✨ 𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐁𝐎 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐒 ? ✨

🔸 Hello Soulmates ! While reading a review about our beloved band, I came across this quote from 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 that intrigued me and led me to ask myself a question.

𝐴𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝐼 𝑑𝑖𝑑𝑛'𝑡 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡 ? 🔸

Photo credit unknown

💬 "I remember those songs we used to listen to on old gramophones. This one (𝑆𝑢𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑟'𝑠 𝐺𝑜𝑛𝑒) is about old memories. We know that when you listen to it you'll think it's not Placebo. People don't expect that from us. That's why we're doing it. Because that's part of us too."
(𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘔𝘰𝘭𝘬𝘰 - 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘣𝘰, 𝘱𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘥𝘶 𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘬 !)

🔸 For me, the one that surprised me the most was 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑒 𝑂𝑛 𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝐸𝑦𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑑𝑠. After the album full of guitars and energetic vocals, this song appears to be a musical appeasement. As for the lyrics, they reach a degree of sadness worthy of 𝑀𝑦 𝑆𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑡 𝑃𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑒. Placebo's image has often been associated with a rather trashy, ambiguous, provocative and sexual image accompanied by powerful music. The song I mentioned above just made my heart melt the first time I listened to it. 💖 🔸


⭐𝑆𝑜, 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑆𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠, 𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑚𝑒 ! 𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑑𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑞𝑢𝑜𝑡𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 ? 𝐷𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑖𝑡 ? 𝐴𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑡 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛 ? ⭐


🎵 𝑳𝒆𝒕'𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝑺𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒓'𝒔 𝑮𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒇𝒂𝒏𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒐 𝒃𝒚 𝑫𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒒𝒖𝒆 𝑩𝒍𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒌

🎥 https://bit.ly/3j8BE6E 🎵

Post by Laetitia

⭐𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘: 𝐌𝐓𝐕 𝐔𝐧𝐩𝐥𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐝⭐

Today we celebrate the ⭐𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘⭐ of the breathtaking 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨'𝐬 𝐌𝐓𝐕 𝐔𝐧𝐩𝐥𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐝 which was released six years ago on November 27, 2015 on CD, DVD, Blu-Ray, double vinyl, digital download and a limited edition super deluxe box set.

Photo credit: Unknown (3), Screenshots from the concert / edit by Rita

📍On November 26, 1989, 𝐌𝐓𝐕 premiered the "𝑼𝒏𝒑𝒍𝒖𝒈𝒈𝒆𝒅" format with 13 episodes featuring 𝑺𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒆𝒛𝒆, 𝑺𝒚𝒅 𝑺𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒘, 𝑬𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒐𝒕 𝑬𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒏, 𝑨𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒉, 𝑺𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝑶'𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒓, 𝑬𝒍𝒕𝒐𝒏 𝑱𝒐𝒉𝒏 among others. Over the years, this concept has gained so much popularity that more than 120 artists have performed to date.

On the way to the celebration of their 20 years of career, 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 was invited to be part of this 𝐌𝐓𝐕's famous series, being August 19, 2015, the big day of the recording of this concert at 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒐𝒏 𝑺𝒕𝒖𝒅𝒊𝒐𝒔 in 𝑾𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒐𝒐, 𝑪𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝑳𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒐𝒏. The fans who attended this special night were chosen at random after receiving more than 10,000 requests via the band's official website.


✨💫 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨'𝐬 𝐌𝐓𝐕 𝐔𝐧𝐩𝐥𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐎𝐟 💫✨

🎤𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐: "We wanted to do something extraordinary, something that would challenge us. The process has been interesting, because we were creating something while we were performing it. That was something we had never done before. The simultaneity of the performance and the creation process was completely new for us. It wasn't going to be enough to just sit at the piano and strip the songs down to their bare bones."

🎤𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒇𝒂𝒏 𝑶𝒍𝒔𝒅𝒂𝒍 adds: "With acoustic versions it can be easy to become very self-indulgent and just play all the slow tracks. So it was challenging to do a setlist that flowed well. Once we found out that we were going to play this show we were on a mission to make our contribution to the 'MTV Unplugged' story equally exciting for us and the audience."

🎤𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐: "The biggest challenge was to recreate these songs in a new and appealing way. Because at the end of the day, we, too, wanted to be surprised. We spent months preparing this. We were constantly working on those songs and tweaking them, because this was completely unknown territory for us – totally outside of our comfort zone.

'MTV Unplugged' gave us the opportunity to explore the acoustic and more experimental side of our music, and to play a few songs we had not performed like this before."

▪️𝑢𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑀𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑐, 𝑁𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 25𝑡𝒉, 2015.

Photo credit: Screenshot

⭐ 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 - 𝐌𝐓𝐕 𝐔𝐧𝐩𝐥𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐝 (𝐁𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬) ✨
https://bit.ly/3kXsx9Z


After performing several acoustic sets in their career, "𝐌𝐓𝐕 𝑼𝒏𝒑𝒍𝒖𝒈𝒈𝒆𝒅" stands out because 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 managed to reinvent once again their songs making elegant and delicate versions of them, where 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒇𝒂𝒏 𝑶𝒍𝒔𝒅𝒂𝒍 shows off his talent as a multi-instrumentalist playing the bass, guitar, piano, qanun, shruti box and doing backing vocals, while 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 along with his beloved guitar from 1956 called "𝑴𝒚 𝑩𝒂𝒃𝒚" and with his unmistakable voice performs each song in an endearing way. He even dusted off his harmonica after several years of not playing it.

They were also accompanied by a dozen guest musicians and featured two great female voices; Danish singer 𝑴𝒂𝒋𝒌𝒆 𝑽𝒐𝒔𝒔 𝑹𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆 𝒂.𝒌.𝒂 𝑩𝒓𝒐𝒌𝒆𝒏 𝑻𝒘𝒊𝒏 who sang with 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 "𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝑴𝒆" and then singer/songwriter 𝑱𝒐𝒂𝒏 𝑾𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒓 a.k.a 𝑱𝒐𝒂𝒏 𝑨𝒔 𝑷𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝑾𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏 came on stage to sing with him "𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝑴𝒆 𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝑾𝒂𝒏𝒕".

It is worth mentioning that among the 17 songs they played that night there were songs that they had not played for several years and there were even a couple of songs that they had never played live before, like "𝑯𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝑶𝒏 𝑻𝒐 𝑴𝒆" and "𝑩𝒐𝒔𝒄𝒐", particularly the latter is a song that the band has a special fondness for. They had been waiting to have the proper instrumentation to play it live and this was the perfect occasion to do so. So perhaps "𝑩𝒐𝒔𝒄𝒐" is the highlight - or one of the many highlights - of this concert.

The setting of the stage deserves a special mention. The band was surrounded by thin transparent curtains where the lights were projecting different animations throughout the show, creating an ethereal atmosphere just like floating in outer space or being in a beautiful dream with the most amazing music in the background. Giving a magical and complete experience to the audience.

⭐ 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 - 𝐌𝐓𝐕 𝐔𝐧𝐩𝐥𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐝 (𝑨𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎) ✨
💿 https://spoti.fi/3Dff2cP 🎶

Photo credit: Screenshot

In October 2016, the online magazine 𝐍𝐨𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐲 asked 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 to rank 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 albums according to his personal preference. 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 placed "𝐌𝐓𝐕 𝑼𝒏𝒑𝒍𝒖𝒈𝒈𝒆𝒅" at the top of his list, here are his reasons:

💫 𝑺𝒐 𝒘𝒉𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆?
🎤 For me, this is one of the most important moments in our career. It's one of the things we've done that I am most proud of. It was an amazing experience for me because it was something we'd never done before. We were rehearsing but we were also rewriting material, which finally gave us a chance to add a string section for a whole project. I've wanted to do that for a long time. It was terrifying at the time of the performance, because it was so fucking intimate. We put a tremendous amount of work into reworking the songs to fit the MTV Unplugged guidelines. I put it at number one because I am actually over the moon about this record. These songs from our past could be reinterpreted and stripped down to fit another medium, and to me that's an indicator of a good song.

💫 𝑫𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒇𝒆𝒍𝒕 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒔?
🎤 Well, we're constantly doing that. We're constantly covering our own material and breathing new life into it so we can play it live. Because we need an emotional connection to the song in order to play it live, otherwise it feels like a mechanical act and untruth. We don't want any of that in our performances. Sometimes you have to completely tear a song apart and give it a whole new life. Doing Unplugged and doing it well is quite a feat, I think. I am particularly proud of "Meds," which is completely rebuilt with the strings. Same goes for "Without You I'm Nothing."

▪️𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑀𝑜𝑙𝑘𝑜, 𝑉𝑖𝑐𝑒, 𝑂𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑏𝑒𝑟 13𝑡𝒉, 2016.

Photo credit: Screenshot

⭐ 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 - 𝐌𝐓𝐕 𝐔𝐧𝐩𝐥𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐝 (𝑭𝒖𝒍𝒍 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒕) ✨
🎥 https://bit.ly/3qAx31t 🎶

Post by Rita

⭐️𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐁𝐄𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐅 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐁𝐎’𝐒 𝐃𝐄𝐁𝐔𝐓 𝐀𝐋𝐁𝐔𝐌⭐️

𝑰𝒕’𝒔 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒚 𝒂 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒚 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎?

Photo credits:  album cover; David Fox - Lorne Campbell Guzelian; David Fox's Twitter / edit by Olga

📢 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: This is the photographer's cousin. There was some positive thing about this photo. The boy's father [brother – Ed.] had just died, and the fact that the cover photo appeared on posters all over England was very comforting to him. This photo somewhat helped him to endure his personal tragedy, and in this way, we were able to ease his pain. I hope so.
(𝐹𝑈𝑍𝑍, "𝐵𝑖𝑔 ℎ𝑜𝑝𝑒", 𝐽𝑢𝑙-𝐴𝑢𝑔'00)

But… a supposedly positive beginning turned out into an unexpectedly controversial continuation of the story.

However, my goal today is not to just exhume Placebo’s complications from the past – useless complications in fact, because there obviously was no blame on their side – but to generally discuss the topics of bullying and its consequences, AND taking (or not) the responsibility for one’s own future instead of keeping the role of a victim and trying to use this role in some way...

Photo credit unknown

🔸 🔸"𝑷𝑳𝑨𝑪𝑬𝑩𝑶 𝑴𝑨𝑫𝑬 𝑴𝒀 𝑳𝑰𝑭𝑬 𝑯𝑬𝑳𝑳"🔸 🔸 
𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐨𝐲 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐝
His face was plastered across billboards, in music shops and on T-shirts when he was just a 12-year-old schoolboy who grieved over the death of his brother.

Sixteen years on, 𝑫𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒅 𝑭𝒐𝒙 is hoping to sue band Placebo claiming they used the picture of him on their debut album cover without consent.

He says the image of him tugging at his cheeks and wearing a baggy red jumper ruined his life and led to him being bullied out of school when the album was released in 1996.
David, now 27, explained: “My older brother Duane had just passed away from muscular dystrophy, and my cousin Saul Fletcher came to the funeral. I didn’t know him very well because he lived in London and I was a lot younger than him.

“He was a professional photographer and came with all his camera
equipment. He got me outside and asked me to pull different faces and poses. We all thought it was for his personal use.”

But a month later, David got a call from Saul.
“His exact words to me were, ‘You’re going to be on a CD cover.’ That was it. It was just a statement, not a question.
“At that age I didn’t understand what was going on.”

Within a week of that phone call, the album bearing David’s face was in the shops. He added: “My mum brought home a copy of the album and I was overwhelmed. At first I thought it was pretty cool.”
But David’s life quickly turned upside down when he started getting bullied at school. Previously popular, in the next two weeks, classmates he once considered close friends began to tease and even fight him. He claimed: “That picture ruined my life. When I was in school I used to be well-known and have loads of mates. We used to play football together and I was really happy.
“But when the album came out, the friends I did have begun to pick on me. I think they might have been jealous. Or they saw a boy pulling a silly face and didn’t want to hang out with him anymore because he looks weird.

Photo credit: Adrian Green

“Because I lived in such a tiny village, everyone was friends with each
other. I think I could have got away with it if I lived in a big city.”
The album stormed the charts, reaching number five in the UK, and David soon became haunted by his own image. He began to see his face everywhere in shops, on billboards and even on TV.
He said: “I was watching EastEnders with my mum and I saw one of the billboards by the Tube with a massive poster of my face on it. My mum was gob smacked.”

By then the constant hounding at his primary school in New Holland, North Lincs, had already begun.
David said: “When we played games in break time, the team captains would never pick me anymore. Sometimes my old friends would mimic the face I was pulling on the front cover.
“I got hit a few times. I started hovering round the dinner ladies at
lunch for protection.

“Once an older kid threatened that he would be waiting for me after school. I told an older cousin who was also at that school and he walked me home. But then he got beaten up for sticking up for me.
“In the end my mum had to drive me home because the other kids would wait for me outside the gates.”
David, who says he previously loved school, soon started to hate it. He bunked off and even caused trouble in class just so he would get sent home and avoid the torment.

He revealed: “I used to mess around in class so I’d get sent out. Once I chucked a chair in the classroom at a wall so I could get sent home and avoid the bullies.
“Even at the weekend if I went down to play football I would get chased out of the park by kids on their bikes.
“I ended up staying in, playing on the computer or in the back garden. I had no brothers or sisters to play with. It was really lonely.”

 
And the bullying soon started to take its toll mentally.
“It wasn’t getting hit that bothered me most. It was the constant uncertainty of whether today would be a day I was going to get chased or whacked.
“Every day in my last class when I had 15 minutes left I would worry about whether someone would be around the corner or not.”
After four months of torment, David could no longer take the bullying and dropped out of school. He took a year out doing “absolutely nothing but playing computer games” and later had a home tutor for a year.

Photo credit: Scarlet Page

He claims that because he was so badly bullied as a result of the Placebo album, he became naturally defensive, putting up his guard when he met new people, and so his isolation continued.
He said: “At my new schools, I wouldn’t let anybody be my friend. Because of the extent of the teasing, I assumed people were going to bully me, even if it was only friendly banter.”
Between the ages of 12 to 16, David attended four different schools and eventually ended up in a boarding school for children with behavioural needs in Hessle, East Yorks.

Although he said the school gave him back his confidence, he still dropped out of his GCSEs because his grades were not up to scratch.
He added: “Because I was bullied out of my first school, my reading,
writing and maths wasn’t top notch. If I’d taken my exams I would have failed them all.”
Now an unemployed chef living in Portsmouth, David said: “When I see the picture now, I hate it. It has too many bad memories. If I could walk into every shop and bin it I would.
“If I didn’t have all these problems at school I might have taken my
GCSEs, got a better job and even achieved my ambition of owning a nightclub.
“Now I’m out of work and would take any job I can find.”

David says he has been saving for almost ten years to sue Placebo, which he is now doing with the financial help of his mum.
He said: “I’m using all the spare money I have. I’ve found a solicitor
and have started making calls. There are posters and even T-shirts with my face on and I had no idea.”
He claimed: “Apparently Placebo’s management tried to contact me in 2006 to get some photos of how I am now, but they never found me. I was still living at the same address where my cousin had taken the photo so they didn’t look very hard.

“My mum never signed anything giving her permission, and never received any documents or phone calls asking for her consent. She’s as angry as me.”
David, who claims he could also be due royalties, said: “I’m angry with my cousin for doing what he’s done. I haven’t seen him since he took that photo and I’ve no idea how much he made from it.
“And I’m annoyed with the band’s managers and record labels because they should have sent through documentation for consent.

“It’s not about the money for me. It’s about the principle and what it’s done to me. It hasn’t had an impact on them. They haven’t had to live with the consequences.”
(𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑢𝑛, 𝐽𝑢𝑛𝑒 2012, 𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑙𝑒 𝑏𝑦 𝐸𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑒 𝑅𝑜𝑠𝑠)

📍 Placebo’s management, 𝑹𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒏, reasonably told The Times (June 24, 2012) that Mr. Fox's case should be directed against Virgin, the label that put the album out, rather than the band themselves.
📍 However, there was no subsequent news concerning any legal action. Instead, David Fox turned up on an episode of 𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐮𝐳𝐳𝐜𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐬 in October 2013, as part of the "𝑰𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝑷𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒆" game, replicating his Placebo cover pose, which he proudly revealed on his Twitter…

Post by Olga

🔸 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐁𝐎 𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐂𝐙𝐄𝐂𝐇 𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐔𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐂 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟕 – 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 🔸

⭐"𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐, 𝒘𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒒𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑼𝑵 𝒐𝒓 𝑵𝑨𝑻𝑶." 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐⭐

Photo credit: Kerry Torres

Dear friends,
in 2007, the band Placebo visited the Czech Republic on their MEDS tour. From this event, we have an edited video from the concert on YT and also an interview that Brian provided to the Czech media.
Enjoy today the translation of this interview as well as the concert memory of the band's dark times before drummer Steve Hewitt had to leave the band after long disagreements.


🔸🎶 You can see the edited recording from this show here, the first 10 minutes is the performance of the Finnish supporting band ManBoy:
https://bit.ly/3oXfSov

In the end, you can see a bit of the interview that Brian gave right before the concert. Unfortunately, the entire record is not available.


⭐𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐌𝐎𝐋𝐊𝐎: 𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐨 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤⭐
The British trio Placebo stopped in Brno on tour with their new album Meds on Tuesday. Concertgoers could see that singer Brian Molko (34) is no longer a make-up being of indefinite gender.


𝐸𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠𝑛'𝑡 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑔𝑛𝑖𝑧𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑏𝑦 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑣𝑜𝑖𝑐𝑒. 𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑑𝑖𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑧𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑣𝑜𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑢𝑠𝑢𝑎𝑙?
BM: "I happen to remember that exactly. I was thirteen, my mom and I went shopping, and I was sitting in the car in the passenger seat.
At that time, I really enjoyed the first album of the band Violent Femmes. I sang aloud to a song, and at one point I realized that my voice sounded exactly like the voice of their singer, Gordon Gan. I said to myself: Hey, maybe you could sing, you have a voice for it!"


𝐵𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑡 𝑡𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑔. 𝑊ℎ𝑦 𝑑𝑖𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑦 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒?
BM: "By agreeing on several things, such as a change of interests, boredom, dissatisfaction. At school, I played, directed, and made films ...
I only came close to imagining what I wanted to do by making movies, otherwise I felt that it didn't suit me to be a character in a story made up by someone else.
But I still found the shooting laborious. It didn't have the same magic of the moment as when you hit the strings of an electric guitar and there is a noise and you immediately see the reaction of the people.Thanks to music, you can create your unique universe on the stage."


𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡'𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 - ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑑𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑠𝑒𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒?
BM: "It doesn't matter how I feel, but when you ask, it's something between embarrassment and flattery.
Embarrassment, because in those ten years I have committed several crimes against fashion ..."


𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒?
BM: "For example, leggings with a leopard pattern which I had on the Top Of The Pops show, I don't think was the best idea.
I could have chosen something more moderate ... On the other hand, I'm not sorry at all that I started to dress as a woman in my time, it was great fun.
But to those fans - you know, there's no theater on stage for me, it's more of one of my faces, a side of my personality.
Exhibitionist, a flashy part of me that needs to be seen. I don't want to be like that in everyday life, but it's convenient that there is a place where I can express myself. Ninety minutes four times a week on stage is enough for me."

Placebo live in California, USA. Photo credit unknown

𝑆𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑒? 𝐴𝑠 𝑎 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑝𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟, 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑠 ...
BM: "There aren't that many... But I also have no great desire to star in a movie. After all, I also don't make hip-hop records, in this style it's common to have simultaneous careers in film and music. I'm quite good at what I do - being a musician and a singer, writing songs. I want to focus on that and improve. I used to have a lot of offers about movies, but mostly to play vampires or someone like that. It does not interest me. And I also think that a musician who wants to be an actor has to be careful. I'll sum it up in one word - Madonna ..."


𝑊𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜, 𝑦𝑜𝑢 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑢𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠. 𝐷𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑖𝑡 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒, 𝑜𝑟 𝑑𝑖𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑢𝑝 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑔𝑦?
BM: "In fact, it would be enough for me not to have to go to work ... That was my driving force from the beginning - that I would earn rent and food without having to sit somewhere in the office.
I wouldn't mind if we didn't sell so many records, it would be enough for me to survive. The whole meteoric rise was just a pleasant surprise. The problem is that flying up is not nearly as difficult as staying there. So each new record must be a better art work than the previous one. You can't stay where you are, repeat yourself."


𝐵𝑢𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑟𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑤𝑜 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 ...
BM: "Sure, but we haven't slept together in a long time, we're only in the band for the money!"

Photo credit unknown

𝐷𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑢𝑒?
BM: "Still. For ten years in Placebo, we are qualified to work for the UN or NATO.
We have become masters of diplomacy, we know how to deal with each other, we know all the important tricks. It would be an interesting sociological study. Watching a dysfunctional relationship between three guys who have talent but also difficult problems. They have to stay together for ten years and spend more time together than with the people they sleep with. It's a very strange relationship, something like a surrogate family."


𝐵𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑛𝑠 - 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒-𝑢𝑝 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑎 𝑔𝑖𝑟𝑙 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒, 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑛𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑠. 𝐷𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑤 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑦𝑜𝑢? 𝐷𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑐 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑦?
BM: "We are definitely not music for the party and I have this impression for quite a while. I want to make more serious music.
The topics on the last two records, in my opinion, had their depth. It is not easy to talk about human emotions, emotional violence, identity issues or the feeling that you have not found your place in the world, but it is precisely these aspects of human existence that interest me.
I think Placebo has always had a strong flavor of melancholy, I call it happily sad music. Things that make you cry, but at the same time you are happy that you are alive and you can feel something like that at all. A large part of our fans have grown up with our music. At the same time, we see very young people in the front row who were about five years old when we started. I'm glad that those who loved our debut when it came out are still with us. But I'm also glad that guys in their thirties, by which I mean us, have something to say to fifteen-year-olds. However, I try my best not to think about it - I would start consciously trying to do what should go naturally to a person."
(𝐿𝑖𝑑𝑜𝑣𝑘𝑦 𝑚𝑎𝑔., 𝐽𝑢𝑛𝑒 2007)

Pist by Marti

✨✨ 𝗦𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗘𝗗 𝗢𝗙 𝗚𝗜𝗥𝗟𝗦 ✨✨

🔸Today, let's talk about an old and energic song, 𝑺𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝑶𝒇 𝑮𝒊𝒓𝒍𝒔 !

𝑆𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑂𝑓 𝐺𝑖𝑟𝑙𝑠 is the 11th song on Placebo's secong album, 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗜'𝗺 𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴., released on 12 October, 1998. It was written before Steve Hewitt joined the band. So why wasn't this song part of the first album then ? 𝐵𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 "𝐼𝑡'𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜 𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑠ℎ." It was first performed live in October 1998, a week before the album was released and remained amongst the band's setlist from 1998 to 2001 and went back in 2010 at several festivals.

A flighty man who overindulges in the pleasures of life without regard for consequences and without regard for respect towards women pays the price, the price of self-esteem. That's what the song is about. But is this guy actually scared of women ?🔸

🎶 𝙎𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙊𝙛 𝙂𝙞𝙧𝙡𝙨 https://bit.ly/3ma8q9e 🎶

Photo credit: Kevin Westenberg

📍 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗦𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗘𝗗 𝗢𝗙 𝗚𝗜𝗥𝗟𝗦 📍

🔊"Because we had never recorded it, it didn't even appear on our live playlists. At some point I remembered that song and we started trying different versions. That's when Steve joined us again and when we tried the song, it clicked and we knew it would fit this time. Still, the song took us a lot of time. It's the oldest Placebo song and also one that took the longest to finish. We changed it a lot to make it fit the modern sound we wanted for the album. We also had to change "Brick Shithouse" again. The song came over us during a soundcheck in Leipzig, we then reworked it again after the tour.'
(𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳, 𝘚𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 1998)

💬 𝐴 𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑆𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑔𝑖𝑟𝑙𝑠, 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑒𝑣𝑜𝑘𝑒𝑠 𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑜𝑔𝑦𝑛𝑦, 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑖𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢?

🔊 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻: It's an investiagtion, to see more clearly the problem of promiscuity that a heterosexual man can feel. I wanted to know if men who behave like whores do so because they love women or, on the contrary, because they hate them, are afraid of them."

💬 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦?

🔊 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻: “My life at that time was very hectic. I got through without much respect for myself. Ultimately I considered myself as an object.”,
(𝘓𝘦𝘴 𝘐𝘯𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘶𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴, 𝘯°169, 𝘖𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘣𝘦𝘳 1998)

🔊 "I settle my scores on the track 'Scared Of Girls'. The lyrics are "I'm a man, a liar", from the point of view of someone who doesn't feel very comfortable about himself."
(𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘣𝘰 𝘣𝘺 𝘔𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳 𝘈𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯)

Photo credit unknown

 📍 𝗠𝗖𝟱 📍

"𝑨𝒏 𝒆𝒙𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒂 𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒍 / 𝑫𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑴𝑪5"

MC5 was a famous rock band strated in 1964 ad separated in 1972. I suppose MC5 is mentioned in this sulphurous song because this American band was well-know for their provocative shows which sometimes led to the show being stopped.

When asked about MC, Stefan replied:

🔊"Brian is very into post-punk: Sonic Youth, PJ Harvey, Televison or even Iggy & The Stooges. We actually played a date in Paris."
(𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘧𝘢𝘯 𝘖𝘭𝘴𝘥𝘢𝘭, 𝘎𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘵 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘕𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 1998)


📍 𝗟𝗬𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗦 📍

An introverted kind of soul
The earth did open, swallow whole

Careenin', careenin'
Careenin', careenin'

Her next of kin who lived in sin
Was asking God to let her in

Careenin', careenin'
Careenin', careenin'

[Chorus]
I'm a man, a liar, guaranteed in your bed
I gotta place it on the rack, got a place inside it
Got a place inside it, got a place inside it

An extroverted kinda girl
Did tour the world with MC5

Careenin', careenin'
Careenin', careenin'

Her younger sister, had a blister
Where I kissed her on her thigh

Careenin', careenin'
Careenin', careenin'


🎶 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙫𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙤 𝙛𝙤𝙤𝙩𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙥𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙏𝙑 𝙍𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙤 3, 𝙉𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧 17𝙩𝙝, 1998 .🎶

https://bit.ly/3mdaL3a

Photo credit: Darren Filkins 

🔸 More than just a thought about misogyny and fear, this song also implies that Brian was emotionally invested in the lyrics, which makes me think of this well-known Brian's quote: "𝑊𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑓𝑡 𝑎 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑝𝑢𝑛𝑘 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦" (𝘕𝘔𝘌, 𝘑𝘶𝘯𝘦 1998)

Post by Laetitia

♦️✨ 𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘: 𝐁𝐔𝐑𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐅𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐀𝐈𝐒 ✨♦️

𝐵𝑢𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝑄𝑢𝑒𝑒𝑛 is the 12th track on the album Without You I'm Nothing. Placebo released a French version on November 22, 1999, exactely 22 years ago !

𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 - 𝑩𝒖𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝑸𝒖𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝑭𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒄̧𝒂𝒊𝒔 🎵 https://bit.ly/3ALV9Zw 🎵


🔸The song was written during a soundcheck at Leipzig on their first German tour in October 1996, and was one of the first songs to be written for the album, along with 𝑆𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑂𝑓 𝐺𝑖𝑟𝑙𝑠.

The lyrics written in English by 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑀𝑜𝑙𝑘𝑜 were adapted into French by 𝑁𝑖𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑠 𝐸𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑡 and it is this version that was released as a single exclusively in France under the title 𝑩𝒖𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝑸𝒖𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝑭𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒄̧𝒂𝒊𝒔. Lyrics are quite similar to the original version.

Inspired by his difficult adolescence in Luxembourg, 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑀𝑜𝑙𝑘𝑜 paints a portrait of an outsider living in a bland country.🔸

Photo credit: Corinne Day, single cover, edit by Laetitia

📍 𝑵𝑰𝑪𝑯𝑶𝑳𝑨𝑺 𝑬𝑳𝑳𝑰𝑶𝑻 📍

Nicholas Elliot is a director, actor and writer. He was born in Massachusetts (USA) in 1974 and grew up in France and Luxembourg.

He translated Burger Queen into French for his friend Brian Molko and hds also done visuals for Placebo concerts. He collaborated with Brian on shorts films (Sue's Last Ride)


📍 𝑳𝒀𝑹𝑰𝑪𝑺 📍

Toujours stupéfié par ce manque de direction
Hey you, hey you
Né à la césarienne sa première opération
Hey you, hey you
Ses habits avantagent sa pâle complexion
Hey you, hey you
Et maintenant tant d'efforts pour une si simple érection

Hey you
Méfiez-vous des apparences
Ca n'a aucun sens
Méfiez-vous des apparences
Ca n'a aucun sens

Il drague en boîte et il cherche sa connexion

Hey you, hey you
Pas trop de jouissance mais pas mal d'affection
Hey you, hey you
Il rêve d'un endroit à la plus belle sélection
Hey you, hey you
Et toujours tant d'efforts pour une si simple érection
Hey you

Méfiez-vous des apparences
Ca n'a aucun sens
Méfiez-vous des apparences
Ca n'a aucun sens
Méfiez-vous des apparences
Ca n'a aucun sens
Things aren't what they seem
Luxemburger Queen
He's a Burger Queen

Toujours stupéfié par ce manque de direction
Hey you, hey you
Né à la césarienne sa première opération
Hey you, hey you
Rêve d'un endroit à la plus belle sélection
Hey you, hey you
Rêve d'un visage à la pure perfection
Hey you

Things aren't what they seem
Luxemburger Queen
Luxemburger Queen
Luxemburger Queen

He's a Burger Queen

Photo credit unknown

📍 𝑨𝑩𝑶𝑼𝑻 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑻𝑰𝑻𝑳𝑬 📍

Burger Queen is a play on words between the name of the famous fast food chain Burger King, the word queen and the Luxembourg where Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal spent their teenage years.

"Yeah, we did a song. A new song that will be on the new album, which is called Burger Queen. It's a pun on Burger King and it also means Luxembourger queen. The queer from Luxembourg. It is a very sad story. The character in this song is in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's one of the worst things to be in the wrong place. He is homosexual, he is goth, he's on heroin and he lives in Luxembourg. These are four things you can have in your life ... No. I'm not saying that being homosexual is bad. It's the worst place where you can be all of those things. It makes us cry to listen to this song and play it."

(𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑀𝑜𝑙𝑘𝑜 - 𝐵𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑆𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤, 1997)


📍 𝑹𝑬𝑳𝑬𝑨𝑺𝑬𝑺 📍

* 𝑻𝒘𝒐 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒐 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒔𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒗𝒆:

_𝘍𝘪𝘴𝘳𝘵_

Burger Queen Français

Aardvark

Evey You Every Me live from the End Session on April 10, 1999.

Discogs: https://bit.ly/3EWqpHP



_𝘚𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥_

Burger Queen Français

Pure Morning video

Discogs https://bit.ly/3m1jzbb


* 𝑺𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒆 (𝒅𝒊𝒈𝒊𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒌 / 𝒋𝒆𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒆)

Burger Queen Français

Aardvark

Evey You Every Me live from the End Session on April 10, 1999.

'Notes: This limited edition single (5000 copies) contains a new version of 'Burger Queen' with vocals re-recorded in French. Along with the title track you'll find 2 other previously unreleased songs, 'Aardvark' and a live rendition of 'Every You Every Me' which was recorded for KNDD - Seattle radio.' (𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑)

Discogs https://bit.ly/3EZ83G2 / https://bit.ly/39QnAJQ


* 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒐 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒓

Burger Queen Français

The Crawl (Live Version Radio 21)

Discogs https://bit.ly/3ATBXZW

Discogs https://bit.ly/3ATBXZW



*𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝑰'𝒎 𝑵𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒍𝒖𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒖𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝑸𝒖𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒆

A special edition of the album inlulding the Burger Queen Français in card sleeve

Discogs https://bit.ly/3zPvTjB

📍 𝑩𝑹𝑰𝑨𝑵 𝑨𝑩𝑶𝑼𝑻 𝑩𝑼𝑹𝑮𝑬𝑹 𝑸𝑼𝑬𝑬𝑵 📍

"I've always been a loner. The three of us were, we spent our teenage years locked in our rooms, playing music. And like many boys of that age, I dreamed of becoming a star. A city like Luxembourg can be stifling when you are trying to create an identity. I couldn't be myself there. I felt isolated, far from the places I wanted to be. There was no place where I could express myself, find an echo. From this isolation I made songs, Teenage Angst or Burger Queen, because it inevitably turned me into a voyeur. Which is not the most enviable position to observe the world."
(𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑀𝑜𝑙𝑘𝑜, 𝐿𝑒𝑠 𝐼𝑛𝑟𝑜𝑐𝑘𝑢𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑁°169 14 𝑂𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑏𝑒𝑟 1998)


𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐧: Maybe your European upbringing allows you to get away with lyrics that you wouldn't have dared use if you'd been brought up speaking English in the UK or America. I'm thinking especially of those rhymes in 'Burger Queen'...

𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: That's the whole point of a song like 'Burger Queen' sort of like structurally or if you're talking about it from a musical standpoint. The whole point of that song is to use a cheesy rhyme but to use words like infection, you know, connection, erection, you know. So it's subverting the cheesiness. It's like putting fuck and baby in the same verse.


𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐧: : I bet it's also the first time caesarean section's been used in a pop song!

𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: I know, I'm so, so proud of that. I'm so proud of that one. (laughs)


𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐧: : Is that song based on a real person?

𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: No, that one's kind of more of a story really. It's kind of about being in the wrong place at the wrong time you know and I guess you just finally... since we kind of grew up in Luxembourg - finally since we've written a song about it we can kind of forget about it now. But you know I think it's just... the play on Burger King, Burger Queen, Luxemburger, just kind of you know amused me when I first came up with it and along with 'My Sweet Prince' I think it's one of the saddest songs, but really beautiful, that we've written. I think there's a real beauty in our sadness you know when it goes down there there's something in it that really pulls at your heart, you know, and I don't know how we really achieve it but it's there. There always seems to be a tiny bit of hope at the end of it as well which is important."
(𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑀𝑜𝑙𝑘𝑜, 𝐼𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑆𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑜𝑛, 𝐴𝑢𝑔𝑢𝑠𝑡 1998)


"It's really the worst you could ever be. A goth, gay and on smack in the worst place, Luxembourg. It's so sad."
(𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑀𝑜𝑙𝑘𝑜, 𝑆𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡, 𝑎𝑣𝑟𝑖𝑙 1997)

Photo credit: Corinne Day

🔸Placebo has always had a very close relationship with the French audience, as well as speaking the language perfectly, as far as Stefan and Brian are concerned. A wink that French fans really appreciated! 💞


When they performed 𝑩𝒖𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝑸𝒖𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝑭𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒄̧𝒂𝒊𝒔 𝑎𝑡 𝐿'𝐴𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛 𝐿𝑢𝑥𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑔 𝑜𝑛 𝐽𝑢𝑛𝑒 29, 1999, Brian introduced the song with this statement:

"How many of you've ever seen ''Twin Peaks''? Funny thing about ''Twin Peaks'' is that it all looks really nice from the outside. And underneath... There's a lot of nasty shit going on. I've always felt that way about Luxembourg. It looks really nice, there's always weird shit going on underneath. You know what I mean, you know? I always thought if you're gay in Luxembourg it must've been really tough, you know? And if you're goth it must've been even tougher, you know? So, this is the song about living in Luxembourg.”


"Burger Queen" fallen into oblivion since the English tour of September 1998. The song is telling a story of an imaginary gay, goth, addicted and lost character wandering alone in the streets of Luxembourg city and is sung tonight in French! Imagine Brian making the audience repeat "Méfiez-vous des apparences / Ça n'a aucun sens" and the crowd pointing the fingers at Brian and Stefan at each "Hey you"
(𝐿𝑒 𝐶𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑜, 𝐽𝑢𝑛𝑒 1999)🔸


🎥 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 - 𝑩𝒖𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝑸𝒖𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝑭𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒄̧𝒂𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒕 𝑳'𝑨𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒓 (1999)
🎵https://bit.ly/3ANURBc🎵

Post by Laetitia

⭐𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 𝐃𝐈𝐆𝐈𝐓𝐀𝐋 𝟐𝟏 & 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐅𝐀𝐍 𝐎𝐋𝐒𝐃𝐀𝐋 𝐃𝐉 𝐌𝐀𝐆 𝐄𝐒𝐏⭐

𝐒𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤, '𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐱'.
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘦 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝐷𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙 21 and 𝑆𝑡𝑒𝑓𝑎𝑛 𝑂𝑙𝑠𝑑𝑎𝑙 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘣𝘶𝘮, '𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑥'. 𝘛𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭, 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴 (𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴) 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩 𝘥𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘯𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘶𝘰, 𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴, 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘹 𝘱𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘴.

Photo credit:  Javier Alonso 

🔸𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐚𝐬 '𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠', 𝐚 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐭. 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 '𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐱'?
🎤 𝐃𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝟐𝟏: We like the way it starts with our string quartet mixing with the synths... And also because of the video... It has been recorded during 2 years in 4 countries and has direct and indirect messages. But almost all the songs on 'Complex' will be released as singles and will also have music videos.

🔸𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞?
🎤 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧 𝐎𝐥𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐥: As we still live and work in different cities like London and Madrid, we needed the technology to create music together. It also gives us a lot of opportunities within the sound, which are coupled with "timeless" instruments like the quartet sound.

🔸𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐣𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐮𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐚 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐮𝐬 𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧. 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐮𝐦?
🎤 𝐃𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝟐𝟏: Sure! There is quite a lot of this on the album (laughs). What unites them all is the mixture of string instruments. I think strings, wind instruments or even church organs are part of the message along with the lyrics... They complete them!
🎤 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧 𝐎𝐥𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐥: It's all part of our musical world where we invite the audience to escape, if only for a while! (laughs).

🔸𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭, 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐮𝐦 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐚𝐲?
🎤 𝐃𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝟐𝟏: There is a clear evolution of the band. Last year we created "Made for humans" - our second band together - to create slower and more instrumental music. This makes 'Complex' and us in Digital 21 and Stefan Olsdal as a band even more defined, it has also opened more doors for us than we imagined! Personally... What I always feel is a lot of desire to start the next one and 'Complex' has definitely multiplied that desire.
🎤 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧 𝐎𝐥𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐥: The process of creating an album serves as inspiration for what follows. Only in the studio with the quartet and synths we open up new possibilities and ideas to try out. The pure sound of the strings takes us to a certain world and the electronic elements... to another! This is the combination we are interested in! (laughs)

Photo credit unknown

🔸'𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫' 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 '𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐱'. 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 -𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐬 𝐚 𝐛𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜- 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥-𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐈𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐜 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐆𝐮𝐬𝐠𝐮𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞?
🎤 𝐃𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝟐𝟏: As you well remember, with 'Inside' we did 'Rusty Nails' by Moderat but brought to our style thanks to the string quartet. Now with 'Complex' we felt that the single 'Over' was the perfect song to transmit certain emotions with the electric piano and again, this accompaniment with the strings.
Another curious fact: The album 'Inside' kicked off with the collaboration of the Icelandic Margrét Rán and likewise, within 'Complex' there are 2 songs with another singer from the Nordic island country, Katrína Mogensen. We both love Iceland! (laughs).
🎤 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧 𝐎𝐥𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐥: Every song comes out as a single from this album, for a better presentation of the album. 'Over' gave us a chance to do something slower and with more space in contrast to other tracks like 'Rebellion' or 'Together'.

🔸𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐚 𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐰𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞𝐬?
🎤 𝐃𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝟐𝟏: From that war to the search for the engine of our lives and the desire to escape from everything at times. There are many feelings captured in the album. What unites them is the music, the string or the synths... It's like a journey... We have also tried to reflect the energy of the live performance. The combination of the quartet with the synths, bass, drums or vocals is what captures the energy of the live performance.
🎤 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧 𝐎𝐥𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐥: We keep searching for what unites us within the chaos and being aware of the noise around us. We try to find what is really important... And that is an unstoppable quest!

🔸𝐖𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐚 𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐌𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐥 (𝐃𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝟐𝟏) 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬?
🎤𝐃𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝟐𝟏: After recording each album I lock myself up for a while to paint... On the first album there was one painting per single. On this second one all the singles are a fraction of a painting which is the album cover... Particles of Complex. The whole painting will come out with the album.
𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧 𝐎𝐥𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐥: Miguel is a great artist who has not only carried out this artistic part of the album but has been in charge of each and every one of the new videos of the album.
𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒔 𝑫𝒋𝑴𝒂𝒈 𝑺𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒏, 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒂 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒏𝒋𝒐𝒚 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒂𝒏𝒚.

⭐𝘞𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘥𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 '𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑥' 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝐷𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙 21 + 𝑆𝑡𝑒𝑓𝑎𝑛 𝑂𝑙𝑠𝑑𝑎𝑙 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝐷𝐽 𝑀𝑎𝑔 𝐸𝑠 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘸:
https://bit.ly/3wW7IAd 

𝙰𝚞𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚛: 𝐿𝑒𝑖𝑟𝑒 𝑍𝑢𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑔𝑎
𝙾𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝚃𝚎𝚡𝚝: https://bit.ly/3wUoPTc
𝙳𝙹 𝙼𝚊𝚐 𝙴𝚜 𝙽𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝟷𝟼, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟷.
𝙴𝚗𝚐𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚑 𝚃𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚜𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗: 𝑅𝑖𝑡𝑎 𝑀𝑜𝑙𝑘𝑜 𝑑𝑒 𝐿. 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜 𝐴𝑛𝑦𝑤𝑎𝑦

Post by Rita

✨𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗕𝗢 𝗢𝗡 𝗠𝗘𝗗𝗦✨

“𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒇 '𝑴𝒆𝒅𝒔' 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒅𝒓𝒖𝒈𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒃𝒖𝒔𝒆”(Brian Molko, Les Inrockuptibles, 2009)

I think we all know that Placebo's fifth studio album “Meds” (2006) marked a turning point in their career. Things had gone downhill for quite a while, there was a lot of drug use and alcohol involved before and during the production of the record. The friendship between Brian, Stefan and Steve Hewitt had become a dysfunctional working alliance. The world tour that followed the release of “Meds” was the death knell for the triangle, and as result Steve had to leave the band. But that's not the topic of this post.

Today we will have a closer look at what Brian and Stefan said about “Meds” from shortly before its release on March 13th 2006 until the follow-up album “Battle for the sun” came out in 2009.

Photo credit unknown

📌 𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐅𝐀𝐍 𝐎𝐍 “𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐒” 📌
📢 “We went to the studio with electronic ideas, with hip hop influences, but what was finally recorded is completely different! I dunno what happenned, but we immediately started with simplicity… Instead of doing something very cerebral, we did something instantaneous. A return to Placebo’s roots.“
(Brian, Rock Magazine, December 2005)

𝘛𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘋𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘳𝘪, 𝘪𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘦𝘳?
📢 “Yes, it is! We had an argument the first week, the kind of « Why do you treat me this way? I’m your friend! » But after the first week, it became very easy. Since the clash was ended, we take the roles established between producer and artists, then it become really easy because no one is afraid of hurt the ego of the other.“
(Brian, Rock Magazine, December 2005)

📢 “When we started we had twenty songs for the album, and from there, by an elimination process, we left the ones included in the album. Fortunately, our record label gave us the freedom to work at our own pace, contrary to the release of the singles compillation. With 'Meds' we had more freedom regarding time and preparation, and more in things such as releasing dates and other things, because the six week previous to the album's release are the hardest for us because we sometimes have to be in different cities in the same day.“
(Brian, Scars, 2006)

📢 “While I was writing the songs, I was interested in what the people in the modern world need to survive the day and what they use as medication. The meds could be religion, love or a variety of medication that allows them emotional survival… I’m talking about those kinds of meds.“
(Brian, OK!, 2006)

📢 “The album is bizarre, we let the pieces obtain what they wanted, what they needed. The album will be different to what we’ve been able to do, but you’ll still be able to recognise our sound: melodic, fast, punky in places and depressing in others. The fans should feel comfortable with it, while being surprised… hopefully!“
(Stefan, Rock Magazine, January 2#meds

Photo credit unknown

🎬 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗕𝗢 – 𝗟𝗜𝗩𝗘 𝗔𝗧 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝟮𝟬𝟬𝟲
🎵 https://bit.ly/3Drkuc7 🎵

📢 “I think it kinda makes sense, you know. All the people who live and inhabit the songs in the album are under some form of anaesthetic, whether it's chemical, emotional or spiritual. And I think during the song writing process, it sort of interested me - the different form of anaesthetic that people use in order to get through the day, to survive. I suppose this album to a certain degree explores that.“
(Brian, Bangkok Post, March 1st 2006)

📢 ”When I started working on this record, I only had two subjects to write about: love and addiction. I don't want to follow the path of Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix or Kurt Cobain. Or even worse: Pete Doherty. I've also always had a problem with the glorification of addicted rock stars. A junkie in the gutter is a junkie in the gutter. But I can't deny it: I had also taken that dead-end road - one day I realised there was a chance I might be the next rock casualty.”
(Brian, Humo, March 2006)

📢 “I think the group’s image has evolved a bit over the years. Placebo became something slightly obscure, a bit too intelligent, a band with a dark and simultaneously complex side. This return to the roots was necessary. ... We’ll soon see what the media makes of this album. But nobody will be able to say that this album was made with this or that goal, that it’s commercial or something else. It’s just a breath of fresh air, and most importantly, an album that feels like us.“
(Brian, Rock Sound, March 2006)

📢 “Well, actually, I think this is probably our darkest, most tortured record. But I think there's a freshness and an immediacy and a directness about it sonically that probably makes it a bit more accessible. I think in the past we've kind of been wilfully obscured or purposefully oblique in our approach, and now we've stripped everything down and returned to the core or the essence of this band, which is a tight, urgent rock band.“
(Brian, Boyz, April 2006)

📢 ”There wasn’t a generational gap or a cultural gap between us [Dimitri Tikovoi]. In fact, we were born on the same day of the same year so we were very good friends before we started working on this record. He realized that we’d found a comfort zone which was Vince’s synthesizers. He wanted to pull us out of that comfort zone and make us stare at ourselves in the mirror to make us realize that in essence we are a rock band.”
(Brian, Suicide Girls, May 14th 2006)

📢 "I mean, 'Meds' is an album about anesthesia and addiction. It's an album that I don't think we could have made five, six, seven years ago, simply because the negative effects of the rock lifestyle weren't as apparent then, y'know? Perhaps we were too young.”
(Brian, Sydney Morning Herald, September 8th 2006)

Photo credit:  Benni Valsson

📢 ”I think with 'Meds' we explored personal human pain, it was quite under the microscope and so, it is really hard to get any darker and bleaker than 'Meds'.”
(Stefan, Clic Music, April 2009)

📢 "Now i can look at it from a distance, 'Meds' was a bit of a bleek/pale record in which you'd find a lot of pain and hardly any hope. Now i wanted to make something with a lot of light and neon. I believe in that, that is my state of mind at the moment. At the time i also believed in 'Meds', but you have to be alert/carefull that you don't lose yourself in the darkness."
(Brian, De Limburger, May 28th 2009)

📢 “'Meds' sounded claustrophobic, without a sparkle of hope. The album felt like a grainy black and white film.“
(Brian, De Standaat, May 30th 2009)

📢 “If you look back at our last album 'Meds', it sort of looks like a black and white grainy film. This time we wanted to make something in 17mm technicolour wide screen.“
(Brian, OK! Magazine Australia, June 2009)

📢 “The recording of 'Meds' was a veritable orgy of drugs and abuse. This was the way we draped ourselves in the veil of denial, refusing to see that Placebo was not doing well ... I was totally addicted to drugs and alcohol, I went to a clinic to heal (silence). Four days after I left the hospital, I went on tour. In solidarity, Stefan has also stopped to drink, it was the first time we were touring sober, it was terrifying [...]”.
(Brian, Les Inrockuptibles, May 26th 2009)

📢 ”We left the studio without pride, disunited, washed out. But there was a tour to achieve, then we marched to the front lines, as if nothing had happened. I hoped it would heal the wounds: it bruised them. For two years on the road, I really felt alone.”
(Brian, Les Inrockuptibles, May 26th 2009)

Post by Silke

🔸⭐🔸 𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐗 𝐋𝐄𝐄 – 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐁𝐎 𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟔-𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟕 🔸⭐🔸

Hi, dear soulmates, do you remember last Wednesday and post about Xavior Roid?
Today, we move to the times when, alongside the Placebo guys, we saw on stage a strong personality of a musician who then continued to successfully develop his music career.

Photo credit at the end of the post

𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐱 𝐋𝐞𝐞 (𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝟏𝟔, 𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟎 𝐢𝐧 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐥, 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝) 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐚 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐒 𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐫.


In the 80's and 90's, he played in the bands The Blue Airplanes and Strangelove.
In the late 1990s, he was a live player in the band SUEDE, so in early 2000 he replaced keyboardist Neil Codling and became a full member of Suede. He remained there until their break-up in 2003.


⭐ In January 2006, Lee was recruited for Placebo's live line-up and played with them on their Meds world tour which finished in September 2007. He played guitar and keyboards on the album Live At La Cigale.⭐


Furthermore, his artistic career is very extensive, I would mention mainly original music for ground-breaking documentary series Alone in the Wild in September 2009 and also original music to Hawking, a film about the life of scientist Stephen Hawking directed by Stephen Finnigan released in September 2013.


𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐱 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐌𝐞𝐳𝐳𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟗. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐅𝐁 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐮𝐲𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐬:
⭐ "WHAT A GAS IT WAS TO SEE OUR OLD FRIEND & TOURING GUITARIST : ALEX LEE : PLAYING GUITAR WITH THE MIGHTY : @massiveattackofficial : AND WHAT A SHOW IT WAS!!! THANKS TO ALL WHO WORKED HARD TO GIVE US SO MUCH PLEASURE. PEACE & LOVE."⭐

Photo credit unknown

I am very glad that I managed to find a nice interview where Alex recalls working with Placebo:
🔸⭐𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐱 𝐋𝐞𝐞 – 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨, 𝐒𝐮𝐞𝐝𝐞⭐🔸
Alex Lee has been lucky enough to have enjoyed 17 years of playing guitar for a living. The many band’s he’s played for include Strange Love, Suede and now Placebo. I caught up with him on tour with Placebo at London’s Wembley Arena.


𝑊ℎ𝑦 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑓𝑓 𝑏𝑦 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑏𝑖𝑡 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑙𝑢𝑑𝑒𝑑?
"Well, my name’s Alex Lee and I’ve been playing guitar full time now for about 17 years. I left school and started playing in bands straight away and I’m still doing it now! I played in bands at school, was about 15 when I did my first gig and then within six months of leaving school I was asked to join a Bristol band called Blue Airoplanes. They needed a new guitar player to go on tour supporting a band called The Darling Birds who had a top 40 hit at the time so it was great! That went really well and they asked me to stay and pretty soon after we ended up signing a major deal. It snowballed from there really and things started happening really quickly for the band. There was just a big transition at that point from being on a indie label to being on a major and having enough money to go on tour properly and pay everyone a modest wage."


𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑔𝑜 𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒?
"After that I played with a band called Strange Love who were all friends of mine from Bristol. We put that band together after I left the Airoplanes. Strange Love then went on to support Suede and that’s when they needed someone new to play guitar. They knew me already as I’d spent quite a long time touring with them whilst playing with Strange Love. So really it’s all about meeting people and realising you’re on a similar wavelength as people."..../.../


𝐻𝑜𝑤 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑏𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑟𝑜𝑙𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜?
"Well, i’m replacing the keyboard player who was playing on the last tour so it was a Keyboard player that they were originally looking for. The fact that I could play guitar was obviously appealing to them as there are a lot of songs on the new album that are guitar based. It also frees Brian and Stef up to do other things if they want. Brian can now put the guitar down for certain songs live and go off and not have to worry about that which can make for more of a visual thing. Then I can free Stef up sometimes so he can give me the meat and potato parts and he can go and do some of the more interesting parts."


𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡’𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒? 𝐻𝑜𝑤 𝑚𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑑𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑟𝑒ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑎 𝑏𝑖𝑔 𝑡𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑠𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑎𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠?
"With this tour we did quite a lot of rehearsing, we managed to rehearse for a month which was a rare luxury. With the Suede thing I didn’t get any rehearsal at all, they just sent me a cassette and had a listen on the way the airport and scribbled a few notes down when I got there!! But with Placebo we had a months rehearsal which involved a lot of programming as it was all new equipment we were using. Learning the songs was the easy part!" .../.../


𝐷𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑘 𝑎 𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑏𝑖𝑡 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑔𝑜 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑑?
"This tour is slightly different for me (the Placebo tour), because I’m using laptops on stage which is a first for me, so I’m completely in the digital domain now. I’m using a system called ‘Guitar Rig’ for the guitars, so every sound is programmed before hand, then saved and you can tweak and save at each show if you need to. So I go from the guitar, to a sound card, to the laptop and then out into a Marshall power amp and speaker. I wanted there to be some form of a valve and speaker in there somewhere! The reason we’ve done this is because both Brian and Stef have very classic rock setups; Brian plays through a Fender twin, Stef through a Marshall. So we thought it would give the sound a different texture. You have to get used to the new technology quite quickly, although I did have to put in the hours when everyone else was in the pub, I was sitting down shouting at computers!! Its still an education to me but we’re a year into this tour and its still working fine so touch wood it’ll work tonight!!!"
(𝙾𝚗𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚐𝚞𝚒𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚘𝚗𝚜.𝚌𝚘.𝚞𝚔)

Placebo at 100 Rock Festival (Bangkok, Thailand). Photo credit unknown

And at the end of my post, enjoy videos from the MEDS tour where you can see Alex in live show:


🔸🎶 Placebo - Post Blue [M6 Private Concert 2006]
https://bit.ly/3wOZlXc

🔸🎶 Placebo "Every you every me" live at Oxegen Festival 2006
https://bit.ly/3qLSWLo

🔸🎶 Placebo "Taste in Men" live Hurricane festival 2007
https://bit.ly/3osaz04

🔸🎶 Placebo - One Of A Kind [Rock Am Ring 2006]
https://bit.ly/2YUdo1e

🔸🎶 Placebo "Meds" live at Vieilles Charrues 2006
https://bit.ly/3Fl8YzT

Photo credit pic 1: bottom photo taken from Alex Lee's official website, rest unknown, edit by Marti
Post by Marti

🌟 𝐎𝐅 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐁𝐎 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐒 🌟

"I can't be the only one who just wants them to go 'f*** it' and get in the studio with just their guitars, with someone like Brad Wood, and make debut mkII"
(𝘈 𝘧𝘢𝘯'𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘙𝘦𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘵 - 2021)

Photo credit at the end of the text

🔸Dear Soulmates, today's post will deal with a topic close to my heart.

As a long-time French fan, I have read many reviews about 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜 in the French press. I can't deny that after the success of 𝑆𝑙𝑒𝑒𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑊𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝐺ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑠, an album that was praised worldwide, the press has changed its attitude towards the band, often focusing on the fact that 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜 has changed or lost something since the release of 𝑀𝑒𝑑𝑠. These critics are sometimes voiced and shared by fans as well.

I'd like to share one of these reviews with you so that you understand what I mean. It was written before the band go on stage at the 𝐹𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑙 𝐷𝑢 𝑃𝑜𝑢𝑝𝑒𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝐽𝑢𝑙𝑦 2014, in Saint-Malô-du-Bois,

I've chosen a soft critic. Some are harsh.🔸


📍 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑹𝑬𝑽𝑰𝑬𝑾 📍

After a first week full of sweetness, the Vendée festival is really starting the second one and welcomes this very electric trio this Monday. Rock'n'roll !

The time is long gone when Placebo could be considered as old-fashioned irreverent rock. Twenty years have passed, the band has matured (not to say aged) and in 2013 released its seventh album: Loud like love. Those who wanted to hate it hated it, the die-hard fans said it was better before, the others loved it, especially the single Too Many Friends, with its heady melody and wry humour. In short, it left no one indifferent.

But what was the spirit of Placebo? A punk-rock, rough and tumble. A real cry of rebellion. It was also a look, an attitude, that of Brian Molko, a charismatic singer with a nasal voice, anxious to free himself from conventions. This is evidenced by the many concerts in which he displayed his androgynous appearance, wearing make-up to sing lyrics heavy with sensuality.

Photo credit: Pat Pope

A turning point

When did Placebo start to change ? You might think it was with the release of Sleeping with Ghosts, their fourth album, the time when the media started to put the band in the public eye. It could also be their monumental concert at the O2 Arena in 2009, where they definitely broke with their artistic will to never perform in commercial music temples.

As a famous spectacle maker would say: yes, but that was before. The most symbolic turning point came that same year with the release of Death of Nancy Boy, in which the band explained their desire to do away with the character of Nancy Boy, the main title of their first album and a true summary of the Brian Molko character. The explanation: "𝑊𝑒'𝑟𝑒 𝑓𝑒𝑑 𝑢𝑝 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑎𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑝 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑟𝑢𝑛𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑣𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑠, 𝑤𝑒'𝑑 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑔𝑛𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑐", explained Molko, during an appearance on Taratata (2009).


Their strength: the concerts

But then what ? By trying to be consensual, Placebo may have lost what made its identity. Meds and Battle for the Sun are albums that are far from having been recognised by the critics. Loud Like Love, the latest one, has followed the same path, with the excellent (Exit Wounds) rubbing shoulders with the not so good (Loud like Love).

However, no worries ! The band's strength is only fully revealed in concert. Their incredible performances are as energetic as you could wish. The three musicians give their all to make each of their appearances a unique moment for the audience. As the trio's only date in the west, the audience at the Théâtre de Verdure should get their money's worth.
(𝘙𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘦𝘪𝘹 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵-𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦.𝘧𝘳 - 2014)

Photo credit: Nadav Kander

🔸Why this topic is important to me ? Well, not because I am a fan refusing negative comments on Placebo.

My views on Placebo are the same as on people. That is, the people in the band, 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 and 𝑆𝑡𝑒𝑓𝑎𝑛 (and all the other members who were in the band before) evolve over the years, like everyone on this planet. Opinions change, situations evolve, life paths change, and the way you see the world changes. Just life !

What I notice most of all is that the press or some fans would like Placebo to never change and produce the same music over and over again, dealing with the same topics over and over again, in the same way. 𝑊𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑𝑛'𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑏𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 ? 🤔

Being a fan, in my mind, is not about regretting what our favourite band used to do and hoping fervently that they'll come to their senses, but it is about welcoming the new things they offer us, be it musically or in terms of thinking. We don't have to love everything blindly but we have to try and accept evolution, which is what we do every day with the people around us in trying to understand and accompany them. 💚

Also, being a fan is not about praising only one band member or being very critical of the artists' appearance or being interested in their private life. In a way, it's like refusing to see that behind the music, there are human beings, with all the complexity that characterises them. It's only ignoring the Art itself, the message transmitted through the songs.

In a way, it's like refusing to see that behind the music, there are human beings, with all the complexity that characterises them.✨

I personally prefer a band with a varied musicality rather than having the impression of listening to the same album even when I change the record. I'm grateful for 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜 to be a band which sticks to who they are without trying to please (despite their name 😉) critics or some unsatisfied fans.

𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒 ! 💝 😄 🔸

🎥 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒕 𝑴𝒂𝒏 𝑹𝒂𝒚 (2003) https://bit.ly/3mb6tcL 🎵

Photo credit pic 1:
Joseph Llanes (top left and top center pictures)
Corinne Mariaud (bottom left picture)
Mary Scanlon (bottom right picture)
Morena Brengola (center right picture)
Robin François (top right picture, bottom center picture)
Edit by Laetitia 

Post by Laetitia