🔷🎊𝐒𝐋𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐆𝐄 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐬 𝟐𝟐 𝐓𝐎𝐃𝐀𝐘🎊🔷

The second single from Placebo’s third studio album 𝑩𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒕 𝑴𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄, was released on September 25th, 2000 and reached no. 19 in the UK Singles Chart.

🔷𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐎🔷
➡️ http://bit.ly/2VhCxjy

Photo credit: Screenshot from the official video, single cover / edit by Silke

🔷From the very beginning of Placebo’s career, Brian has always said that the initial purpose for him to start a band was his dream to never get a real job. 𝐒𝐋𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐆𝐄 is an exact illustration of ordinary, boring way of life which Brian was trying to avoid at any price.

📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: The song tells you to be an individual, believe in yourself and have the courage to chase your dreams. If you do, the rewards at the end are tenfold versus doing what your parents tell you to do. Get a good job, get married, have 2.4 children, 1.2 goldfish, 3.6 cars... To a lot of people, that's the epitome of personal success. Which is why so many people get through a mid-life crisis. People reach a point in their lives and go, "Is this it?"
(𝐴𝑙𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠, 𝐴𝑢𝑔𝑢𝑠𝑡 2001)

🔷As 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧 recalled in 𝑩𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒕 𝑴𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄 𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 (𝑬𝒑𝒊𝒔𝒐𝒅𝒆 2), the working title for Slave to the Wage was 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝟗𝟗.

🔷The line “𝑺𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝑴𝒂𝒈𝒈𝒊𝒆'𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒓𝒎” is a reference to the Bob Dylan song Maggie's Farm.
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: "It's just a song about not working for The Man and chasing your dreams. It's about not working yourself into an early grave. It's our version of Bob Dylan's Maggie's Farm which finds it's way into the lyrics as well".
(𝑈𝑛𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑒, 2000)

Photo credit: Screenshot from the official video

𝐁𝐨𝐛 𝐃𝐲𝐥𝐚𝐧 - 𝐌𝐚𝐠𝐠𝐢𝐞'𝐬 𝐅𝐚𝐫𝐦

➡️ https://bit.ly/2mhKWT7

🔷The song was produced by Paul Corkett and Placebo and recorded at Olympic Studios and Townhouse Studios in London. Brian has some painful memories about recording of the track's vocals:
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: The day I recorded the vocals to that track was the day that I found out that Scott Piering, the legendary plugger and our friend, had died and I was thinking about him that morning. There was a cloud that was hanging over us that day. I strangely felt his presence.
(𝑀𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑑𝑦 𝑀𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑟, 𝑂𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑏𝑒𝑟 20𝑡ℎ, 2000)

🔷Slave to the Wage contains a sample from 𝐓𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐬 𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬 by the band 𝑷𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 written by Stephen Malkmus and Scott Kannberg.

Photo credit: Screenshots from the official video  / edit by Silke

𝐏𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 - 𝐓𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐬 𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬

➡️ https://bit.ly/3PYg1ne

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝑷𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕'𝒔 "𝑻𝒆𝒙𝒂𝒔 𝑵𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝑾𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔" 𝒐𝒏 "𝑺𝒍𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝑻𝒐 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑾𝒂𝒈𝒆"?
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: I was just a huge fan. It comes from the B-sides album, and I just really liked this abstract guitar that was going on. It's much slower in its original state. We just looped it and sped it up really fast, at least ten times faster than the original. Again, it was sampling, which was something we had never done before. At the time, it was a great motivator for us. We didn't want to do what we'd done on the last record.
(𝑉𝑖𝑐𝑒, 𝑂𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑏𝑒𝑟 13𝑡ℎ, 2016)

🔷The single CD was available in two different versions:
▪️𝐂𝐃𝟏
Slave to the Wage (Radio Edit)
Leni
Bubblegun

▪️𝐂𝐃𝟐
Slave to the Wage (Album Version)
Holocaust (Big Star cover)
Slave to the Wage (Les Rythmes Digitales Remix)

▪️𝟏𝟐” 𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐲𝐥 includes all the same songs except for the Slave to the Wage radio edit.


📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: "It's kind of an American Beauty thing. You can find yourself like the character Kevin Spacey plays, in a mid-life crisis and realising 20 years of his existence has been for nothing, for materialism and no soul. […] I think people are taught at an early age that individuality isn't necessarily a good thing and that they have to conform."
(𝑆𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑀𝑎𝑖𝑙, 𝑂𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑏𝑒𝑟 2000)

Photo credit: Screenshot from the official video

📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: “It's a song about chasing your dreams. It's kinda like the Robert Frost poem, "The Road Not Taken. It's, basically saying, promoting individuality and saying that you don't have to follow society's rules in order to become a personal success. It often involves a bit of risk taking and courage. But we're certainly living proof of the fact that these decisions that we made when we were very young, we're living proof embodied that the road less traveled can be incredibly fruitful, if you stay true to yourself, if you have the desire to be an individual, if you have the desire and the courage to chase your dreams. If you want to work at a bank, and that gives you a hard-on, then go work for a bank. Or, if you want to be an artist and that gives you a hard-on, be an artist. Don't feel that you have to work at a bank. And if you're prepared to make sacrifices and take risks, if you're lucky, if your karma is good, then these things will pay off in the end. Which I think it's a positive message really.”
(𝑉𝑜𝑥 𝑂𝑛𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒, 2001)

You can read the poem to look for connection yourself.

𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐭 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐭 - 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐚𝐝 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐧

➡️ http://bit.ly/2FiZnQ5

The video is aesthetically inspired by the movie 𝐆𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐚. The story is based on the only ‘real’ job 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 ever had. “I spent a summer shredding documents once. It got so boring and mundane that I used to be late on purpose," he said to the 𝑆𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑀𝑎𝑖𝑙 (2000).
The video was directed by 𝑯𝒐𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝑮𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒏𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒈𝒉, who’s worked with Placebo before (and would also work after).

🔷That’s what 𝑯𝒐𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅 remembers of creating the video.
📢“Cold, beautifully stylish near future, not sci-fi. Is it sci-fi, is it whatever? Is it a love story? I told a lot about it. If it's not the case, let's build like 'Gattaca', people, they are almost automats in the office – machine or computers but there is one girl who suddenly decides… And ok, that creates a knock on catalyst effect. So it started to shred, everything shred, shred, shred… It was colourful, simple, and powerful. We don't say it was sexual kind of clothe coming off you love 'cause you never saw anything. And cool – you know, not sexy girl, interesting girl, it just seemed to work. So that's how 'Slave To The Wage' happened.”
(𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡, 2016)

Photo credit: Screenshot from the official video

🔷𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒃𝒆𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒐 𝒃𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒖𝒚𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒔…
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: ”This video was inspired by two things. The content was inspired by the only summer job I ever had, which was working in a bank, shredding documents. We used that as a metaphor for the drudgery of having a nine-to-five in the modern world. And the second, aesthetically it was by a film ‘Gattaca’ starring Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman. It was the film where they met and first fell in love.
Another video with Howard Greenhalgh, who did ‘Nancy Boy’ and ‘Bruise Pristine’.”
📢𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧: ”It’s filmed at the University of East London, on a sunny day.”
📢𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐇𝐞𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐭: ”Kind of a weird building. Modernist architecture and stuff like that.”
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: ”I remember there was an airstrip at the halls of residence. Very weird. How do they expect the student to get any sleep whatsoever?”
📢𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞: ”There was quite a lot of extras on this one.”
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: ”There’s another Howard Greenhalgh gratuitous panty shot coming up, which managed to slip by censors. There seems to be a gratuitous panty shot in every video.”
📢𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧: ”A bit of postproduction on this one.”
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: ”It’s amazing car, it’s from an eastern bloc country, before the Wall came down. A Czechoslovakian or Bulgarian car which they used to drive the politicians around it.”
📢𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞: ”There’s a cool shot where you have wings and you stand in front of the bus.”
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: ”Closest I’ll ever been to an angel.”
📢𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧: ”You grew those after ‘Pure morning’.”
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: ”And naturally the clothes have to come off.”
📢𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞: ”It’s probably Howard’s most postproduction-heavy video so far, apart from ‘Nancy Boy’.”
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: ”It’s a good time to mention that Howard used to be an Olympic gymnast.”
📢𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧: ”That’s true.”
(𝑂𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑊𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝐹𝑒𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐷𝑉𝐷, 2004)


🔷𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘🔷
The song was played live since the first show of the 𝑩𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒕 𝑴𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄 𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒓 in Oxford, UK on July 20th, 2000, and then, was part of every tour except for 𝑴𝒆𝒅𝒔 and 𝑩𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒖𝒏 𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔. A special acoustic rendition was done for 2015 𝑴𝑻𝑽 𝑼𝒏𝒑𝒍𝒖𝒈𝒈𝒆𝒅 show in London in 2015.

Now, during the 𝑵𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝑳𝒆𝒕 𝑴𝒆 𝑮𝒐 𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒓, it’s back on stage again.
So, let’s watch one of these newest performances tonight, particularly, the one from 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐳𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐬 festival on June 17th, 2022.

Post by Olga

🎊𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐈𝐒𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐋𝐄: ⭐𝟐𝟓𝐓𝐇⭐ 𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘🎊

Exactly 25 years ago, on May 12th, 1997, Placebo’s song 𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐈𝐒𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐄 was released as the fifth and final single from the band’s self-titled debut album. It reached no. 14 in the UK Singles Chart.

𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 - 𝐁𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞 (𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐕𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨)

➡️ https://bit.ly/3vZFF2R

Photo credit: Derek Ridges; covers of Bruise Pristine 1995 and 1997 singles / edit by Olga

The single was released on 7" vinyl, cassette, and CD.
The song is a heavy riff-based track and is notable for its "behind the bridge" guitar solo. The 𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒐 𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒕 is intended to be more radio friendly; after the intro it cuts directly to the vocal verse and the solo is cut short.


🔶In fact, the story of 𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐈𝐒𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐄 started much earlier. as it’s Placebo’s very first song that has ever been released. Its original version was featured on the split single with the band Soup released by the record label Fierce Panda in October 1995. This version is different from the one which appeared on the 1996 album Placebo.


𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 - 𝐁𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞 (𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐨 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟓)
➡️ https://bit.ly/3N3K4sH

Photo credit: Pat Pope

The 1995 single version was later included into the Fierce Panda compilation Nings and Roundabouts, which 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 wasn’t specifically happy about…😉
𝑨𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖’𝒗𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒕?
📢"Yeah, our very first single, "Bruise Pristine", and it's about to be released on a Fierce Panda compilation," blurts Brian, without hesitation. "We really hate that version, it's so fast and, honestly, I do sound like Mickey Mouse on it. We were going to say no, but it's so ridiculous it has to be documented in some way. I can't really understand where this helium thing came from. My balls have dropped since then."
(𝑀𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑑𝑦 𝑀𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑟, 𝑂𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑏𝑒𝑟 1998)


Both 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 and 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧 have some funny memories related to the first time they heard Placebo on the radio.
📢𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧: “For me it was Bruise Pristine. The DJ played it at the wrong speed. He thought the voice was too high for a guy, so he played it from 45s to 33s. It was our first time on the radio.”
(𝑀6 𝑀𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑐, 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ 2004)


📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐌𝐨𝐥𝐤𝐨: “It was so fast Mark Radcliff played it on the radio at 33rpm because he was sure it was far too short. It came out sounding like the Swans. Our first play on the radio was at the wrong speed; we thought that was very funny.”
📢𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧 𝐎𝐥𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐥: “We had a launch gig at the Freedom Café on bonfire night – I remember because people set off the fire alarms with their sparklers!”
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: “The version that came out as a (later) single was actually re-recorded in London with Phil Vynall who did ‘Pure Morning’, whereas the album was dome in Dublin. We wanted to go to Amsterdam, but our managers wouldn’t let us. The idea was to get out of London but not go too far. I think they thought Dublin would have a bit of a calming influence on us. It was quite a calming influence – we didn’t really do much…”
📢𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧: “… because we only had three weeks to do it. It was a budget job so we had to record seven days a week working from nine till midnight.”
(𝑅𝑜𝑐𝑘 𝑆𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑, 𝑂𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑏𝑒𝑟 2004)

Photo credit: Stefan de Batselier

⭐We definitely shouldn’t underestimate the song's very first 1995 release. Despite the imperfections mentioned by Brian, the original version of 𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐈𝐒𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐄 occurred to be really crucial for Placebo’s career as it helped the young band to get their 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒍.
“In the annual rush to snap up The Next Big Thing, one of the most prominent names on everyone's lips last year was London-based trio Placebo, who sparked a bidding war on the back of one single, Bruise Pristine on Fierce Panda, and just a handful of gigs. The race was eventually won by Virgin subsidiary Hut which signed the band to a multi-album deal in February.”
(𝑑𝑜𝑡𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑐.𝑐𝑜𝑚, 𝑀𝑎𝑦'96)


🔶The 𝑪𝑶𝑽𝑬𝑹 𝑨𝑹𝑻𝑾𝑶𝑹𝑲 of the 1995 Bruise Pristine release is based on the photograph of children in a bomb shelter during the Blitz by 𝑪𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒍 𝑩𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒏, a famous British fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, interior and costume designer.
On the cover of the 1997 single, there’s a photo by 𝑺𝒂𝒖𝒍 𝑭𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒓.


🔶The 𝒐𝒇𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒐 for 𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐈𝐒𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐄 was directed by 𝑯𝒐𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝑮𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒏𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒈𝒉 known for his work with some great artists as Elton John, Pet Shop Boys, INXS, George Michael, Soundgarden to name a few. Greenhalgh continued collaborating with Placebo over the next years and directed music videos for Nancy Boy, Special K, Slave to the Wage, The Bitter End, This Picture, and For What It's Worth for them.

Photo credit: Bruise Pristine cover

⭐𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟓 𝟕” 𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓⭐
𝑭𝒊𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒆 𝑺𝒊𝒅𝒆
Placebo – Bruise Pristine
𝑷𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒂 𝑺𝒊𝒅𝒆
Soup – m.e.l.t.d.o.w.n.


⭐𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟕 𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓⭐
𝑪𝑫 𝟏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆
Bruise Pristine (Radio Edit)
Then the Clouds Will Open for Me
Bruise Pristine (1" Punch Mix)
𝑪𝑫 𝟐
Bruise Pristine
Waiting for the Son of Man
Bruise Pristine (Lionrock Mix)
𝟕" 𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒚𝒍
Bruise Pristine (Radio Edit)
Bruise Pristine (1" Punch Mix)


Post by Olga

♦️𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐨𝐟 “𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐍𝐃”♦️

“𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠-𝙩𝙤-𝙗𝙖𝙨𝙞𝙘𝙨 𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙠 𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙜, 𝙬𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙬𝙤 𝙙𝙖𝙮𝙨. 𝙏𝙬𝙤 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙖 𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙨. 𝙑𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙛𝙪𝙘𝙠 𝙮𝙤𝙪.“
(Brian Molko, Rock Sound, April 2003)

Photo credit: Screenshots from the video, edit by Silke

Today we celebrate the ♦️𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐨𝐟 “𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐍𝐃”♦️. It was released as the lead single from the album “Sleeping with ghosts” 19 years ago on March 10th 2003 and reached no. 12 in the UK Singles Chart.

The song was written and recorded in only two days (see quotes below). It is about couples who are breaking up and the anger that take hold of them at this time, but also the desire that arises from this injury.

The story of “The bitter end” is based on the novel “1984” by George Orwell, and there are severel references to this book in the lyrics. You can read everything about them here:
👉 https://bit.ly/3IOTAh8


The music video was directed by Howard Greenhalgh and shows the band playing in the dish of the Lovell telescope, one of the largest radio telescopes in the world. It also displays infra-red snippets of a couple chasing each other. Finally they catch each other up and kiss. According to Greenhalgh the video tells the story about two people who found love and this love blows up their world.

🎬 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗜𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗘𝗡𝗗 – 𝗢𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟 𝗩𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗢

🎵 http://bit.ly/2YsP0yn 🎵

Photo credit: Screenshot from the video, edit by Silke

📌 𝗛𝗢𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗗 𝗚𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗡𝗛𝗔𝗟𝗚𝗛 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗩𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗢 📌
📢 “One of my favourites was 'The bitter end' because I couldn't believe we were able to film it. We thought: let's make the end of the world, the end of the world according to the script, so let's make a video about two people who found love, and this blows up the world, but before that, the band needs to play somewhere. Let's put them on a satellite dish. When we arrived at the filming location, we were not allowed to film the group inside the plate. It was very dangerous so they only allowed us to film it from different angles. And we shot everything inside the telescope. And we filmed it outside. And then, in the studio, we overlaid the band's footage on a satellite dish. And we filmed around the saucer, flying in a helicopter. I couldn't believe they would let us do this. It was a telescope. "Wow!" We thought that we would not be allowed to fly in a helicopter, to shoot a satellite dish from the inside. We thought we could only remove the plate from the side. It's incredible. I also liked shooting with an infrared camera, because it was part of the story - the story of lost souls, they meet, and everything falls apart. We had special installations, lightning struck everywhere in the frame. And I think in this video Stefan looked like a "God of Rock" with his bass. I think that all the shots with them were good. I think, that it was one of their most comprehensible tracks. It was like a song with a good chorus. It brought them a lot of success. I remember how I came to the record company. The guys and I were there to talk about filming 'The bitter end'. And the first question Brian asked me was, "What do you think of this track?" He had never asked me that before. And I think he really, really liked this track. Maybe I could be wrong that he doubted the song, but I got the impression that he really liked the track and they wanted to know what I thought of it. I liked the track. I'll tell you one thing: I have Placebo records in my car and I need to be very careful when I play their music. Speeding is something that happens all the time when I listen to them. Damn it, I'm speeding.”
(Placebo Story Project, 2016)


📌 𝗟𝗜𝗩𝗘 𝗛𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗬 📌
At live concerts “The bitter end“ is a well-established part of the setlist. Since its release in 2003 until 2018 there was not one single year where it wasn't brought on stage at least once. It's no surprise that “The bitter end“ is in the top 3 of the songs that were played live most often. Up to now there are 685 confirmed performances of it, the first one dates back to March 5th 2003 and took place at British TV show CD:UK. Last time it was played live at Sion sous les ètoiles festival 2018 in Switzerland on July 13th 2018.

Photo credit: Screenshots from the video, edit by Silke

📌 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 “𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗜𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗘𝗡𝗗“ 📌
📢 "It was written and recorded very quickly. As we had spent a lot of time playing with the technology and synths, we wanted to do something lively, exuberant, punk. The idea had started from two guitar chords found by Stefan and bang! Two days later, it was finished."
(Les Inrockuptibles N°382, March-April 2003)

📢 "It's about a relationship. Two people fighting, they both want to be the stronger one. A classic Fuck-you song."
(DNAsix, March 2003)

📢 "[...] The backing vocal that comes in at the very, very end which starts out with a line that says "every time we're intersected/it feels love like suicide" and then the last line is "to miss your eyes and lips" and in between I don't know what I am saying. [laughs all around] Live, it changes every night and I like that aspect. For me it is a kick back to The Pixies. I remember reading how Frank Black just considered this lyrics and singing just another instrument. He wasn't really concerned with the significance of what he was saying."
(The Sentimentalist - Issue XII, 2003)

Post by Silke

♦️𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘: 𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐈𝐒𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐄♦️

Today we celebrate the ♦️𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐨𝐟 “𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐈𝐒𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐄"♦️. It was released as single 24 years ago today on the 12th of May 1997 and reached no. 14 in the UK Singles Chart.

🎬 𝗕𝗥𝗨𝗜𝗦𝗘 𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗘 – 𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗟𝗘 𝟭𝟵𝟵𝟳 / 𝗢𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟 𝗩𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗢
🎵 http://bit.ly/2ujucPY 🎵

Photo credit: Screenshots of the video, edit by Silke

The single version of “Bruise Pristine“ was recorded at Westland Studios in Dublin when Placebo were working on their first studio album with producer Brad Wood.
In its original version the song was released as split single with the band Soup by record label Fierce Panda in October 1995. It was then re-recorded for Placebo's self-titled debut album the following year and finally became the fifth and last single off “Placebo” in May 1997.
”Bruise Pristine” is a heavy riff-based track. It is notable for its "behind the bridge" guitar solo. The song is played in F-A-D-G-C-C tuning.

“Bruise Pristine“ has a special meaning to Stefan because it was the first time he ever heard himself getting played on the radio (for Brian it was “36 degrees“). But unfortunately the DJ played it at the wrong speed because he thought the voice was too high for a guy.

📀 𝗕𝗥𝗨𝗜𝗦𝗘 𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗘 – 𝗗𝗘𝗠𝗢 𝟭𝟵𝟵𝟱

🎵 http://bit.ly/2V68Lg3 🎵

Photo credit: Pat Pope

The official video for the song was directed by Howard Greenhalgh who had already worked with stars like Elton John, Pet Shop Boys, INXS, George Michael or Soundgarden before he got in touch with Placebo. Over the years Greenhalgh directed seven of the band's official videos. Starting with the music clips for ”Nancy Boy” and ”Bruise Pristine” he was also responsible for ”Special K”, ”Slave to the wage”, ”The bitter end”, ”For what it's worth” and ”This Picture”.
When asked by a journalist to describe his approach to music video direction Howard Greenhalgh explained that "With anything, it’s the lyrics that are everything. You pray that there are good lyrics in a track because that leads you immediately to what you’re going to do."
Obviously Placebo's lyrics were great because he perfectly knew how to translate them into some extraordinary and impressive videos.


📌 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 “𝗕𝗥𝗨𝗜𝗦𝗘 𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗘“ 📌
"𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘷𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵?
📢 "Yeah, our very first single, "Bruise Pristine", and it's about to be released on a Fierce Panda compilation," blurts Brian, without hesitation. "We really hate that version, it's so fast and, honestly, I do sound like Mickey Mouse on it. We were going to say no, but it's so ridiculous it has to be documented in some way. I can't really understand where this helium thing came from. My balls have dropped since then."
(Melody Maker, October 1998)

Post by Silke

𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗬𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗢𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗜𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗘𝗡𝗗 𝗩𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗢

Now let's have a closer look at the official “The bitter end” video. It was directed by 𝘏𝘰𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘨𝘩 and shows the band playing in the dish of the 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘛𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘦, one of the largest radio telescopes in the world (see location info below). Halfway through the music clip you can see infrared images of a couple chasing each other. Finally they catch each other up and kiss. According to Greenhalgh the video tells the story about two people who found love and this love blows up their world.

Screenshots from the official video, edit by Sukje

🎬 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗜𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗘𝗡𝗗 – 𝗢𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟 𝗩𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗢
🎵 http://bit.ly/2YsP0yn 🎵

The Lovell Telescope or Jodrell Bank radar is located in Cheshire, near the place where ex-drummer Steve Hewitt grew up. In the “Once more with feeling” DVD he said that he used to hang out near this huge dish when he was a kid and “I never thought I’d be with the band, playing on top of it. It’s kind of a huge thing to achieve.“ But Brian immediately destroyed this narrative by revealing that they never really played on the satellite dish: “I hate to break the mystery, but the band isn’t playing on the telescope itself. Thanks to technology we did it in the studio. This video was filmed in January. So it would have been too cold for us to be comfortable up there.“

Stefan explained that after some videos which were a lot like short movies (like for example “Special K” or “Slave to the wage”) Placebo wanted to do a clip in which they could perform as band again.

Howard Greenhalgh had the idea for the location but was first convinced he would not be able to film it (see his statement below) but luckily he was wrong. Steve explained Howard's approach to the clip like this: “He tries to retain a modernist attitude towards most videos and tries to keep it futuristic, which I think you get from this.“ Brian thought about the idea for the video that it was visually arresting and would show the band in the best light possible.

For parts of the music clip Howard used heat-seeking cameras on night-time shots. In an interview the band said that this was very interesting and felt gorgeous because it was the first time they had seen something like this.

“There is a great energy on ‘The bitter end’. It just builds and builds. It does the song justice“, Steve Hewitt stated in an interview.

Screenshot from the official video

Brian said about Howard Greenhalgh that “the great thing about him is that we just show up and go: ‘Do what you want’, because we trust him. It’s really easy.“ And Steve explained that this helps them to relax and be themselves on the set. Brian added about the shooting of “The bitter end” that they had known Greenhalgh for more than five years then and after all this time it got very easy for him and the other band members to work with Howard as their video director.


📌 𝗛𝗢𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗗 𝗚𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗡𝗛𝗔𝗟𝗚𝗛 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗩𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗢 📌

“One of my favourites was 'The bitter end' because I couldn't believe we were able to film it. We thought: let's make the end of the world, the end of the world according to the script, so let's make a video about two people who found love, and this blows up the world, but before that, the band needs to play somewhere. Let's put them on a satellite dish. When we arrived at the filming location, we were not allowed to film the group inside the plate. It was very dangerous so they only allowed us to film it from different angles. And we shot everything inside the telescope. And we filmed it outside. And then, in the studio, we overlaid the band's footage on a satellite dish. And we filmed around the saucer, flying in a helicopter. I couldn't believe they would let us do this. It was a telescope. "Wow!" We thought that we would not be allowed to fly in a helicopter, to shoot a satellite dish from the inside. We thought we could only remove the plate from the side. It's incredible. I also liked shooting with an infrared camera, because it was part of the story - the story of lost souls, they meet, and everything falls apart. We had special installations, lightning struck everywhere in the frame. And I think in this video Stefan looked like a "God of Rock" with his bass. I think that all the shots with them were good. I think, that it was one of their most comprehensible tracks. It was like a song with a good chorus. It brought them a lot of success. I remember how I came to the record company. The guys and I were there to talk about filming 'The bitter end'. And the first question Brian asked me was, "What do you think of this track?" He had never asked me that before. And I think he really, really liked this track. Maybe I could be wrong that he doubted the song, but I got the impression that he really liked the track and they wanted to know what I thought of it. I liked the track. I'll tell you one thing: I have Placebo records in my car and I need to be very careful when I play their music. Speeding is something that happens all the time when I listen to them. Damn it, I'm speeding.”
(Placebo Story Project, 2016)

Screenshot from the official video

📌 𝗟𝗢𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗜𝗡𝗙𝗢 📌

The Lovell Telescope is a radio telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory near Goostrey, Cheshire in the north-west of England. When the construction was finished in 1957 the telescope was the largest steerable dish radio telescope in the world. It is now the third-largest. t was originally known as the "250 ft telescope" or the Radio Telescope at Jodrell Bank, before becoming the Mark I telescope around 1961. It was renamed to Lovell Telescope in 1987 after Sir Bernard Lovell and became a Grade I listed building in 1988. The telescope forms part of the MERLIN and European VLBI Network arrays of radio telescopes.

Screenshot from the official video

📌 𝗛𝗢𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗗 𝗚𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗡𝗛𝗔𝗟𝗚𝗛 📌

Howard Douglas Greenhalgh was born in Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire on February 19th 1963. Apart from “The bitter end” in 2003 he directed six other videos for Placebo: “Nancy Boy”, “Bruise Pristine” (both 1997), “Slave to the wage” (2000), “Special K” (2001), “This Picture” (also 2003) and “For what it's worth” (2009). The British director of music videos and advertising also worked with bands like Pet Shop Boys, The Jesus and Mary Chain, A-ha, Sting, Elton John, George Michael, Snap!, Spice Girls, Genesis, Sneaker Pimps, Muse, Iron Maiden, Billy Talent, INXS and OMD. One of his most famous music clips is probably “Black hole sun” by Soundgarden. Describing his approach to music video direction Howard Greenhalgh said in a 2010 interview that "With anything, it’s the lyrics that are everything. You pray that there are good lyrics in a track because that leads you immediately to what you’re going to do."
Greenhalgh owns Soft Target, a creative hub for commercials, digital content, photography and music videos based in London.

Post by Silke