Placebo 20 Anniversary - Interview with Old School fan Caterina Gagliardi from Italy.
by the Placebo Anyway – Team – Susie Bosco, Diana E.T.Foghin, Mary Scott,
Xenia Gerasimova & Zarynita Garcia.
Layout by Susie Bosco
Layout by Susie Bosco
Celebrating the 20th
Anniversary of our favourite band Placebo, today we have a lovely guest from
UK. Old school fan Caterina Gagliardi talks with us about the last 20 years with
Placebo in her live and the 2015 UK & Irish tour.
Placebo Anyway: Welcome Caterina. Tell us, when
did you first listen to Placebo? 20 years ago?
Caterina Gagliardi: I first listened to Placebo 19 years ago in a record
shop reading the lyrics on the CD cover, before buying it for my brother, he
already knew the group.
Placebo Anyway: What was so special about the band for you to become a
fan?
Caterina Gagliardi: At the time of the first album I was impressed by the
word ‘sin’ in the song “I know” (even if I had no conception of sin at all,
maybe I haven’t got it yet), but it gave to me the impression of Brian as a
“dangerous” person for me, but at the same time “free”, attractive, free to be
attractive in the way he wanted to. My impression was reinforced by his photo
on the cover of the first CD, he seemed to me to have come from the netherworld
to “please” me. (I was an impressionable adolescent, maybe I am still).
Placebo Anyway: How have you lived the last 20 years with the band and
their music?
Caterina Gagliardi: The songs of the first 2 albums gave me a sense of
freedom from a lot of points of view (sentimental, intellectual, spiritual…)
and at the same time a feeling of “nostalgia for a lost paradise” (for example
the song “My Sweet Prince”). This feelings more or less have continued for the
following 20 years.
Placebo Anyway: You have been with the band from the beginning have
you gone to all the concerts in your country? Some abroad?
Caterina Gagliardi: Unfortunately not, but I’ve recuperated some of them
on the web.
Placebo Anyway: Our favorite band is on tour again. These days we are
enjoying the biggest UK & Irish tour Placebo ever had. Have you been to any of
these 2015 shows?
Caterina Gagliardi: Unfortunately not.
Placebo Anyway: Compared to the gigs from other years, what did change
for you?
Caterina Gagliardi: The old gigs where in smaller places where it seemed
to me the intimate atmosphere was emphasized, as if the artists and the
audience had to share a secret, but it seems that also the latest shows are in
smaller places.
Pacebo Anyway: What about the boys' energy nowadays on stage?
Caterina Gagliardi: Nothing lost, their performances are always very
intense.
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| Photo by David Jackson wow247.co.uk/blog/2015/03/17 Leister UK |
Placebo Anyway: When you get to the point where you realize that this
particular gig is really kind of
magic...Or every Placebo concert is unforgettable and unique experience for you
anyway?
Caterina Gagliardi: A particular concert is a really kind of magic for me
when Brian’s got a “fatherly” or “motherly” attitude (the second case especially
in the 90’s, when he dressed as a girl), such as he’d like to accompany me to
his “netherworld”, but in a reassuring way, such as he could teach me, how to
go there in a relatively safe way.
But, according to me, he’s usually got this
attitude, so more or less every Placebo concert is an unforgettable and unique
experience. But I have to admit that I like very much the gig with David Bowie,
he’s to me like King Mida, he transforms into gold everything he touches.
Placebo Anyway: Did you ever meet the
band before or after a gig?
Caterina Gagliardi: Unfortunately not.
Placebo Anyway: A new tour, a new tour drummer. How was
for you the moment you read on the social networks about Steve Forrest leaving Placebo?
Caterina Gagliardi: I was sorry, as a drummer he seemed to me so “wild”.
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| Photo by Stan |
Placebo Anyway: Would you like to see Matt Lunn
(old Placebo friend and drummer of Colour of Fire) as an official drummer? Or do you prefer the
idea of Brian & Stefan being the only official members now of Placebo or do
you wish for them to have an official drummer in the future?
Caterina Gagliardi: I’ve always felt that between Brian & Stefan there was something special, that could be difficult
to share with someone else. But I’ve liked every drummer who’s played for them,
so every solution would be ok for me as a fan.
 |
| Photo layout by Mary Scott |
Placebo Anyway: Do you have all their albums? Do you have any special collection? Vinyls, singles, dvd’s....?
Caterina Gagliardi: I’ve got their albums, but my brother holds them, I’m
listening to them on streaming and I’ve downloaded some Brian’s pictures from
the web.
Placebo Anyway: Which song makes you feel closer to the band?
Caterina Gagliardi: If I have to say only one “Allergic”, I think to share
more or less the same attitude of the song toward a certain kind of devoutness.
Placebo Anyway: Do you see any difference between the
fans from the beginning and the fans from nowadays?
Caterina Gagliardi: From what I can see on live shows, they seem to me
(and maybe I seem to myself) more and more dark, androgynous,… because of some
cultural trends, but also because I think artists create their own fans, at
least as fans.
Placebo Anyway: Is there a stereotypical Placebo fan?
Caterina Gagliardi: There are always
stereotypes on every topic, anyway I think there is, maybe I am one (dark,
androgynous, emo…), maybe not (waiting for Horus’ Eon…).
Placebo Anyway: What do you think about
"Soulmates Never Die". Is this true?
Caterina Gagliardi: I think yes, in this world friends have got at least
each other. I think that friendship is difficult, but if it’s deep, it’s
forever, it’s a kind of love relationship.
Placebo Anyway: In your opinion, what unifies Placebo fans. What is
the glue that puts them together?
Caterina Gagliardi: (I speak for myself) In this world I feel a
little bit “maladjusted”, so when I find someone else to share a passion with a
certain ease, I think for me it’s a glue enough strong.
Placebo Anyway: How do you see the evolution of the
band on a musical way?
Caterina Gagliardi: I feel it as a spiral: their music was more rock at
the beginning, then it’s become more electronic, then it’s come back to rock,…
So the songs: at the beginning they were
according to me more explicit, then they’ve become more synthetic, then they’ve
become more explicit again.
Placebo Anyway: Which difference do you see in Brian
when you look back and compare it with how he is nowadays?
Caterina Gagliardi: I see also his way of being as a spiral, at the
beginning he seemed to me more “exposed” in his songs and lives, then less, but
now more. And also from a metaphorical point of view: during the first two
albums his lyric “I” seemed to me as a “dark” angel, then a “white” one and
then a “dark” one again.
Placebo Anyway: What would you ask
Brian Molko from 1996?
Caterina Gagliardi: “Which is your favorite book?”
Placebo Anyway: What would you ask
Brian Molko in 2015?
Caterina Gagliardi: “Which of your songs represents you better now?”
Placebo Anyway: What would influence
your questions?
Caterina Gagliardi: Some images in the lyrics like the “muse” in “Nancy
Boy”, “plastic Venus” in “Hang on in your IQ”, “spineless and sublime” in
“Teenage Angst”, “wrapped around your finger” in “I know”…, God, the Angels… in
some songs.
Placebo Anyway: Many bands from the
90's are turning 15 , 20 years what do you think makes Placebo so different?
Caterina Gagliardi: When I listened to “Purify” and I watched the video
clip I thought that Placebo had come back, so should I as a fan.
Placebo
Anyway: Now imagine
you could give Brian and Stef a Thank You gift for the wonderful last 20
years with the band. Which gift would you choose?
Caterina Gagliardi: A marble statue of them with wings.
Placebo Anyway: 20 Years to go...what is your wish for the next 20
Placebo years?
Placebo
Anyway: Coming to the end of the interview, please define
Brian, Stefan and Placebo as a band with
3 words.
Caterina Gagliardi: Brian as “aerial and liquid Mercury”, Stefan as
“brimstone and lead” and the “Great Alchemical Work” is of course a Placebo.
Placebo Anyway: Thank you for the interview Caterina.
Caterina Gagliardi: You’re a welcome, it was a pleasure.
Placebo 20 Anniversary -
Interview with Old School fan Caterina Gagliardi:
from Italy.
by the Placebo Anyway – Team –
Susie Bosco, Diana E.T.Foghin, Mary Scott, Xenia Gerasimova & Zarynita
Garcia
Credits photos: …..
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