🔸𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐁𝐎 𝐢𝐧 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐤𝐨𝐤 (𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐈𝐈𝐈.) 🔸

💥♦𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐂 𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐆 𝐅𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐋 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟑♦💥

Dear friends, today we will end the talk about all the performances of the band Placebo in Bangkok. Since 2006, when the guys performed in Bangkok for the first time, we went through 2010 and their show at the Tiger Translate Festival until 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟑, 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭
𝐒𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐠 𝐅𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐤𝐨𝐤.

Photo credit: Heiko Laschitzki, screenshot, festival poster, edit by Marti

For those of you who missed the first two parts:
📌 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 𝐢𝐧 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐤𝐨𝐤 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟔
http://bit.ly/2MEwemN
📌 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 𝐢𝐧 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐤𝐨𝐤 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟎
http://bit.ly/3uKp3ut

It was only the third concert in 2013 and the very beginning of the 𝐋𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐫. But because the Loud Like Love album was not released until three weeks later - September 16 - the setlist contained only two songs from this album - Loud Like Love and Too Many Friends.

🔸𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 𝒂𝒕 𝑺𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒄 𝑩𝒂𝒏𝒈 𝑭𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒍 - 𝑺𝒆𝒕𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕:🔸
http://bit.ly/3dWb2nE

⭐🔸💥𝑭𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒍 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒐:💥🔸⭐
I won't tell you much about this event. The first year was held in 2013 and the following year the festival was canceled. The exact reason was not given, but probably the very bad and volatile political situation in Thailand played a huge role, which also canceled the "Bangkok 100 Rock Festival" in 2007, organized by Dave McLean, the band's manager.
In 2015, the organization of the Sonic Bang Festival could not be resumed.

Bangkok seems to be quite an unfriendly place to hold international festivals, doesn't it? Nevertheless, I found a lot of mentions of organizing many other music events in Bangkok, so the locals certainly did not suffer from a desire for culture.

Photo credit: Festival poster, original pic by Kevin Westenberg

𝐻𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑓 𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑧𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑐 𝐵𝑎𝑛𝑔 𝐹𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑙:

📌 “We’re very proud of Sonic Bang. We worked for a very long time to put the event together,” Bec-Tero’s deputy managing director Neil Thompson told XP. “Sonic Bang is a music festival where the atmosphere is as important as the music itself. Thai audiences are new to the concept of having to rush from stage to stage to catch their favourite bands; normally they just wait for the one highlight act to take the stage. Sonic Bang is about the vibe, about sharing the experience with friends and about exploring new, independent acts that might not have a chance to have their own shows, or acts that you’ve never heard of before. Also, it helps to develop the local artists. We aiming to chance the course of music festivals in Thailand and we’ll definitely continue Sonic Bang in 2014.”
(𝑁𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝐷𝑒𝑐 2013)

Yes, according to the fans, the big and completely new adventure for them was that they had to remember the times when their favorite artists started playing. Basically, in order to catch the start of the next one, they had to leave their current favorite before the end of the show, which they - let's face it, didn't like it that much. But the festival was only one day, and in order for more than 30 artists to perform in one day, it could not have been done otherwise.

But now I have excerpts for you from some of the amazing interviews Brian gave before Placebo performance in Bangkok. Make yourself comfortable and have fun not only with these conversations, but also with the videos I shared for you to enjoy the overall atmosphere of the Sonic Bang Festival in Bangkok.
✨🔸✨🔸✨

📌 Although the festival line-up is quite dense, with many big acts playing simultaneously, Molko says that he'll definitely be watching some of the other performers from the sidelines.

''Ash are old friends of mine. We toured together in the mid-'90s, so it will be a lot of fun to hang out with them again. The Pet Shop Boys are a band that I discovered when I was very young and really loved as a teenager but I've never seen them live, so I'm really looking forward to watching their gig.''
For festival-goers, he added: ''We're coming to town, and we are 'loud like love', so don't miss it.''
(𝐵𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑘𝑜𝑘 𝑃𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝐴𝑢𝑔 2013)

Photo credit: Robifinizio

📌 𝑰𝒕’𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒂 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒗𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝑩𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒌𝒐𝒌–𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒕?
🔊𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: "We have an office in Bangkok so the city has become a second home in Asia over the years and an excellent springboard from which to explore the mainland and the islands. In my time, I’ve DJ’d at the Met bar, eaten and danced the night away at Bed Supperclub, visited the temples, eaten some more at the fish-(super)market, confiscated bootleg Placebo CDs in Patpong, and, at times, explored the city's more salacious underbelly."

𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎 𝑳𝒐𝒖𝒅 𝑳𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒉—𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎𝒔?
🔊𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: "I wanted to call our last album "Speed of Sound" before Coldplay beat us to it with their single. So this time I scoured the internet to check that "Loud Like Love" had not already been used in a musical context which, to the best of my knowledge, it hasn't. I can't remember exactly when and where and why it came to me, but it was sometime during our first phase of writing. It occurred to me that an underlying theme was emerging. We stood at a turning point: were we to follow our instincts and recognize that this theme was a manifestation of our collective sub-conscience and have the courage to explore, in our own singular manner, the subject that remains the most explored in popular song? Or were we to embrace the intellectual and steer the album’s subject matter away from its natural course out of fear of appearing cliched? Thankfully we chose the former and never once questioned that choice. And the results have exceeded our own expectations."

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈. 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒔𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈?
🔊𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: "It is a common misconception that in the time between visits to a particular country your favorite band hasn't been up to much. In our case, we toured Battle For The Sun (2009) for almost two years. I then decided to take a year off to focus on parenting, during which I wrote some of the songs that appear on Loud Like Love. We reconvened in the summer of 2012 ostensibly to record a new single as we had just signed a new record deal. That single morphed into the five-track B3 EP which we released in the autumn to placate the more militant factions of our fanbase. We then realized that we were having such a fantastic time in the studio with our new producer Adam Noble that it felt as if we had already begun the recording of album seven. And that was when we committed ourselves."

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆?
🔊𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: "Because we practically fell into the recording process accidentally we all had other commitments to fulfill. Adam Noble was about to tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers to record their live shows and we had booked a tour to promote the B3 EP. We got back together at the beginning of 2013 to finish the new album. This proved challenging as we had already set quite a high benchmark of quality with our 2012 recordings that we felt we had to surpass in some way. A great deal of self-questioning and insecurity followed. It was unpleasant at the time but it forced us out of our comfort zone and to up the ante. The result is an album that feels as if it has a side A and a side B, like an old vinyl album. And like an old vinyl album it is best consumed in one sitting."
(𝐵𝐾 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝐴𝑢𝑔 2013)

📌 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒖𝒑 𝒕𝒐 𝒏𝒐𝒘?
🔊𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: "I’m in London watching YouTube, trying to find a support band I like. I don’t listen to much rock music these days, so I’m out of touch – seriously out of touch, in fact. I don’t own a TV. I don’t listen to the radio and I don’t read music magazines, so I have no idea what’s hip!
It’s an interesting place to create music from because I’m not influenced by much. I’m very happy in my media block-out. Tonight I plan to go see the Polyphonic Spree live. Last time I saw them, it was so perfect I cried."

𝑯𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓?
🔊𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: "We’ve done no touring this year, so Bangkok will be Gig No 3.
The first few months of 2013 were spent putting the finishing touches on our new album “Loud Like Love”, which comes out on September 16. We’re very proud of it and believe we’ve created our most honest, direct, eclectic and vulnerable album to date.
I suspect it will be available down Patpong on September 7, though I cannot guarantee the quality of the copy.
We also have collaborated with American novelist Brett Easton Ellis on our new video, for “Too Many Friends”. I’ve been a fan of his since my teenage years, so it’s thrilling to be in cahoots with him."

𝒀𝒐𝒖'𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝑩𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒌𝒐𝒌 𝒔𝒐𝒐𝒏 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑺𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒄 𝑩𝒂𝒏𝒈 𝑭𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒍. 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍?
🔊𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: "We have an office in Bangkok and our management lives there, so the city has become our second home in Asia over the years. I’m always happy to be in Thailand – I’ve travelled extensively in your country and enjoyed its many delights, from elephant riding in Chiang Mai to crabbing on Koh Lanta.
I’m not keen on the traffic or the pollution in Bangkok, but I do love the customised buses, themed and covered in bright, garish colours. I’m not a big fan of Songkran – it feels like you’re walking around with a target on your head – but I do love wandering the markets, even if I don’t buy anything. Some can be real feast for the eyes."

𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒖𝒏𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒓?
🔊𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: "After a show I usually meditate. Then I put on some Mogwai or Miles Davis and have a long, hot bath. Camomile tea and incense are often involved.
My partying days are pretty much over. I pretty much squeezed a lifetime’s worth into 10 years."

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒐 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝑩𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒌𝒐𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆, 𝒃𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒘?
🔊𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: "I’m going to get a fish spa and, once again, try to pluck up the courage to eat some deep-fried insects!"

𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒘, 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒖𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆?
🔊𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: "Same same but different!"
(𝑁𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑒, 𝐴𝑢𝑔 2013)

Photo credit: Yaira8

...and now the promised videos:
🎬 𝑺𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒔 𝒈𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 𝒕𝒐 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒊 𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝑩𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒌𝒐𝒌 - 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒊𝒎
https://bit.ly/3sC7cny
🎬 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 𝑺𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒄 𝑩𝒂𝒏𝒈 𝑭𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒍 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒐 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟑
https://bit.ly/382GjBC
🎬 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 𝑩𝟑 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒉
https://bit.ly/2OdsXLF
🎬 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 𝑩𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒄
https://bit.ly/3sE6EOf
🎬 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 𝑺𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝑲
https://bit.ly/3rbMrij
🎬 𝑨 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒊𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒇𝒆𝒘 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒇𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍, 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒘𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆
https://bit.ly/3uH6gjT

Dear soulmates, I hope you enjoyed your Wednesday night with Placebo as much as I did. Don't forget to take care of yourself and your loved ones and don't lose faith - better days are coming and Placebo8 too!

Post by Marti