Where Worlds Collide

So the government has railroaded through the deeply-flawed Digital Economy Bill in the dying days of a Parliament with completely inadequate discussion or consultation. It’s being sold as an urgently-needed measure to tackle widespread internet piracy, but I see it as a massive power-grab by old-media giants who want to destroy those parts of the Internet they don’t like.

Nobody apart from the major media cartels and a bunch of corrupt and/or technically-illiterate politicans are actually in favour of this thing as it stands. Even the strongly anti-filesharing Featured Artists Coalition opposes the bill.

I have always maintained that the major labels overstate the losses caused by file-sharing for largely self-serving reasons, and their real agenda has always been about maintaining market share. There are still people who claim that every illicit download represents a lost sale, which is so transparently ridiculous that they deserve to be slapped repeatedly with the proverbial Very Large Haddock until they see sense. They ignore the multiple studies concluding that file-sharers actually spend more money on music and other media than average, and frequently use file-sharing to guide their legitimate purchases.

Even if you believe illicit filesharing is a terrible thing, the whole collective punishment aspect sticks in the throat. This bill targets households, not individuals. I know I’m going to risk Godwin’s law saying this, but from occupied France in World War Two downwards, collective punishment has always been the last resort of the authoritarian thug with no moral authority. So we will see parents losing internet access due to the actitivies of their teenage children, or similar things in shared houses. That lodger you kicked out last month because he didn’t pay the rent? Turns out he’s cost you your internet as well. And that’s before we get into how cafes and libraries providing free wi-fi are now going to be expected to police their customer’s activity. No, small businesses are certainly not exempt, and many people are predicting a sharp decline in free wi-fi facilities.

Then there’s the whole ‘guilty unless proved innocent’ thing. How are they going to determine what’s a legal and what’s an illegal download? What guarantees are there that whatever data-mining or traffic analysis they propose to use isn’t going to generate significant numbers of false positives? What happens if you listen to an Internet radio station or download free songs from a band’s own website, and those sites don’t appear in some major-label approved whitelist? I’ve asked the bill’s apologists about this, and all I get is bland assurances that “it’s only going to be used against a hard core of persistant file sharers”. But there is nothing in the bill that states this.

The bits in the bill about site blocking are just as bad – again the wording is so vague that it can end up being used against virtually anything that the big media companies don’t like – much like Britains hopelessly broken libel laws.

But perhaps the most toxic thing about the entire bill is the way it undermines public support for the notion that creative artists deserve to be paid for their efforts. From the sleazy way it emerged from a meeting between the unelected twice-sacked-for-corruption Peter Mandelson and label boss David Geffen while being wined and dined on Philip Rothschild’s yacht in the Med, to the cynical way the government rammed it through Parliament without proper discussion, the whole thing has the effect of making file-sharing look like a righteous act of civil disobedience. And that will persist even if the DEB fails.

There’s still an outside chance that the House of Lords will see sense and kick the bill out, but I wouldn’t bet on it. In the meantime, if your MP voted in favour of this travesty, be sure not to vote for them in the election.

Photo © Howard Rankin

When Heather Findlay announced that she was leaving Mostly Autumn after thirteen years to embark on a solo career, the band announced there would be one final chance to give her a send-off. The show at Leamington Spa was originally intended to be the launch gig for the new album, but with the need to regroup delaying the album it was the ideal location for a farewell gig.  It’s a superb venue, a central location accessible from all over the country, with a big stage, decent capacity, and far, far nicer than the grungy old Astoria in London.

While one or two people feared the gig might turn into a wake, it wasn’t like that at all.  What we got was a powerful, impassioned performance easily up to the standard of any of the electrifying shows of 2009.  If it was a punctuation mark in Mostly Autumn’s history, this was nothing short of an exclamation mark. Heather sang her heart out for something two and a half hours, pouring her heart and soul into the performance.  Everyone else was on top of their game, of course, but tonight was really Heather’s night.

There were no real surprises in the setlist, which was pretty much the same as the greatest hits set they’d been playing towards the end of last year, combining old favourites such as “Passengers”, “Shrinking Violet” and “Mother Nature” with some of Heather’s most recent songs like “Above the Blue” and “Unoriginal Sin”.  A very bittersweet experience, since we all knew we were probably hearing her sing many of those songs for the last time.

After the final encore of Heather’s signature tune “Evergreen” and the final bow, Heather gave heartfelt hugs to the other seven members of the band, several of whom were visibly in tears by that point.  As were a good proportion of the audience.

The end of an era, indeed.  The next chapter begins in just a week’s time with former backing singer Olivia Sparnenn taking over at the front of the stage.

Tomorrow, in less than 24 hours time, Heather Findlay will be on stage with Mostly Autumn at Leamington Spa for one last farewell performance, as she prepares to embark upon a solo career.  Two days after that at the Robin 2 in Bilston, Olivia Sparnenn will be on stage with Breathing Space for the very last time, before she leaves to take over from Heather in Mostly Autumn.

I don’t think the reality has really sunk in yet.

I’ve seen Mostly Autumn something like 40 times now, and Breathing Space something like 20.  These two bands have been a major part of my life for the past few years – I’ve based holidays around the legs of tours, stayed in dodgy B&Bs to watch Breathing Space play before 50-odd people in working men’s clubs in the east midlands, and stood in the rain watching Mostly Autumn support Bryan Adams at Murrayfield Stadium. I’ve been to so many gigs in York that the city has stated to feel like a second home.  And I’ve become personal friends with one or two band members.

I expect Friday in particular is going to be a very emotional night. There are plenty of songs in the Mostly Autumn songbook that bring a lump to the throat at any time – “Carpe Diem” and “Half the Mountain” will be particularly poignant.

It may be the closing of a chapter, but it’s certainly not the end of the story. On the following weekend Livvy will be performing her first gig with Mostly Autumn at Gloucester Guildhall.  Heather hasn’t announced any tour dates as yet, but I hope to be at her first one, wherever and whenever it may be.  I’m sure there is plenty of good times and great music still to come over the coming months and years.

And Mostly Autumn’s next album Go Well-Diamond Heart, which will of course feature Livvy Sparnenn on lead vocals, is now available for pre-order.  It’s going to be recorded over the coming months, with pre-ordered to be shipped around July.  I’ve ordered mine already.

The first time I went to see Panic Room at The House of Progression almost exactly two years ago, I never got to see them play. A power blackout plunged the entire neigbourhood into darkness twenty minutes into support band Jump’s set, forcing the curtailment of the gig. I even got a message on Twitter from one of the band remind us to bring some coins for the meter!

Since then, I’ve seen them quite a few times, the most recent being at The Duchess in York at the beginning of the month. Tonight, as at that show, Chris Johnson provided the support. Solo acoustic acts can be a bit hit-and-miss; without the power of a full band the set must stand or fall on the strength of the songs alone. Fortunately Chris Johnson has the songs, quite a few of which were already familiar. Stripped-down versions of songs from Parade’s excellent “The Fabric” made up a big chunk of the set, complete with that really nasty additional verse of “The Dogs” about hoping for the subject’s death and following the coffin. And I thought Chris was a nice person! He also treated us to a great version of “Gaze”, one of the songs Chris wrote for the second disk of Mostly Autumn’s “Heart Full of Sky”.

Panic Room have come a long way since the very first time I saw them, a week before that ill-fated power cut gig. They’re now amazingly tight, and with a high proportion of rockers in the set the energy level stays high. If you only know Anne-Marie Helder for playing a supporting role in Mostly Autumn it’s a revelation seeing her front her own band. She has a tremendous stage presence and her powerful and impassioned lead vocals easily the equal of any other female vocalist in the prog scene. The rest of the band put in superb performances too, for me it was the rhythm section of Alan Vaughan and Gavin Griffiths who really stood out on this night. The band now draw almost the entire set from their second album “Satellite”, including several songs from the EP “Little Satellite” that came with the limited edition release of the album, and it says a lot for the strength of the new material the whole of it comes over live so well. The ominous “Dark Star” with Jon Edwards’ Hammer House of Horror keyboards was one of many high spots, as was the rocked up version of Anne-Marie’s powerful solo song “Blood Red Sky”, and set closer “Apocalypstick”, one of only a couple of songs from their first album to remain in the set.

They’re on tour again in the Autumn, and are well worth seeing.

I think Southend is the furthest I’ve travelled to date for a Breathing Space gig. But with Olivia Sparnenn leaving the band at the beginning of April there are a limited number of chances to see the current incarnation of the band on stage. And with relatives in that part of the world, there was the opportunity to combine a must-see gig with a family visit.

I’ve not been to The Riga Bar before; it’s an excellent little venue, great sound, and a crowd who made up in enthusiasm what the lacked in numbers.

Breathing Space were, as usual, superb. Over the past year they’ve significantly upped the energy level of their live performances, replacing the jazz-inflected ballads with tougher guitar-driven numbers. Although the setlist drew from all three albums, songs from last year’s “Below the Radar” featured heavily.

Livvy Sparnenn was on great form; lovely renditions of songs like “Dusk” and “Drowning” as well as rockers like “Clear”. Fans of Mostly Autumn have nothing to fear when she takes over in that band next month. And we were also treated with some excellent lead guitar from Bryan Josh, in much more relaxed form when he’s not leading his own band.

It’s clear that this lineup of the band is determined to go out with a bang. Just one more gig to go now, at Bilston Robin 2 on Easter Sunday, April 4th. If it’s possible for you to get there, be there.

An article on The Guardian Media Site has turned into an interesting tangential discussion on exactly how The Guardian decides on what to and what not to review.

Film and Music editor Michael Hann came up with this gem:

Other albums that “have to be reviewed” are the ones that are achingly hip, or from artists one would expect to see reviewed in the Guardian – the likes of Bonnie “Prince” Billy, for example.

This drew a wonderful spleen-filled response one noted metal fan, to which Hann responded.

And features are actually a better way of contextualising minority interest musics than reviews are, especially when accompanied – as our features usually are – by a playlist.

Which ignores the fact that hipster-indie is as much a minority interest music as metal. Except that the groupthinking Guardian writers don’t seem to be able to realise this.

So far, I haven’t had a response to exactly why they “have to review” Bonnie “Prince” Billy, but did not have space to review Opeth’s “Watershed”. A cursory glance at the sorts of tour venues the two artists play suggests both are of similar standing in terms of audience style.  While I know popularity isn’t everthing, I cannot see how the relative merits of progressive death metal vs.lo-fi indie folk are down to anything other than purely subjective taste.

Or is it simply Opeth are further from their comfort zone than hipster-indie?

I’ve uploaded a few photos I took of Apethorn Junction at the Macclesfield show to my Fotopic site.

This has got to be one of the best 7mm scale layouts I’ve seen on the exhibition circuit.  It’s sheer size makes a big impression, and the whole thing just oozes atmosphere. It’s all DCC with sound chips on most if not all the locomotives, so the layout reverberates with the throaty roar of English Electric and Sulzer engines.

Even after far too little sleep, the after-effects of a little too much Tyskie, and still on a high from meeting some of my heroes, York railway station is still a magnificent place.  Here’s East Coast Trains 91105 waiting to depart on a northbound service.

Next time you hear some record company marketing suit spouting canards about filesharing destroying the music industy and claiming that major labels companies are on the same side as the artists, point them at this post about Hollie Smith being screwed over by EMI.

So a couple of months after signing, they came through and said ‘hey we think you’ve got a lot of potential, we want someone to write you a radio single and start doing the whole radio-friendly single thing’.

“I said ‘well, give me a month and I’ll write you a couple and you can say if they’re adequate or not. And if that’s the case, then sweet and if not, let’s talk about the idea of someone else writing my stuff because I don’t want a cheesy pop song that’s totally irrelevant to the rest of the album’.

They were like, ‘cool, cool, cool’. I sent them over some stuff and I hadn’t heard back from them and I rung them again and said ‘what’s happening?’ And they’re like ‘oh we’ve decided not to release your album at all internationally’.

Read the whole thing.  The sooner EMI are flushed down the toilet history, the better.

This rather silly post in The Guardian Music Blog claims that “we are in danger of destroying rock-star mystique because the web is less in thrall to image than traditional media“.

The suggestion is that blogs and social media makes musicians more accessible to fans, and this is somehow a bad thing. I think his real beef is the increasing redundancy of the music journalist as middle-man.

Anyway, I think the whole concept of the “rock star” is overrated. Some of the most sublime music I’ve heard over the past decade has been made by those who, when I’ve got to meet them have turned out to be quite down-to-earth people. The trouble for music journalists, of course, is that they’re less interesting to write about than to listen to. Unfortunately the ‘rock star’ myth is all to often an excuse to justify the sorts of behaviour that no ‘normal’ person would get away with, and ends up with the glorification of sleazy figures like Pete Doherty.

As I’ve said before, in recent years we’ve seen an wider gap between the creative artist and the showbiz celebrity, so it’s the largely talent-free slebs whose antics fill the gossip pages of the tabloids, while musicians are left in peace to do what they’re good at, which is create great music.

And I really don’t have a problem with that.