✨⭐ "𝙎𝙬𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙬 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨! 𝙄𝙩'𝙨 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙗𝙤!" ⭐✨

Gender-bending, chart charging transatlantic trio put the wham! bam! into modern glam.

𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 have just performed their adrenaline-charged power ballad "𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝑴𝒆, 𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒀𝒐𝒖" live on British TV. Diminutive front person 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 - front "man" just doesn't work - wore lipstick and eyeliner and pounced about in a stretchy black tube skirt, the word "𝐇𝐘𝐏𝐎𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄" emblazoned across his tiny t-shirt. Fellow guitarist 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒇𝒂𝒏 𝑶𝒍𝒔𝒅𝒂𝒍 (the tall gay one) and drummer 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒗𝒆 𝑯𝒆𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒕 (the burly straight one) just got on playing. Brittle with angst, the track imploded into a cacophony of noise the presumably left viewers reeling. Sales of the trio's second album, '𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝑰'𝒎 𝑵𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈', will no doubt continue to surge.

Placebo at CD:UK 1999. Photo credit unknown

𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 reckons that all things taboo are represented in 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐, which is why they get up people's noses. "𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒇𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒚,𝒂𝒎𝒃𝒊𝒈𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒚," he pronounces in his nasal, transatlantic accent, waving a silk cut in mid-air. Wedged in between his two lofty cohorts on a couch at London's 𝑽𝒊𝒓𝒈𝒊𝒏 𝑹𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒔, the Luxembourg-raised American should, you'd think, seem midget-like by comparison. He can thank his giant-sized gob that he doesn't.

"𝑾𝒆'𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒈𝒈𝒐𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒍𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒚," he sniggers, "𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒚 𝒘𝒆'𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒐 𝒅𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒔." Partial to a bit of Wildean wordplay, he adds that "𝑷𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒖𝒑𝒔𝒆𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒖𝒃 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒖𝒔. 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒖𝒑𝒔𝒆𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒖𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒄 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒖𝒔. 𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚."

Nakedly confessional and sexually bewildering, 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 have injected a much needed glam aesthetic into a jaded British rock scene. Their screen debut as Seventies band the 𝑭𝒍𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑪𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒔 in 𝑻𝒐𝒅𝒅 𝑯𝒂𝒚𝒏𝒆𝒔' 𝑽𝒆𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒕 𝑮𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒆 saw them in their element, (𝑴𝒊𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒆𝒍 𝑺𝒕𝒊𝒑𝒆 watched them on set and has a placebo sticker on his fridge as a result) but just don't label them glam rockers. Where the majority of today's easily classifiable bands continue to insist they defy categories, 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 really do.

𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐's affinity with the gender bending hedonism of 𝑰𝒈𝒈𝒚 and 𝑩𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒆 is palpable (the band supported 𝑩𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒆 on his European Tour and played at his 50th birthday party), but their influences are wide ranging. 𝑶𝒍𝒔𝒅𝒂𝒍 cites 𝑫𝒆𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒅𝒆 and 𝑴𝒆𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒂; 𝑯𝒆𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒕 the 𝑻𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑴𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒔 and 𝑵𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝑪𝒂𝒗𝒆. 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 reels off 𝑷𝑱 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒚, the 𝑷𝒊𝒙𝒊𝒆𝒔, 𝑱𝒐𝒚 𝑫𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝑺𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒄 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒉, the 𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝑲𝒆𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒅𝒚𝒔 and, er, 𝑩𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒆 𝑯𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒅𝒂𝒚. Their fans, he says, "𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒏𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒃𝒚 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌, 𝒕𝒐 𝟒𝟎-𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓-𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒘 𝒖𝒑 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉. 𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒂 𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔-𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈."

The spawning of 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 lookalikes began in 1996, when 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐's thundering single "𝑵𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒚 𝑩𝒐𝒚" and eponymous debut album enjoyed surprise success. Now no gig would be complete without a gaggle of black bobbed androgynes hanging on to lyrics such as "𝑰'𝒎 𝒖𝒏𝒄𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒏/𝑰'𝒎 𝒂 𝒍𝒊𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒆" and worshipping the multi-lingual, bisexual 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 as some sort of mini god of identity crisis.

"𝑰𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎 𝒐𝒇 𝒇𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒚," he pouts. The impeccably mannered 𝑶𝒍𝒔𝒅𝒂𝒍 has an equally polite Japanese male stalker; 𝑯𝒆𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒕 gets women sneaking into his hall way at regular intervals.

While 𝑶𝒍𝒔𝒅𝒂𝒍 and 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 knew each other vaguely at school in Sweden (𝑶𝒍𝒔𝒅𝒂𝒍 played basketball, 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 was in the drama group), it wasn't until they moved to England and bumped into each other outside a London tube station that they decided to form a band. And though 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘣𝘰 means "𝑰 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆" in Latin, their only criterion for their monicker was that it be a name they could imagine 40,000 people screaming. They enlisted 𝑯𝒆𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒕 through a friend at 𝑮𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒔𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒉'𝒔 𝑪𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒆 (where 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 was studying drama), lost him briefly to the band 𝑩𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒅 but wooed him back as a permanent member a couple of years ago. He happily takes the credit for 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐's funkier sound.

Their rise and rise has coincided with a bout of stories highlighting a predilection for the more illicit things in life. 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 rails against Britain's tabloid mentality: "𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚'𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒖𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒓𝒔. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒈𝒍𝒂𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒔, 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒐𝒑 𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒌 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖." Still if you're going to claim things such as, "𝑾𝒆 𝒍𝒆𝒇𝒕 𝒂 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒑𝒖𝒏𝒌 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒚," what do you expect? "𝑾𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏," says 𝑶𝒍𝒔𝒅𝒂𝒍 quietly.

Placebo at CD:UK 1999, Screenschots, edit by Silke

𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 continues to experience bouts of alienation and aggression. "𝑰'𝒎 𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒆, 𝒆𝒈𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒂𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒎𝒂 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒂," he says, half boasting. 𝑫𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒅 𝑩𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒆 advised him never to lose his spontaneity, a creed his best mate 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒍𝒚𝒏 𝑴𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒐𝒏 embodies. "𝑾𝒂𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒍𝒚𝒏 𝒑𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒏 𝑩𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝑨𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒂?" he asks coquettishly, while the other two rack their brains for names of Australian acts. 𝑪𝒂𝒗𝒆 is mentioned by all three; 𝑩𝒋𝒐𝒓𝒏 𝑨𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏 and the 𝑨𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑫𝒐𝒐𝒓𝒔 show are the only other feeble suggestions. "𝑰'𝒎 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝑨𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒂 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒕," says 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐, for whom dishonesty is anathema.

𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 had been quoted in the 𝑴𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝑴𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒓 as calling 𝑪𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔 𝑬𝒗𝒂𝒏𝒔, the host of tonight's chat show a "𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒆𝒓", and swearing that 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 would never do his gig. 𝑬𝒗𝒂𝒏𝒔 returned the insult in kind. Nevertheless, they were eventually invited on, and accepted only on the condition that the wardrobe department found 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 a t-shirt with "𝐇𝐘𝐏𝐎𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄" on it. "𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝑰 𝒑𝒓𝒆-𝒆𝒎𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒈𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒇𝒇," he snorts. "𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒂𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈, '𝑰'𝒎 𝒇𝒖𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒂𝒎'". He smooths his glossy locks with a manicured hand. "𝑰𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒐." he adds thoughtfully, "𝒘𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒎𝒚 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒓𝒕."
𝑅𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑒, 𝑀𝑎𝑦'99
𝐵𝑦 𝐽𝑎𝑛𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑟𝑛𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑙

🔹After reading this interesting article published in 𝑹𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝑴𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒛𝒊𝒏𝒆 in 1999 and knowing the story of why 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 wore this T-shirt - which is one of his most famous outfits - let's enjoy this very performance on the British program 𝑪𝑫:𝑼𝑲
(𝑪𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏: 𝑼𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒅𝒐𝒎) recorded in 1999.

⭐𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐭⭐
On this occasion, 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒇𝒂𝒏 𝑶𝒍𝒔𝒅𝒂𝒍 is playing "𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝑴𝒆, 𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒀𝒐𝒖" with "𝑳𝒐𝒖𝒊𝒔𝒆" 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐's guitar. 

𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐌𝐞 - 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐭 𝐂𝐃:𝐔𝐊 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟗 
🎶 https://youtu.be/dcWZFOUwbNw 🎶

Post by Rita

#Placebo #PlaceboAnyway #PlaceboWorld #BrianMolko #StefanOlsdal #SteveHewitt #Soulmates
#PlaceboHistory #MolkoQuote #PlaceboLive #PlaceboSong #PlaceboSingle #EveryMeEveryYou #WithoutYouImNothing #VelvetGoldmine #DavidBowie #MichaelStipe #RollingStone #Hypocrite #RockStyle #AlternativeRockMusic

⭐𝐁𝐄𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐀𝐋𝐁𝐔𝐌 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄…⭐

Today we’re going to be talking about the old times when Placebo were on the earliest stage of their amazing, now over 25-year long career.

Photo credit unknown

📍 The very first 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨’𝐬 𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐲𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝 was released on July 17th, 1996.
But was it THE starting point? Not really. Before the studio album was out, Placebo had already three singles released, played numerous gigs in the UK as well as in some other European countries, have even been to USA once, and went to support 𝑫𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒅 𝑩𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒆 on tour to perform in front of thousands of people. Sharing the stage with the legendary artist was undoubtedly game-changing for Placebo.

📍 Particularly, 𝐁𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞 in its original version was released as a split single with the band Soup back in October 1995. Then, two Placebo’s singles, 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐞 and 𝟑𝟔 𝐃𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐬, was out respectively on February 5th and June 3rd, 1996.
The tour with 𝑫𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒅 𝑩𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒆 started on February 8th, 1996, in Milan, Italy and lasted until the show in Rotterdam, Netherlands on July 16th. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒅𝒂𝒚, the album 𝑷𝑳𝑨𝑪𝑬𝑩𝑶 has finally saw daylight.

📍 I chronologically collected several interesting 𝐐𝐔𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒 from the old articles which to me, sound like they could really ‘predict the future’.

Photo credit: Hayley Madden, 1996

📢 “The first thing you notice about Placebo 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐬; 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤, 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐜. "The art that I liked most is the stuff that's moved me emotionally," says Molko. "I guess I wanted to make music that moved people and made them feel. You know, the music is tortured, it's very introspective and personal."
The second thing is 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐲𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐬. "Since I was born I started to decay" or "Two holes in a paper bag/ Greatest lay I ever had" (Nancy Boy).
"We are the pie in the face people," says Molko. "Being from an acting background, the thing that always interested me was placing myself in the most vulnerable position possible and to see what came out of that. It's better that you have these quite either violent or hard emotions."
And the thing about Placebo is 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐠𝐢𝐠𝐬.”
(𝑁𝑀𝐸 "𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛", 𝑁𝑜𝑣'95)

📢 “Of course, in those days half the audience were record company sharks – by their fifth gig, 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐚𝐫 since, ooh, The Roaring Boys, as their broken bauble melodies and their ambivalent looks added up to pound, dollar and shekel signs in blank A&R eyes.”
(𝑁𝑀𝐸 "𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜", 1996)

📢 “A LITTLE gender-uncertainty never hurt any band, and it might prove the making of Placebo. The Swedish-American trio is fortunate in boasting a singer, Brian Molko (the American), who is ambiguous enough to enrapture the sexually-confused, yet just robust enough not to alienate the lads. This versatility must have figured in the record-company bidding war that took place just after Christmas, landing Placebo with the kind of fat contract new bands fantasise about.
But the band is more than just one pretty and two average faces. Their thumping guitar-based sound is, so the pundits predict, where rock is going this year. It's been there many times before, of course, but this time the way was paved by 1995's Britpop-mania, its diametric opposite.
With just two singles under their belts, Placebo sold out this Camden club, which was heaving with hormone-throbbing youth. The tiny Molko was the object of their desire, reducing bassist Stefan Olsdal and drummer Robert Schultzberg to the role of sidemen, which they'll have to get used to because 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚 𝐔𝟐 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰.”
(𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑛 "𝐿𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑜𝑛", 𝐹𝑒𝑏'96)

Photo credit unknown

📢  “Placebo were a sure thing, 𝐡𝐮𝐠𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 in Indie when they emerged last year, but nothing prepares you for their debut album, a quality sparkler beyond all hopes.”
(𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐼𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡 "𝐴𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑙𝑎 𝐿𝑒𝑤𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑛 𝑃𝑜𝑝 𝑀𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑐", 𝐽𝑢𝑛'96)

📢  “Placebo's music occasionally recalls Sonic Youth, but 𝐌𝐨𝐥𝐤𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞. When the anti-Brit bands anti-lads backlash kicks in, this trio of gender-confusing, non-Brits (one American, two Europeans) are going to be very well-placed indeed.”
(𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠 "𝑀𝑜𝑙𝑘𝑜 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑘𝑒", 𝐽𝑢𝑛'96)

I hope you enjoyed the journey, soulmates! Let me know your thoughts you’ve got while reading the quotes!

Post by Olga

✨✨ 𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐍 ✨✨

🔸 𝑆𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑅𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛 is the 6th track from the album 𝑆𝑙𝑒𝑒𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑊𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝐺ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑠. The music itself is very negatively charged. An ominous atmosphere prevails, accentuated by Brian Molko's low-voiced vocals, almost whispering the words in your ear. It's a song about childhood. The chararcter in the song is someone who is victim of abuse and feels an extreme need to get out of it. The song has often been compared to 𝑅𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑜ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑'𝑠 𝑁𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝐴𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚. because of that dark mood and in the construction of the song. 🔸

Photo credit: Vincent Bouchard 

🎵🎶🎵 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈  https://bit.ly/3m2PV5j 🎵🎶🎵

📍 𝑩𝑹𝑰𝑨𝑵 𝑨𝑩𝑶𝑼𝑻 𝑺𝑶𝑴𝑬𝑻𝑯𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑹𝑶𝑻𝑻𝑬𝑵 📍

💬"I didn't write it with anything in particular in mind, but when I listen to it, it conjures up a lot of images of an unhappy childhood, not necessarily sexual abuse, maybe that's too specific. I'm just talking about the need to run away from home or to get away from the family circle (...) If this were to be the soundtrack to an imaginary film, this is what it would be about."

(𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑀𝑜𝑙𝑘𝑜 - 𝑅𝑜𝑐𝑘 𝑀𝑎𝑔 𝑛°27, 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ 2003)

💬"We used to smoke a lot of weed back then. Stef and I always spend a month together before we go into the studio, testing things out. This time we didn't want to touch the guitars anymore, we wanted to use different tools. 'Something Rotten' came to us with a dub-reggae bass line. We started to look for something very different in ourselves, it's maybe the most experimental track on the album, there are at least fifty synths on it. I play the sax on it, the first instrument I've tried in my life.

(𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑀𝑜𝑙𝑘𝑜 - 𝐷𝑒𝑠 𝑐𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑠 𝑒𝑡 𝑑𝑒𝑠 𝑚𝑎𝑢𝑥 𝑏𝑦 𝑆𝑒𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑛 𝑀𝑖𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑢𝑑)

💬"Not sexual abuse, it's an abstract song. Anyway, I never sit on precepts such as deciding in advance the theme to-be of a song. This track has been composed in a very instinctive way starting on a dub-reggae jam. I went to the microphone without text, and I threw the first words that came to my mind. Once the song finished, I wondered what it was about. There is a sinister atmosphere in the song.

It reminded me of an old song of 𝐹𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔 𝐶𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑏𝑎𝑙𝑠: 𝐽𝑜ℎ𝑛𝑛𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑚𝑒 ... I was sure I would be questionned about this track ... It makes me think of a young person who needs to leave his family for quite extremes reasons. Afterwards, you are free to interpret it a hundred ways. I think once again it is important to let the listener free to make its own benchmarks."

(𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑀𝑜𝑙𝑘𝑜 - 𝐺𝑢𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑟 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑛°109, 𝐴𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑙 2003)

Photo credit:  Marco Dos Santos

📍 𝑳𝒀𝑹𝑰𝑪𝑺 📍

It seems we're here

I miss you something rotten

The stinks are here

It's guaranteed all's forgotten


Down here, down here it's clear that you are uncut

Don't fear, don't fear, keep all this forgotten


Face down

Face down

Face down, I miss you something rotten

Face down

Face down, this crown is broken rotten


Down here, down here, I know it's not, it's all forgotten

Down here, down here, face down, I miss you something rotten

Down here, down here, it stinks, it stinks of something rotten

Don't fear, don't fear, keep all this forgotten


There's something rotten down here

There's something rotten down here

There's something rotten down here

There's something rotten down here

Photo credit: Morena Brengola

🔸Psychological control, physical violence, various abuses are widespread problems throughout the world for cultural, religious, parental or relationship reasons. Fortunately, more and more shelters are opening to take in victims and offer them a chance to get out of their situation. It is worth noting that child abuse is increasingly being addressed, whereas not so long ago it was all ignored. Children's voices are increasingly taken into account nowadays.


Even if Brian didn’t plan anything as far as lyrics are concerned, it seems this topic was, unconsciously, important to him. We all know that Placebo is concerned about child abuse and the plight of children where sex trafficking is a common occurrence.

I remember reading, on a forum back in 2003, when the album was released about a girl who had been abused as a child. She was happy and somewhat relieved that Placebo had written a song about it. It was very moving.

With lyrics often depicting the darkness of the world and human emotions, Placebo touches the depths of our souls whether we are directly involved or not. Isn't that the beauty of the art of Placebo’s music?

Post by Laetitia

𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍 – 𝐘𝐎𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐆 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟗

❇️"𝘼𝙛𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙤 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙧𝙩𝙨 𝙙𝙧𝙪𝙣𝙠 𝙤𝙧 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙙, 𝙄 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙚 𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙢𝙪𝙘𝙝 𝙄 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙪𝙙𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚. 𝙏𝙤𝙙𝙖𝙮, 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙄 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡 𝙤𝙣 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡, 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙨 𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙡 𝙣𝙤𝙬, 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙢𝙮 𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙙𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜... 𝙄𝙩 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙢𝙖𝙙𝙚 𝙢𝙚 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙨𝙚: 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙤𝙣 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙜𝙚, 𝙞𝙣 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙙𝙤𝙯𝙚𝙣𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙬𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙮 𝙛𝙖𝙘𝙚 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙩-𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙧𝙩𝙨, 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 "𝙄 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪" 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙚 𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙢𝙮𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛. 𝙄 𝙛𝙚𝙡𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢: "𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙𝙣'𝙩 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙢𝙚 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙠𝙣𝙚𝙬 𝙢𝙚"... "❇️
(Brian Molko, 𝑌𝑜𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑔.𝑓𝑟, May 31st, 2009)

𝑃ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑠 𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑡: 𝑇𝑟𝑖𝑝 𝐹𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑒 (3), 𝐵𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑑: 𝐵𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑢𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟, edit by Laetitia

✨𝘈𝘴 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘲𝘶𝘰𝘵𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘦𝘺𝘦. 𝘚𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦. 𝘋𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴. Ending an addiction is a difficult choice to make, one that creates a constant daily struggle and scratches one's self-esteem.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘔𝘦𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘉𝘢𝘵𝘭𝘭𝘦 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘶𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘣𝘪𝘵 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘤. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘧 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘭𝘣𝘶𝘮. 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘭𝘣𝘶𝘮 ! 𝘐𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸, 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘤𝘪𝘳𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘥, 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘣𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘳𝘦𝘣𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴.✨

🔶🔸🔶🔸🔶🔸

➡️ Placebo's time to reconsider has finally come: far from the routine and clumsy Meds, we rediscover a scathing and ambitious band, carried at arm's length by Brian Molko who has cleaned up his life. Even if it means finding corpses in the wardrobe.

Placebo has come a long way. From a black hole, bottomless, where the routine of excesses and abuses had pushed him to at the time of his last album, Meds. An album more comatose than medicated, with which the band - and a part of its public - came close to overdosing: unable to renew itself, damaged by its lifestyle, relentless tours and calamitous internal relations, Placebo had almost thrown in the towel. But Brian Molko was too attached to the band he had founded as a way out of a dull life to let it go. Since then, the trio has rebuilt itself, rediscovered the simple joy of playing, life without drugs or alcohol, a career without a major-company to rush it. A new label, independent this time, a new drummer, a new drive, a new hunger: it is a Brian Molko who is quite wound up and relieved to have emerged unscathed from these dark years who welcomes us to his home in London. On the new album, the ambitious and serene Battle For The Sun, we hear him sing "I need to change my skin". It was a good opportunity to ask him to bare his soul for a no-holds-barred interview.

Photo credit: Jean-Baptiste Quentin

💠𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒔: "𝑰 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒂 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒏".

🔊There's definitely a sense of rebirth. After Meds, we were at the end of our contract with our major label, so it forced us to ask ourselves the question: what do we imagine the future to be for Placebo? It was time to clean up, we were no longer happy in the band. If we hadn't taken the bull by the horns, we would have kept the band alive for a few years before an inevitable decline. I didn't sacrifice everything for fifteen years to let the group die slowly. When one corner collapses in a triangle, it jeopardises the whole balance. Here we were drifting apart, the creativity was suffering. Instead of standing together, as we had done in the beginning, Stefan (Olsdal, bassist) and I huddled together out of survival instinct. Placebo, instead of being a band, became a brand, a simple brand: I was compromised, without any sincerity, I felt like I was going to work, with colleagues who were less and less close to me. It was a simulacrum of democracy.


💠𝑨𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒅𝒆𝒄𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐?

🔊During the recording of 𝑴𝒆𝒅𝒔... We left the studio with no pride, disunited, washed up. But there was a tour to provide, so we went to the front, as if nothing had happened. I hoped it would heal the wounds: it did. For two years on the road I was really lonely. I had no choice but to continue - I don't know how to do anything else, it's my destiny, my only value... With 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒇𝒂𝒏, we then decided to recover our band, its spirit, the innocence it had when we were composing, in '94, in a council estate... We couldn't go on with this cynicism. Even on stage, we were pretending, it was no longer "us against the rest of the world".


💠𝑺𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚,, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒎 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒅𝒓𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒓, 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝑯𝒆𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒕. 𝑫𝒊𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒇𝒊𝒙 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏?

🔊At the end of the tour, we couldn't even look each other in the eye... He was... unpredictable, I was afraid of his reaction, emotionally and even physically. So I told him by email, and then our manager officially told him that he was no longer in the band. That was two years ago, we never spoke again. Since then we've recruited another Steven (Forrest) on drums, his youth, his hunger, his optimism as a young Californian has been crucial for us. He has "open minded" tattooed on his knuckles, and that's no joke. We needed him to get us out of our thirties, to make us into brats again.

Photo credit: Scarlet Page

💠𝑫𝒊𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒂𝒃𝒊𝒕𝒔?

🔊During the recording of the new album we forced ourselves to stay as far away from rock as possible, we only listened to classical music, or Fleet Foxes and Sígur Ros. It was important to live in a complete vacuum, to get away from our habits, from temptations - that's why we left London for Canada. It was a reaction to 𝑴𝒆𝒅𝒔, to its monochrome, claustrophobic, hopelessness - and also to its context of debauchery. I was dreaming of a more positive, colourful album, in technicolour rather than black and white... We felt a real relief when we finished 𝑩𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝑶𝒇 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒖𝒏, we surprised ourselves, getting rid of our inhibitions... We needed to challenge ourselves. We've come a long way.


💠𝑫𝒊𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒇𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒂 𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐮𝐧?

🔊Since our beginnings, fifteen years ago, there was never really any respite, a routine had set in: writing, then recording an album, then two years of touring, then six months of idleness... This time, the gap was even longer, because we didn't want to entrust our music to a major-company, we wanted to finance everything and do it ourselves. So the recording of 𝑩𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝑶𝒇 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒖𝒏 in Toronto was a real joy, without a marketing manager in the back wondering if we had a single in the works... Even our manager didn't know what we were doing. She was getting bills - recording brass or strings - and was worried about what was going on...


💠𝑨𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒐𝒏 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒆?

🔊I need the public's feedback, their recognition. Right now, I'm in doubt, the vagueness, it's killing me. I need to be on stage, financially, of course, but above all psychologically. This exhibitionism is as necessary to me as eating and drinking. Without the stage, I couldn't be happy or fulfilled.


💠𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒎 𝒖𝒏𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒑: 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝒆𝒍𝒔𝒆𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆, 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔. 𝑰𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒆𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒂 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒚?

🔊I have to be constantly busy. Solitude doesn't work for me, I can easily fall into total isolation. As a kid, I was already like that, on the sidelines, apart, alienated from others, even from my family. I used to lock myself up in my room, in Luxembourg, with my records and my guitar. It's very easy for me to relapse. I have to fight against that: having too much time to think can be very harmful for me.


💠𝑪𝒂𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒂 𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒓?

🔊I don't go straight home, I keep travelling a bit, I come back in decompression stages. For two months, all I do is sleep. All the illnesses that I've managed to stave off for two years on tour then fall on me. I emerge from a bubble, I feel fragile, absent, reluctant to do anything... I'm not there for anyone, I shut down. On tour, every decision is taken by someone else, I become totally assisted and it exhausts me to be so dependent on others, I often wish I could cook for myself, do my own laundry... When I come back home, I regain some skills, an autonomy. Doing the dishes and cleaning becomes a necessity.


💠𝒀𝒐𝒖'𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒇𝒊𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔. 𝑯𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒖𝒑 𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒔?

🔊Since I was 14/15 years old, all the decisions I made in my life were in this direction: to find my way, through theatre, cinema and then music, to refuse the working world. Blindly, I believed in my lucky star. I remember myself, as a kid, sitting on the toilet, answering imaginary interviews... In my head, it was never a question of "if I am successful one day" but of "when will I be successful"... I burned all the bridges behind me for this dream. Living in my dreams was a form of protection. I felt totally divorced from society, I knew I couldn't fit in.

Photo credit: Radio XFM 

💠𝑫𝒊𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒂 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐?

🔊I had to, that was my response to success. I invented a very self-confident character, a bravado, a loudmouth - which was an outrageous exaggeration of myself. It's a way of feeling nothing, of fooling around with my lack of confidence, my self-hatred... And also of avoiding the clinical depression that has been following me since adolescence. Because if I could express myself through songs, I was unable to do so on a daily basis... But I had to end up killing this character, facing it. It happened shortly after the recording of Meds, which was a real orgy of drugs and abuse - it was our way of hiding from ourselves, of refusing to see that Placebo was in trouble... I was totally addicted to drugs and alcohol, I went to a clinic to treat myself (silence)... Four days after I got out of the hospital, I went on tour. In solidarity, Stefan also stopped drinking, it was the first time we toured sober, it was terrifying... After so many concerts drunk or stoned, I realise how much I disrespected the audience. Today, everything I feel on stage is real, whereas until now, all my emotions were distorted by what I was drinking... It only made me feel worse: I was on stage, in front of dozens of people wearing my face on their t-shirts, shouting "I love you" while I hated myself. I felt like shouting at them: "you wouldn't love me if you knew me"... Whatever mythology says, you sing better, you play better when you're sober... During the recording of the new album, in the studio, I was both physically and mentally present (laughs)...


💠𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒘 𝒖𝒑 𝒊𝒏 𝑩𝒆𝒍𝒈𝒊𝒖𝒎, 𝑳𝒖𝒙𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒈, 𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅, 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂𝒏 𝑰𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒏-𝑭𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒉 𝑨𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂 𝑺𝒄𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 - 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒕𝒔?

🔊From home I was torn: my mother was very religious, my father was a businessman and both, for different reasons, disagreed with my desire for an artistic career... So from childhood I had to carve out my own path, I knew that there was nothing to expect from others, that one day I would prove them wrong, that I had something of my own... It gave me the strength and determination to become myself. This uprootedness probably contributed to the fact that I don't feel at home anywhere. It especially encouraged my loneliness. I would have loved to belong to a culture, a family, a clique, but it was closed to me. That's why I formed Placebo: as a substitute family. It's not just a band, it's my reason for being.


💠𝑶𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒅𝒓𝒖𝒈𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒖𝒑 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎. 𝑪𝒂𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒕?

🔊It's not hypochondria, I just have to take a lot of medication to treat my depression. For a long time, when I was a teenager, I lived with this illness that had no name. It was at the age of 25 that a doctor finally diagnosed my depression. It was a relief to know that I was ill, that it wasn't something I did to myself, that I had no control over my emotions, over my permanent sadness. The only positive thing is that I tried to overcome the illness through creativity, hoping to find a form of therapy. You can't imagine what a relief it is to finally know that you're sick, not crazy.

(𝑌𝑜𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑔.𝑓𝑟)

🔶🔸🔶🔸🔶🔸


🎶 𝑰'𝒗𝒆 𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒏 𝒂 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝑲𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒚 𝑳𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒕 𝑴𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝑺𝒒𝒖𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝑭𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒚𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒈𝒊𝒄 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 🎶 https://bit.ly/3CdQfEW

Translation by Laetitia Evalia
Post by Laetitia

✨𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗔𝗥𝗬: 𝗢𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚✨

Today we have another 𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗔𝗥𝗬 to celebrate: 17 years ago, on October 25th 2004, the compilation album “Once more with feeling – Singles 1996-2004” and the DVD “Once more with feeling – Videos 1996-2004” were released.

💿 𝗢𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚 – 𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗟𝗘𝗦
🎵 https://bit.ly/3CM2I37 🎵

Brian said about the compilation that it's not a 'Best of' album but a simple single collection in chronological order and the main reason for the release was that the record label wanted them to do it (see quotes below).
The CD contained 17 singles and two new songs, “I do” and “Twenty years”. It only lacks Placebo's debut single “Come home” and “Burger Queen Francais”, which was a French release only.
There's also a limited edition of the album which includes a bonus disc with ten remixes.

📹 𝗢𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚 – 𝗩𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗢𝗦
🎵 https://bit.ly/3o7NRvP 🎵

Photo credit: Cover of the DVD, screenshots from the videos / edit by Silke

The “Once more with feeling” DVD consists of all videos that Placebo have released from 1996 to 2004, except for “Come home” again. Additional there are some live videos and a band interview with the title “Care in the community”. The DVD also includes an exclusive audio commentary on all tracks by the band.

📜 𝗔𝗟𝗕𝗨𝗠 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪
Career spanning compilation: While Placebo still retained underground status in the US, their albums have gone on to sell millions worldwide.
Clearly, the band's androgynous presence mixed with blistering guitar sounds akin to the Pixies' heaviest work have made a global impact. For those who have never heard Placebo before, this is the best place to start. Spanning an eight-year career, Once More With Feeling is an excellent introduction to this stylish and articulate band.
Here we find songs that play with sexuality ("Nancy Boy"), drug imagery ("Pure Morning", "Special K"), youth ("Teenage Angst") and love gone awry ("Without You I'm Nothing") in a clever fashion. The voice of Brian Molko is always on the edge of a breakdown against the furious drums, a guitar flurry, and keyboards--a sound that preceded the current crop of new wave influenced rock bands by years.
For those already converted to the cult of Placebo, there are two new tracks. With "I Do", the band goes against its own catalog by writing a happy song --this is a pure, simple love song that still has the Placebo stamp upon it. In contrast, "Twenty Years" is a somber guitar piece that's more typical Placebo, a bit reminiscent of the work on Without You I'm Nothing, and a nice way to round out this collection.
(Outburn #28, 2005)

📍 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 “𝗢𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚” 📍 
📢 “I must point out that this this is not our Best of. It’s just a simple singles collection, and, if anyone had asked me wether we wanted to do it, I would say no. We haven’t decided the tracklist on the base of our wish or our favourite songs. We only followed a chronological order.“
(All Music, October 2004)

📢 “Since we released 'Black Market Music' the record label wanted to release a 'singles' CD. Fortunately the label was very kind to us and postponed its release. We had many things to explore with Placebo yet and we feared that releasing a compilation album would get the wrong message. Unless there is something new in it, a 'best of' feels like a way to get money from the fans and I've always been against that. So when the 'Soulmates never die' tour ended, we decided to release the compilation with a couple of new songs and a CD with remixes of some of our songs.“
(Scars, 2006)

Cover of the album

💿  𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗞𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗧
01. 36 Degrees
02. Teenage Angst
03. Nancy Boy
04. Bruise Pristine
05. Pure Morning
06. You don't care about us
07. Every you Every me
08. Without you I’m nothing (ft David Bowie)
09. Taste in men
10. Slave to the wage
11. Special K
12. Black-Eyed
13. The bitter end
14. This Picture
15. Special needs
16. English Summer Rain
17. Protège-moi
18. I do
19. Twenty years

💿  𝗟𝗜𝗠𝗜𝗧𝗘𝗗 𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗕𝗢𝗡𝗨𝗦 𝗗𝗜𝗦𝗖
01. Special K (Timo Maas remix)
02. Without you I'm nothing (Unkle remix)
03. Every you Every me (Infected by the scourge of the earth mix)
04. Protège-moi (M83 remix)
05. Slave to the wage (I can't believe it's a remix)
06. Pure Morning (Les Rhythms Digitales remix)
07. Taste in men (Alpinestars Kamikaze Skimix)
08. Black-Eyed (Placebo vs. Le Vibrator mix)
09. English Summer Rain (Freelance Hellraiser remix)
10. This Picture (Junior Sanchez remix)

📹  𝗢𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗗𝗩𝗗
01. 36 Degrees
02. Teenage Angst
03. Nancy Boy
04. Bruise Pristine
05. Pure Morning
06. You don't care about us
07. Every you Every me
08. Without you I’m nothing (ft David Bowie)
09. Taste in men
10. Slave to the wage
11. Special K
12. Black-Eyed
13. The bitter end
14. This Picture
15. Special needs
16. English Summer Rain
17. Protège-moi (live)

Post by Silke

𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐁𝐎 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒. 𝐇𝐎𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐃

𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒. 𝐇𝐎𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐃, an original writer of the song 𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐎𝐋𝐔𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐓, would have turned 62 today

The song was covered by Placebo and included into their EP 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞'𝐬 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐈𝐭 released on October 7th, 2016.

𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 – 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭 (𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐨)
🎵 https://bit.ly/2zK6AGR 🎵

Photo credits unknown / edit by Olga

𝐑𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐇𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 (October 24,1959 – December 30, 2009) was an Australian rock musician, guitarist and songwriter, best known for his work with the post-punk band 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲 and his subsequent solo career.
Howard’s music was inspired by progressive rock, glam, Syd Barrett, Brian Eno and especially, 𝑫𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒅 𝑩𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒆. According to his brother’s memories, young Rowland wanted to be alike Bowie’s fantastic rock’n’roll characters.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲 was active from 1978 to 1983 with Nick Cave as a vocalist. The band relocated from Australia to London in 1980 and subsequently to West Berlin.
They have been called one of the darkest and most challenging post-punk bands in the early '80s, and their single "Release the Bats" was particularly influential on the emerging gothic scene. Howard's discordant guitar considered to be a major factor in the band’s sound.

As soon as Howard and Nick Cave started to suffer 'creative differences', Howard left 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲, so they transformed into The Bad Seeds. He soon became a member of 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞 & 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 and appeared with them in the iconic movie 𝑾𝑰𝑵𝑮𝑺 𝑶𝑭 𝑫𝑬𝑺𝑰𝑹𝑬 by German filmmaker 𝑾𝒊𝒎 𝑾𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔 playing the song Six Bells Chime in a Berlin Club. Their inclusion in the film was essential for 𝑾𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔 because “musically, that’s where Berlin was at the time.” The director called Howard and his mates a “bunch of Australians who landed from a different planet. […] There was a hush when they showed up somewhere. They were really big. They were the biggest thing in Berlin.”

𝑾𝑰𝑵𝑮𝑺 𝑶𝑭 𝑫𝑬𝑺𝑰𝑹𝑬 is a 1987 romantic fantasy film about invisible, immortal angels who populate Berlin and listen to the thoughts of its human inhabitants, comforting the distressed. Even though the city is densely populated, many of the people are isolated or estranged from their loved ones. One of the angels falls in love with a beautiful, lonely trapeze artist. The angel chooses to become mortal so that he can experience human sensory pleasures, ranging from enjoying food to touching a loved one, and so that he can discover human love with the trapeze artist.

Rowland S. Howard and Nick Cave. Photo credit unknown

Later Rowland S. Howard formed the band 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐈𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐬, worked as a solo artist and also collaborated with Lydia Lunch, Nikki Sudden, ex-Barracudas singer Jeremy Gluck, guitarist Gavin Poolman, French electro group KaS Product, Barry Adamson, guitarist Chris Haskett, Henry Rollins to name a few.

We can find 𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐎𝐋𝐔𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐓 on the first Howard’s solo album Teenage Snuff Film (1999).
𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆
https://bit.ly/3gBZ1T3

📍An interesting fact is that Rowland S. Howard also covered Talk Talk’s 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞'𝐬 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐈𝐭. He performed the song live at Fuji Rock Festival in Japan, on July 26, 2009, half a year before his death.
https://bit.ly/2MjuawB

Howard suffered from chronic Hepatitis C and passed away of liver cancer secondary to liver cirrhosis at the age of 50.

📍𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐎𝐋𝐔𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐓 gave a title to the documentary on musician’s life “Autoluminescent: Rowland S. Howard”. The film had a limited release for cinema in October 2011.

Post by Olga

✨⭐ "𝑳𝑬𝑻'𝑺 𝑭𝑹𝑶𝑪𝑲 " ⭐✨

𝑳𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒐𝒏 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒙𝒕𝒐𝒏 𝑨𝒄𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒚, 𝟐𝟐𝒏𝒅 𝑴𝒂𝒚 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟕

The little fella stage right hugs his guitar and tries with no little ability, frankly- to appear all small and coy. He glowers at his microphone and then he drawls, in a truly pan-global showbiz lilt, "𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒐, 𝒘𝒆'𝒓𝒆 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒆." Woooosh! Stars collide! A guitar implodes! And 3,500 freshly conquered Placebites plunge headfirst into a universe of sex, sauce and, like, weirdness. Type stuff.

 Photo credit: Justin Thomas (2) /unknown (1) / Edit by Rita

Because, as The Undertones very nearly shouted 'Hear Comes Ann Summers!' Yes sirree, Brian Molko's "dream come true" seems to somewhat hinge upon the basic joys of plecs: he shall wield an axe of the rock'n'roll variety; he shall smoke a string of tads, all casual, like; and he shall - as is his cheeky little wont - bounce across the stage wearing little more than a rather natty dress and leopard skin tights. Scooby!

Next to Molko, unfeasibly tall bassist Stefan Olsdal broods and bends not unlike an unfeasibly tall decked - nay, wrecked - out in hardcore storm trooper bondage gear, a loin-lunging Sven Hassel nightmare ready to rock the local Conservative party Casbah. At the back, it is surely to everybody's benefit that the figure of drummer Steve Hewitt remains concealed behind all manner of cymbal-like implements, for lawks knows precisely what sex shoppers' paradise he has been visiting in his secret vampish rhythm-romping world.

Story time: flashback to September 1995, in a shadowy Spanish bar in the heart of Soho, and a young Brian Molko is saying, with the kind of authority and simplicity that broods no argument, that his band "will be bigger than The Smashing Pumpkins". An audacious statement at the best of times, and surely an insanely optimistic career plan from a band who, at the point were poised to release the original debut version of 'Bruise Pristine', whose notoriety had spread no further then beyond an admittedly cheque book-crazed A&Arse fraternity, and whose infamy knew so few bounds that the name Placebo was less well known than that of their sarf London comrades Scarfo.

Shift forward 18 months and waddyaknow? Scarfo represent the supporting cast at Molko's very own Theatre of Screams as, after a slight stutter last spring, the Placebomoblie rolls around the country one more dramatic time, zipping through the six figure sales mark for the album and notching up another hit single! With 'Bruise Pristine' and now fame isn't merely the spur, it's a blur of groupies and groping moshpits and gruesomely addictive pop choonery masquerading as mini suicide attempts.

Is it a coincidence that tis very week Marilyn Manson tottered into town and played this very same venue? Yes! Is it coincidence that Meeeester Marilyn is really called Brian? Possibly! is it a coincidence that Brian Molko thinks that Marilyn Manson are BRILLIANT?! No, sirree! See, while Placebo are more like Mansun than the Mansons in macabre mascara stakes, they are still gleefully gathering up ne devotees thoroughly wracked off with Adidas-touting footie spouting bowlheads and seeking, you know, a bit of bedsit-tastic spiritual solace. With choruses. And sensitivity.

That Molko's Miss Selfridges act doesn't topple into cabaret is primarily down to the fact that, despite their more debonair sartorial instincts this evening, Placebo never actually camp it up. Where they could well mince into Julian Clary territory, they actually recall those sensational cross-dressing crossover points of Nirvana and the Manics, because like Cobain and Wire before him, Molko has mastered the art of dressing like a girl and rocking like a complete bastard.

True, there are times tonight when you suspect that Placebo's rise might have been slightly too stellar: as magnificent as their shows were at the snuggle old Astoria a couple of months ago, the trio's stripped down paunched sensibilities occasionally struggles to fill the severely vast Academy. Equally, one gets the slight suspicion that the strife of Brian is manifesting itself in auto-pilot mid-song banter as their promotional duties grind on and on . Like hasn't he been using that scientific intro to '36 degrees' for months now? Doesn't he always embrace his guitar like that during 'Nancy Boy'?

When their good however, Placebo are a biotically fine proposition, a victorious whippet-like whirl of suss, pus and adolescent cussing. There's the headrace of frazzled singles, notably an eye-bulgingly louche 'Come Home'; there are the massively cool comedown cruisers, 'Hang On To Your IQ' and 'Lady Of The Flowers'; there are a couple of irascibly frantic fuck tha'-industry-style new models; and there is the by-now-traditional sonic bloom of the encore, wherein Stefan and Brian swap instruments and go utterly feedback-buckingly berserk because, hell, it's their party and they'll fly if they want to, right?

Placebo, then: tell 'em what you Quant, what you really, really Quant.

▪️𝙽𝙼𝙴, 𝙹𝚞𝚗'𝟿𝟽
✒️𝚋𝚢 𝚂𝚒𝚖𝚘𝚗 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖𝚜 𝟽 𝙹𝚞𝚗𝚎 𝟷𝟿𝟿𝟽.

🔹Dear soulmates, what did you think of this review of 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐's first gig at 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒙𝒕𝒐𝒏 𝑨𝒄𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒚?
They had only played there when they filmed their scenes for the movie "𝑽𝒆𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒕 𝑮𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒆" and ever since the band started, 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 had dreamed of playing there one day. That day was 𝑴𝒂𝒚 𝟐𝟐𝒏𝒅, 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟕. In their set they played songs from their first album and new tracks that would later be part of their second album, although the song "𝑲𝒊𝒕𝒔𝒄𝒉 𝑶𝒃𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕" did not have the same luck. It is also probably one of the first times - if not the very first - that 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 appeared on stage wearing a dress.

Below you can enjoy the entire concert. Though it doesn't have the best quality, recording a whole concert at that time was quite a feat and today it is an invaluable document and a marvel to be able to see these images.
🔹𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘭𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘺 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘤 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵? If so, please share your memories with us! 🤩


✨ 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐭 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐱𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐲 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟕 (𝐅𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐰) 🎶✨
https://youtu.be/ns8bm_5fEc4

🎼🔹𝐒𝐞𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 🔹🎼

𝑩𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒄
𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝑺𝒉𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆
𝟑𝟔 𝑫𝒆𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒔
𝑨𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒓𝒈𝒊𝒄 (𝑻𝒐 𝑻𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔 𝑶𝒇 𝑴𝒐𝒎)
𝑲𝒊𝒕𝒔𝒄𝒉 𝑶𝒃𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕
𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝑰'𝒎 𝑵𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈
𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝑯𝒐𝒎𝒆
𝑩𝒓𝒖𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒆
𝑻𝒆𝒆𝒏𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝑨𝒏𝒈𝒔𝒕
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒓𝒂𝒘𝒍
𝑳𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝑶𝒇 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑭𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒔
𝑵𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒚 𝑩𝒐𝒚
𝑩𝒖𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝑸𝒖𝒆𝒆𝒏
𝑬𝒗𝒊𝒍 𝑫𝒊𝒍𝒅𝒐

☆.•:｡*•♬•♫•.✩.•♫•♬•*.•:｡☆

Post by Rita

🔸𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐅𝐔𝐋 𝐉𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐌 𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐒🔸

A few days ago I found a video of ✨“𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐅𝐔𝐋 𝐉𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐒”✨ in my newsfeed, and I want to share it with you, as it brings some interesting approach to the lyrics and is also nice to watch.
The clip consists of scenes from the zombie/love film “𝗪𝗮𝗿𝗺 𝗕𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗲𝘀” and has subtitles. If you know the plot of the movie and connect it with the lyrics one can see that the two of them match surprisingly good. You can read more about the film further below.

Photo credit: Mads Perch, movie poster, stills from „Warm Bodies“ / edit by Silke

📹𝗕𝗘𝗔𝗨𝗧𝗜𝗙𝗨𝗟 𝗝𝗔𝗠𝗘𝗦
🎵  https://bit.ly/3jbzFP2 🎵 
(video with scenes from “Warm Bodies”)

It's maybe because of the fact I know the movie and the book, but this video of “Beautiful James“ with the scenes from “Warm bodies“ really touched me and made me think about the lyrics again. Brian already said that he is not going to answer the question who Beautiful James is and that he wants everyone who listens to the song to find their own story behind it (see quotes below).

And as my mind wandered I remembered what one of our soulmates told us about their thoughts on the record: “𝘐𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘪𝘳𝘥, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 "𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘑𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴" 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥, 𝘐 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘑𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘓𝘶𝘤𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮. 𝘈 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘰𝘯 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯. 𝘏𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘓𝘶𝘤𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘣𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘣𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘦.”

That's also an interesting approach, especially considering the Hail Satan T-shirt which caused some serious arguments lately. But I don't want to start a discussion about Satanism at all again, I'd rather like to ask you for your personal opinions on the song and its unknown main character James.
I know who my “Beautiful James” is, but who is yours and why?

📌 𝗜𝗡𝗙𝗢 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗜𝗟𝗠 📌
The 2013 movie “Warm Bodies” is based on the same-titled novel by Isaac Marion, a book which is partly inspired by Shakespeare's “Romeo and Juliet”. It's a romantic zombie comedy staring Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer and John Malkovich.

📜 𝗣𝗟𝗢𝗧
R is a zombie and constantly craves human brains, as he is able to "feel alive" through experiencing the victims' memories when he eats them. When he and a pack of other zombies are hunting they encounter a group of people. R sees Julie and is immediately drawn to her. After being shot in the chest by Julie's boyfriend Perry R kills him and eats his brain. Perry's memories increase R's attraction to Julie and he rescues her from the rest of the pack.

Julie is terrified of R first, but then they bond. The zombie begins to come to life again; his heart starts beating and he is slowly able to communicate with words. After R reveals Julie that he killed her boyfriend she abandons him.

Julie returns to her human enclave but R follows her and they reconnect. Julie's father Colonel Grigio, who is also leader of the human survivors, threatens to kill him. R and the girl escape together but find themselves trapped on a high building soon. R jumps into a pool far below, shielding Julie with his body from the impact. When they finally kiss Colonel Grigio arrives and shoots R in the shoulder. Julie notices that he is bleeding from his wound – revealing that he has completely revived and is human again. The film ends with R and Julie watching the wall surrounding the enclave being demolished, signifying the end of the apocalypse.

Photo credit: Mads Perch / edit by Silke

📌 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 “𝗕𝗘𝗔𝗨𝗧𝗜𝗙𝗨𝗟 𝗝𝗔𝗠𝗘𝗦” 📌
📢  “If the song serves to irritate the squares and the uptight, so gleefully be it. But it remains imperative for me that each listener discovers their own personal story within it – I really don’t want to tell you how to feel.”
(NME, September 16th 2021)

📢  “I had this list of song titles and that was one of them, and for some reason it just kind of jumped out of the page at me and, you know, and it made itself known. But it kind of started during a period of major insomnia for me in 2019. I was having this kind of… I mean I have issues with sleep, and I can sort of go through periods where I, for a couple of months, I don't really get more than two or three hours sleep at night. And this was a particularly bad couple of weeks, but in my kind of stupor I was getting kind of… I don't know where from, but melodies and phrases were coming into my head. I was kind of delirious, you know, from lack of sleep and therefore connected to something which I didn't really know what it was, but these things were just coming into my head. And I remember having to sort of get out of bed like five, six times a night even though I wasn't sleeping and just go over to the piano and record a melody onto my phone. And one of those melodies was called “Bad Piano” because I'd recorded it at like 5 in the morning, you know, just to get the notes down. And so, for a long time “Beautiful James” was called ‘Bad Piano” because the initial, the main hook melody was written by me at 5 o'clock in the morning in the middle of a major bout of insomnia. And then, Stefan had to take it and make some sense out of it, and it became the keyboard riff, the main riff of “Beautiful James”. I really want each person who cares enough to listen to the record to find their own story. So, Beautiful James… I fully expect people to ask me all the time ‘Who is Beautiful James? Who is Beautiful James?’ Well, I don't know! Who's your favourite James? James Corden or James Brown - which one do you prefer? Or like, you know, who is James to you? And is James even a man? These are questions I'm not going to answer, these are questions I want people to ask themselves.”
(BBC Radio 6 Music, Septeber 16th 2021)

Screenshot from the video

📜 𝗟𝗬𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗦
Bring me back to life
Never let me go
Your troubles and your heart strife
I saw them
Take me by the hand
As we cross through battlefields
Nobody understands
'Cause there's nobody at the wheel

Beautiful James
I don't wanna wake you
Beautiful James
I don't wanna wake you

Everybody lies
One hundred times a day
The silence in your hard eyes
Is far too rare to give away
And it's exactly why I stay

Beautiful James
I don't wanna wakе you
Beautiful James
I don't wanna wake you (don't wanna wakе you)
Beautiful James (don't wanna wake you)
I don't wanna wake you (don't wanna wake you)
Beautiful James (don't wanna wake you)
I don't wanna wake you

Though I may have to
I may have to
I may have to

Beautiful James
I don't wanna wake you (don't wanna wake you)
Beautiful James (don't wanna wake you)
I don't wanna wake you (don't wanna wake you)
Beautiful James (don't wanna wake you)
I don't wanna wake you

Post by Silke

⭐𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐁𝐎 "𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐑𝐚𝐢𝐧" – 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐜𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐭. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐚 𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐱⭐

Dear friends,
because we are still waiting (patiently or impatiently?) for any mention of the new album with the provisional working title "𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨𝟖"😊, so today I will bring you into ecstasy for a while ...
Maybe you already know what I mean and maybe not yet ...

Photo credit: Photo credit: Placebo - Scarlet Page, rest unknown, edit: by Marti

"𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐑𝐚𝐢𝐧" is the fourth single from Placebo's fourth studio album Sleeping with Ghosts, released on 23rd of February 2004.


🔸𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 - "𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝑺𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒓 𝑹𝒂𝒊𝒏" (𝑶𝒇𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝑨𝒖𝒅𝒊𝒐)
https://bit.ly/3pqcF2q
🔸𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 - "𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝑺𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒓 𝑹𝒂𝒊𝒏" (𝑳𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒕 𝑳𝒆𝒔 𝑬𝒖𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒌𝒆́𝒆𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝒅𝒆 𝑩𝒆𝒍𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒕 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟒)
https://bit.ly/2Z2mFVb


This song was offered to remix to the Czech band "𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐜𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐭. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐚" and it is absolutely clear to all of us that such an offer couldn't be rejected.
🔸𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 - "𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝑺𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒓 𝑹𝒂𝒊𝒏" (𝑬𝒄𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒔𝒚 𝑶𝒇 𝑺𝒕 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒂 𝑹𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒙)
https://bit.ly/3lVMper


Well, I decided to reveal, as much as possible, the history of this whole event, which was quite important for the Czech alternative music scene.
So at first, very short info about the band which is still surrounded by a very special fluid, and although they have not released any new albums for a long time, and they perform very rarely, even so, each of their concerts is hopelessly sold out in advance.
🔸⭐🔸
The band 𝐄𝐜𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐭.𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐚 (𝐄𝐎𝐒𝐓) was formed in 1990 and has since changed their line-up twice. But one important name is in their work from the beginning.
🔸𝐉𝐚𝐧 𝐏. 𝐌𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐰, the leading character of the band, is today a sought-after Czech producer and remixer, who also succeeded as an author of film and theater music.


After several personnel changes, he has been accompanied in the band since 1997 by the unique actress and singer 🔸𝐊𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫̌𝐢𝐧𝐚 𝐖𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐚́.
The band EOST has never (at least as far as I know) officially disbanded. Both musicians are good friends and their children go to the same school.


EOST is an exceptional band. They gained the position of a cult group mainly with strong emotional music open to various influences. From the original fascination with the sound of English indie-guitar formations, it has developed into a distinctive, instinctive music that crosses the musical spectrum.
As one of the few Czech bands, EOST managed to establish themselves abroad. In England, they released three records and scored on the independent charts,
𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐁𝐁𝐂 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧 𝐏𝐞𝐞𝐥, and gave concerts in the USA. So far, no Czech band has had such success.
🔸𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐜𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐚 - 𝐏𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐒𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟑
https://bit.ly/3aWuhuq

The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa. Photo credit unknown

⭐And here we come to what mainly interests Placebo rock fans.⭐
How did the band from such a small country in Central Europe get into the awareness of the famous Placebo?


In mid-August 2002, the band EOST, through the recording company Labels UK, introduced their musical novelty - LP 🔸𝐒𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠, and the recordings immediately gained their listeners.
𝐹𝑎𝑣𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤𝑠 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑐 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠 𝑀𝑜𝑗𝑜, 𝑊𝑖𝑟𝑒, 𝑈𝑛𝑐𝑢𝑡 𝑀𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑐 𝑊𝑒𝑒𝑘, 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑎 𝑙𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑐 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑠𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑠.


And I managed to find a few Czech articles where Jan-Peter and Kateřina remember this very important period in their work.
So I wish you all a pleasant reading.


📌𝑫𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚 𝒐𝒏 𝑺𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒅𝒂𝒚?
"We know each other from the time when we supported them in the Small Sports Hall, (Prague 2003), which surprised us incredibly then, because they chose us ourselves.
Molko somehow got Slowthinking and probably put five and five together - a Czech band and a concert in the Czech Republic.
And then suddenly the promoter sent us an offer.
After the concert, they invited us to the backstage for a drink, they said how they liked our record, and it was there that we were offered to do a remix of the song English Summer Rain, which was then released as a single."


𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 𝒂𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖?
"Cool. So I prefer taller people. As I'm not saying: don't trust anyone over thirty, I would have a problem with that myself ... but rather: don't trust anyone who measures less than 175 cm ... 😁
People like those who always deal with something. And he's obviously dealing with something, but he's very calm, I'd almost say such a thoughtful guy ... (laughs). And the bass player and the drummer are fine because they have such a personality in front of them."
(𝐽.𝑃. 𝑀𝑢𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑤: 𝐷𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 175 𝑐𝑚, 𝐴𝑘𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑛𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑔., 𝐽𝑢𝑛𝑒 2006)
🔸⭐🔸

Photo credit: Jeffrey Delannoy

📌𝑾𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒕 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕?
𝑲𝑾: Maybe the one with Placebo was divine, the boys were in a good mood.
𝑱𝑷𝑴: The important thing was that they wanted us themselves - singer Brian Molko bought our album Slowthinking in England, which he liked. Do you remember watching the whole concert from the edge of the stage?
𝑲𝑾: I was looking at the audience. There were the girls with the crowns on their heads, Placebo fans, but they warmly supported us then. Really nice concert.
𝑱𝑷𝑴: I was excited too, until I noticed Molko watching us, it scared me… But then it was nice of Placebo to invite us to the backstage. I will not forget how they stood there - Brian Molko with his meter fifty and bassist Stefan measuring two meters ten. Great two!
𝑲𝑾: We were nervous about what we would bring them, but fortunately we found band T-shirts that said "I‘m (not really) optimistic". So we gave it to them, they yawned, "Yeah, thanks," and threw the T-shirts in the corner, "Would you like a drink?"
𝑱𝑷𝑴: You see. So I don't remember this anymore ...
(𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑒𝑐𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑠𝑦, 𝑅𝑒𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑚𝑎𝑔., 𝐹𝑒𝑏. 2016)
🔸⭐🔸


📌When Placebo performed in Prague in the autumn of 2003, EOST performed with them at the express request of the singer Brian Molko. And the fact that Molko really liked the couple is also evidenced by the offer to remix English Summer Rain, which came right away.
"Placebo came up with a very advantageous offer," explains Jan P. Muchow. "They sent us nine CDs full of tracks with their song and they wanted to get back only one CD from us.
The tracks were supposed to be mixed together.
With simple Japanese software, we had one ninth of a song randomly selected from each of their CDs, and then, according to Čapek's instructions on the dog and cat (according to the very famous fairy tale book About a Dog and a Cat by Karel Čapek), we somehow unified it in the final track."
("𝐸𝑐𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑠𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑥𝑒𝑑 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜", 𝐼𝐷𝑛𝑒𝑠 𝑚𝑎𝑔., 𝐽𝑎𝑛. 2004)

Post by Marti

💥𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗕𝗢 𝗮𝘁 𝗣𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗣𝗢𝗣 𝟮𝟬𝟬𝟵💥

"𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒂 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒏𝒅." (𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑀𝑜𝑙𝑘𝑜)
✨Placebo was the headliner band at Pinkpop Festival in 2009 for the very fist time because Depeche Mode cancelled their set due to the illness of singer Dave Gahan. It was also Steve Forrest's "𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑓𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑙 𝑣𝑖𝑟𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦", according to Brian. But it wasn't their fisrt appearaance to the oldest festival. Placebo played five times at Pinkpop: 1997, 2003, 2006, 2009 and more recently 2015.

I'd like to share with you a short interview with Brian where you can feel his excitment to play at PinkPop and his funny opinion about festivals in general.✨

Photo credit: Bart Notermans, Paul Bergen, Placeboworld  / edit by Laetitia

💬𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐌𝐨𝐥𝐤𝐨, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ?

𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏: Yeah maybe about an hour, an hour and a half ago or something yeah.


💬𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐘𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐠 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐭 ?

𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏: Yes of course yeah. You know, It's always a challenge to be the headline band you know. So yeah we hope that we will rise to the occasion.


💬𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐮𝐦 𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐈 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐢𝐱𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞, '𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐮𝐧'. 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐮𝐦 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭, '𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐬', 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐚𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 ?

𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏: Well, 'Meds' is kind of like alike a grainy black-and-white film you know that's sort of with a very unhappy ending.

(𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝐵𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑢𝑛) It offers a bit more hope than the previous album did. Yeah we're gonna play, you know, quite a few new songs today. It's important for us because I mean we could, you know, play a set that's just designed to, you know, make everybody.. the most people happy. It's more about sort of making sure that you acted you, as a band, enjoy the show, you know, so it's important for you to play songs which kind of make you excited.

A festival is kind of like a big beer picnic for everyone, you know. So everybody's sort of kind of wasted, you know, so it's more of a sort of a good you're kind of the soundtrack to a beer picnic I suppose. So you have to bear that in mind.


💬𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡.

𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏: Thank you. Cheers.

Pinkpop 2009, screenshot

𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞:

Brian https://bit.ly/3klpXKP

Stefan https://bit.ly/2Z0zNcM

The band https://bit.ly/3tPq6JL

🔽🔽🔽

🌟✨𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭'𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰✨🌟

💬"PINKPOP WOW!

That show was one of the most wonderful experiences I have ever had. I do hope that everyone had a good time, I know I did, and I cant wait to come back.

Thank you everyone for being such an amazing audience that night. it was our pleasure to play for you and we hope to see you again. kisses.............. steve"

(𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘷𝘦'𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘰𝘯 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘣𝘰𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘥'𝘴 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 - 2009)

✨What a delight to read this ! His "first time" was a win for him 😊✨

Pinkpop 2009, screenshot

📍𝐒𝐄𝐓𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓📍

° Kitty Litter

° Ashtray Heart

° For What It's Worth

° Follow The Cops Back Home

° Every You Every Me

° Special Needs

° The Never-Ending Why

° Meds

° Come Undone

° Special K

° Infra-red

° The Bitter End

° Taste In Men

🔽🔽🔽


📍𝐀 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐏𝐎𝐏📍

Founded by Jan Smeets, Pinkpop Festival is a large annual festival held in Landgraaf in Netherlands, usually held in June.

It is tje oldest music festival in the world as it started in 1970. It can accommodate up to 60,000 spectators per day with four different stages.

Pinkpop's name comes from two words. 'Pink' is taken from the Dutch word 'Pentecost', because the festival is hels during the Pentecost week end, ost of the time. 'Pop' stands for doll in Dutch, which explains the colourful logo.

Pinkpop 2009, screenshot

📍𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖𝐒📍

🔹Due to the cancellation of Depeche Mode, Placebo was chosen as the closing act of the second day of Pinkpop. 𝑨 𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚, 𝒍𝒆𝒕'𝒔 𝒃𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄, 𝒇𝒖𝒍𝒇𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆. The discussion among the audience was somewhat clouded in the beginning by the question whether Krezip could be a good replacement for Depeche Mode (according to many people not). And, a more fundamental question, whether it is a good idea to have an evening closed by a band that paints in shades of black and grey. Placebo are masters of plaintive music and sarcastic lyrics, and are on the same wavelength as Depeche Mode in that respect, but don't the audience prefer party music at the end of the evening?

Placebo made of it what it is. Their music proved sufficiently danceable despite its cynical undertone. And they even managed to inject some humour into the announcements, when they announced the bassist as the 'Queen of Sweden'. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒛𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒓𝒔.🔹

(3𝑣𝑜𝑜𝑟12.𝑣𝑝𝑟𝑜.𝑛𝑙)


🔹Placebo has been out of the picture for a while. After the album Meds was released in 2006, drummer Steve Hewitt left the band after eleven years, which meant the new album had to wait longer. A replacement was found in the person of Steve Forrest, a 22-year-old American who played in the band Evaline, a band that has been Placebo's support act for many years. Meanwhile, the new album Battle For The Sun has been released and the band is back at Pinkpop after three years. The circle is complete, as Louis van Gaal would say.

Placebo are not making it easy on themselves by opening as substitutes for Depeche Mode with new material in the form of 'Kitty Litter', 'Battle for the Sun' and 'For What it's Worth'. The audience is rather uncomfortable with it, but still goes along with it. Especially the danceable character of this last song helps. Then the chords of 'Black Eyed' are started and secretly a sigh of relief goes through the audience, a starting point! But the band goes its own way by simply playing another new song, this time 'Speak in Tongues'. It has to be said though, the new material does offer some pressing points for the new album. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐠 '𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫-𝐄𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐖𝐡𝐲' 𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞.

The dusk is also a good moment for vocalist Brian Molko to take a break in the form of 'Follow The Cops Back Home', taken from the earlier mentioned album 'Meds'. The rest is short-lived though, because there it is: 'Every You, Every me', one of a number of crackers that Placebo has in their repertoire by now. They all pass by, 'Harder, Faster', 'Meds', 'Special K' and the appropriate closing song 'Song To Say Goodbye'. Placebo has clearly won over the audience and that same audience is far from finished with the band. They return for an encore in the form of 'The Bitter End', a not very appropriate title in this light. After that, Brian Molko's new drummer gets to meet the audience and receive his well-deserved applause. Just like drumming, this ritual goes very well for him. He hugs, shakes hands and runs up and down the aisle, much to the delight of the grateful audience. There is no time for a break, because the sample of 'Taste in Men' already announces the second encore. Afterwards, the guitars continue to roar, as does the adrenaline. 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆, 𝒅𝒐𝒖𝒃𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅.🔹

(𝑓𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑜.𝑛𝑙)

✨As you can see, the band managed to win over the public and critics when there were many doubts about their presence as the headline band. But let's be honest! None of us would have doubted their effectiveness in setting the stage on fire!🔥💘🔥


🎥Let's enjoy ourselves with the full set : https://bit.ly/3lELTQu 🎵🎶🎵

Post by Lartitia