Today we celebrate the ♦️๐ฎ๐ฑ ๐๐ก๐ก๐๐ฉ๐๐ฅ๐ฆ๐๐ฅ๐ฌ♦️ of Placebo's second single “36 DEGREES”. It was released on June 3rd 1996 and reached no. 80 in the UK Singles Chart.
๐ฌ ๐ฏ๐ฒ ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ฆ – ๐ข๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ข
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| Screenshots from the video, edit by Silke |
The music video, directed by Chris Cunningham, was primarily shot in a scuba diving pool and shows the band members performing the song underwater. In some scenes you can see Brian in a swamp where he is singing with just his head out of the water. He later revealed that this clip was very difficult to shoot and they would “never make one underwater again”, a promise that they didn't keep. Only two years later the band recorded the video for “You don't care about us” at (and in) the London Aquarium.
“36 degrees” was produced by Brad Wood and recorded at Westland Studios in Dublin.
Different versions of the song appear on the albums “Placebo”, “Once more with feeling”, “MTV Unplugged” and on the b-side of the singles “Song to say goodbye” and “Because I want you”.
๐ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ก๐ ๐๐ก๐๐ข ๐
Starting with their first international tour in 1996 “36 degrees” was part of Placebo's repertoire. It stayed on the setlist until the “Sleeping with ghosts” tour in 2003. A much slower reworked version of the song was first played at Wembley Arena in 2004. This version was also played during the band's 2005 South American tour and the early legs of the “Meds” tour in 2006. Then it wasn't brought on stage until the MTV Unplugged show in 2015. After that the song was part of the following “20 years“ tour again. “36 degrees“ was played live 275 confirmed times by the band throughout their carrer.
๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ก ๐ข๐ก “๐ฏ๐ฒ ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ฆ“ ๐
๐ข "36 degrees is close to body temperature. The person concerned is a little cold blooded. If someone gets too close, they have to push the person away. This is what the song means to me, but now it's public property, and people can interpret it in their own way."
(The Independent, May 31st 1996)
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| Screenshot from the video |
๐ข ๐๐ณ๐ช๐ข๐ฏ: ”This is quite shocking, really. I look like... Marilyn Manson's younger sister. Quite ill.”
๐ข ๐๐ต๐ฆ๐ง๐ข๐ฏ: ”This all done in postproduction.”
๐ข ๐๐ณ๐ช๐ข๐ฏ: ”No, this was for real. It was the beginning of our relationship with water and videos, which we'll explore further. This was directed by Chris Cunningham, who went on to make videos for Aphex Twin and Madonna, including two favourites ‘Come to daddy' by Madonna and 'Windowlicker' by Aphex Twin. It was done in two days, one of which entailed us spending about 10 hours under water in this scuba pool. This is actually a man-made lake, a pond sort of thing. They had to do bacterial tests on the day to make sure we won't going to catch any weird diseases. In this pool with divers swimming around us we'd film for about 30 seconds - as long as we could hold our breaths. And I remember having extremely bloodshot eyes at the end of the day from the heavy-chlorinated pool.”
๐ข ๐๐ต๐ฆ๐ง๐ข๐ฏ: ”Yeah, we were all weighted down. We had about ten feet to swim up for air. If we didn't get the air from divers with oxygen tubes, we'd panic, because you had to swim up weight on your back.”
๐ข ๐๐ณ๐ช๐ข๐ฏ: ”They'd feed us air between takes. It was hard to communicate with Chris, the director, underwater. This bit here, it wasn't 36 degrees that day, it was completely freezing. They had a bath of hot water in the dressing room, which I jumped in and out of so as not to catch a cold.”
๐ข ๐๐ต๐ฆ๐ง๐ข๐ฏ: ”And this guy was freezing his nuts off.”
๐ข ๐๐ณ๐ช๐ข๐ฏ: ”That's Nick, who I went to college with.
I remember getting lockjaw during this video shoot. There was tension in my jaw from biting on the air the nozzle thing that they give you to keep you alive under there. There was so much tension, being underwater, that my jaw locked. I got pissed off with the cameramen for taking the piss out of me.”
๐ข ๐๐ต๐ฆ๐ง๐ข๐ฏ: ”Those hired instruments were never used after this performance.”
๐ข ๐๐ณ๐ช๐ข๐ฏ: ”After this we swore we'd never make another video underwater. We actually did, a couple of years later.”
(“Once more with feeling“ DVD, 2004)
Post by Silke
