Andrew (Falko) Falkous is known for being the singer in the bands “Mclusky” and “Future of the Left” and talked in an interview with “Thetalkhouse.com” about the vanishing independent venues (and virtues?) in the music industry in the UK.
CBGB´s got moved from New York to Las Vegas and by that it lost its independent status for me. Instead of sticking to local bands they chose a city of entertainment. But this phenomenon of disappearing venues not only happens in the USA, it also exists in Europe and the UK which Andrew Falkous in the interview with “Thetalkhouse.com” is reffering to. To him independent bars and clubs are not important because they give bands a platform for their first gigs, so they can get famous
and play in big stadiums or on festival stages in the future. They should not be seen to be the first step in a big money making machine. “Anyway, who cares about light shows? Huh. Go to Disney if you like pretty lights and close-ups of a bored old man/cartoon dog with jowls. It’s got rides, parades and better toilet facilities. Just saying. Just knowing.”, he says.
The independent venues should exist for the art, for people playing music to people. If they cease to exist, there will be no more heart, no more fun, just sponsored tour buses and “human beings who just want to get through the day with as much joy and as little injury as possible”.
“The songs will decay even quicker than the faces”.
He points out that Billy Corgan has sponsored a space shuttle and Dave Grohl has shot a documentary about harp playing lions. That would show where the music business is going nowadays. It´s about entertainment and the wide-screens. “Place it onto the pages of a magazine, a dead, shiny one with no words to speak of, where the songs will decay even quicker than the faces.” In his opinion the best rock n´roll bands come from the imperfect, from the lonely or from the ignored. They get up the stage and give the audience something to believe in. They infect their thoughts.
In this interview Falko speaks my mind. I saw “Future of the left” in a small club in Munich. In the audience I recognized mostly poeple with open minds who were there to let the words of the lyrics change their point of thinking forever. If independent venues like this would close, there would be only the big concert halls left which come with dancing hipsters, drunks and mind-numbing light shows. So where does that leave us? It´s up to us to chose in what (music-)world we want to live in. Support your local independent clubs, not only to save the place by itself but to save quality music.
Future of the Left? I hope so.
Source:
http://thetalkhouse.com/music/talks/andrew-falkous-mclusky-future-of-the-left-talks/
