🟨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

✨𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘: 𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐌𝐄𝐍✨

💫“𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔, 𝒚𝒆𝒕 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒗𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒎𝒆𝒔.”💫

Another 𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘 is here: 𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐌𝐄𝐍, the lead single from Placebo’s third studio album 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜, was released 22 years ago today, on July 17th, 2000.

Photo credit: screenshots from the official video; single cover / edit by Olga

🔸𝑹𝑬𝑽𝑰𝑬𝑾𝑺🔸
★Gigwise ranked the track as Placebo's greatest hit, describing it as "bubbling, space-age blast of howling, claustrophobic electro-rock." (𝐺𝑖𝑔𝑤𝑖𝑠𝑒, 𝐴𝑢𝑔𝑢𝑠𝑡 6𝑡ℎ, 2015)
★“…the thunderous "Taste in Men," "Black Market Music's" dark, surly, and diseased lead-off track. It's only nine lines, yet Molko makes it speak volumes.” (𝑀𝑜𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐶𝑎𝑙𝑙, 𝑀𝑎𝑦'01)
★“…he [Brian Molko] acquits himself well on Taste in Men […], where he sounds like he's king of the world.” (𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑛, 𝑂𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑏𝑒𝑟 2000)

🔸𝑺𝑶𝑵𝑮 𝑭𝑨𝑪𝑻𝑺🔸
★The song reached number 16 in the UK Singles Chart.
★Album version of the song features guest vocals by 𝑺𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝑳𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒏 (aka 𝑪𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝑭𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒉), the lead singer/guitarist of the band Linoleum that supported Placebo on tour in 1996. Currently, she works as a sound artist / composer under the name 𝑪𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝑫𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒆.
★The phrase "come back to me awhile" is taken from the 𝐒𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡 song "Catholic Block", found on their album Sister.
★According to Brian, the band was influenced by the industrial rock band 𝐍𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐡 𝐍𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐬 during the recording of the song: "A song called "Wish" off the "Broken EP" by NIN was a bit of an influence. We listened to that while we were doing "Taste in Men", going, "Let's make it that nasty, let's make it that unlistenable."
(𝑀𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑑𝑦 𝑀𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑟, 𝑂𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑏𝑒𝑟 20𝑡ℎ 2000)

Indeed, this unusual combination of tunes could have seemed to be quite surprising, not even easy understandable for the listeners at first. Obviously, that was the band’s exact intention while recording. Moreover, such an “unlistenable” track was chosen to be a single – the lead single! – off then upcoming album. Brave enough!

Photo credit: Screenshot from the video

📢 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: “We just love to put people on the wrong track, one of our specialties. If people just listen to "Taste in men," they get the completely wrong impression of what the album is like, and it serves them right. Listen to the whole thing, get a taste of it. I never liked people who just listen to the opener or a single track and then decide if they like the album or not. Don't nibble; take a huge bite! But we're not pussying out on our third record, definitely not, not a chance.“
(𝑁𝑌𝑅𝑜𝑐𝑘, 𝐴𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑙 2001)

That is quite similar to what Placebo have done with 𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐁𝐲 𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐬 (the second single, though) from their new album, don’t you think? “Completely wrong impression of what the album is like”. Be honest, who’s been slightly confused?
Can you compare it to the feeling when you’ve heard Taste In Men for the first time? Or are you the type who falls in love with uniqueness of the sound immediately?
★★★ 

🔸Taste In Men single was released on 𝐂𝐃 (𝐃𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐂𝐃 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐒𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐂𝐃 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬) 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝟏𝟐” 𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐲𝐥 (out a few months later, on October 8th, 2000).
𝑲𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒏 𝑾𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒈 was responsible for the photography and cover artwork for the single.

Photo credit: Screenshot from the video

🔸𝐂𝐃𝟏
Taste in Men (Radio edit)
Theme from Funky Reverend
Taste in Men (Alpinestars Kamikaze Skimix)
👉  https://bit.ly/3y4xovI

🔸𝐂𝐃𝟐
Taste in Men (Album version)
Johnny and Mary
Taste in Men (Adrian Sherwood Go Go dub mix)
👉  https://bit.ly/3yuiSP6
★★★

Those “nine lines” which Brian makes “speak volumes” tell a classic story of love lost yet in Placebo’s typical ambiguous style.

📢 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: "I guess it's quite a sonically complicated song, but lyrically it's very simple-being the classic old story of love lost. The person in the song is suffering from this obsessional pining and feeling of torment that follows you from the moment you wake up to the very moment you go to sleep. It's ever present, it's right in your face and affects your ability to function or do anything properly. It's a kind of pain that absorbs every aspect of your personality and every molecule in your body and the person is so desperate that they are willing to do anything possible, or change themselves in any way to win this person back, which is obviously a very unhealthy state of mind and being, emotionally. Sonically I think the sound reflects the pain."
(𝑈𝑛𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑒, 2000)

📢 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: "It's a "come-back-to-me-I-love-you' song," he [Brian Molko] says. "But the person who lives inside of it wants to know "What's wrong with me? Why has the person I love deserted me?' It's not a very healthy state of mind. The pain has to be reflected because the lyrics are so simple. It started out sounding quite a lot more dancey, but we made it more fierce and harsh because it needed to be."
(𝑀𝑜𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐶𝑎𝑙𝑙, 𝑀𝑎𝑦'01)

Photo credit: Screenshot from the video

𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐌𝐎𝐋𝐊𝐎 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐌𝐄𝐍
👉  http://bit.ly/334yh7q

🔸𝑶𝑭𝑭𝑰𝑪𝑰𝑨𝑳 𝑴𝑼𝑺𝑰𝑪 𝑽𝑰𝑫𝑬𝑶🔸
👉  https://bit.ly/3yu3Jx9

I’m re-watching the video on repeat in between writing this post... and inviting you to do the same now when you’re reading it. Watch carefully, shot by shot, to catch every single Brian’s facial expression – oh, his time at the drama school wasn’t wasted!

The video, directed by 𝑩𝒂𝒓𝒃𝒂𝒓𝒂 𝑴𝒄𝑫𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒈𝒉, was filmed in the 𝑪𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝑳𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒐𝒏 𝑹𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒆 (the one where John Lennon and Yoko Ono got married, by the way).

📢 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐚 𝐌𝐜𝐃𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐠𝐡: "[…] I spent days and days searching for a hotel that would allow us to shoot. But given the fact most hotels don't want to disrupt paying guests, none were too keen to let a film crew take over. And we were on a modest budget, so there wasn't much to close the deal for those few hotels that might have been swayed to close off a floor. So the location scout suggested we try the registry office during a day it was closed. (If I recall it was some kind of government holiday when we shot). It had a look that could be set-dressed to pass as an older hotel so it was the most promising option.
[…] Well, the band wanted a narrative video (without them performing) and the lyrics suggested some kind of relationship. The label brief asked for something that played on Brian's androgyny. So that's how the duality of the couples in the video came to be. I got the sense Brian enjoyed keeping his fans wondering and confronted gender-bending in a playful way."
★★★

The video shows Brian involved in a bizarre love triangle with a rowing couple. Barbara recalled that both the plot and shooting style was inspired by the 1961 French-Italian movie.

Photo credit: Screenshot from the video

📢 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐚 𝐌𝐜𝐃𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐠𝐡: "…I took inspiration from a film I love, L'Année dernière à Marienbad ('Last Year at Marienbad'). Not only was the film's enigmatic narrative structure helpful to look at when creating an ambiguous love affair, but the sort of cyclical quality of the track mirrored this kind of repetitive film device. The video had layers of questionable events - did any of it actually happen and if so, with which one. This kind of fragmented reality was a direct nod to that film but something that I thought fit with the band's image of ambiguity at that time."
★★★

A couple of years later, commenting on Placebo’s videos for 𝐎𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐃𝐕𝐃 (𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟒), Brian said that he liked the video for Taste In Men very much: “I think my hair looks extremely good in it.”
What 𝑩𝒂𝒓𝒃𝒂𝒓𝒂 specifically noted, was Brian’s coat: “the zippers sparkled in the light beautifully in places, and he looks fantastic in it.”
★★★

Although the whole recording process was pretty exhausting due to the limited time, both the band and the crew handled it great.

Photo credit: Screenshot from the video

📢 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐚 𝐌𝐜𝐃𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐠𝐡: "The guys were all lovely to work with on set. We only had the location available for the one day the Registry was closed, so our original 2 day shoot became one long day… 21 hours by the time the crew pulled out of the parking lot. But the band was good natured and Brian was a real trooper. We filmed the bed scene last and I'm sure by that point Brian was thrilled to be curled up in bed."
(𝐵𝑎𝑟𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑎 𝑀𝑐𝐷𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑔ℎ'𝑠 𝑞𝑢𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑠 - 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡)

🔸𝑳𝑰𝑽𝑬 𝑯𝑰𝑺𝑻𝑶𝑹𝒀🔸
With 478 confirmed live performances, Taste In Men belongs to the 𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝟏𝟎 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐬 by Placebo. For the first time it was brought on stage on July 20th, 2000, at The Zodiac in Oxford, England and the latest performance to date took place on July 5th, 2012, at Joy Eslava in Madrid, Spain.
The song was a staple of the Black Market Music and Sleeping With Ghosts tours. Despite not appearing during the initial legs of the tour, it reappeared for the winter 2006 leg of the Meds tour and remained until the conclusion of the tour. It was the closing song for all shows on the Battle For The Sun tour. The song also appeared during the 2012 tour as the concluding song for all shows, but was dropped at the start of the Summer Festivals leg.

Post by Olga

🔸⭐🔸 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

𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗔𝗥𝗬: 𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗘 𝗜𝗡 𝗠𝗘𝗡

Today we celebrate the ♦️𝟐𝟏𝐬𝐭 𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘♦️ of “TASTE IN MEN”, a song that relies heavily on a looped electronic section and an aggressive bass line played by Stefan. It was released as lead single from ”Black market music” on July 17th 2000 and reached no.16 in the UK Singles Chart.

According to Brian the track was “meant to confuse”. In an interview with Rock Sound he said that they have released the single because it's “quite unrepresentative of the rest of the album and it creates an interest because people wonder what the hell the record's gonna be like."

🎬 𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗘 𝗜𝗡 𝗠𝗘𝗡 – 𝗢𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟 𝗩𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗢
🎵 http://bit.ly/2QDs3qB 🎵

Photo credit: Screenshots from the video, edit by Silke

The clip plays a lot with Brian's androgyny and with his ambiguous sexual orientation and preferences. It shows him involved in a strange love triangle with a rowing couple but in the end everything about their encounter is questionable and you don't know if it was real.

Video director Barbara McDonough said that the band wanted a narrative video without them performing. For her, the lyrics suggested some kind of relationship and the final inspiration for the plot came from the film “L'Année dernière à Marienbad” ('Last year at Marienbad').
In retrospect she said that Brian, Stefan and Steve were all lovely to work with on the set. “The band was good natured and Brian was a real trooper. But we filmed the bed scene last and I'm sure by that point he was thrilled to be curled up in bed”.

Asked about his fragile appearance in “Taste in men” Brian said that it was his “anorexic period.” He also revealed that the he likes this video clip very much because “I think my hair looks extremely good in it” (“Once more with feeling” DVD). I personally loved this specific look and goth-like style but how about you?

🎬 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗘 𝗜𝗡 𝗠𝗘𝗡
▪ http://bit.ly/334yh7q ▪

Photo credit: Screenshot from the video

The song is about love that's lost and never returns. Brian explained it like this: “It's about the kind of pain that is with you from the moment that you wake up until the moment that you go to sleep - if you can sleep. The kind of pain that makes you stop eating...“

The character of the song is actually prepared to accept any kind of relationship with this person that they have lost and would do anything to get them back. On any terms, whatsoever, which is not a healthy state of mind at all.

Brian made clear that “Taste in men” is a simple "come-back-to-me-I-love-you' song that's applicable to any sexuality. The desperation and the pain needed to be reflected in the sonics of the song, so the band tried to make it “as hard as the 'Broken' EP by Nine Inch Nails, blisteringly nasty”, as Brian told a journalist of LA Weekly in May 2001.

Up to now the song has been played live 472 times, which makes it no. 7 of the most often played songs at Placebo concerts. The first performance was on July 20th 2000 at The Zodiac in England, the last one took place on July 5th 2012 in Madrid, Spain.

Photo credit: Screenshot from the video

📌 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 “𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗘 𝗜𝗡 𝗠𝗘𝗡” 📌
📢 "It's a "come-back-to-me-I-love-you' song. But the person who lives inside of it wants to know "What's wrong with me? Why has the person I love deserted me?“ It's not a very healthy state of mind. The pain has to be reflected because the lyrics are so simple. It started out sounding quite a lot more dancey, but we made it more fierce and harsh because it needed to be."
(Morning Call, May 19th 2001)

📢 "A song called "Wish" off the "Broken EP" by NIN was a bit of an influence. We listened to that while we were doing "Taste in Men", going, "Let's make it that nasty, let's make it that unlistenable."
(Melody Maker, October 20th 2000)

📢 “It can be applicable to anybody and it's a very universal song. It's just 'You dumped me, come back.' That's all it is. It doesn't matter who you are. It's happened to all of us.“
(Vox Online, 2001)

📢 “We just love to put people on the wrong track, one of our specialties. If people just listen to "Taste in men," they get the completely wrong impression of what the album is like, and it serves them right. Listen to the whole thing, get a taste of it. I never liked people who just listen to the opener or a single track and then decide if they like the album or not. Don't nibble; take a huge bite! But we're not pussying out on our third record, definitely not, not a chance.“
(NYRock, Aprilt 2001)

Post by Silke

𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐁𝐎 & 𝐅𝐈𝐋𝐌𝐒: 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨𝐬

In this part of my series, let’s take a closer look at the movies which had an impact on creating of some Placebo videos.

Photo credit: screenshots of the videos, film posters / edit by Olga

𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒 is a film that was an inspiration for the 𝐏𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 video.
𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 told, “It was inspired by the Grace Kelly film ‘Fourteen Hours’ from the 50's about a guy who stands on the ledge of a building in New York for 14 hours. The police, his parents and his wife come and try to talk him down. You never really know why he’s there. It’s a very good film, check it out. We based the story on that.”
(“𝑂𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔” 𝐷𝑉𝐷, 2004)
𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 is a 1951 American noir drama directed by Henry Hathaway, which tells the story of a New York City police officer trying to stop a despondent man from jumping to his death from the 15th floor of a hotel.
It was the screen debut of Grace Kelly and Jeffrey Hunter, who appeared in small roles. The screenplay was based on an article in The New Yorker describing the 1938 real story of John William Warde suicide.
Noteworthy, the Pure Morning video has got an opposite ending. “And it also has a very important meaning that I don’t die in the end. It shows some hope, I think,” 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 said. (𝑆𝑈𝐵, 1999)

Screenshot from Pure morning video

𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐍
Telling about 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐔𝐬 video in the Once more with feeling DVD Brian said that "there’s a ‘Delicatessen’ feel to this."
𝐃𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐧 is a 1991 French surrealist black comedy directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro.
The film is centered on a post-apocalyptic society where food is in short supply and grain is used as currency. It’s set in a dilapidated apartment building with a delicatessen, a butcher's shop, on the ground floor. It’s run by the landlord, Clapet, who posts job opportunities in the Hard Times paper as means to lure victims to the building, whom he murders and butchers as a cheap source of meat to sell to his tenants. Butcher's daughter and a former clown Louison, who applies for the job, fall in love. Aware of her father's motives, Julie tries to rescue Louison by contacting the "troglodytes", a group of vegetarian rebel sub-group of society who live entirely underground.

𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐀𝐓 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐁𝐀𝐃 / 𝐋'𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐞́𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐞̀𝐫𝐞 𝐚̀ 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐛𝐚𝐝 is a movie behind a story of the 𝐓𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐌𝐞𝐧 video.
“…I took inspiration from a film I love, L'Année dernière à Marienbad ('Last Year at Marienbad'),” 𝑩𝒂𝒓𝒃𝒂𝒓𝒂 𝑴𝒄𝑫𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉, director of the video, explained, “Not only was the film's enigmatic narrative structure helpful to look at when creating an ambiguous love affair, but the sort of cyclical quality of the track mirrored this kind of repetitive film device. The video had layers of questionable events - did any of it actually happen and if so, with which one. This kind of fragmented reality was a direct nod to that film but something that I thought fit with the band's image of ambiguity at that time.” (𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡, 2017)
𝐋'𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐞́𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐞̀𝐫𝐞 𝐚̀ 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐛𝐚𝐝 (𝐋𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐚𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐛𝐚𝐝) is a 1961 French-Italian film directed by Alain Resnais.
Set in luxury baroque hotel, it’s a tale of a woman and a man who may have met the year before at Marienbad and may have contemplated or started an affair. There is a second man who may be the woman's husband. The characters are unnamed. Through ambiguous flashbacks and disorienting shifts of time and location, the film explores the relationships between the three characters.
The film is famous for its enigmatic narrative structure, in which time and space are fluid. No certain conclusion is offered: what is happening to the characters, what they are remembering, and what they are imagining.
The same dreamlike nature was perfectly recreated in Placebo video.

Screenshot from Taste in men video

𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐀𝐂𝐀 is a film that was an inspiration for the 𝐒𝐥𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐚𝐠𝐞 video.
According to 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏, “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.”
“Cold, beautifully stylish near future, not sci-fi,” described the atmosphere of the video its director 𝑯𝒐𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝑮𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒏𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒈𝒉, “Is it sci-fi, is it whatever? Is it a love story? … 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.” (𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡, 2016)
𝐆𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐚 is a 1997 American science fiction film written and directed by Andrew Niccol. The film presents a biopunk vision of a future society driven by eugenics where potential children are conceived through genetic selection to ensure they possess the best hereditary traits of their parents. Characters in Gattaca continually battle both with society and with themselves to find their place in the world and who they are destined to be according to their genes.
The film's title is based on the letters G, A, T, and C, which stand for guanine, adenine, thymine, and cytosine, the four nucleobases of DNA.

𝐅𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂 𝐕𝐎𝐘𝐀𝐆𝐄 is a film that influenced the making of 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐊 video.
“This is one of my favorites videos.” 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 told. “It’s based on a 60’s movie ‘Fantastic Voyage’. Raquel Welch and a few other people get shrunk and injected into the president’s body and try to save his life. In this video I play Raquel Welch. Unfortunately, the budget didn’t stretch to fake breasts.”
𝑯𝒐𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝑮𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒏𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒈𝒉 who directed the video for Placebo explained his idea, “It was based on a movie, obviously 'Fantastic voyage'. And I always thought that Stefan looked like an android. I remember a guy from 'Fantastic voyage' turned out to be an android and he was trying to kill everybody. And I thought: 'This is twisted. Let try a mini movie which is all about inside something'.” (𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡, 2016)
𝐅𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐕𝐨𝐲𝐚𝐠𝐞 is a 1966 American science-fiction film directed by Richard Fleischer. The film is about a submarine crew who are shrunk to microscopic size and venture into the body of an injured scientist to repair damage to his brain. Almost as soon as they enter the bloodstream, a lot of problems arise on their way.

Screenshot from Special K video

𝐂𝐑𝐔𝐄𝐋 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒: clips from this film are used in one of the versions of 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐌𝐞 video besides the live footage of Placebo from London's Brixton Academy.

𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋 & 𝐉𝐎𝐄: the scenes from the movie are included in the 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤-𝐄𝐲𝐞𝐝 video. It was directed by the same director as the film, Vanessa Joop. The video was filmed at the Hurricane Festival in Germany with two actors, Jana Pallaske and Robert Stadlober, starring in Engel & Joe.

Post by  Olga 

STORY BEHIND A VIDEO: Taste in men

Today we'll have a closer look at one of my favourite Placebo videos.
According to Brian “Taste in men“ is a song that was “meant to confuse“ and so also the music clip leaves the watcher with more questions than answers.
It plays a lot with Brian's androgyny and and with his ambiguous sexual orientation and preferences. The video shows Brian involved in a strange love triangle with a rowing couple but in the end everything about their encounter is questionable and you don't know if it was real.

Listen to the song here: ♫ TASTE IN MEN ♫

Placebo hired Barbara McDonough as video director because of a MTV advert she made where she used ‘Nancy Boy’ as the music. “We thought that she’d done it specially and decided to employ her to do ‘Taste in men’“, Steve Hewitt explained.Barbara said that the band wanted a narrative video without them performing and the label wanted one that deals with Brian's androgyny. For her the lyrics suggested some kind of relationship and the final inspiration for the plot came from the film “L'Année dernière à Marienbad” ('Last year at Marienbad').

In the first place “Taste in men” should be shot in a hotel but due to the fact that most hotels don't want to disrupt paying guests, they didn't find one that would let a film crew take over. “We were on a modest budget, so we hadn't much to offer for those few hotels that might have been swayed to close off a floor”, Barbara McDonough explained.

Finally the video was recorded in the registry office in central London where JohnLennon and Yoko Ono got hitched. “It’s the rock’n’roll registry office, where music industry people get married“, Brian joked in the “Once more with feeling” DVD. “And where me and Steve spent a 22 hours shooting. 21 hours doing nothing and spent half an hour filming,“ Stefan added. Originally the recording session was planned for two days but as the crew had to change the location from a hotel to the registry office they could only film on the one day when it was closed, and so it became one very long shooting.

Brian's female partner for the video was found in a casting. Then Barbara and the band thought it would be great if the male “Taste in men” counterpart had a similar appearance. The young man they choose was out of the country during the casting, so they had to pick him based on a tape and his portfolio. “Unfortunately his agent didn't tell him not to cut his hair so by the time he made it to set it was no longer the same length as hers or Brian's”, the video director revealed. 

By the way: Brian said that the reason why he likes this video so much is that “I think my hair looks extremely good in it” (“Once more with feelin” DVD). In retrospect Barbare McDonough said that Brian, Stefan and Steve were all lovely to work with on the set. “The band was good natured and Brian was a real trooper. But we filmed the bed scene last and I'm sure by that point he was thrilled to be curled up in bed”.


Sources: Placebo Story Project, Once more with feeling DVD
Photo credit: Screenshots of the video / edit by me
Post by Silke