TAINTED LOVE.

I promise I will start writing in here on a regular basis.

Off to Belgium tomorrow.

BRB. X

“I’m a cold metal machine and I’ll do things you’ve never seen.”

Wow, I’m a shoddy blogger. Last time I wrote was nearly 3 months ago. Accept my sincerest apologies, my faithful readers. And don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to. I see what brings people here, and that is mainly ‘Oli Sykes’ fringe’. It seems there’s a gap in the market…

But I’m rambling, and it’s probably unlikely that I will start a blog about fringes. So instead I will update you all on what has kept me from blogging more than once every three months:

+ Mainly a wacko amount of deadlines. Tons and tons of work for my postgrad, relationship features for WM, reviews for Big Cheese, Q&As for Spinner, interviewing bands, that kinda jazz.

+ Excessive sushi consumption.

+ Some excellent shows – Lostprophets/Kids in Glass Houses UK dates, You Me At Six, This Is Hell, Shaped By Fate, Lostprophets/The Blackout European dates etc.

+ A charming chap.

+ My radio show, which aims to abuse the UK’s ears with everything from Justin Bieber to Gallows every Tuesday night (9.30-11pm).

+ Gallivanting around the UK and Europe. The week before last I went to see my delightful mum and baby bro in Brussels, followed by jaunts to Antwerp, Tilburg and Amsterdam. I am actually in love with Amsterdam. Shouting “lads on tour” while on a calming boat trip is my number one favourite pastime.

+ Work placement at Kerrang!, which brought on a serious case of nostalgia. Spotted myself in an old issue at the tender age of 15. Fantastic.

+ Work placement at Top of the Pops last week, which was probably the best thing ever. I interviewed a nice actor type, researched Justin Bieber, wrote a feature on JLS and got told Lady Gaga had ‘gondorrhea’ by a 13-year-old boy. I quite frankly love life.

That’ll do for now. In other news, I am obsessed with books about Sicilian gangsters and I can’t stop listening to bubblegum pop-punk and rowdy metal. I do like to go from one extreme to the other.

X

“Famous people are just more interesting…”

So, in music related news, I went to see Thrice last week. In a word, I was underwhelmed. This probably had something to do with the fact that I haven’t owned a Thrice record since 2003′s The Artist in the Ambulance, which was a stonker. I heard their newest, Beggars, in the summer while I was at the Big Cheese office, and it made me want to kill myself a bit. Grim. Don’t get me wrong, I bloody loved the songs they played that I knew, but the slow ones I didn’t know – no thanks. And the worst bit was that they played Stare At The Sun ACOUSTIC. I think most normal people like acoustic. I don’t. I spent the whole song saying “WHEN IS IT GOING TO KICK IN?” Dearie me.

They may have lacked in energy, but the same could not be said for support act We Are The Ocean. Big Cheese recently sent me their new album, Cutting Our Teeth, to review, and I am a massive fan. It’s a bit Alexisonfire, but they do it well. And their singer has a lovely Dallas Green-esque voice, which can never be a bad thing. Depressingly, their ages range between 17 and early-20s. It makes me feel old and I am only 21.

This week has mainly been dominated by the Kerrang! tour and sushi. The line up is pretty stellar – My Passion, Young Guns, All Time Low and The Blackout. Pretty stellar if you are me or a 14-year-old, anyway. I jest, it was excellent. My Passion are relatively new but have generated a huge following already. I don’t want to like what they do, but I think I’ve given in. Boys in eyeliner playing songs that sound like Avenged Sevenfold meets synths – I am a fan. Uh oh. I’ve discussed Young Guns before – probably my favourite new band, along with Blackhole. So much good stuff coming out of the UK right now. Young Guns will be huge! Thoroughly enjoyed The Blackout’s sets this week, they keep getting better and better.  Cracking light show! And All Time Low deliver the best sugary pop/rock every time. My friend Ruth commented that they sound a bit like the Jonas Brothers. Unfortunately, to us, that is a compliment.

Oh dear. In other news, I recently watched Almost Famous for the first time since I was about 14. Good god, I love that film. It actually hurts my heart. If you haven’t watched it already, do so. Now.

X

What we’re doing is so wrong, but what you’re wearing is so right.

Firstly, I apologise. I have been a rotten blogger for the past month. I got carried away with the joys of Christmas and New Year, spent in Yorkshire and an ex-brothel respectively. Anyway, it’s been a beautiful music-filled time as always. And I’ve seen numerous blogs recently about favourite albums of the decade, so I may as well give that a pop. So, these are my personal favourites, in chronological order.

1. Lostprophets – thefakesoundofprogress/Start Something (2001/2004)

I’m cheating here a little bit by naming two albums, but Lostprophets pretty much got me into everything I like (although Linkin Park‘s Hybrid Theory was the original reason I turned into a grimy mosher, but hush). thefakesoundofprogress was where it all began for little 12-year-old me, but Start Something is probably my favourite of the two.

2. Taking Back Sunday – Tell All Your Friends (2002)

I think this bad boy was the first album that ever made me pay great attention to lyrics. I used to read the CD inlay for great lengths of time. I even have memories of writing out heartfelt lyrics all over notebooks. Cool. “Don’t bother angel, I know exactly what goes on…”.

3. Finch – What It Is To Burn (2002)

Oh, a pattern is emerging. Yet another album that ripped my poor little teenage heart into shreds. Lyrics from this album littered my tragic MSN display names. Most notably – “I’ll sacrifice forever, please, just for tonight”. Brilliant.

4. Fall Out Boy – Take This To Your Grave (2003)

Yet another album which appealed to my faux-heartbroken teenage soul. At 16, I really imagined that this album had been written about me. Lyrics like “Stood on my roof and tried to see you forgetting about me/Hide the details, I don’t want to know a thing” seemed to be the most relevant words in the world. N’aww.

5. The Movielife – Forty Hour Train Back To Penn (2003)

It still hurts me to think that The Movielife ever split up. Such a brilliant band. In fact, when vocalist Vinnie Caruana decided to do a Movielife show with Set Your Goals in 2008, I almost cried with excitement. Listening to them now reminds me of care-free teenage days, and then of seeing them in 2008 at a festival called Bamboozle in New Jersey. And then I cringe a bit at my over-excitement. But never mind, they are still brilliant.

6. He Is Legend – I Am Hollywood (2004)

God, I love He Is Legend. If you haven’t checked them out, you should do. But be sure to check this album out first, because after this one it went a little bit skewiff. The Seduction is a fantastic track. For some reason, “I’m dancing with the Capulet, we’re so crazy in love!” makes me so happy I could explode. Bumped into the singer at a show in London last month, someone mentioned who he was, and I accidentally bellowed, “ARE YOU IN HE IS LEGEND? Okay, I like your band, bye.” I’m so smooth.

7. Every Time I Die – Gutter Phenomenon (2005)

I absolutely adore this band. This album is pure brilliance, completely packed to the rafters full of rowdy masterpieces. Not only is is full of amazing songs, but the lyrics are fantastic too. “Baby, you got me all wrong…”. Owww they are brilliant. One of the best live bands you will ever see.

8. Alexisonfire – Crisis (2006)

Yet another fantastic band. Dallas Green’s voice has to be one of the most beautiful in the world. Another of the best live bands you will ever see – their show in the London Borderline last June was one of my top five ever. And this album is full of amazingly brilliant epic singalong anthems. Check out Boiled Frogs. Amazing.

9. Bring Me The Horizon – Suicide Season (2008)

As controversial as they may once have been, I think people are starting to realise just how good this band is. Topping ‘Best Band’ and ‘Worst Band’ polls in Rock Sound this year shows just how much of an effect they have, and surely that’s better than sheer indifference. But anyway, I listen to this album pretty much constantly. Every single song is a belter. “We will never sleep, because sleep is for the weak…” has become some kind of motto for me. Bad influences.

10. A Day To Remember – Homesick (2009)

I actually love this band. This album will forever remind me of Warped Tour last summer, which was one of the best times of my life. Absolutely incredible. I was actually considering having “I sold my soul to the open road” tattooed on me, that is how much I love them. Never fear, it didn’t happen. But I do love them – their songs make me ridiculously happy, and that is never a bad thing.

Other top notch albums that I didn’t have room to mention are: Gallows – Grey Britain, Blackhole – Dead Hearts, The Blackout – The Best In Town and Kids in Glass Houses – Smart Casual. All brilliant and you should most definitely check them out.

So, to finish this long overdue blog entry, I am going to leave you with a video of Every Time I Die at the Borderline in London last month. They blew my mind.

X

We will be victorious

Muse live at Lisbon

So last weekend I went to Portugal, and while I was there I went to see Muse in Lisbon. My dad is the ultimate Muse fanboy but I was one of those unconvinced types. The only time in my life that I was ever more than indifferent about them was when I was about 13 and Kerrang! told me to like them, so I got Origin of Symmetry for Christmas and listened to Plug in Baby a few times. Apart from that, the only Muse song that’d ever hit me in the face was Supermassive Black Hole, which I acknowledged was a top tune because of its grimy intro. Oof.

Walking past the venue during the day, I was struck by the amount of people who had camped out in tents to see them. Pretty weird to think that three boys from Devon could have such an effect on the world. Next thing I noticed was that they had seven tour buses and ten stage trucks. Truly alarming.

But anyway, once I got into the venue, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Biffy Clyro were support for the night, and they put on a pretty good show. Once they’d finished, the crowd got a little bit overexcited and started doing Mexican waves. Entertaining for the first three times, slightly tiring for the next ten. And then the lights went down and what looked like three plain murals during Biffy’s set turned into screens with red graphics flashing on them. There were silhouettes marching up some stairs, and the suspense built until one of them fell down. And as the body fell, the screens separated and boom! they turned into blocks and each member of Muse was elevated on a podium. Pretty hard to describe but here is another shoddy homemade video to give you an idea:

They began with their most recent single, The Uprising. Having avoided listening to their new album The Resistance, I was unaware of how epic this song really is. It works fantastically live and they succeeded in rendering me utterly speechless for the whole set. Honestly the very best stage show I have ever seen. The lighting, sound and show in general, including rotating drumkit, was truly spectacular. So I guess it taught never to be a musical snob, because I was well and truly proved wrong. Here’s another video to show off just how good that stage show was:

Incredible.

Paying for content

One of the current issues in journalism today is the “paying for content” debate, as made famous by Rupert Murdoch. Quite frankly, he is fed up of everyone getting their news for free on the internet. The question is, should be we getting everything on a plate? And can we ever go back to paying for news? When questioned what they would do if their favourite news site decided to charge, the majority of people answered that they would just find another free site.

Rob Andrews, UK editor of paidContent, came in to speak to us last week and discussed just this. He has had a career in online journalism for several years, spanning BBC News, freelance work for Wired among others, and now paidContent.

He is doubtful that paid content will ever work very effectively because we are so used to getting content for free. One thing that stuck in my head was a comment he made about the music industry and how they’ve realised that they’re not going to make any more money from recorded music, so they’re putting all their efforts into the live music industry, because the live experience can’t be repeated anywhere else.  And Rob Andrews believes that online also needs to find a niche for which people will be willing to pay.

It’s not impossible – Financial Times have achieved it. But they’re a specialist website, and their content is well-known as being high-quality, meaning that people are willing to pay for it. It won’t work if you try to make people pay for content others are providing for free, so you need to find a niche topic.

Rob Andrews believes that it is very important to specialise in a particular topic because this industry needs specialists. It’s useful to have general knowledge, but it is vital to have specialist knowledge which will make you stand out from the crowd. His other tip is to make sure you get your work out there and I wholeheartedly agree. Get writing now!

Been rejected? Keep trying

So last week the web development editor at The Times, Joanna Geary, came in to speak to us. She was quite the inspiration as she was probably the youngest person we’ve had as a guest lecturer.

“Web development editor” is quite a snazzy sounding job title for a girl in her twenties, but as she pointed out, it doesn’t actually mean any one thing. Her job involves blogging, business news, event planning, exploring new technology, developing the website and deciding whether to buy into the “paying for content” debate, among other things. But how did such a young woman get such a grown-up-sounding job?

She didn’t get it on a plate, that’s for sure. She did work experience, got rejected by several companies, finally got a job at the Birmingham Post, started up a blog network in Birmingham, and then started making contacts on Twitter. It was in fact the wonderful Twitter that helped her get her job at The Times. A mysterious tweet from Tom Whitwell, formerly known as MusicThing on Twitter, popped up, and bang! Joanna Geary got a job at The Times.

It was motivating to see someone so young get such a good job, through sheer hard work and not giving up. A lesser person would be put off by rejection, but Joanna knew that she had to keep trying, because if she hadn’t, she wouldn’t be where she is now.

Her talk also emphasised the importance of Twitter and social media, because without that form of online conversation, she wouldn’t be where she is now. And the really important thing to remember is to follow the right people and become part of the conversation. A lot of the time it’s who you know that is important, and contacts are crucial if you want to get anywhere in life.

We will never sleep, because sleep is for the weak

My blog title is particularly fitting for this post – it’s a lyric that belongs to a band I went to see last night, Bring Me The Horizon, and today I am suffering from lack of sleep. Sleep may be for the weak, but I think I like it.

But anyway, Bring Me The Horizon are a “dirty Northern metal” band who hail from Sheffield. They started off their musical career in 2004 with a fair bit of controversy, managing to seemingly inspire hatred wherever they went. Firstly, people started calling them “Bring Me The Fringes”, due to certain hairstyles band members sported. People who had never even listened to them hated them for no reason. Mainly this hatred was aimed at frontman Oli Sykes, who is the band member equivalent of Marmite. There was then controversy over certain allegations involving urine and girls and glass bottles, which obviously didn’t go down too well.

BMTH at Bristol Academy

But that was a few years ago, and this hatred seems to have turned around with the release of their most recent album (excluding the remix one, because that doesn’t count). I only actually listened to their music for the first time six months ago, and I realised what I’d been missing out on. It’s rowdy, and it probably wouldn’t appeal to your average middle-of-the-road indie lover’s eardrums, but I absolutely love it. Suicide Season is an incredible album, full of brutal riffs and growls and lyrics that make me happy. I can’t really repeat them here due to unsavoury language but there’s nothing like chanting along with some angry words. Or maybe that’s just me.

So, I went to see them last night in Bristol Academy with a band called A Day To Remember, who I did a blog post about last month. They were top notch, and then came Bring Me The Horizon. I was lucky enough to watch from the side of the stage and it was absolutely fantastic. Their live show is beyond impressive. They’re brilliant to watch, and the place was the most packed I’ve ever seen it. Every single fan screamed the words along with them as if their lives depended on it, and it was impossible to take your eyes off them. They were full of energy, jumping off speakers and throwing themselves around the stage, and the atmosphere was electric. In my previous post, I may have made a point about anyone being able to make a shoddy video, and here is your proof that I can do it too. Awful sound, but you get the idea:

So get off your high horses and give them a chance. Make your own decisions instead of trusting some bitter bugger who’s never even listened to them, because you might be missing out on something bloody good. Sure, you might hate them, but at least you will have formed your own opinion instead of jumping on a bandwagon.

Rory Cellan-Jones and the future of journalism

BBC Technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones came in last week and gave a talk about how journalism has changed over the years. When he started working in a BBC newsroom in 1983, the world of journalism was a very different place. People used typewriters and everybody specialised in a certain area, like writing or sound or camera work. They didn’t use video and their only rival was ITN.

Fast forward to 2009, and the story is quite different. People have to be multi-talented to get on in media, because there are so many rivals that you have to be the best or people will go elsewhere. Nobody expects to stay at the same workplace for the rest of their lives anymore.

The internet has made a huge difference to journalism. Now anybody can be a ”citizen journalist“, because the majority of people have mobile phones with cameras and video recorders built in. Anybody can put a video on Youtube and anybody can blog their opinions, and they will do without any money changing hands. So the question is: is there a place for paid journalists anymore?

Rory Cellan-Jones thinks so. Because citizen journalists may be able to make videos, audio and blogs, but ultimately, the most important thing is to make quality journalism. Yes, anybody can make a shoddy video and anybody can write a blog, but not just anybody can do it well. Rory Cellan-Jones’s advice is to make sure you have one thing you’re extremely good at, and then be prepared to tackle anything else that’s thrown at you.

If someone asks you to open a Twitter, do it. Try writing a blog. Have a pop at Googlewave. Because in this day and age, there’s no excuse not to give everything a go. And you never know, you might just like it.

The photobus

A delightful man called Daniel Meadows came to speak to us last week. He is a documentarist, photographer and digital storyteller, and he has had the most fascinating life. He was such an inspiration because he’s done the most fantastic things and still has so much faith in people. He made a comment about how amazing the majority of people are, and it was inspiring because I hear so much bitterness and cynicism off so many people. It was refreshing to hear someone talking with such passion about their work, even after so many years.

I find the work he has done utterly fascinating - in the seventies, at the age of 21, he lived on a double decker bus called the Free Photographic Omnibus. He took over 10,000 photos of people all over England and gave them the pictures for free. As someone of the same age, I can’t even begin to think about how you would organise everything: the bus, the insurance, the costs, but he managed it. And his carefree attitude to living life on the road truly appeals to me.

But anyway, in the late nineties, the photographs he took on the Free Photographic Omnibus were published in the newspapers again. And the people he photographed came back and he took more pictures of them. He showed us the pictures side-by-side and it was lovely. Every picture had truly captured the moment and it was wonderful to be able to see how they had changed over the years.

Along with the Photobus, Daniel Meadows has done some incredibly interesting things. He was working for Granada in Manchester around the time of the Factory Records scene, and he took pictures of Joy Division and Tony Wilson among others. Having grown up with a Joy Division fanatic of a father, I found this probably a bit too exciting.

He has also been described as a pioneer in the world of digital storytelling. He showed us some fascinating things – a method he uses is to go through his archives and put audio over the top of his photographs to create a story. It’s a truly brilliant and effective method and until then, I wasn’t familiar with it.  And that is why the world needs more people like Daniel Meadows. Positive, innovative and truly inspirational.