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There was a lot of sleeping on sofas, last minute line ups and minor emergencies, and we ended up giving the artists every penny we made on the door, but it was more than worth it.
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I was surfing Myspace one night (it was October 2007), and one of my favorite rapper/ producers Kev Brown sent out an update saying that he was in London. It turned out his show had been cancelled and he and half the Low Budget crew were sleeping on Tranqill‘s floor. Virtually hyperventilating I called some friends with a live night called Lookout! and demanded they change the line up at the last minute. Two days later and Low Budget were rapping and making beats live on stage at Favela Chic. (Read more)
“BLACK CULTURE IN THIS COUNTRY HAS HAD A HUGE CONTRIBUTION, ON OUR MUSIC AND, A WHOLE RANGE OF CULTURAL WAYS…”
My heart sank as I watched Owen Jones attempt to take to task an apoplectic and ill-informed David Starkey doing a fantastic impression of a racist on Newsnight this week as they discussed the London riots. Grateful as I was for the gesture, Jones’s inability to think quickly of an effective and undeniably long list of positive contributions black culture has made in Britain was almost as sad as Starkey’s shrieks of “Rap? You glorify rap?!” (Read more)
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“I’m not surprised” was the resounding conclusion on Twitter. I was.
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Without going in to specifics I’ve spent most of my life around addiction, and it’s a long time since I was amazed by the toxic volumes people can put in to their bodies and survive, the terrifyingly dangerous situations they can stumble through unscathed, and the heartfelt promises to stop they can’t keep. The point at which most of us would have found shocking or surprising was probably a road bump long since passed. By the time someone actually does go too far, they’ve usually gone further than we can possibly imagine.
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Like a lot of Londoners, I met Amy Winehouse once. It was years ago with my sister in Kentish town, she started pointing and saying to her boyfriend “look, those two are so pre-eeyy” as if we were puppies she’d like to take home. Not quite sure what to say we just told her we were fans of her album at the time “Frank” and ducked out of the way. I remember thinking how strange it was that she was Amy Winehouse, yet she seemed insecure. The stories about her hadn’t reached our ears at that point, we were just impressed by her brave, honest (and funny) songwriting, not to mention that voice.
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Fast forward to last night as I watched people blame Amy, the people around her for not intervening, the media for their callousness – the list was endless and totally understandable, but wrong all the same. Addiction is a disease, and it often ends up killing its victims. It’s hard to sympathise with because the outward appearance is that the addict doesn’t care and it’s their fault for not trying hard enough. Apart from the mental side of it, the physical experience can be a similar urge to needing to eat when you’re starving or drink when you’re parched – for those who blame Amy I hope they ask themselves if they would be strong enough to suppress an urge that severe every single day. For those who feel her family should have intervened further, short of tying someone up and never letting them out again there’s nothing you can really do to stop them. You just have to watch the person you love kill themselves slowly in front of you, and it’s every bit as painful for you as it is for them. As for the media, it is our responsibility to hold them accountable for their behaviour before someone dies, not just blame them afterwards.
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I keep seeing talk of how Amy Winehouse will forever be as defined by her addiction as she is by her music. I beg to differ. I think that is up to us. I choose to remember Amy for her inspirational yet down to earth songwriting, how her music got me through sad times or made me laugh out loud, her incredibly special voice, and how she opened the door for talented female artists who don’t fit the mould, and don’t hold back.
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The vast majority of music bloggers I know do it because they love it.
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I just came across a list on Mashable entitled “Top 5 Tips for Aspiring Music Bloggers”, and I have to say I felt that it missed the point. The article’s stance largely assumes that people think music blogging is a “job”, one that you must be exceptionally knowledgeable to do before starting, that people who want to be music bloggers start out wanting to write for other blogs and get paid for it, that it is about being an authority on a niche subject, and that you shouldn’t be too negative. (Read More)
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