CityLife

The idiots are winning.

By Oliver , 05 May 2009

Leading on from my last post... I must pass comment on the 'alternatives' and raise awareness on how the idiots are winning.

As the independent sector grows as lean as an Auschwitz resident, strains for breath and tries not to fall to the ground in a bloody heap we, the discerning listener, are left with fewer and fewer choices of where to get our fix of new music. The leaves on Siddarthas tree are being plucked off one by one leaving no shade for the pursuit of enlightenment.

Unfortunately not everyone is so enlightened to find new and exciting music. Some people have to rely on quick fixes of trend. And I use the word trend because it is wholly distinguishable from the word style. Style is a 1955 Mercedes 300SL, trend is a white Audi R8. Some people don't have the time or the volition to seek a wonderful outfit from a vintage store when they can have their look off a shelf in Topshop. Why cook your own dinner when you can order in? Why go out when you can pull chicks online?

Thus many suck on the teet of corporate culture as a new born baby is perfectly content to chew on its sweaty mothers bosom. Unaware that she only gave birth to the child to claim child support and once that dries up so will she. They are satisfied with the pages of NME or the Sunday morning ramblings of T4 as their musical fruit. Little do they appreciate what an ugly tree it falls from.

If we aren't careful this will spread. Once upon a time great minds such as John Peel were highly regarded. Now a young fashion models simple minded delivery of television dinner music culture is not only considered acceptable but very much a cool thing. If it weren't for genuinely cool and turned-on individuals such as Zane Lowe and Annie Mac establishments such as Radio One would be swamped with more flea for brains like Nick Grimshaw (yeah I know he is a local boy... but seriously... get a hair cut. And he went to University in Liverpool so what does that tell you?). In fact I just looked him up on t'internet and there is only one thing on his CV which says: 'Grimmy has an ongoing feud with the Ting Tings'. Wow. Step aside Mr. Hawkins, you have a challenger to your post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University.

Well okay I accept that is a little harsh (I am sure Nick is a TOP bloke). But you catch my drift.

Recently the last independent leg Manchester had been hopping on was cut off. The leg hasn't been thrown in Withington Hospital Incinerator along with Manchesters other lost limbs and miscarried fetuses. It has been put in a jar of formaldehyde to be retrieved at a later date and brought back to life (we hope). And by the time that does happen I think the recession will have brought so much up from the cultural underbelly of Mancunia (recessions always being the most creative time for a populace) that the re-attachment of said leg will be reminiscent of Modern Promotheus.

Indeed Shelley wrote the novel as a warning of the over reaching of modern man, it was a response to the industrial revolution. And when the next Frankenstein is raised (the next Punk, the next Acid House) no doubt many will reference the collapse of the banking system, the over reaching once again of modern man, as a catalyst.

Until that day comes be warned. Don't settle for being force fed your musical preference. You don't need to look like the mannequin you saw in the Topshop window on the way home tonight. Look somewhere else, turn your head, raise your game. Because each one of you that does stroll into Topshop, that takes the Bigmac, that believes what NME says is cool, each one of you bring the inevitable that little bit closer... and everytime you see a white Audi R8 in the street you will be reminded... the idiots are winning.

End of an Era. For now

By Oliver , 04 May 2009

 So Channel M made huge redundancies last week... I think 2/3 of the work force are gone.

The loss of the jobs is so sad and a sign of the times. I'm gutted for everyone that has lost out there. It feels like the end of an era > I don't mean that Channel M being reduced to three hours programming is so significant apart from to those who will be watching the jobsearch programme this week rather than making it... I mean that small, independent organisations are so rarely seen now. Look at what my dad got away with on 'So It Goes'. Over the last few decades regional programming has diminished rapidly to the point where, this week, there is now NO regional music show. In the television world, the North West no longer has a voice. Thats sad.

With Channel M on the tv and XFM championing Manchester on the radio it seemed a year ago that perhaps these two pillars of north west media would be channeling the new musical revolution that has to come in the next year or two... but I guess it will have to find another way to amplify itself to a mainstream audience. The kids out there working their amps and drum machines making the next wave of new and exciting music (and recession always brings out creativity in the populace... it's all we have to turn to) will have to rely on Hype Machine.

Dan Parrots music show on Channel M will be sorely missed by a lot of people in Manchester. It was the last opportunity for anything commercially untainted to air from the huge mast on Winter Hill.

Back to prolonged ads on commercial radio. Back to watching T4 idiots read the autocue and introduce bands we once savoured at night and day pushed further along the corporate plank. 

I only hope that things will turn around and Channel M will later this year/next year be able to open its doors once again to the kind of programming we have so far been enjoying.