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"Bye Bye New Music!"

Radio 1 are axing "The Evening Session", hosted by Steve Lamacq.
It's "unsure as to what will fill the gap".

So the nations biggest radio station is jettisoning one of it's few programmes that showcases unsigned bands, interviews and performances from groups that actually make an effort.
Great.
Another outlet for struggling/up and coming bands is being shut down, primarily - I'm guessing - because the demographic indicates that new music is waning?

Balls.
This is at the same time that the BBC announces it's all-new station dedicated to Black Music.
This wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that garage/RnB etc is popular and making money could it?
And before anyone starts debating the merits of a "black" radio station, the only colour involved here is green.
If Icelandic music was "hip", then you can guarantee that the BBC would set up a station solely dedicated to that as well.

The fact that The Evening Session didn't rely on ego-superstar DJ presenting, or humorous links or any of the other crap associated with Radio 1 is what made it worthwhile.
Lamacq says "It's music first and foremost, nothing to do with me or what sells the most that week".
But, it would appear, that doesn't matter anymore in the institution that is Radio 1.
Zoe Ball has moved to Xfm and absolutely slated Radio 1, "They would only ever allow me to play 1 song a week of my own choice, the rest was set in stone and suffocating".

What galls me is the fact that because a station decides to axe a show, it's presumed that that musical genre is not worth anything anymore.
Well excuse me, but new/raw music is one of the most vital things around.
Without bands willing to bust their humps playing weeknights, driving miles to venues etc you would only ever listen to that which sells.
But it would sell because that's all you listened to.
You may not like some of the bands on The Evening Session, but I'd rather listen to an obscure band than the latest offering from Gareth Gates.

Venues are closing in regional areas, and in London people rarely just go to a venue to see whoever is playing - you go because there's a band you know you'll like.
The live-gig is a thriving scene in London, but it's bloody hard work and thankless. The Evening Session (and Xfm) is one of the only mainstream radio shows that offers people that choice to hear music they may never have been into.
Some people can't trawl through the internet for music and rely on that show to provide them with a window into what is going on in today's music scene.

And it's been taken away.
Yet you can listen to The Breakfast Show "posse" and hear the same 7 songs that are A-listed and get played in every show throughout the day.

Thanks very much Radio 1 for taking away yet another little outlet for people that play music because they have to. People that play because it's an expression of their soul/feelings.
It seems that heartfelt musicianship doesn't count for much these days.

And that saddens me.

I hate Freddy Prinze Junior. If only I could get millions of dollars and a super-hot girlfriend for just looking like I can smell a fart all the time...

Oh, the Freddie Prinze Jr thing...

Didn't Sam Raimi say something like:

"Freddie Prinze Jr wopn;t even be allowed to buy a ticket to my movie"

I'm pretty sure I heard that.

Sucks about the Evening Session, as I heard many bands I like for the first time there. And they don't even know what they're replace it with?

Probably 'DJ Spoony' and 'Timmy magic' going "Muuuh here's So Solid"

I need to park one.

Brb

Goatboy wrote:
> Curses. He summed up my mid-length diatribe in 3 lines
> *shakes fist*
> Damn your concise argumentative abilities.
>
> I shall go smoke and listen to heavy metal.

Yeah but there's no point of a concise rant is there? It'd be like a boxing match where one guy knocked the other guy out in the first second of the first round. You want a long drawn out rant that vaguely skirts around the point for as long as possible and then unleashes a swift combo at the end...

Mr. Happy wrote:
It's not that I hate the Big Brother culture with a vengeance, just
> that I want to be able to ignore it if I so choose. Instead I find it
> stifling the things I like. And that is annoying.
--

Curses. He summed up my mid-length diatribe in 3 lines
*shakes fist*
Damn your concise argumentative abilities.

I shall go smoke and listen to heavy metal.

That whole argument was actually engineered with the sole intention of having a pop at the Bourne Identity, whose trailer I just saw :-)

What I was trying to say was not that Lamacq was haut-culture music for intelligent people with no plebs allowed, but just not dumbd-down to cater for a mass audience.

Jaws was a movie that rocked; it did action infinitely better than say the Bourne Identity, which rather foolishly claims to have a car chase better than the French Connection's (the whole reason the FC's rocked was because it was real, unlike Matt Damon's). Movies now are increasingly blighted by studio big-shots sticking their oar in. Spider-man was a brilliant film, but nearly didn't get made by Sam Raimi because his studio blocked him every step of the way. They didn't want him to cast Tobey Maguire because Freddie "teenage-girl-orgasm-on-a-stick" Prinze Jr had expressed an interest in the role. They didn't like the way Raimi directed and they didn't like the script. If they had got their way Joel Schumaker would have churned out something as pap as his Batman films, and that's what I object to.

It's not that I hate the Big Brother culture with a vengeance, just that I want to be able to ignore it if I so choose. Instead I find it stifling the things I like. And that is annoying.

*claps slowly*

And if anyone required a reason as to why Lamacq is going, David Lynch is prevented from making Network shows and why people wander into fast-food dungeons with automatic weapons?

*points to post below*

all too much for me, so which is your favourite radio one show? mark and lard for me, IS IT WERF OWT?

I think Mr Happy has a point, as does Belldandy.

What I think is the reason behind this show finishing is not so much to do with whether indie is credible as a music genre or not.
It's the fact that Radio 1, as are so many facets of life, dumbing down.
Stripping themselves of anything that requires thought and a level of involvement outside of "Dial this number to vote for..."

It's everywhere you look, not just in music.
Movies are becoming more and more retarded, undeniable. For every Coen Bros movie there are 20 Jennifer Lopez ones.
"Oh it's just escapism" - fine, I have no problem with that.
What I do have a problem with is that my option of not taking that route and preferring to wander down a slightly more leftfield path is being taken away without my say so.

*That's* what bugs me. Joe Blow can watch Big Brother until his brain finally liquifies and slides out of his slack-jaw, more power to him.
But where are the programmes I want to watch? Tucked away after 11pm, usually on BBC2 or Channel 4 - I'm in a minority because I don't care about vacous ideas of celebrity of the ease of modern life.
Look around in any shopping "mall", then let somebody blindfold you, truss you up and take you to America/Spain/France/Germany.
I promise you will find a Starbucks, Nike-Land, Gap, Blockbusters, Viring Records.

It seems, more and more every day, that this entire world is turning into one enormous toddler's birthday party.
Now if you were cynical, you could suggest that it's an easy distraction to keep stupid people from watching events around the world like the impending Middle Eastern Adventure "Desert Storm 2: This time it's politricks".
It's much easier to force-feed someone a Big Mac, get them to all buy the same clothes, listen to the same CD's (accomplish this by removing station programmes that do not play major-label bands), watch the same movies and we'll all stumble through life like happy consumer cow people.

But once again, it's not the person that chooses to do these things that annoys me - it's my choice of doing otherwise being taken away "for my convenience".
Well excuse me, I don't want to watch "Big Explosion 3" starring Vin Diesel and buy the soundtrack from Virgin (handily promoted via local radio).
I don't want to sit indoors and watch mindless tv shows that exist for one reason only - to take your money through phone calls, promo-tie in DVDs, magazines dedicated to these people grasping at their 15 mins, Pop Idols, Big Brothers....it's a tax on stupidity and that's fine by me.
I'll sit and laugh because that's how you choose to live.

But you start to take away my access to music I *might* like to hear, don't show intelligent movies at the Gigantiplex Enormodome and try to sell me crap I don't want to wear etc then I'll dig my heels in and push back.

In the town where I live, there is nowhere to buy a book. WH Smith but that's it. I have to travel to Cambridge to buy a book. Yet there is a Virgin Megastore, 9 cheap jeweller's shops, endless shoe shops and 4 mobile phone "centers", complete with 3 Sainsburys and 3 Tescos.
But not one single bookstore.

That's where this planet is heading, that's where the music industry is and that's where I stand on the mountaintop frantically waving a flashlight for the ships to come down and pick me up.

Please.