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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.

And yes classical composers and Shakespeare are very popular, but decreasingly so. Notice how many of their equally valid contempories are disappearing from common knowledge, just as they will eventually. A lot of people know of Shakespeare but he's no longer widely seen by choice. I live in Kenilworth, which is about 20 minutes from Stratford, and the majority of the audiences for most Shakespeare plays put on in Stratford is made up of Japanese and American tourists, for whom the event is simply a tick in a box on the English attractions check list. I mean how many people could name a play by Kit Marlowe or Ben Jonson? Both were superior scholars to Shakespeare and more highly regarded by their peers but they've slipped into obscurity because Shakespeare had the mass-appeal.

Now Will Young and Gareth Gates have mass appeal. I doubt they'll have it for as long as Shakespeare, but tht's the nature of popularity nowadays. It's disposable. TV throws up digestable celebrities - creates them - due to the general public's insatiable appetite for celebrity.

I'm not saying that everyone is a moron. I'm complaining about the constant dumbing down of TV, radio and the arts. Timelessness has been thrown out the window in favour of disposability. Motzart wrote timeless music, arguably the Beatles achieved the same; Gareth Gates got 15 minutes of fame because that's how long it's going to take before a fickle general public has moved on to another disposable icon.

I'm not saying that indie music isn't susceptible to mass-marketing. I'm simply saying that people want it dumbed down now.

The best example can be seen in the latest pop idol/stars venture. The competition will involve creating one boyband and one girlband and "seeing who gets to number one". The fact is ITV know that one of them will get to number one because the public at large will buy that single regardless of its quality. I mean both bands could sing happy birthday and one of them would still get to number one.

The BBC then faces a problem because that is the larger public for which it has to cater. If it produces programs that they do not watch/listen to then it will be accused of wasting license-payers money. It has to cater for demand, and commercial TV, mainly ITV, proves that what people want is dumb bubblegum TV - let's watch the colours dance about on the screen. If you replaced Steve Lemacq with readings from Russian novelists; no-one would listen. If you replaced it with another bland (aka with mass-appeal) chart pop show lots of people will listen.

I'm not saying that Lamacq was intelligent programming, but was different. It catered for people who wanted to experience new music and could form their own opinions. Perhaps, sadly, music is going the same way as mainstream cinema, where it is aimed solely at the audience who wants escapism and nothing else. There's nothing wrong with escapism until it merely becomes staring-into-space escapism: like Big Brother, like the Pop Idols' songs, like recent action films.

Perhaps it's because advertising execs know people too well now. They can produce something that everyone will want, and which thus must be bland in its universal appeal. I mean pop's not even controversial anymore. It's aesthetic and utterly devoid of any real charisma. And that's why it sells and Lamacq doesn't.

Mr. Happy wrote:
> It's because the british public at large are morons. No offence to
> anyone here, but every day there's further proof of it.

I don't think it's that bad ! Sure, kids trying to wreck trains is bad, but the fault there lies with parents. Just because a lot of people like one thing doesn't make them "morons" - Shakespeare, Mozart, Bach; all great people whose work is liked by many, does anyone call these people morons ?

Admittedly Will Young e.t.c. are are rather irritating and not everyones choice, but they sell and make the music industry money it badly needs. Yes, they use cover songs, because many people enjoy those songs - they aim for a wide appeal and are successful because of it. Indie bands andsupporters are too eager to look elsewhere for their failures, anywhere other than themselves. They don't aim for more than one audience - most go for the disillusioned 16-twenty somethings males - and thats why they do badly. They don't do the pr work, they try to project macho/laddish/alternate cool images and they're just as fake as the next pop artist. If you wanna sell records people have to like you, and indie bands aren't that likeable, usually having over inflated ego's that put Mr Oliver to shame.

This christmas, a tv chosen group will probably get #1, and thats good. It'll sell, make money, and make people happy if they like it. It's okay monaing about people unwilling to explore librty and choice music by just buying pop, but most Indie supporters want the same to happen to indie - they just daren't mention the money side, because they're doing it for the music.....yeah right :P

The whole indie music industry is simply the pop music industry in darker clothes and with less marketing experience. Don't kid yourselves its anything more.

~~Belldandy~~

Blame mr.public for the demise of the evening session. Mr.public is the cretin who has the popidol/popstars/I'm a celeb../big brother numbers programmed into their speed dial, and who watches said programs religiously and buys the new Will YOung single because his TV told him to. He also listens to Sara Cox in the morning because he's so hip, yeah, and dabbles in rap and linkin park to satisfy his rebellious urges (subtlely nurtured by ads from the man that tell him he is rebelling against the man).

He is a wit of such monumental proportions that a show like the evening session would lead to possible suicide as he became aware of his own nauseating liberty. Instead he'll follow the herd and do and say what he's told because it's easier that way.

As long as this autonomous mass of fools exists, TV will continue to go further down-market until we're submerged in a festering pile of reality TV shows and wall to wall soap episodes. And good bands will find it hard to secure funds for anything because they can't get their music out to their fans in order to be popular. Manufactured bands will be prevalent in all genres of music, because, let's face it, who wants a band that won't record/tour/court tabloid scandal when you tell them to.

It's because the british public at large are morons. No offence to anyone here, but every day there's further proof of it. From juvenile deliquents (seemingly the only sort of juvenile) who deliberately set up barricades to derail trains, to the random unprovoked assaults that occur regularly on the streets. It's depressing but the reason the Evening Session is being axed was because it was aimed at freely thinking people, not necessarily intelligent people, but those who had opinions of their own and were capable of forming them. Not the Big brother posse whose opinions are driven entirely by the herd.

grrr

Goatboy wrote:
> If Icelandic music was "hip", then you can guarantee that
> the BBC would set up a station solely dedicated to that as well.

Everyone go and download 'Wishmaster' by Nightwish. It's metal, but with opera vocals. And it rocks.

I did use to listen to the Evening Session, but I never thought it was that good. I'm not really a big fan of indie (I use that term to mean the style of music, not independant bands), which could explain that. The other thing is, I only ever listened to it in my room - which houses a CD player. Rather have me choosing my music than a DJ, thankyou very much.

Still, it was better than the usual R1 rubbish.

John Peel still does a fair bit of new stuff, probably the only thing worth listening to on Radio 1 now. I only listened to Xfm for the first time this week, and have decided to never go back, but I can't tune it into my clock radio by my bed. Which means I have to get woken up by Sara Cox every morning. Either that, or Ten 17. Sara Cox, then.

Yes I saw that in NME

Shame

Colchester eh? Unlcuky Grix. That's further out of London than I am. I doubt you'll get XFM.

Unless you have Sky (Channel 864) or a cable modem to stream it over the 'net.

Colchester. Mm.

Got the story from the BBC news site:

http://news.bbc.co.uk /1/hi/entertainment /tv_and_radio/2222254.stm

Remove spaces after "uk" and "entertainment"

However not-entirely-indie the Evening Sessions may have been, it was still one of the few national programmes to at least attempt it.