🟨𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐁𝐄𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑: 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐄𝐓 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐂🟨

Let’s continue talking about Placebo album covers and today, it’s 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐄𝐓 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐂’𝐬 turn.
I hope you don't mind that I swapped this one with 𝐒𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐆𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬 which we've alreadt discussed

Photo credit: Kevin Westenberg, Black Market Music cover, Discogs / edit by Olga

🟨In 2016, when ranking Placebo records in the interview for Vice, 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 rated their third studio album 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐄𝐓 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐂 (2000) as his least favourite.

𝐍𝐨𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐲: 𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒇𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆?
𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐌𝐨𝐥𝐤𝐨: I guess I put it there because I think it's the record that suffers most from having a blanket sound. We do our best to not make records that do that. It's part of our modus operandi. But it also happens to be the first time we also had a number one album, and in typical Brian Molko style, I put it at the bottom. [Laughs] I think it's a real somber record, so it doesn't really conjure up euphoria, which I suppose is what I look for in music. It was recorded during the height of our party phase, and once we had recorded all of our instruments, we had turned the studio into a place to have guests. So we spent a lot of time entertaining people while our producer spent a lot of time working on the album alone. I think if we'd been a little more involved, then perhaps there would be a little more light and color. It's quite a monochrome album for me. It's a very deep wood color, with stripes of gunmetal grey when I picture it.

𝐍𝐨𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐲: 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓.
𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐌𝐨𝐥𝐤𝐨: Yeah, and perhaps that's it. Perhaps the whole package is a little too gothic for me. I like to try and make an album with light and shade, and this one has the least.
(𝑉𝑖𝑐𝑒, 𝑅𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑅𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑠: 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑀𝑜𝑙𝑘𝑜 𝑆𝑘𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜’𝑠 𝐸𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝐿𝑃𝑠, 𝑂𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑏𝑒𝑟 13, 2016)

Photo credit: Kevin Westenberg

🟨As you may guess, it’s impossible that Placebo would choose a meaningless random image for their album cover. Back in the days when the record was about to be released, the guys had quite an interesting idea behind 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜 artwork. However, in the end, it has just not been understood fully by the fans and critics. “𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒘𝒆 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓-𝒂𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒚𝒛𝒆𝒅,” as 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 admitted later.

𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏. 𝑰𝒇 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒕, 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒘𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎 [𝑩𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒕 𝑴𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄]?
𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: Musical instruments, but very specific, very, very old and very, very heavy.
(𝐹𝑈𝑍𝑍, 𝐽𝑢𝑙-𝐴𝑢𝑔'00)

"While the band is at the height of his media exposure, Placebo removed for the first time any human presence (and charm) to his artwork.

Photo credit: Kevin Westenberg

"These are things journalists noted but not musicians" says 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐. "It was a visceral reaction to our past imaging. When we saw this music box mechanism, we just said yes, believing it showed the origin of the recorded music, there was nothing psychological ... In retrospect I think we over-analyzed, we just tried to be smart."
"But this cover sucks so much! " 𝑶𝒍𝒔𝒅𝒂𝒍 complete."
(𝑉𝑂𝑋𝑃𝑂𝑃, 𝐽𝑢𝑛-𝐽𝑢𝑙'09)

🟨Sleeve photography was done by the talented 𝑲𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒏 𝑾𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒈. Together with 𝑷𝒂𝒖𝒍 𝑪𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒔, Mr. Westenberg was also responsible for the whole art direction on the album.
Captivating images of Brian, Stefan, and Steve Hewitt used as the booklet photography became quite iconic and loved by all Placebo fans.

Post by Olga

𝐒𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐆𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐓𝐒 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐛𝐲 𝐉𝐄𝐀𝐍-𝐁𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐎

𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒓, 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆. 𝑰 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒏𝒕” - 𝐽𝑒𝑎𝑛-𝐵𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑜

As I promised last week, we’re going to continue talking about a famous French photographer 𝑱𝒆𝒂𝒏-𝑩𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒐 who created an incredible artwork for Placebo’s fourth studio album 𝑺𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑮𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒔.
Pretty reclusive and camera shy person, Mondino never opened much to the press to let his art speak for him.

Photo credit: Sleeping With Ghosts cover; Jean-Baptiste Mondino - unknown; Placebo - Jean-Baptiste Mondino / edit by Olga

💢Recently, I found a great 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 with the artist. Although he unfortunately didn’t talk about Placebo or Brian but some other musicians, I’d like to share the article in full because it’s such a brilliant interview of great – yet VERY humble! – artist.

𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 and 𝑱𝒆𝒂𝒏-𝑩𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒐 worked together in 2003. This interview is from 2018. However, I was amazed by some connections - in terms of attitude and mood and wisdom - between persons 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 and 𝑱𝒆𝒂𝒏-𝑩𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒐 became during the latest years (although, Mondino is more than 20 years older than Brian). How similar their opinion on certain things like social media or today’s constant rush, is… how much in common they have in their worldview and their values! Well, both talented, intelligent, profound souls…

💢Let’s just go back for a while and remember what Brian said about the cover by Mondino in 2003.

𝐇𝐞𝐢𝐝𝐢 𝐁𝐚𝐛𝐲: 𝑯𝒊 𝒈𝒖𝒚𝒔, 𝒘𝒉𝒚 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒐𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝑪𝑫 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔?
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: It's just a bit too boy bandy. It's very old school, reeks of marketing. I think your album cover should represent something else as well as who you are as people. It's important to make your album cover a work of art, not just a masturbation shot. This time we worked with a huge and well-respected artist, Jean-Baptiste Mondino, who's done stuff for Prince and Bjork. He also did Madonna's Justify My Love video. So you want his interpretation of your album. You work quite closely but you want to set them free to do what they do best. And it's working out very well. There's only so far you can take that ghostlike motif which we're playing with at the moment. Eventually you have to subvert that a little bit. It's really lazy to just stick your face on the cover.
(𝐵𝐵𝐶 𝑅𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑜 1, 2003)

𝑾𝒉𝒐 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑺𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑮𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒔? 𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕.
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: The great Jean-Baptiste Mondino is responsible for the artwork of SwG. He also did the cover of Bjork's Debut, Lovesexy by Prince and the video for Madonna's Justify my Love. Quite a pedigree if you ask me.
(𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠, 𝐴𝑢𝑔'03)

Photo credit: Jean-Baptiste Mondino

"While the band reached the top of the charts with "Black market Music" and while the greatest fashion designers were struggling to dress Brian, it was out of question to release a cheap cover! Placebo used a renowed photographer and music video director (Jean-Baptiste Mondino has worked with Rita Mitsouko, Madonna, Bjork, Alain Bashung, Tricky) and treat themselves with a luxury cover.
📢"'Sleeping With Ghosts' is the only picture taken with the intention of being a cover, that was actually used as such. It is simply a double exposure. No tricks. It symbolizes the bond to the relationships' memory. But we had some problems with it in some countries. Too suggestive. In China it was more cultural, a ghostly appearance is synonymous with bad luck and that is unacceptable ... This is the kind of stuff with which one learns to be careful."
(𝑉𝑂𝑋𝑃𝑂𝑃, 𝐽𝑢𝑛-𝐽𝑢𝑙'09)

📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: The cover artwork is born thinking about the ghosts of past relationships, which sometimes come back strongly to create space in the present, because of an odor, a color, a sentence.
(𝐿𝑖𝑏. 2003)

And finally, please enjoy the 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖.
❤💫𝐉𝐄𝐀𝐍-𝐁𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐎: "𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐌 𝐎𝐅 𝐌𝐘 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄"💫❤

𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒄 𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒐𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒕𝒐𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑴𝒂𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒂

Mondino, of Italian descent, grew up in Paris and became known for his iconic images of singers and actors in the mid-1980s. Like no one else, he knew the spirit of time, a mixture of image, graphics, advertising, music and fashion, from different cultures and subcultures of the last 30 years, from pornography and gay aesthetics in his pictures, commercials and music videos.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝑾𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒅𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒅?
📢𝐉𝐞𝐚𝐧-𝐁𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: I’m from a suburb of Paris. My world was that of music and record covers. Record covers were the Instagram of my time. I was interested in their design and they shaped my generation.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇, 𝒘𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉 𝒂 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄 𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒐 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 "𝑳𝒂 𝑫𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒔 𝑴𝒐𝒕𝒔" 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 1984 𝒐𝒏 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝑻𝒖𝒃𝒆. 𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒊𝒕?

𝐉𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐁𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨 - 𝐋𝐚 𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐌𝐨𝐭𝐬
➡  https://bit.ly/3SjtLua

Photo credit: Jean-Baptiste Mondino

📢𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: I always wanted to be a musician. Thank goodness that didn't work out. I might be dead by now. As a young man, I hitchhiked to the Isle of Wight Music Festival in 1970 because of Jimi Hendrix. He was my big idol. When I saw him play, I thought to myself: I will never be able to play like this. Over time, I discarded the dream of a music career. If I had known the work of Man Ray, Richard Avedon or Erwin Blumenfeld, I probably would never have become a photographer.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒕𝒐𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒉𝒚?
📢𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: That happened by accident. I was good at drawing and worked in an advertising agency in the 1970s. Back then I was still part of the music scene. When a couple of my friends got a record deal, I said, "Let me do the cover." I came up with a concept, borrowed a camera and took pictures. Since I never wanted to be a photographer, I never had much respect for photography. The concept was always more important to me than the photography. For a long time, I thought my work wasn't good enough, so I never bought a camera. To this day I don't own any. In my work I captured the vision of the youth of my time in pictures: punks, girls with shaved heads - there was a new way of dressing, of behaving, new music, new graphics.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑴𝒂𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒂 𝒐𝒓 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒐𝒑 𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒔𝒕𝒚𝒍𝒆, 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒛𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆. 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒚𝒍𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒑?
📢𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: I don't think I really have a style. I would rather say that my "limitedness" is responsible for my style. My talent lies in recognizing the personality of the people I work with. I learned in advertising how to perceive what someone or something represents: I'm a kind of medium. I'm just not artist enough to draw anyone into my vision. I always need a counterpart to create something.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝑰𝒏 1987 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒕𝒐𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒏𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎 "𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒙𝒚". 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒂 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒍. 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆?
📢𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: I was a big fan of Prince and was over the moon when he commissioned me. I spent a week with him at his studio in Minneapolis while he was recording. He spoke little. He rather communicated by allowing me to be there. At one point he said, "Tomorrow we're flying to LA, where we'll shoot the cover. Let's discuss everything on the plane." We didn't discuss anything during the flight. When we arrived, he said, “Okay, we’re meeting tomorrow.” But after we were at a nightclub until two in the morning, it didn't happen again. The day after, at breakfast, we finally talked a little. At that time, Prince wanted to release his Black Album first, which he then withdrew for personal reasons. It suddenly crossed my mind that this man needs light, something like a rebirth. I drew my idea for him and he loved it.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒂 𝒑𝒐𝒑 𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒄𝒐𝒏 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏. 𝑫𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒕𝒐𝒅𝒂𝒚?
📢𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: Iconic images by Helmut Newton, Irving Penn and Richard Avedon have existed for a long time. I've created a few myself, and I've done my part in fueling the desire for iconic imagery—through TV, MTV, and magazines. Instagram has democratized celebrity. Anyone can sing today, make a film or have fans. Every single image melts away like a snowflake in the sun. Iconic images are no longer relevant. You can’t help it. The icons of tomorrow will come from science.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝑫𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝑰𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒎 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇?
📢𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: No! (As proof, Mondino pulls a small Nokia phone out of his pocket.) I've been showing my pictures for 40 years. There are enough people who are interested in me. I want to be left alone. I would like to disappear.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝑬𝒙𝒄𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒎𝒆?
📢𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: Sometimes I would like to disappear, to dissolve. I find that very elegant. You know, over the last few years, a lot of people that meant a lot to me and with whom I worked, have disappeared: Prince, Azzedine Alaïa, Glenn O'Brian. They were part of my world and suddenly they're gone. Life goes on, but it seems to me that people can no longer grieve and suffer because they don't have time. So if you're asking me about my iconic images... It's all bullshit! My work was only important when it was created. I'm not an artist.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝑰𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌?
📢𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: They don't need me. They have their own world. I also didn't try to copy Avedon or Newton. Maybe I'll stay relevant because of certain images like the Prince cover or Madonna in the Gaultier outfit. Maybe my work will be some kind of fertilizer for the next generation. That would make me happy.

Photo credit: Jean-Baptiste Mondino

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌?
📢𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: I like it. I know it’s good. But that is not important. I feel proud when I look at my children, my wife and our life together. I do this job to pay my bills and have my freedom. I’m a simple person.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝑾𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕?
📢𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: Today I’m almost seventy years old. And I always thought my inspiration came mainly from music. In fact, it was the Church. The suburban life of my childhood and adolescence was brown and gray. I was fascinated by the church where I was a choirboy. It was like a Jeff Koons or Damien Hirst exhibition - the colors, the incense, the characters, the bodies, the bare skin, Christ on the cross, the angels, Mary. It was a mixture of sensuality, sexuality, emotion and transcendence. Later I found something similar in music and fashion.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔?
📢𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: In the past I would have said: That's not good enough for a picture. (Mondino points to tropical plants.) Today I can see so much more beauty in many things. My perspective has changed. Everything I used to flee from, I live today: slowness, silence, being alone. I enjoy contemplation. I no longer play with sexuality, I no longer have to provoke. Been there, done that. We won this battle. I don't like to repeat myself. Today there is more poetry and gentleness in my paintings.
(𝐷𝑒𝑟𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑, 12𝑡ℎ 𝑁𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 2018)

“𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔, 𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒓, 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆…”

…like the ghost from Placebo’s captivating cover, like fading memories of love lost from Brian’s melancholic lyrics…

Post by Olga

🟨𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐁𝐎 𝐀𝐋𝐁𝐔𝐌 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑: 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐈’𝐌 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆🟨

🟨▪️Today, we’re going to start talking about 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐁𝐎 𝐀𝐋𝐁𝐔𝐌 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒▪️🟨
I did a separate post dedicated to the 𝒅𝒆𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎 𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 some time ago, so won’t repeat the story. If you missed that post, you can get back to it now.
➡️ https://bit.ly/3QZdlqm

Photo credits: album cover - Corinne Day; Corinne Mariaud (1998); Stefan Olsdal IG/ edit by Olga

So, let’s move on to Placebo’s second album, 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐈’𝐌 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆.
🟨On the cover, we can see twin sisters, 𝑺𝑨𝑹𝑨𝑯 𝑱. 𝑬𝑫𝑾𝑨𝑹𝑫𝑺 and 𝑺𝑨𝑳𝑳𝒀 𝑨. 𝑬𝑫𝑾𝑨𝑹𝑫𝑺, photographed by the famous photographer 𝑪𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒆 𝑫𝒂𝒚 who also took other pictures for the booklet.
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: “We have always thought that clips, album covers are something which are necessary but if it's necessary, if it must be done, it must be art and it must communicate emotion. It must say something about the human being [...]
It was important to us to have 𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒂 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒘𝒐 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 but nothing sexual, something greater than that. And I think 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒘𝒐 𝒕𝒘𝒊𝒏 𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔, 𝒘𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒏'𝒕 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒖𝒏𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒘𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆, 𝒔𝒐 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔."
(𝑅𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑜21, 1999)

🟨Both Stefan and Brian discussed their approach to the visual aspects to their music in the interview on the Italian TV.

𝑹𝒆𝒅 𝑹𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒆: Which one of you takes care of the graphics for Placebo's covers and videos?
📢𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧: We do that together with a design company called Blue Source in London.
From the beginning, we have always had a very strong input regarding the visual as well as the musical aspect of the group, starting with the covers of the singles, the LPs, up to the choice of directors for the videos.
The video for Pure Morning is also an idea we came up with, so it's always been an important part for us, which is how we present ourselves visually.
It's very important to have control over these things.

𝑹𝒆𝒅 𝑹𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒆: There is a very strange thing: in all your CD and singles covers except this one, none of you are on the cover. There are just graphic aspects, or other people... there isn't one bearing the Placebo on the cover. They are all great pictures and this is an incredible, odd fact.
So why aren't you on the covers? Although you are so self-centered and you like to be on stage, to perform, to show your faces, and put on them make-up. Despite this, you preferred to use graphic elements in which you don't appear.
Even though you are so selfish, you like to be on stage, you like to show and act.
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: It comes from the idea that it's not necessary. The cover of a single should be an artwork and a video should be an artwork the same. If you don't manage to sell a record without a video, if you don't manage to sell a record without a cover, then you have to invent something beautiful, something representing what it contains inside, something describing what happens in the album in a visual way. It must communicate an emotion as well as the music communicates emotions. I think that just taking the band on a cover of an album is incredibly boring, it's lazy, it doesn't communicate anything else.
There is no link between the themes and the emotions of the music and the visual result. We try to create a physical and external manifestation, in an abstract way, representing what happens on the album. You will notice that all our albums feature people on the cover, sometimes absolutely naked flesh... they are often quite sad or disquieting or a little sort of like uncomfortable and it is kind of basically a reflection of what is going on in the music. All the musicians have their own pride, but it doesn't stretch to the point where it has to get in the way of what is a good work of art.
(𝑇𝑉 𝑇𝑀𝐶2, 𝐹𝑒𝑏𝑟𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑦 2𝑛𝑑, 1999)

Photo credit unknown

As for the twins on 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐈’𝐌 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 cover, Brian explained who they are.
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: "Sally and Sarah are working in the music business for record labels and promo agencies. They are well known in the London musical scene. We used their twinning to represent the most intense relationship, so mysterious that few can grasp it."
(𝑉𝑂𝑋𝑃𝑂𝑃, 2009)

🟨But let’s take a closer look on the girls’ music and artistic work which they started as teenagers with creating 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐆 𝐌𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐞 that has been developing through the years and exists to this day.
➡️ https://www.blag.london/


▪ ▪ ▪𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑿𝑬𝑹𝑶𝑿 𝑰𝑵𝑪𝑬𝑷𝑻𝑰𝑶𝑵 𝑶𝑭 𝑩𝑳𝑨𝑮▪ ▪ ▪
Started in the 90’s and working solely as a creative teenagers, Sally and Sarah armed themselves with fake id, a camera, typewriter, access to a payphone, one hour photoshop and after asking nicely—unofficially, an art college photocopier. BLAG...in its first guise was secretly born as a Xerox’d ‘zine, heavily inspired by deluxe glossy golden era style magazines. Sally and Sarah left home for London—with only £20 each - and built BLAG, mixing humorous interviews, posed photos and punchy graphics.

▪ ▪ ▪𝑴𝑼𝑺𝑰𝑪 𝑰𝑵𝑫𝑼𝑺𝑻𝑹𝒀▪ ▪ ▪
From their teens to early 20’s, Sally and Sarah maintained jobs in the music industry. Sally was one of the industry’s youngest female television pluggers. Meanwhile, Sarah was cutting her teeth as a publicist for many high profile artists including Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Foo Fighters, Travis, Slum Village, and Muse.

▪ ▪ ▪𝑴𝑶𝑫𝑬𝑳𝑳𝑰𝑵𝑮▪ ▪ ▪
On weekends, lunch breaks and days off, Sally and Sarah modelled for Japanese GQ, German Vogue and Dazed to Placebo’s album, Without You I’m Nothing—shot by Corinne Day. Sarah appeared on record sleeves for Ash’s Girl From Mars And Depth Charge’s The Legend of the Golden Snake EP. Sally modelled for Carhartt, Levi’s and The Big Issue’s World’s Greatest City cover.
These shoots inspired Sarah to develop her love of photography.

Photo credit: David Tonge

▪ ▪ ▪𝑮𝑳𝑶𝑺𝑺𝒀 𝑩𝑳𝑨𝑮▪ ▪ ▪
Together, they gave BLAG its unique sense of humour via striking street style visuals, laced with subtle jokes and word play. Sally and Sarah used BLAG to break down media stereotypes, cross cultural boundaries and put themselves on the frontline to make a difference.

▪ ▪ ▪𝑫𝑱𝑰𝑵𝑮▪ ▪ ▪
Deeply rooted in music, Sally and Sarah added DJing to their resume. They performed at launches and aftershows for artists and brands including Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and James Brown.

▪ ▪ ▪𝑾𝑹𝑰𝑻𝑰𝑵𝑮 & 𝑫𝑰𝑹𝑬𝑪𝑻𝑰𝑵𝑮▪ ▪ ▪
Sally did many interviews for titles including i-D, Dutch, Detour, Flaunt, Frank, Nova, and NME.
Likewise, Sarah’s photography got noticed and she received commissions from titles including; Rolling Stone, Vibe, Dazed, i-D and NME shooting the likes of John Legend, Pharrell Williams, Wu-Tang Clan, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock and The Hives.
Sally and Sarah were approached by art book publishers, Die Gestalten Verlag to create a BLAG book.
To expand their creative pallet, Sally and Sarah began to experiment with short films and video content.
In November 2020, Sally and Sarah announced developing ten original writing projects; the titles cross action, thriller, science fiction, horror and comedy genres.

▪ ▪ ▪𝑩𝑰𝑲𝑬 𝑨𝑪𝑪𝑰𝑫𝑬𝑵𝑻▪ ▪ ▪
In late December 2021 Sally and Sarah were involved in a serious accident in Central London. They suffered major injuries of their arms and hands. Sarah also fractured bones in her face. Treatment is ongoing.
(𝑆𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑐𝑒: 𝑏𝑙𝑎𝑔.𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑜𝑛)
We sincerely wish Sarah and Sally speedy recovery!🙏

Photo credit: Muinomede 

🟨In 2018, while celebrating 𝟐𝟎𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐈’𝐦 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐮𝐦, Stefan did an 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲.
𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧: “I had the pleasure of sitting down and chatting with these two lovely people - Sarah and Sally Edwards - about “Without You I’m Nothing”, Placebo’s second album that was released today 20 years ago. They both graced the album cover, a photograph by #corinneday, that has a special place in our hearts. Much has happened since, Sarah and Sally continuing with their excellent #blagmagazine and Placebo with their subsequent albums and tours.”
(𝑆𝑡𝑒𝑓𝑎𝑛’𝑠 𝐼𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡)


𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐅𝐀𝐍 𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐒 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐇 𝐉. 𝐄𝐃𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐒 + 𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘 𝐀. 𝐄𝐃𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐒
➡ https://bit.ly/3AgLDOW


🟨𝑺𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒉 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑺𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 shared their memories of how it was like to work with such an exceptional, very specific and intense artist as 𝑪𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒆 𝑫𝒂𝒚. The photoshoot location was a pretty weird abandoned empty place with no even chairs to the table the girls were pictured at!
𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒇𝒂𝒏 told a funny story how proud they were to go to New York with Corinne for a promo shooting and then got quite disappointed because “there was nothing in the shots that made it look like we were in Manhattan or in New York.”😄

🟨𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐈’𝐌 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 cover, as well as the album itself, has become truly iconic. Recognizable image with a bright yellow background represents one of the symbols of late 90s rock music.

Post by Olga

🔸⭐𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐃 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐀𝐋𝐁𝐔𝐌 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑⭐🔸

⭐„𝙄 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙬𝙚 𝙛𝙚𝙡𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙖 𝙘𝙚𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙖𝙢𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙧𝙚𝙗𝙞𝙧𝙩𝙝 𝙜𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙣 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙩𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙗𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙛𝙡𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠."⭐
(𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘔𝘰𝘭𝘬𝘰, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘝 𝘘&𝘈 2013)

Photo credit: Joseph Llanes, INTRO@House, screenshot from LLLTV,  edit by Marti

Dear friends,
Placebo album covers are an eternal theme for all fans. As soon as the cover of the last album "Never Let Me Go" appeared, the celebratory and condemning comments were immediately dominated by social networks.

Today, I want to focus on the artwork of the INTRO design studio, which created the cover of the 𝐋𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 album from 2013.
Its creative director is 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞.
For me personally, Julian's work is a masterpiece. Together with the amazing photographs by 𝐉𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐩𝐡 𝐋𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐬, it is a breathtaking perfection that brilliantly expresses the combination of psychedelic visions with colorful emotions emanating from the songs.

The artwork of Julian's studio and the photos of Mr. Llanes could be enjoyed mainly by all fans who ordered the album ⭐Loud Like Love Limited Super Deluxe Edition.⭐
Which one of you has this gem?

Photo credit: Joseph Llanes

However, it is necessary to mention other artists who, together with Julian House, contributed to the visual stage effects during the LLL tour -
🔸𝐂𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐚𝐦 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐦𝐬.🔸
You can also see Catherine's works at concerts by many other well-known artists - I name U2, Shawn Mendes, Michael Buble, Coldplay for all of them.

Here are two links to her work:
🔸Placebo Tour visuals:
https://bit.ly/33qktIw

🔸Loud Like Love music video - „Psychedelic Bedouin dream world!“
https://bit.ly/33ngRqS


And here's a link to Sam Williams' studio and his video accompanying the entire Placebo world LLL tour:
🔸„Working with Julian House at INTRO, I created the stage visuals and album campaign for the ‘Loud Like Love’ worldwide tour. Using a combination of motion graphics, video feedback and other analogue processes to give the visuals a distinct look.“ 🔸Sam Williams
https://samwilliams.studio/Placebo


Dear soulmates, let's remember today what Brian's ideas were about the cover of the album LLL ... An album full of ambiguous lyrics, emotions and melancholy ...:

Album cover

🔸💬𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 “𝑳𝒐𝒖𝒅 𝑳𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆” 𝒊𝒔 𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒂 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎 𝒍𝒚𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚, 𝒊𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒃𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒕, 𝒃𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎 𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒆. 𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒐 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓? 𝑾𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒔’ 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕?
"Absolutely. I went specifically to the design company and told them that I wanted to make a clean break with the Placebo aesthetic which has built up over several albums – quite minimalist, figurative, and very much about the human body, and I thought that we’d kind of taken it as far as it could, and if it had continued, I think it could have fallen into the realm of self-parody or just running out of ideas.


So I went to the design company, asking for something very different, and we talked a lot about psychedelic film/’60s and ‘70s film, sci-fi imagery, photographers that inspired us, French comic books, graphic novels, movies like The Man Who Fell to Earth. We talked a lot about counter-culture and psychedelia. My first love, musically, was psychedelic, so I wanted to make reference to that kind of aesthetic. The designer just ran with it.


We were talking about putting it through the filter of modern technology and that sort of video aesthetic, as well, and the whole idea was to have something with psychedelic, sci-fi tones that had a humanity about it that was otherworldly, but that had something familiar to it, as well. We basically wanted to start a new story. I think we felt that there was a certain amount of rebirth going on within the band itself, and that that should be reflected in the artwork. We tended to carry that aesthetic through tour visuals and merchandising, and throughout the whole campaign."
(𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘔𝘰𝘭𝘬𝘰 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘗𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘝𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘮𝘦 2013)

🔸𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑡, 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑜 𝑜𝑓 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛'𝑠 𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝐽𝑢𝑙𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝐻𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑑𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐿𝐿𝐿 𝑇𝑉 2013 𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒:
https://bit.ly/3fcGL3l

It's very beautiful to liven up these amazing moments, don't you think?
Especially now that we are all waiting for new surprises that the band has prepared for us to release their eighth album.

Post by Marti

⭐️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

🌟𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐋𝐄𝐓 𝐌𝐄 𝐆𝐎’ 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐏𝐇𝐎𝐓𝐎𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐏𝐇𝐘🌟

🔸 𝑮𝑳𝑨𝑺𝑺 𝑩𝑬𝑨𝑪𝑯 𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐚: 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐮𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 🔸 

As soon as the new album 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐋𝐄𝐓 𝐌𝐄 𝐆𝐎 has been officially announced, we can now talk about its cover that was revealed by Placebo a few days ago.
With this record, it was a cover the guys unexpectedly started with. “𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒕𝒐𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒉,” Stefan told to The Guardian. “𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒆 𝒌𝒆𝒑𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎 𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒍𝒆𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆.”

There’s no doubt that this beautiful picture has drawn Brian’s attention for a reason as it’s got a fascinating background.
The location pictured on the cover is so-called 𝑮𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒔 𝑩𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉 at the north end of 𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒕 𝑩𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒈, 𝑪𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒂.

…There’s a 𝒎𝒚𝒕𝒉 that every time a sailor was lost at sea, mermaids would cry and their tears would wash onto the shores as sea glass. The story began with a mermaid who loved a sailor from afar and tamed the stormy sea to save his life. Neptune was incensed and banished her to the depths. Since then, her mermaid tears wash up as sea glass — mementos of unrequited love…

Photo credit: Never Let Me Go cover (creative direction - Phil Lee; production - Untold Studios)

In truth, the origins of the Fort Bragg sea glass are far more mundane.
📍The 1906 earthquake that devastated San Francisco also tore 𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒕 𝑩𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒈 apart. Before rebuilding could begin, the fallen homes, shops, and all the garbage had to be removed. Much was burned or bulldozed toward the ocean. This practice continued for decades afterwards…
Today, we (seem to?..) know better than to toss our trash into the ocean, though it does still happen. In the early 20th century, however, this was common practice. Residents of Fort Bragg used a local beach as an impromptu dump. Household items, glass, appliances, and even cars were chucked over a cliff, landing onto the beaches below. Fires were often lit using Molotov cocktails to reduce the size of the trash pile.

📍Thankfully, this practice came to an end. In 1967, dumping was prohibited, and cleaning programs started to correct the damage. 𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑴𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝑵𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆’𝒔 𝒅𝒂𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒂𝒔𝒌 𝒐𝒇 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒖𝒎𝒖𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆: 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒂𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒔 𝒅𝒆𝒃𝒓𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒎𝒐𝒐𝒕𝒉 𝒊𝒕.
Over the next several decades, what was biodegradable in the dump sites simply degraded and all the metal and other items were eventually removed and sold as scrap or used in art.

📍More work was undertaken in 1998. The land was owned privately, and the owner teamed up with the Coastal Conservancy and California State Water Resources Control Board to clean the area more thoroughly. In 2002, the 38 acres of historic dumping site was opened as a part of MacKerricher State Park.

🔸 𝒀𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑷𝒂𝒄𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄 𝑶𝒄𝒆𝒂𝒏 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉 𝒂 𝒘𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒎𝒐𝒐𝒕𝒉, 𝒋𝒆𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒓𝒚-𝒒𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚 ‘𝒔𝒆𝒂 𝒈𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒔’ 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒘𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒔, 𝒅𝒆𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒍𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒅.

📍 When author Richard Lamott, appeared on the Martha Stewart show to give tips on collecting sea glass, Glass Beach became a popular international tourist destination. Most of the thousands of daily tourists took some glass home as a souvenir. Because of this and also because of natural factors, the glass is slowly diminishing. Now it’s forbidden to collect sea glass within the boundaries of MacKerricher State Park.
(𝑆𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑠: 𝑊𝑖𝑘𝑖𝑝𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑎, 𝑃𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑚𝑎 𝐽𝑎𝑐𝑘, 𝑀𝑒𝑒𝑡 𝑀𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑜, 𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑙 𝐴𝑤𝑎𝑖𝑡𝑠)

🔸 In this human-made, nature-perfected phenomenon, can you see a direct continuation of Placebo’s 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞’𝐬 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐈𝐭 video theme?
If there was a terrifying evidence of human actions towards Earth, then here, it seems to be some hope. But… is there hope just for the planet or for us, humans, as well?...

📢 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: “It’s not going to be the end of the world. It’s just going to be the end of the human species,” Molko says. “We call it the end of the world in our incessant hubris and narcissism. Try Better Next Time [a song from upcoming album] is kind of a rallying cry saying: ‘Just give it up, give it back to the animals.’ They were here first.”
(𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑛, 𝑁𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 12𝑡ℎ, 2021)

🔸 The abilities of Nature are incredible, it just needs to finally stop damaging the planet and make an effort to help it revive itself… to keep its beauty for the next generations - unless we’re now ready for the desperate scenario Brian described…

🔸 …Take a look at the photo once again. Aren’t Placebo songs those multi-coloured “jewels” created out of Brian and Stefan’s challenging experiences, profound reflections, and inescapable conclusions transformed into the perfect beauty of the new album's “landscape”?
What do you think of this allegory?..
Please share YOUR thoughts on the Never Let Me Go cover, soulmates!

Post by Olga

🌟⭐𝐀 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐔𝐬 𝐓𝐨 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 – 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐢𝐨𝐭 𝐊𝐢𝐬𝐬 ⭐🌟

🔸I personally find the cover of 𝐴 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑈𝑠 𝑇𝑜 𝐷𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚 quite powerful. The story behind this photograph is a bit unexpected and I am not surprised Placebo decided to use to illustrate their 20 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑟. What this picture is about ?🔸

Photo credits: Maud Maillard (Brian & Stefan) / Richard Lam (cover) / edit by Laetitia

⭐𝑩𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒅⭐
💠In June 2011, the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins were playing each other in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. The Canucks' defeat sent the team's fans into a frenzy and ended in a 𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑉𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑣𝑒𝑟. The police had to intervene to contain the chaos that had settled in the city. Among the people present were also passers-by who just wanted to go home. And among these people was the couple featured on the cover of 𝐴 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑈𝑠 𝑇𝑜 𝐷𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚.

This photo was taken by photojournalist 𝗥𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗟𝗮𝗺 who was covering the event that night. The photo became known around the world as '𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝒊𝒐𝒕 𝑲𝒊𝒔𝒔 ', because it had a worldwide impact due to the striking contradiction between the two situations.

This couple (𝑆𝑐𝑜𝑡𝑡 𝐽𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐴𝑙𝑒𝑥 𝑇ℎ𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑠) were not participating in the riot. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were stuck in the street as the police launched a charge. Alex was pushed by a police officer and inhaled tear gas and fell to the ground. She began to shake and panic. As a result, Scott leaned over her to try to calm her down in kissing her.💠

Photo credit unnkown

🔸According to 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗠𝗼𝗹𝗸𝗼, this picture represents "𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑢𝑡𝑦 𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑠𝑡 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑜𝑠, 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑠𝑡 𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟."

From my personal point of view, this photograph totally fits the world of Placebo, which always strives for the best in tormented songs. Light in the darkness. It was a genius idea to choose this photo to illustrate the 20 years of Placebo.The band has been through so much and has always overcome the problems they faced within the band. The picture can be seen as a mirror to Placebo's career.

Photo credit: Natalia

"𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑢𝑡𝑦 𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑠𝑡 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑜𝑠"... isn't that what we, fans, feel when we press the 'Play' button? Through the lyrics, 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻 has very often sung about the anguish, the pain and we all felt that it was directly addressed to us. We find sublimity in sadness.

Also, about this couple being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I can't help but think of 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑆𝑡𝑒𝑓𝑎𝑛'𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑡ℎ 𝑖𝑛 𝐿𝑢𝑥𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑔 where they were bored and which later inspired 𝐵𝑢𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝑄𝑢𝑒𝑒𝑛.

It's not surprising that this photo caught the eye of 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻 , who said in an interview in Hungary (2016):

💬 "𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑢𝑡𝑦 𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑠𝑡 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑜𝑠. 𝐼𝑡'𝑠 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑠𝑡 𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟. 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑖𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝐼 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛, 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡'𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝐼 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑝ℎ 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤. 𝐼𝑡'𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑚𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑝𝑖𝑒𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑗𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑚 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑡𝑜𝑔𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟".

As 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑅𝑖𝑜𝑡 𝐾𝑖𝑠𝑠 ends happily, Scott and Alex are still together today and raise a family in Australia, I'd like to share the song 𝐋𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞, which fits the cover too I think and which is the last song of this wonderful musical retrospective. 🔸

💕🎶 🎶https://bit.ly/3ofNf7b🎶 🎶💕

Post by Laetitia