Last week Prince declared that the internet was dead, try telling Twitter fans that.
106 million plus people are now using the social networking phenomenon.
Bands and artists are at it too now, but just how important is it for the music industry?
Adrian Larkin has been digging deeper into the world of music related tweets.
Backstage at Glastobury by the John Peel Stage and I catch up with Julian Casablancas who tells me the currently-untitled record is still only “half-way done” and won’t be ready until at least March.
Dinosaur Jr formed in 84, split in 97 and then got back together in 2005 – all in a lifetimes work then. They really don’t like doing interviews, or so the media says. But i found them quite engaging and full of opinion. Mascics is one of the funniest people i’ve interviewed. I could probably play his interview back double the speed and it would still sound slow! The bands ninth album is out on June 23rd. It’s called Farm. It wasn’t recorded on one though, nope they recorded it in a small room in the J.Mascis mansion.
Four hours is officially the longest time I have ever had to wait to interview a musician, and now my interview with Marilyn Manson is officially the strangest 10 minutes of my life.
Having arrived at The BBC Maida Vale studios with the naive understanding he’d be on time I spent much of my afternoon sat in a lounge preparing for the big rock arrival.
Away from music, Marilyn Manson has proved himself an insightful, articulate and compelling man, this interview conducted after a session for the BBC went slightly wayward.
During the interview he pulls the microphone apart, asks his girlfriend to strip and drops more sexual innuendos than Finbarr Saunders from the Viz comics.
In the name of charity 7 of us from 6 Music headed north to play in a footy tournament as part of Liverpool Sound City. So we started well and battered Manchester boys In the City, then things took an almighty nose dive as we were pulled apart by Cream and followed that dismal encounter by being out paced by a collective of 45 year olds allegedly from The Farm. You know the ones, “All Together Now”….
Somewhat of a legend, especially after Psyence Fiction and that blazing beast of a mix tape under the guise of UNKLE…. so as you would imagine quite a pleasure to spend an hour or so with him in the studio…
Turns out Lavelle is a massive Xbox 360 fanatic, so we had that in common, that and punching knobs (so to speak).
Trip-Hop Legend...
If, like me, you’ve been suffering from a mild case of mid winter blues recently, then you might find that a heavy dose of Tricky is the answer – not because his music is in any way hopeful but his ritual on stage is so captivating, the theatre and spectacle so bewildering that you’ll walk out smiling – trust me.
At 41, but in many ways still the “Kid” of old, Tricky looks to be a man back on the top of his game. Much of this gig though rests on the shoulders of his co-singer Francesca who delivers vocals flawlessly and his band who dish out baselines and drumbeats with such severity there’s not a head in the crowd that isn’t motioning along with them.
Two songs in, and like a boxer ringside – Tricky derobes and punches the air, now twitching as if in the middle of an exorcism he bellows out the Past Mistake lyrics, chanting “I hope Jesus comes!” It’s brilliant and accomplished and in every way emotional.
As in past gigs though, he is happy to skulk around in the darkness as Francesca assumes control on stage. Tricky, meanwhile, is flouting the law. Smoking with his back to the crowd by the drum kit he nods in unison with his band. Indeed it is Tricky himself who is the first to accept that for large pockets of this show it’s not about him, that Francesca holds the reigns in parts and that he always runs the risk of being carted off stage.
“In Sweden they are not having it, they say i’ll get arrested, and go straight to jail, now with the smoking ban everyone is on you, but I’m lucky I can walk off stage,” he says, smoking backstage in his dressing room before the gig.
As the gig progresses Tricky ventures from old to new playing tracks like Vent from Pre-Millennium Tension, as well as newer songs from his 8th album Knowle West Boy, after almost every song there’s a short “thank you” as he sparks up again and drifts off into the background for a few minutes of composure. The energy he gives on stage during songs like Girls is so brutally intense – it’s as if he depends on those quiet moments away from the limelight.
In the final hour of the show though, there’s more of Tricky, this time he orchestrates Francesca and the band as they flutter in and out of cover songs, such as Motorhead’s Ace of Spades and The Cure’s The Love Cats.
He closes with a fiercely good rendition of the Tricky Kid and even demands that the lighting crew illuminate the stage for that one.
By his own admission Adrian Thaws has mellowed a lot over the years – but on stage tonight he’s everything but mellow – this was an agonizingly good performance, full of energy and soul and one that for a while lifted me out of the seemingly relentless winter gloom.
Tricky will now head across the pond for his biggest tour to date in the US.
You can find more reviews here: www.bbc.co.uk/6music/news/
