Having embraced Twitter, the desire to write blog posts is obviously dwindling, but that is because it exposes the difference in the two. And quite frankly, I'm a lot happier firing brief missives into the world than concentrating on some sentient thought. And when I do, I'm not usually near my computer, the resultant scribble as a 'note' on my Blackberry very rarely making sense at a later date
Alas, there is a greater reason to post than just wittiering, and that is the brilliant Rough Trade night on BBC4 last Friday. I was out filming Ellen & The Escapades at the time, but watched back on Sunday night with glee.
Rough Trade, and all the DIY innovators of the late 70s / early 80s were obviously a great inspiration to me with Forward Russia and Dance To The Radio, and hearing interviews with Geoff Travis at the time of Rough Trade's inception was really intriguing. I thought the way the program delved in the merky moral v commercialist dilemma's was very good - until it discarded this indepth approach with the label reboot of the 00's (ie no mention that the label has been sold a couple of times, and is currently a subsidiary of Beggars so I believe).
The way the label and staff 'chased' the dream with The Smiths was had familar ring to it as well, in lots of different respects, along with the general rise from entusiast to business with all it's accompanying trials
But I'm not sure what exactly to make of Geoff Travis. I did a panel at In The City with him in October and was slightly put off by a comment he made about not being able to make an album for less than £30k/£40k. And within the program there was something odd about the rhetoric of the 70's Travis on taking back the power / options / ability to release records, no matter what the quality or commerciality, to the Travis of now, managing Duffy
It's a great old independent music industry paradigm, if you can make something succesful in the mainstream true to your morals, could you / should you? But surely you can't keep them there and stick to said morals? And I think that you can't, or at least it's incredibly it's very very hard to, is true to the case. So what do you do? Personally, if I'd have gone through what Rough Trade had, I would steer clear from the mainstream music industry even if I did see a Duffy, but then that might explain why/how Geoff Travis has a purpose in life and I don't.
I've just re-read this entry and wanted to add "and why he's probably a lot richer than me" but that's not that point, or is it?
Anyway, enjoy some truly entertaining television until the end of Friday night at least:
And a note on Twitter, I do like it, I really do. I think it actually has genuine uses like a group text, or friend notification services. Discovering friends are out and about and so on is very useful. But, I see it dying very quickly as there's very little way to engage yourself on Twitter like Myspace or Facebook. But that would be a shame. Ahh well
Soundtrack to this post: Simon Mayo
