Monday, May 23, 2005

Bono and his incredible exploding ego.
Via Coolfer, a long interview with Bono, titled..

Bono: 'We need to talk'
"U2's frontman sits down with Greg Kot to 'clear the air' about negative reviews, the band's direction and the role of rock 'n' roll."


Heard some of a very interesting interview with longstanding local musician Rodger Fox on BFM's Jazz Show, hosted by that knowledgable young chap Sean Grattan.

Fox was talking about the current state of the music scene here, saying that he thought the various government initiatives like the Music Industry Commission and so on were on the wrong track, throwing money at 4 or 5 bands. He recalled the 70's and early 80's when he was in Quincy Conserve, describing that as a time when we had a proper music industry that supported a wealth of musicians, unlike now, in his opinion.

Back then, he said there was a brewery circuit that bands could go out and play and make a decent living. Fox said he was often playing 5 nights a week, and earning more than his father, who was a schoolteacher and head of the music dept at a high school. The brewery circuit developed from a time when the breweries owned a large number of pubs around the country and also handled the bookings for live entertainment - Fox said this eventually fell apart when the breweries decided to get out of owning property in the early 80s, and pub owners took over booking bands.

Fox suggested that if instead of throwing money at a smalll handful of bands, if the government schemes went towards creating a live circuit, then say 200 bands could be out there working and making a decent wage from being a musician, just like a nurse or a mechanic. Nowadays, if you are on a band, you can only play live in your own town once a month or so.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is a relly good idea!
I know that being in a band isn't easy especially when you have you make a name for yourself and get yourself out there in the the musical world. If someone was to start up another similar circuit to the brewery circuit there would be so many bands and people that would benifit from this as well as the New Zealand Music industry.