London Fields # 44
First published Inpress, Melbourne on 3 October 2007
NB: Each column has a name, but these do not appear in print; printed versions may differ slightly to those displayed here
A visit to London’s record stores is often an integral part of a music lover’s trip to the English capitol. Berwick Street, immortalised on the cover of Oasis’s (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, was once the centre for this. There were indie specialists Selectadisc and Sister Ray, mainstream stockist (but cheaper than the major stores) Mister CD, and pre-loved delights on CD and vinyl at two branches of Reckless Records. But it’s been a tough period for music retailing in the UK, and only Sister Ray continues to trade.
Nationwide chains are experiencing troubles too. Despite the fact that the UK still purchases a large amount of music on physical formats, HMV saw a massive drop in sales. Meanwhile, Richard Branson decided that Virgin will withdraw from retail altogether; he has sold the Virgin stores to Zavvi, and their digital download service will cease later this month. Of the larger operators, the saddest loss was the collapse of Fopp, which had started as a small independent retailer in Scotland, but had grown (perhaps too quickly) into a national chain. Fopp’s flagship store on Tottenham Court Road had a licensed café that doubled as a live venue, which meant you could enjoy an instore with a pint rather than being cramped against CD racks. It was well-stocked, offered near internet prices, music-loving staff, and changed the way that other stores priced and sold their music. The only bright light has been the opening of the Rough Trade superstore on Brick Lane in East London.
So in the age of downloads and online sales, should the loss of so many outlets be a concern? In smaller communities, the local independent record store was where people with similar interests met, ideas and music was exchanged, bands were formed and so new scenes grew. In modern Britain the music press is unchallenged by rivalry, and unchallenging in its narrow field of vision. Sometimes record retailers would be bringing new bands to a scene’s attention, in a way MySpace can never replace.
But there’s another major shift taking place as this column goes to press. Over the past few months there’s been a lot of talk here about issues surrounding giving away music. Mike Oldfield was reportedly pretty miffed when Tubular Bells was offered free an incentive to purchase a particular Sunday newspaper. Then there was a big hoo-hah when Prince offered his new studio album free with The Mail On Sunday. Most recently, Travis effectively gave a greatest hits package away with one of the Sundays. But all these pale into insignificance compared to the plans unveiled by Radiohead and The Charlatans.
Radiohead are currently without a label, and have decided to release their next LP, In Rainbows, via their own website. For £40, you get the deluxe package, with vinyl and CD versions of the album, as well as a bonus CD of other material. With the download, you set your own price, meaning you can grab the album legally for a song. Now this strategy may render the record ineligible for the charts, as it’s not going through a recognised retail outlet. Incidentally, a physical CD via a conventional record company is expected to follow next year. I suppose this isn’t really a first. Newcastle act Greenspace released their debut album on vinyl only, but if you sent the band a photo of yourself holding a copy of the vinyl album, they’d send you a free CD of it.
More radical still is the alliance that Alan McGee has set up between commercial alternative station XFM and The Charlatans. The band next two singles and subsequent album will be offered as a free download via the station’s website. McGee has said that they decided to do this after seeing the deal offered by Sanctuary. I suppose it has nothing to do with the closure last month of the recording arm of Sanctuary Records UK?
So why give away music? A friend who was involved in the early careers of some now famous acts thinks he knows the reason. Gigs are extremely popular now, and getting more expensive all the time. So instead of touring up and down the country, playing small venues, you can build up a following so that you skip that stage and go straight to larger venues. Or ultimately give up touring altogether and play week long residencies in enormodomes where people have to travel to from around the country if they wish to see you. Not forgetting the associated merchandise sales.
It seems my friend was on the ball, because a few days later McGee issued a statement saying the future of music was in gigs, merchandising and advertising. If my friend is right, be a little wary or maybe the days of the intimate gig will soon be gone…
© James McGalliard 2007
Showing posts with label music press. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music press. Show all posts
Wednesday, 3 October 2007
Wednesday, 11 July 2007
A Craic In The Clouds
London Fields # 41
First published Inpress, Melbourne on 11 July 2007
NB: Each column has a name, but these do not appear in print; printed versions may differ slightly to those displayed here
Ostensibly my reason for travelling to Dublin was to catch one of the "rehearsals" that R.E.M. held over five nights at the Olympia Theatre there. "This Is Not A Show" stated the projection behind them, and in many ways it wasn’t – the idea was to road test new songs for their partly recorded next LP. But it did provide an opportunity to catch one of the biggest bands in the world in a comparatively intimate venue, and the trip overall provided me with an unexpected reflection of life in London as well.
The last time I was in Dublin was in October 2001, in the aftermath of September 11. This trip coincided with the attacks on London’s West End and Glasgow Airport, which insured lots of shenanigans getting through security procedures, as it had nearly six years earlier. But the city has changed so much over the period. Like London, the influx of workers from Eastern Europe has had a visible aspect, both in the rise of specialist shops, and in those employed as waiting and cleaning staff. It seems as if the divide between rich and poor has widened too; there are far more beggars on the streets. Near Parnell Square I see a bottle shop where the worker is behind bulletproof glass with a small bank teller like window to distribute the booze. Making the purchases are a couple of scangers, the Irish version of the chav.
I catch up with an old friend, someone I met on my first trip here in 1990. He’s a musician who has toured the world in an award-winning band. He tells me that although rental prices in the city have increased astronomically, the average income has not followed suit. Rising rents means that many of the beautiful old bookshops near Trinity College have had to close, or move to cheaper premises elsewhere.
The one thing Dublin has retained, and possibly its greatest tourist attraction, are its many bars. It’s such a contrast to London, where those remaining pubs that haven’t been closed and converted into flats are often nearly identical, as part of large chains. There a very few places in central London where you’d be tempted to have more than a swift one on your way somewhere else. In Dublin, it never more than a stone’s throw to the next pub, but they’re actually places you’d want to stop and spent time in. The Stag’s Head is probably my favourite, even seamlessly absorbing the after show crowds from the nearby Olympia Theatre.
The biggest change to Dublin’s pubs has been the rise of the "beer garden" following the introduction of the smoking ban a few years back. Often these are little more than a small covered area for smokers to huddle into, and while the pubs seem quieter, but they still have retained the atmosphere without the smokehaze. But land values have risen so much that there is talk that even the famous Guinness Brewery at St James’s Gate may be up for development as luxury flats, such is the value of the land in the current climate.
My old friend also worries about the lack of variety in the Dublin music scene. While their rock industry bible HotPress celebrates its 30th Anniversary, and the Oxegen Festival is national news, he tells me that while the scene is buzzing, there a few acts not aping what they see as the current "NME taste". In fact, the only newish act he could recommend had just called it a day. Which is all the sadder as HotPress has retained some of the more in-depth journalistic pieces that the present-NME abandoned in favour of a Smash Hits-style presentation.
It was on my last night that I saw R.E.M. and they played an uberfan’s set – asides from the new material, it was all early IRS-period material with Harbourcoat and the entire Chronic Town EP. Some things are the same everywhere, like the couple who elbowed their way beside me just before the band began, and then spent the first two (new) songs nattering about how exciting it was to be there, her pausing only to yell "We love you Michael" repeatedly. But two things told me I wasn’t in London at the gig. Firstly the amazingly well-run bar, and secondly no one would choose London audiences as a testing ground for new material. While London is seen as old and set in its ways, Dublin is still perceived as somewhere willing to embrace the new.
© James McGalliard 2007
First published Inpress, Melbourne on 11 July 2007
NB: Each column has a name, but these do not appear in print; printed versions may differ slightly to those displayed here
Ostensibly my reason for travelling to Dublin was to catch one of the "rehearsals" that R.E.M. held over five nights at the Olympia Theatre there. "This Is Not A Show" stated the projection behind them, and in many ways it wasn’t – the idea was to road test new songs for their partly recorded next LP. But it did provide an opportunity to catch one of the biggest bands in the world in a comparatively intimate venue, and the trip overall provided me with an unexpected reflection of life in London as well.
The last time I was in Dublin was in October 2001, in the aftermath of September 11. This trip coincided with the attacks on London’s West End and Glasgow Airport, which insured lots of shenanigans getting through security procedures, as it had nearly six years earlier. But the city has changed so much over the period. Like London, the influx of workers from Eastern Europe has had a visible aspect, both in the rise of specialist shops, and in those employed as waiting and cleaning staff. It seems as if the divide between rich and poor has widened too; there are far more beggars on the streets. Near Parnell Square I see a bottle shop where the worker is behind bulletproof glass with a small bank teller like window to distribute the booze. Making the purchases are a couple of scangers, the Irish version of the chav.
I catch up with an old friend, someone I met on my first trip here in 1990. He’s a musician who has toured the world in an award-winning band. He tells me that although rental prices in the city have increased astronomically, the average income has not followed suit. Rising rents means that many of the beautiful old bookshops near Trinity College have had to close, or move to cheaper premises elsewhere.
The one thing Dublin has retained, and possibly its greatest tourist attraction, are its many bars. It’s such a contrast to London, where those remaining pubs that haven’t been closed and converted into flats are often nearly identical, as part of large chains. There a very few places in central London where you’d be tempted to have more than a swift one on your way somewhere else. In Dublin, it never more than a stone’s throw to the next pub, but they’re actually places you’d want to stop and spent time in. The Stag’s Head is probably my favourite, even seamlessly absorbing the after show crowds from the nearby Olympia Theatre.
The biggest change to Dublin’s pubs has been the rise of the "beer garden" following the introduction of the smoking ban a few years back. Often these are little more than a small covered area for smokers to huddle into, and while the pubs seem quieter, but they still have retained the atmosphere without the smokehaze. But land values have risen so much that there is talk that even the famous Guinness Brewery at St James’s Gate may be up for development as luxury flats, such is the value of the land in the current climate.
My old friend also worries about the lack of variety in the Dublin music scene. While their rock industry bible HotPress celebrates its 30th Anniversary, and the Oxegen Festival is national news, he tells me that while the scene is buzzing, there a few acts not aping what they see as the current "NME taste". In fact, the only newish act he could recommend had just called it a day. Which is all the sadder as HotPress has retained some of the more in-depth journalistic pieces that the present-NME abandoned in favour of a Smash Hits-style presentation.
It was on my last night that I saw R.E.M. and they played an uberfan’s set – asides from the new material, it was all early IRS-period material with Harbourcoat and the entire Chronic Town EP. Some things are the same everywhere, like the couple who elbowed their way beside me just before the band began, and then spent the first two (new) songs nattering about how exciting it was to be there, her pausing only to yell "We love you Michael" repeatedly. But two things told me I wasn’t in London at the gig. Firstly the amazingly well-run bar, and secondly no one would choose London audiences as a testing ground for new material. While London is seen as old and set in its ways, Dublin is still perceived as somewhere willing to embrace the new.
© James McGalliard 2007
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