”That’s a song that refuses to die.”
(Brian, Vanyaland, October 18th 2013)
(Brian, Vanyaland, October 18th 2013)
Today we celebrate the ANNIVERSARY of Placebo's third single "Teenage Angst". It was released 24 years ago today on 16th of September 1996 and reached number 30 on the UK Singles Chart. The song was recorded at Westland Studios in Dublin and produced by Brad Wood.
Listen to ♫ TEENAGE ANGST ♫
The official video was directed by Trevor Robison. It shows the band members locked in a red latex cube, all three of them are dressed in the same red colour. Several teenagers also enter this cube and show how anxious they are.
BRIAN ON THE VIDEO CLIP
"This video was directed by Trevor Robinson. I think is the only video he made. Maybe because the experience of working with us must be so traumatic, he’s never made one again."
(DVD “Once more with feeling”, 2004)
LIVE HISTORYThe song is part of the band's repertoire prior to the release of their debut album in 1996. It has been performed in notably different versions.
The original one was staged up until 2000. A piano-based version was played during the “Black market music“, “Meds“ and „Battle for the sun“ tours.
During the „Sleeping with ghosts“ tour “Teenage Angst“ was played with a hip-hop inspired drum beat. At the end of the “Battle for the sun“ tour in 2010, the song was played with a new arrangement. Another rework was performed during the “Loud like love“ tour.
BRIAN ON THE VIDEO CLIP
"This video was directed by Trevor Robinson. I think is the only video he made. Maybe because the experience of working with us must be so traumatic, he’s never made one again."
(DVD “Once more with feeling”, 2004)
LIVE HISTORYThe song is part of the band's repertoire prior to the release of their debut album in 1996. It has been performed in notably different versions.
The original one was staged up until 2000. A piano-based version was played during the “Black market music“, “Meds“ and „Battle for the sun“ tours.
During the „Sleeping with ghosts“ tour “Teenage Angst“ was played with a hip-hop inspired drum beat. At the end of the “Battle for the sun“ tour in 2010, the song was played with a new arrangement. Another rework was performed during the “Loud like love“ tour.
“We kind of keep re-writing a lot of songs in order for them to become playable for us so that we can connect with them. Most recently, we’re on our fourth version of “Teenage Angst” from the first album. We have a brand new version of that, which is actually my favorite of the tour. It took 20 years since I wrote that song for us to settle on what I think is the definitive version, but that’s ok.“(Pure Volume, September 12th 2013)
The lyric to 'Teenage Angst' springs to mind: 'Since I was born, I started to decay...' A grotesquely bleak image.
"But it's true. As soon as you pop out of the womb, you start to die. It's the paradox that you begin life but you also begin death. The use of toy instruments enables us to communicate that on a sonic level."(Guitarist, August 1997)
"When I was a teenager, I felt things in more passionate ways, I've gone through rebellion phases. I was feeling depressed, I felt like the world was about to collapse. A sort of alienation towards parents, a rebellion against what they wanted me to become, against growing, going through this kind of changes. My emotions were going in many directions because physically, I was becoming an adult. I was longing for it, but I was still dealt with as a child. Art and creativity were minor things, unknowned in my familly. That's surely for that reason, I reacted so violently. I became the ugly duckling: my father wanted me to become a businessman, and my mother wanted me to be a saint. Finally, I satisfied none of them. At this age, music can represent many things, be the last emergency exit. Play guitar was a sort of outlet to my familly troubles, to authority. My parents didn't contribute at all to what I am today and that's marvellous. I am here today only by myself. I need to have success, very selfishly, to refute all people who thought I would not go far in life, to show it to the people who were better than me at school, my rivals in every way, my parents.”(LesInrocks.com, August 13th 1996)
Photo credit: Screenshot of the video, cover of the single, edit by me
Post by Silke
