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An Award For The Long Suffering British
Filed in Welcome to my World at 9.38am on 10 November 11Artrockers,
Back in 1942 King George VI awarded the George Cross to the Maltese people: 'To bear witness to a heroism and devotion that will long be famous in history'. The Maltese people are proud of their medal, and with good reason. Now I know we aren't being bombed by Nazis, but I do believe that the people of this little island also deserve recognition for everything we've had to endure over the last few years. Wether it's the politicians, police, press or bankers fucking up we all know that the shit that slides down the slope will all end up in our kitchen, and we'll have to clear it up before the next shit-slide starts. And as Europe tears itself apart we all know who'll be paying the surgeon to stitch it back together - yep, muggins.
But we just get on with it, we have no choice, while others play russian roulette with our collective destiny we get up every day, have a cuppa and try not to notice the unravelling rug of our society, or those deliberately unravelling it.
We deserve a medal, or an award at the very least; 'To bear witness to a willingness to take endless amounts of shit from idiots' (of course there are those that might say that it is we, the people who are the idiots for taking it - I am not of that number).
If I had my way I'd invite the entire population to XOYO and give them all a medal.
But XOYO, roomy as it is, hasn't got the space for every man, woman and child, so we can't do that. And the population of this country hasn't released an album this year so it's going to be hard to shoehorn them into The Artrocker Awards shortlist, or the award ceremony itself.
But what we can do is invite the entire population of the UK to the Live show we're putting on in the evening. We're inviting you all to celebrate with us at a special ARTROCKER AWARDS LIVE SHOW on December 2nd at XOYO, showcasing our nominees this year and starring … Gruff Rhys (LIVE) Jim Jones Revue (Live) and DJ SETS from Gary Numan, Ade Fenton, Tim Burgess, Is Tropical, Tribes, Heavenly Jukebox DJs and more!
It's the least we can do.
Tom Artrocker
Tickets for this ARTROCKER AWARDS LIVE! SHOW are available from £15 and can be bought from http://www.xoyo.co.uk/event/artrocker-awards
ARTROCKER AWARDS LIVE! SHOW
2 DECEMBER 2011 @ XOYO, LONDON
8PM – 3AM
£15 ADVANCE TICKETS
Welcome to my World »
Just Don’t Mention Gary Glitter
Filed in Welcome to my World at 10.34am on 04 November 11Artrockers,
Last Thursday Mark Thompson, the big cheese at The Beeb, apologised to Jonathan King for airing a repeat of TOTP from 1976 with his performance removed. King called it 'Stalinist revisionism', and it's hard to disagree. A corporation source went on to say: "The BBC doesn't think it should be rewriting history so will be showing these programmes in their entirety." The BBC is correct in this , it is certainly not their job to edit history.
A couple of days later the BBC proved the consistency of this remark when Pete Townshend presented some sort of daft lecture for 6 music, the content of which appeared to be about two years behind the game. He joked about mistakes he'd made in the past and folks chortled indulgently - this is Pete Townshend after all, and The Who remain important to persons of a certain age and class, unlike Jonathan King who was only ever a 'pop' person, so what do you expect?
But there remains a wall of silence about one of our greatest pop innovators, he has been written out of history and most certainly is NEVER played on BBC radio or television, his name is rarely spoken. The Ministry Of Information has carefully removed any mention of him, cut him out of the photos and denied that he ever actually existed. Stalinist revisionism indeed. And if the BBC are serious about not re-writing history then when can we expect to hear Gary Glitter on the airwaves again? Whatever we might feel about him now the fact remains that Mr Glitter re-wrote the book of pop, made some of the greatest singles of all time and entertained the nation when the nation was in desperate need of it.
So BBC, what are you going to do about Gary, because you've already written him out of history?
Can this be right? Ever?
Tom Artrocker
Welcome to my World »
Just what is it about the 80s?
Filed in Welcome to my World at 12.13pm on 31 October 11Artrockers,
It is interesting to note that one of the biggest winners in today's RAJAR figures is Absolute 80s. Interesting to me anyway. So what's behind this station's success? Has it had a massive PR and advertising push? If it has it's passed me by. Did someone pretend to threaten it with closure, producing an outcry from big gobs and the most effective free publicity campaign ever for a radio station that wasn't really under threat at all (see 6 music)? No, you couldn't pull that trick twice, once was enough...More than enough, and it worked, we can still enjoy the flabby crap that is 6 music today - hurrah for that eh?
No, it seems that Absolute 80s has simply grown by word of mouth. But what is it about 80s music that allows Absolute 80s to soar while Absolute 90s nosedives?
Could it be that 80s music was simply better than 90s music? Could it be that 80s music was better than the music of today? Could it be that the 80s were the last decade of truly great pop music? And the last time the pop fan actually felt an excited involvement via the video boom? Or maybe it's simply an aging population desperately trying to regain their youth? Maybe it's all down to the legendary 50 quid man?
Or maybe you have an idea why it's so successful? If so please let me know. In the meantime I'm listening to it now on my trusty DAB for the first time - Two Tribes is playing so I'm going to have to leave this and shuffle around the room.
Seems I love the 80s too.
Tom ArtrockerWelcome to my World »
Oh no, it’s The Stone Roses
Filed in Welcome to my World at 10.30am on 24 October 11Artrockers,
I was never much of a Stone Roses fan, largely because of the Ian Brown's unbearably out of tune vocals, which, on the only occasion I saw them Live drove me to the back of the crowd after 2 songs and back into the street after 3, trying to work out what was wrong with my ears because I seemed to be the only person there who noticed. But my ears were entirely exonerated when I saw a clip of them (The Stone Roses that is, not my ears) on TV a few weeks later - if anything Brown was even more out of tune than I recalled.
Mine was a voice in the wilderness of course, as history now informs. And I did buy Fools' Gold, it was a good thing, how John Leckie got the vocals in tune I'll never know, but he did - clever guy. I suppose the appeal of The Stone Roses was based in their attitudinous approach and the fact that they celebrated the newly cool Ecstasy, a band you could drop 'letters' to even if you weren't into acid house - a halfway house for those too timid for the illegal rave scene, they, and their baggy cohorts were a safe alternative, a band, we understood bands, as did a music business desperate to climb on the rave-bus but with no idea of how to market the main stay of the scene - DJs. The Stone Roses became the safe option for record company bosses baffled and terrified by a movement they had no control over or even basic understanding of.Welcome to my World »
Foxx and Numan
Filed in Welcome to my World by Tom Artrocker at 14.32pm on 12 September 11Artrockers,
Lat week I was lucky enough to spend an afternoon with two of my heroes, John Foxx and Gary Numan - it doesn't get much better than that. We met at The Garden Studio in Shoreditch, which Johnn Foxx set up back in the late 70s but sold when he found that he could never find time to do his own work in there, such was the demand from the post-punkers. So it was a bit of a back to the future thingy for him and an amazing lesson for me. You'll be able to read all about in next month's Artrocker - how two chaps managed to spend so many years in the biz and came out the other end absolute gentlemen.
And let's not forget the contribution they've made to music, pretty well incalculable I'd say.
And I spent the afternoon with them.
It does my head in a little bit
Tom Artrocker
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