🎶𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒🎶

🎶 𝑾𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆
𝒐𝒏 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒎𝒆𝒆𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒚𝒆 🎶

The story how ”𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒” came into being is quite interesting. Actually the song is kind of a collaboration of Brian and Paul Campion who was the singer of Glasgow indie rock band AC Acoustics . Both were friends and had already released the song “Crush” with Paul's band in 2000.
Before that he had helped Brian with the lyrics of ”Every you Every me” when “Molks” had a writer's block. And whenever they worked on it together Campion played a specific guitar riff and sang the line ”There are twenty years to go.”
Brian once said that he had always thought it would be an amazing AC Acoustic song but Paul never wrote more than the mentioned part of the music and text. “We all grew to fall in love with that record and always said that one day we were gonna flesh this out in to, you know, a proper song”, he explained in an interview and added that he often played this riff when he picked up a guitar.
In the beginning of 2004 the band seriously started thinking about recording the song and around July the work was finished.

“Twenty years” was finally released on October 18th 2004 and reached no. 18 in the UK Singles Chart. The song was produced and mixed by Phil Vinall who had already worked on some other of Placebo's early chart successes like “Nancy Boy”. The programming was done by Phelan Kane who had also worked with the band before, namely on “Pure morning”. Apart from the release as single “Twenty years“ also appears on the best-of compilation “Once more with feeling”.

Screenshot from the official "Twenty years" video.

According to Brian ”Twenty years” is ”pure epic melancholy, a reflection on the passage of time and mortality. But it's not necessarily a sad song" (Delabel, 2004).
When it came out he was very proud of it. In an interview that took place one day after the release he said that it’s "possibly our best work so far! Y’know it’s really, really cool in that way…" (see quotes below).


The 🔸𝗟𝗜𝗩𝗘 𝗛𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗬🔸 of the “Twenty years“ started on September 29th 2004 at MTV Designerama show in Berlin, Germany. It became one of the fans favourites at Placebo concerts and was part of the setlist until 2009, then reappeared on stage during the “Loud like love“ tour in 2013. From that point on it was played live every year without pause until 2018. The last performance took place at Sion Sous Les Ètoiles festival in Switzerland on July 13th that year.
When played live the song often has an extra middle eight section added on, complete with heavy experimental guitar. Since 2009 live shows feature an arrangement of the song that was first performed during the Angkor Wat concert in Cambodia.

Up to now “Twenty years“ was played live 361 times. The shared version was recorded at Vieilles Charrues festival in France on July 21st 2006. The setlist consisted of 18 songs, and “Twenty years” was the last encore.

Screenshot from the official "Twenty years" video.

📌 𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐎𝐍 “𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒“ 📌
📢 “It’s kind of… I’d say it’s a meditation on the passing of time, and it’s about recognizing the value of the present and the kind of the riches that you have in front of you, the gifts that you have in front of you, the love that surrounds you today. Like ‘don’t go home and listen to the Stryper record, you know, because it’s kind of a waste of time.’ (laugh) Enjoy what you have in front of you.”
(MTV Supersonic, 2004)

📢 “‘Twenty Years’ is classic Placebo melancholy, it’s quite epic, all about the passing of time.”
(XFM.co.uk, September 2004)

📢 ”In hindsight, I think 'Twenty years' is perhaps one of our greatest tracks. It's our closest track to 'With or without you' by U2, the ultimate song.”
(Les Inrockuptibles, November 2004)

Screenshot from the official "Twenty years" video.

📢 "One of my best friends in the world is Paul Campion who was the singer of AC Acoustics and who helped me out on the lyrics when I had writers block for 'Every you Every' me on the second album. And whenever we’d sound check he’d always be playing this little guitar riff and singing the line ‘There are twenty years to go”. I always thought it would be an amazing AC Acoustic song but he never wrote it, and since he was such a good friend of mine, often when I’d pick up a guitar, to remind myself of him I’d play that riff and we all grew to fall in love with that record and always said that one day we were gonna flesh this out in to, you know, a proper song. It wasn’t until about six months ago that we actually started thinking about doing that, and three months ago since we actually did it… and it’s possibly our best work so far! [laughs] Y’know it’s really, really cool in that way…"
(Session at AOL, October 19th 2004)

Post by Silke