't really classed as Britpop like the Manics and Shampoo.
They also had an article on the halcyon days gone by when musicians could just sign on the dole for ages and not have to bother looking for a job and just work on their 'riffs' and swan around looking moody in leather trousers (*cough* I remember the 80s). Suffice to say successive governments soon put paid to that.
They also had a big feature on Britpop w/bits from Luke Haines (His book is really good), Suede and Bob Stanley of St Etienne (I remember him DJing at the 1st Manics gig I went to back in 1991) I have mixed feelings about Britpop - I feel it started off all sexually ambiguous and arty and intelligent then Oasis came in and fucking ruined it for everyone. I think the success of Britpop changed alternative/indie music for ever and made it all so much more mainstream and OK, I could maybe just about begrudgingly admit Oasis were an OK band (tho' not my thing at all) but all the ones who followed after them were a bunch of troglodytes in anoraks who dragged everything down to its lowest common denominator. I was never really a big fan of much of the Britpop stuff apart from maybe Pulp and Suede and a couple of other things. Most of the stuff I liked at that time wasn't really classed as Britpop like the Manics and Shampoo.