✨𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘: 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐁𝐎 𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐀𝐓 𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐊𝐎𝐑 𝐖𝐀𝐓 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟖✨

Photo credit: album cover, screenshots / edit by Silke

Exactly one decade ago today, on December 12th 2011, Placebo's famous concert at the world heritage site Angkor Wat in Cambodia was made availabe as streaming album. The download included an art booklet which features previously unseen photos from Brian's private collection. However, the first release of the show (which took place on December 7th 2008) was a DVD as part of the “Battle for the sun” box set in 2009.

The performance at Angkor Wat was a world premiere because it was the first time ever that a band played at the Buddhist temple complex. It was also the first gig of the “Battle for the sun” world tour and the first one with the band's new drummer Steve Forrest and long-time touring member Fiona Brice.
Nine songs were on the setlist of this special event, all of them were alternate versions of the originals.

📹 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗕𝗢 𝗟𝗜𝗩𝗘 𝗔𝗧 𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗞𝗢𝗥 𝗪𝗔𝗧 (𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄)
🎵 https://bit.ly/2UAbWeR 🎵

Exit poster.

📜 𝗦𝗘𝗧𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗧
Meds
Because I want you
Follow the cops back home
Black-eyed
Post Blue
Blind
Drag
Teenage Angst
Twenty years

As beautiful as the gig at Angkor Wat was, it had a serious and sad background. Placebo performed there to participate in the MTV Exit campaign against human trafficking and modern slavery. Brian: “What we can do as a rock band is to use our voice and our music to spread a message and say that this situation is unacceptable, and that we can all do something to fight it” (Female First, December 2008).
𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘵, 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴? 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘨𝘯?

 📌 𝗠𝗧𝗩 𝗘𝗫𝗜𝗧 – 𝗜𝗡𝗙𝗢 📌
The MTV EXIT (End Exploitation and Trafficking) campaign is a multimedia initiative produced by MTV EXIT Foundation (formerly known as the MTV Europe Foundation) to raise awareness and increase prevention of human trafficking and modern slavery. The Foundation is a registered UK charity launched by MTV Networks Europe to use the power and influence of MTV's brand and broadcasting network to educate young people about the social issues affecting their lives. Awareness-raising events like concerts, youth sessions, roadshow events and community screenings are part of the MTV EXIT strategy. To maximize the coverage of the campaign all MTV EXIT programming is produced rights-free and distributed free of charge to any broadcaster that wishes to air the programming as well as any organisation or individual that wants to use the programming in outreach educational work.

Screenshot from the performance

📌 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗞𝗢𝗥 𝗪𝗔𝗧 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗠𝗧𝗩 𝗘𝗫𝗜𝗧 📌
📢 ”We are musicians who care about the world that we live in. We are here to participate in the MTV EXIT campaign because it is something that has touched us on a basic human level. And I think that it is kind of appropriate for us to be here in terms that the music that we make is to a degree music for outsiders by outsiders.... People like that, because they are affected directly by the inequalities in this world, have perhaps more of a propensity towards social change.... If we can highlight this, if we can motivate people to engage within the societies that they live, then surely that can only be a positive thing.”
(Phnom Penh Post, December 8th 2008)

📢 "The opportunity to play Angkor Wat was an unbelievable dream come true because I had visited this very spiritual place before. It had marked me and touched me greatly as a person and as someone who is interested in spirituality and Eastern philosophies like Buddhism and Taoism."
(Bangkok Post, August 18th 2013)

📢 "I don't know if a lot of our fans and the wider audience of young people are aware of human trafficking. I don’t think they understand that slavery still exists today. I think if we can make them aware that this happens on a daily basis around the world and there are people around the world undergoing these forms of slavery, and if it deeply touches them then I hope they will be inspired to get more involved in trying to change the situation. That's what we can do as a rock band: Use our voice and our music to spread a message and say that this situation – slavery – it unacceptable, and that we can all do something to fight it. We are not politicians, we are not heads of police. We can just try to change people's minds and inspire them to act.
It might seem that what we’re doing here is a drop in the ocean but every drop helps."
(Female First, December 2008)

📢 “We've been in Cambodia in December 2008 to play a very special concert. We were in front of a 12th century Buddhist temple which is called Angkor Wat. We've been there because we're collaborating with a charity, MTV EXIT. What we're trying to do together is essentially to stop human trafficking. There are at least 2.5 millions of people whenever, who are being trafficked; What attracted us to that charity in particular, MTV is efficient in the way it's talking directly to the most vulnerable people: teens, young adults, they are the most vulnerable to this kind of traffic. It's a true cause, we knew we could make the difference on the spot, that's why we took the effort to go to Cambodia to play this concert.”
(French TV channel SFR, 2009)

Post by Silke