𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗔𝗥𝗬: 𝗖𝗢𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗚𝗘 𝟴𝟰

Today we celebrate the ♦️𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘♦️ of one of Brian's collaborations: Eight years ago, on April 21st 2013, the song "𝗖𝗢𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗚𝗘 𝟴𝟰" was released on Timo Maas' album “Lifer”.

🎬 𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗢 𝗠𝗔𝗔𝗦 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁. 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗠𝗢𝗟𝗞𝗢 – 𝗖𝗢𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗚𝗘 𝟴𝟰

🎵 http://bit.ly/2ORHjPk 🎵

Photo credit: Timo Maas Official, cover of the single, unknown (2) / edit by Silke

The album includes eleven songs, four of them collaborations with other artists. “College 84” is the last song on the record and in my opinion it's a perfect way to say goodbye to the listeners.
Also in 2013 a vinyl album titled “Lifer Remixed“ was released which contains two remixes of the song,

What's interesting about “College 84“ is that the single and the official video were put out in 2011, about one and a half years before the album was finally released. On the single you can find the original song, a radio edit and three more remixes.

Post by Silke

𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗔𝗥𝗬: 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗜𝗧'𝗦 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗛

12 years ago today, on the 20th of April 2009, “For what it's worth” came out. It debuted in the UK Singles Chart at no. 97 after it was released exclusively via iTunes. The single contains a cover of Nik Kershaw's "Wouldn't it be good" and a demo version of “For what it's worth” as b-sides.

🎬 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐓'𝐒 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐇 – 𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐎

🎵 http://bit.ly/2Lk60zS 🎵

Photo credit: Screenshots from the video, edit by Silke

The video was directed by 𝘏𝘰𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘨𝘩 who started to work with the band in 1997 and created some amazing music clips like ”Nancy Boy”, ”Special K” or ”Slave to the wage” for the band.

“For what it's worth” was one of the first songs that Brian and Stefan wrote for the album “Battle for the sun”. Brian started to work on it in the tour bus on the way between New York and Boston because he was so bored and wanted to do something creative. But according to him it's a song that is “infused with a kind of lust for life”. Brian also said that he hoped it would be an euphoric dancefloor experience.

He was aware from the start that there's a line in the lyrics that could easily be misinterpreted. But “your God-shaped hole” is not about a vagina as many fans may think. Instead it is about the hole that everyone is carrying in their soul and which they fill with different things (see quotes below).

Photo credit: Screenshot from the video

📌 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 “𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗜𝗧'𝗦 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗛” 📌
📢 "It's got this real kind of Stax-esque, bluesy horn section on it, which makes sense to us because we grew up listening to Motown as much as we did listening to disco. It excites us too, the idea of freaking out the hardcore Goths, that part of our fan base."
(Big Cheese, 2009)

📢 "'Come on lay with me / 'cause I'm on fire'? Do you need me to write that down for you, man? Perhaps the sexuality is more subtle; it's not coming at you in terms of a transvestite on crystal meth."
(J Mag Australia, 2009)

“📢 I already sensed this line [your God-shaped hole tonight] would be open for interpretations. But it’s not about vaginas or other specific orifices of the body.” His hands are meanwhile forming a circle, he pauses, “why am I doing this right now?” Stefan blames the Freudian subconscious. “No, the expression aims on the hole everyone carries in their souls. A lot of people fill it with God, Jesus, religion, others with humans, drugs or alcohol. It’s the little piece of you which is missing. The place of birth of all desires and all wishes and emotions – that’s what it relates to for me, but already when I wrote it, I was sure most people would understand it sexually. For me, the song is about the libidinous party of life. That’s not sexual, but rather like embracing the universe.” This image of the libido surprises everyone and goes under in collective snorting. “That’s as well a way to push your buttons before intercourse” Stefan giggles. But the piece didn’t come out of emotional or erotic tension, but: “Boredom, the most boring six hours of bus ride between New York and Boston. I was so annoyed that I wrote the song out of frustration.”
(Sonic Seducer, 2009)

Photo credit: Screenshot from the video

📌 𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗙𝗔𝗡 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗩𝗘 𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗩𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗢 📌
📢 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗳𝗮𝗻: “We worked with one of our favourite video directors, Howard Greenhalgh, who has been working with us for a long time. He has done loads of stuff for us including 'Nancy Boy', 'Bruise Pristine' and 'The Bitter End', so we had a long relationship with him that enabled us to feel more relaxed, especially now we are introducing a new member to the public. We wanted it to be quite performance based and the tags were basically about the fact that sometimes what you see, is not what is real. We wanted to play with that. People like to portray themselves as something that is completely the opposite of what is inside of them. With the lyrics, Brian describes them as being quite optimistic but if you listen to them on face value, "got no friends, got no lover", it's like "shit, you're in the gutter" but to him the song is like a celebration of life. It's that dichotomy of what you see and what you hear not always being what is actually there.“
📢 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝗙.: “You can take a photo and it can be two people, they can be hanging out and happy but if you put a label on, it completely changes the whole meaning of it. It could be like "cunt". My favourite bit is the guy with the suitcase walking to work and it's like "detonation". It's brilliant.“
(Clic Music, April 2009)

Post by Silke

💢𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐌𝐎𝐋𝐊𝐎: 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐃 𝐌𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 💢

In the following article you will get to know more about Brian's taste in music and learn everything about the songs and artists that changed his life.

Amongst many other things he talks about the band that “opened up a whole new world” to him, the group that he was obsessed to as a teenager and the one song that describes him completely.

It's a musical journey with Brian from Dead Kennedys to Bonnie Tyler and back to Violent Femmes.

Photo credit: Thomas Rabsch

🔸 𝗞𝗢𝗢𝗟 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗯𝘆 𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗜𝗖 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗧𝗛 🔸

Sonic Youth were the beginning for me. The whole “Goo” album changed my life because before it, I was unaware of all the possibilities of guitar music. They had the ultimate punk attitude towards the guitar, they threw the rulebook away and made the guitar work for them. They also showed me the beauty of atonal chords and dissonance. They opened up a whole new world to me.
👉 Find it : Goo, 1990


🔸 𝗥𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗘𝗨𝗣𝗛𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗦 𝗯𝘆 𝗣𝗜𝗫𝗜𝗘𝗦 🔸

I was 16 and growing up in Luxembourg when I first heard this. I had never heard a voice like Black Francis’ before. He was this rotund young man singing like a castrado, it was so unexpected. I was instantly fascinated and went straight out and bought “Surfer Rosa”. The Pixies remain so significant to Placebo to this day – we covered “Where Is My Mind?” and Frank Black joined us onstage once, which was a hell of a moment.
👉 Find it : Surfer Rosa, 1988

Photo credit: Scarlet Page

🔸 𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗜𝗗𝗔𝗬 𝗜𝗡 𝗖𝗔𝗠𝗕𝗢𝗗𝗜𝗔 𝗯𝘆 𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗗 𝗞𝗘𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗗𝗬𝗦 🔸

I was obsessed with the Dead Kennedys when I was 13. I was developing as a political being at that time, I guess. Because I lived in Luxembourg, my access to music was very jumbled up and I didn’t discover punk through the English bands, as you’re supposed to. I discovered the really political, anti-Reagan, American Punk. Jello Biafra’s lyrics really appealed to my anti-establishment nature. They are stil my favourite punk band.
👉 Find it : Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables, 1980


🔸 𝗦𝗛𝗘𝗘𝗟𝗔-𝗡𝗔-𝗚𝗜𝗚 𝗯𝘆 𝗣𝗝 𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗩𝗘𝗬 🔸

Steve [Hewitt, drums] introduced me to PJ Harvey when we were at university. Her songwriting instantly became a big influence on me. I was struck by how individual her voice was and then by how taut and nervous the instrumentation was. It was so expressive of internal torment, desire, lust and rejection. She’s always been very brave, she’s not afraid to make a record that sounds like someone bleeding on you.
👉Find it : Dry, 1992

Photo credit: Virgile Biechy

🔸 𝗕𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗨𝗡 𝗯𝘆 𝗩𝗜𝗢𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗙𝗘𝗠𝗠𝗘𝗦 🔸

I was listening to this when I first realised I could sing. I put it on in my Mum’s car on the way home from the supermarket when I was 13 and I was singing along to it. When I was 13, my voice sounded exactly like [Violent Femmes vocalist] Gordon Gano’s. From then on I devoured that record and the teenage angst of it all. It’s a very weird and individual record-it’s almost folk-rock and it probably shouldnt work but it does.
👉 Find it : Violent Femmes, 1983


🔸 𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗟𝗦𝗘𝗔 𝗛𝗢𝗧𝗘𝗟 𝗡𝗢.𝟮 𝗯𝘆 𝗟𝗘𝗢𝗡𝗔𝗥𝗗 𝗖𝗢𝗛𝗘𝗡 🔸

I’m a huge Leonard Cohen fan and this was one of the first songs I learned to play on the acoustic guitar. I was fascinated by Janis Joplin at the time and this was basically the story of him and her in a hotel room, having sex and doing drugs. His lyrics are masterful and so simple. Leonard Cohen remains an influence on me to this day-you just have to listen to “In The Cold Light Of Morning” on our “Meds” album to hear his impact.
👉 Find it : New Skin For The Old Ceremony, 1974

Photo credit: Benni Valsso

🔸 𝗗𝗢𝗡’𝗧 𝗟𝗘𝗧 𝗠𝗘 𝗕𝗘 𝗠𝗜𝗦𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗢𝗗 𝗯𝘆 𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗔 𝗦𝗜𝗠𝗢𝗡𝗘 🔸

The first time I heard this it just seemed to describe me completely. The lyrics are “I’m just a soul whose intentions are good, Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood”. It implies someone fucking up all the time, which I do, but I have good intentions. That line is the line I’ll put on my tombstone. It encapsulates how I see my own soul.
👉 Find it : Broadway-Blues-Ballads, 1964


🔺 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡'𝗦 𝙂𝙐𝙄𝙇𝙏𝙔 𝙋𝙇𝙀𝘼𝙎𝙐𝙍𝙀:🔻

🔸 𝗧𝗢𝗧𝗔𝗟 𝗘𝗖𝗟𝗜𝗣𝗦𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗧 𝗯𝘆 𝗕𝗢𝗡𝗡𝗜𝗘 𝗧𝗬𝗟𝗘𝗥 🔸

It’s amazing! It was written by Jim Steinman, who did all the Meat Loaf records, but this is his best work. It was huge when I was a kid and I can still see the video in my head. I heard it on the radio the other day. I didn’t realise what it was, and my body tingled and I went, “What the fuck is that? That’s amazing”. I don’t love it for kitsch reasons, I love it for the right reasons.
👉 Find it : Faster Than The Speed Of Night, 1983

(Kerrang "Brian Molko: The Songs That Changed My Life", June 2006)

Post by Silke

🔶🔸𝐋𝐄 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐄𝐍 𝐓𝐕: 𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐌𝐎𝐋𝐊𝐎'𝐒 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 🔸🔶

On November 28th, 2016, just before Placebo shows in France as part of 20 Years of Placebo Tour, Brian Molko did an 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 on 𝑳𝒆 𝑷𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒆𝒏 𝑻𝑽. You can watch a shortened version of it in a beautiful video while I’d like to share a full text which was published on their website. Brian discussed some milestones of Placebo’s career, remembered their first concert in France and shared his thoughts about the terrorist attack at Bataclan in 2015.

✨𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐌𝐨𝐥𝐤𝐨: "𝐖𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐁𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐞", 𝐋𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐞𝐧 𝐓𝐕, 𝟐𝟖.𝟏𝟏.𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟔
https://bit.ly/3pK1fnA

Photo credit: screenshot of the video interview by Le Parisien, 2016

🔶𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐁𝐎 𝐄𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓🔶
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒃𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 20 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔, 𝒕𝒘𝒐 𝒅𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓, 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐, 𝒔𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒛𝒆𝒔.
“Happy birthday Placebo! To celebrate their 20th anniversary, the British rock trio released "A Place for Us to Dream", a pantagruelic compilation of 2:15 and 36 tracks, with duets (David Bowie, Michael Stipe, etc.), covers, B-sides, new versions and a new one, “Jesus' Son”. “To show all the colors of Placebo, light and shade, the risks we took,” comments singer and guitarist Brian Molko in French. Like a retrospective in a museum." Their anniversary tour stops tonight in Nantes and tomorrow at Paris-Bercy (now AccorHotels Arena). To satisfy their fans, who have been consulted on the Internet, Placebo replay old nuggets like "Nancy Boy", "Pure Morning" and "Protège-moi", French version of "Protect Me". “We also turned 36 Degrees into a ballad,” says Molko. Bands play the same song for decades, but we're not like that. We get bored very quickly."

🔸𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟓-𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟐. 𝐈𝐧 𝐁𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐞'𝐬 𝐨𝐫𝐛𝐢𝐭
“We had the same agent as David Bowie. And one evening, on his Outside tour, singer Morrissey left, without warning anyone, to his mother's house. An opening act had to be found urgently. Our agent played our demos to Bowie, and he liked them. A few days later, we were in Italy in front of 8,000 spectators. We toured his albums Outside, Earthling and Heaven. I spent seven years in his orbit, and it was absolutely amazing. I learned a lot from him. During the tours, every evening, I would go down to the backstage, I smoked a joint and I observed him. What a lesson, what an opportunity! And in 1998, the surprise of my life! On vacation, my brother wakes me up. He hands me the phone: it's Bowie. Oh okay (laughs). He tells me that he would like to sing our song Without You I'm Nothing as a duet, which he loves. I'm half asleep, I don't immediately realize the enormity... "

Photo credit: Maud Maillard

🔸𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟔. "𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐞", 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞
“I was young, I had a lot of fun. But we worked like crazy. There were three of us, I was trying to write something abrasive and melodic, powerful, and popular. I had only one ambition, it was not to do an office job. I would have been happy to be in a band with average success. But fate changed everything because we had success from the first album. And we said to ourselves that we had to do everything to make it last. We wrote hundreds of songs that we threw in the trash before thinking: This song deserves to be listened to by people."

🔸𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟔-𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟕. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞
“I remember with emotion our first concert in France, in 1996, at Route du Rock, Saint-Malo festival. It was so lovely. The reception from the French audience was immediately warm. They opened their arms to us."

🔸𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟕. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐝𝐞
“At the time of Sleeping With Ghosts tour and Meds album, there were troubles in the band. It was quite a traumatic time. We no longer spoke to each other, we protected each other in our corner. I've invested my whole professional life into this band, I wasn't going to let a character as old-fashioned as Mr. Hewitt ruin it for me. He hadn't always been like that, but success, money, drugs were there, as always..."

Photo credit: Marco Vittur

🔸𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟓. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐚
“I spent a sleepless night, I was absolutely upset, I was looking for my friends from our record company who were in the venue, but also the Eagles of Death Metal, whom I know well. I spent the night on the phone trying to reach them (he sighs). I really like Bataclan, we played there a lot when we started. There is something magical about this venue. I would love to be back, it is necessary. If anyone hears me..."
(𝐿𝑒 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑒𝑛 𝑇𝑉, 𝑁𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 28, 2016)

📍To add something special to my post, I found a short video from 𝐑𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐞 𝐝𝐮 𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐅𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥 that took place in Saint Malo on August 14th, 1997 and, as Brian said, was 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐’𝒔 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝑭𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆.

✨𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 – 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 & 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞, 𝐒𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐥𝐨 𝐅𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥, 𝟏𝟒.𝟎𝟖.𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟕
https://bit.ly/39IREru

📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐌𝐨𝐥𝐤𝐨: “I always felt that our band would attract a little bit crazy and wild fans, and it really looks like becoming a truth. […] The most passionate fans can see that our technique changed a lot since Steve Hewitt joined the band. There’s much more admiration, much more love and respect from European audience, and our creative process liberated a lot.”

Post by Olga

🍀🔸𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐁𝐎 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐅𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟗🔸🍀

Dear friends, today I want to invite you on a trip to the Czech Republic.
𝑰𝒏 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟗, 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒆𝒅 𝒂 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒕 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒛𝒆𝒄𝒉 𝒇𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒍 "𝑹𝒐𝒄𝒌 𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝑷𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆", 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒍 𝒊𝒏 𝑷𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒖𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒍 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒄𝒖𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝑩𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒖𝒏 𝑻𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟗. This bonus DVD "Behind-the-scenes and making-of the album" was part of the limited edition release of their sixth album.

🎬 If you want to watch the arrival of the band in the Czech Republic (and also Stefan and Brian getting a vitamin injection), then watch this video - the recording from the Czech Republic starts at 4.17 min.
https://bit.ly/3uJpbtr
🍀💚🔸💚🍀

Photo credit: Lukáš Janičík, edit by Marti

⭐ 𝐅𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐨:⭐
𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 is one of the largest open-air summer music festivals in the Czech Republic. The festival began in 1995 in the town of Český Brod, and in 2007 it was moved to an unused airport in Hradec Králové. The festival features Czech and international acts of various genres, most prominent alternative rock, pop rock, punk rock, and EDM, and has also featured various workshops and recreational activities. In addition to Placebo, world-renowned bands performed here - Muse, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Arctic Monkeys, My Chemical Romance, The Offspring, the Killers, Paramore, Massive Attack and many others …
⭐ 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥:⭐
The first year was visited by 1,100 visitors. In the following years, the number of visitors increased to 30,000 people.
Only Czech bands were invited to the first four years and the proceeds from the festival were donated to charity.
In 1999, the German band Guano Apes was invited as the first foreign band. This year also saw the creation of a new festival logo with a symbol for men and women, which you can see in the picture.
The Rock for People Festival is the rainiest festival in the Czech Republic. Many years were accompanied by rainy weather and mud became its symbol for all regular visitors of the festival.
The festival lasted continuously until 2020, when its organization was interrupted by a pandemic.
🔸🔸🔸⭐🔸🔸🔸

Placebo live at  Rock for People 2009. Photo credit: Petrklapper.com 

I found two short interviews for you, which Steve and Stefan gave to the Czech reporters, so we will make tonight more pleasant with this reading:

📌 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨:
𝐈 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐃𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐤 𝐇𝐚𝐬̌𝐞𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐳𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐫!

New Placebo drummer Steve Forrest has only been playing with this British rock band for a year. Nevertheless, the whole world already considers him a star of global proportions. We met at the Rock for People festival, which ended with Placebo's performance. From the beginning of the interview, I had the feeling that this friendly musician had already been born with a smile on his face.
𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝑹𝒐𝒄𝒌 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑷𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆? 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒛𝒆𝒄𝒉 𝑹𝒆𝒑𝒖𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒄 𝒊𝒏 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍?
I'd say it's fun. In fact, this is my first time in the Czech Republic.

𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚? 𝑺𝒐, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒆𝒓𝒆?
Yeah. You know, we've been here for about three hours so far, and it's nice here. I was at the „Block Party“ and the bunch, those people seemed very energetic and really accommodating. So I think there will be a good audience today. I look forward to it.

𝑺𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒄 𝑷𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒖𝒆?
Never. It's all for the first time and this is mine for the first time. Believe me, this is a beginning that will have a sequel. We don't see each other for the last time.

𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆. 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒏𝒅?
Very good. We get along with the boys in the rehearsal room, and I'd say on stage as well, which you'll be able to see by yourself tonight.

𝑨𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒐𝒖𝒔?
Nervous? (laughs) I'm nervous before every concert, don't I look like that?

𝑫𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒚, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒙𝒆𝒅.
I'm glad. But my hands are shaking mainly during the concert, I'm quite nervous.

𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒐𝒖𝒔? 𝑶𝒓 𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒅𝒓𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈?
(laughs) A little about both, you're right.

𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒃𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒛𝒆𝒄𝒉 𝑹𝒆𝒑𝒖𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒄? 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌?
I do not know. I'm not sure about this festival season. But maybe we'll come back on another tour. I'd say we're not playing here for the last time today. But it's not just me. Many performances were booked and we didn't even know about it, we didn't get any information. Of course I would like to see you again, I just have no idea when. It could be this year, next year or maybe in three years. Who knows…

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒛𝒆𝒄𝒉 𝑹𝒆𝒑𝒖𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒄 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆?
I know Czech hockey player Dominik Hašek. I wouldn't call myself a fan, but I read the sports section from time to time. And I also heard about Czech beer. Several of my friends have been here and everyone likes it.

𝑫𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒊𝒕?
I haven't had one yet. But I have to try. Maybe after a concert at the bar, then you can recommend some to me. (laughter)
(𝑇𝑜𝑝𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑒, 𝑆𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 2009)
🍀💚🔸💚🍀

Placebo live at  Rock for People 2009. Photo credit: Petrklapper.com 

📌 𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐅𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥 „𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞“ 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟗
/.../ The organizers rate this year's attendance as above average. An important factor was the weather, which was successful this year and visitors enjoyed sunny days. The only short rain caught on the festival on Friday after the opening of the complex. /.../
With their hits, Placebo got the fans into ecstasy, which was intensified by a double encore. They played mainly well-known hits, melancholic and a little rougher.
Band member 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧 𝐎𝐥𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐥 gave us a short interview.

𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒛𝒆𝒄𝒉 𝑹𝒆𝒑𝒖𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒄 𝒔𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔, 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒛𝒆𝒄𝒉 𝒂𝒖𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆?
Last time we had a big show in the Czech Republic in Prague on the United Islands, which I really liked. Mostly thanks to the Vltava. We have a good relationship with the Czech audience, because we sing in English, people can get our music all over the world. It is wonderful that we can have fans in the Czech Republic and many other countries.

𝑯𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝑪𝒛𝒆𝒄𝒉 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒑?
I think not.
🔸🔸🔸⭐🔸🔸🔸
Here Stefan probably didn't realize that he really knew one Czech band:
In 2003, their support band at the Prague concert was the Czech duo 𝐄𝐜𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐭.𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐚, which the Placebo guys liked so much that they had them remixed their song "𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝑺𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒓 𝑹𝒂𝒊𝒏" in 2004. This remix was then released as a single along with another remix to "This Picture" by Junior Sanchez.
🔸🔸🔸⭐🔸🔸🔸
𝑫𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚 𝒂𝒕 𝒇𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒔 𝒐𝒓 𝒄𝒍𝒖𝒃𝒔?
It's a big difference to play at a festival, which is a bit like a big party where people drink beer and have fun all weekend. On the contrary, in the music club you can prepare and better check the sound system. It's more pleasant, we can present a much more interesting and creative show here. The festival brings together various listeners and not everyone is our fan, so we have to focus much more on preparation and playing mainly famous hits.

𝑾𝒉𝒐 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝑴𝒊𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒆𝒍 𝑱𝒂𝒌𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖?
For my and many generations to come, Michael Jakson was an idol. He was an amazing musician, a great artist. It's a pity. (𝑚𝑦 𝑛𝑜𝑡𝑒: 𝑀𝑖𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑒𝑙 𝐽𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝐽𝑢𝑛𝑒 2009)

𝑫𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒎𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒏𝒔?
Thank you for your support and we look forward to the next performance.
🍀💚🔸💚🍀

Placebo live at  Rock for People 2009. Photo credit: Petrklapper.com 

Interestingly - on this website right after the festival info there was a poll: which band people liked the most this year. Placebo received the largest number of votes, which was an amazing 40%😍🤩, other bands had a maximum success rate of 10%.

In the end, of course, I offer you a view of the entire gig, which is recorded by a fan, but is in good quality:

🎶 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 „𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞“ 𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟗
https://bit.ly/3dUcaGK

In conclusion, I would like to thank you for the whole team that you are still a fan of our page, you write us beautiful messages - your feedback is very important to us.
And don't forget - 💚𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 𝐃𝐚𝐲💚 is coming, so stay with us, we will enjoy this event together.

🥰Finally, I would like to thank my dear soulmate Olga 🥰 for her help in checking the English translation of this post.

Post by Marti

𝗫-𝗥𝗮𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄: "𝗠𝗼𝗹𝗸𝗼 𝗼𝗻 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲, 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵, 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲-𝘂𝗽", 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹 𝟮𝟬𝟬𝟯

The 2003 interview with Brian that I share with you today is a mix of him talking about Placebo's music and answering some very private questions. There is only one thing he refused to reveal anything about – do you want to know what it is?

Apart from what Brian wants to keep a secret you will learn more about his family, his drug use and his sex life. And of course the interview includes a lot of info about the band's then new album “Sleeping with ghosts”. I hope you'll enjoy reading.

Photo credit: Franck Courtès

𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗜𝗦 “𝗦𝗟𝗘𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗚𝗛𝗢𝗦𝗧𝗦” 𝗗𝗜𝗙𝗙𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗧 𝗧𝗢 “𝗕𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗞 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗞𝗘𝗧 𝗠𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗖”?
📢 “This album is a return to what we do best really, it’s dealing with relationships again. It’s got so much to do with the fact that we had an eight month period off beforehand to think for the first time and be human beings, to reacquaint ourselves with humanity outside of the rock’n’roll bubble. It was very natural that those were the kind of songs that were coming out.
With 'Black Market Music', we’d just done the 'Without you I’m nothing' tour with just each other and CNN for company, and we ended up in the studio very pissed off, railing against the injustices in the world. That’s why 'Black Market Music' is more angular and angry and political. 'Sleeping with Ghosts' shares similar themes to 'Without you I’m nothing' but I think it’s broader. 'Without you I’m nothing' was a very bleak album because of thee lifestyle choices we were making at the time, and the bad drugs, and I think this one is tempered with a little bit of hope.”

𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗗𝗜𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗗𝗘𝗖𝗜𝗗𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗔 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗣𝗟𝗘𝗧𝗘 𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞 𝗙𝗥𝗢𝗠 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗖 𝗜𝗡𝗗𝗨𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗬 𝗕𝗘𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗢𝗥𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗜𝗧?
'📢 After the BMM tour we were spent – physically, obviously, cos we’d been on the road for so long, and emotionally, we were very very messed up. And we’d run out of realistic life experiences to write about. Nobody really cares about the colour of your tour bus and the fact you can’t shit on your tour bus, or how many notches on bedpost you have at the end of the tour. We realised we needed a break for the first time in seven years. We needed to reacquaint ourselves with genuine everyday human contact and exchange. I moved house as soon as I came off the tour, my first proper home, so I came back down with a big bang of domesticity. I wasn’t Brian Molko the rock star anymore, I was just Brian Molko who needed to furnish his apartment. It’s in Old Street, round there. So we decided to take six months off, then six months became eight months. It was a good chance to think about what had happened to us, well, me anyway, over the past ten years. They say your life changes every seven years, Saturn returns and all that and it’s interesting to note it’s seven years since Steve came into the band, and I turned 30 as soon as the album was finished. And I had this eight month period to look back through everything I’d been through emotionally and I started to deal with it for the first time. I started to think very much about the relationships I’ve had over the past ten years and whether they’d changed me and the effect that they’d had on me. So 'Sleeping with ghosts' became an album about exorcising the demons of your past relationships. And in that way, it became a very therapeutic and cathartic thing for me.”

𝗜𝗙 𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗥𝗘 𝗟𝗢𝗢𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗢 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗨𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘, 𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗜𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗔𝗟𝗕𝗨𝗠 𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗗 '𝗦𝗟𝗘𝗘𝗣𝗨𝗡𝗚 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗚𝗛𝗢𝗦𝗧𝗦, 𝗪𝗛𝗜𝗖𝗛 𝗦𝗘𝗘𝗠𝗦 𝗧𝗢 𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗧 𝗔𝗧 𝗔𝗡 𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗦𝗖𝗔𝗣𝗔𝗕𝗟𝗘 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗔𝗦𝗧?
📢 “By the time I reached 30 I realised there is no tragedy without joy in the first place. I became quite obsessed by the idea that you carry the ghosts of your relationships past with you for the rest of your life and people come back to haunt you, and that this is often triggered by external stimuli – smells, a song on the radio, an article of clothing, a book, whatever. I wondered what effect your memory still had on you to this day, regardless of the amount of time from the end of the relationship and where you are now and how you’ve moved on. Along the way, I managed to exorcise a few personal demons. Songwriting does allow me to lead a more balanced existence than I would without it. I feel blessed to have that outlet. To be able to express yourself to the world. To use your art as a form of catharsis or therapy. I think without it I’d be much, much more messed up than I am anyway.

𝗜𝗦 𝗜𝗧 𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗔𝗡𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗦𝗘𝗟𝗟 𝗔 𝗠𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗔𝗟𝗕𝗨𝗠, 𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘 '𝗕𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗞 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗞𝗘𝗧 𝗠𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗖' 𝗗𝗜𝗗?
📢 “In a way, yeah, cos as an artist you always want to feel like you’re improving. If it did a lot worse I’d be disappointed and I’d have to ask myself a lot of questions. But at the same time, I don’t want it to sell as many records as Coldplay, or The Strokes, cos then I’d feel even more pressure than I do already. I think we’d say to ourselves, well, where do we go from here? I am a little bit worried about reaching the top simply for that reason. We don’t have to become U2 just yet. There’s plenty of years ahead for us to do that.”

Photo credit: Fuse

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗗𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗣𝗢𝗦𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗜𝗦 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗖 𝗦𝗖𝗘𝗡𝗘 𝗡𝗢𝗪, 𝗔𝗙𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗕𝗘𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗖𝗘𝗡𝗘 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗘𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗬𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗦?
📢 “We still feel like outsiders and we’ve always felt like outsiders. We’ve always felt like Radiohead in the way that we’ve created our own context, our own little planet where we have our own rules, we’re not affected by musical trends and just keep making music our way. However, I am not naïve and I’ve become very much aware of the fact that it’s the 21st Century: you have to prove your relevance again. You have to prove to the fans that you’re not ready for your pipe and slippers just yet, that you’re not passe.”

𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗩𝗘 𝗔𝗟𝗪𝗔𝗬𝗦 𝗛𝗔𝗗 𝗔 𝗥𝗘𝗣𝗨𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗔𝗦 𝗔 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 𝗕𝗔𝗗 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪𝗘𝗘. 𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗜𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧?
📢 It was who I was at the time. I had a great deal of arrogance and a great deal of bravado, but I think the bravado was brought on by a huge insecurity. I did get a reputation for being a beast as well. I was called a ‘drug crazed sex dwarf’ at one point. In every exaggeration there’s always a grain of truth, I guess.”

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗔𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥 𝗤𝗨𝗢𝗧𝗘 𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗪𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗗 '𝗗𝗘𝗟𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗔𝗟 𝗧𝗢 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗣𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗧 𝗢𝗙 𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗔𝗡𝗢𝗨𝗔'?
📢 (laughs) “Yeah, I think that’s great. Then again, talking about bravado, socially, the bravado that I exuded had a lot to do with my intake at the time, and that was a way of me dealing with mammoth insecurity.”

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗗 𝗢𝗙 '𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗔𝗞𝗘' 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗧𝗔𝗟𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧?
📢 “Everything, Around 'Without you I’m nothing' there was a really bad period where the drugs changed and it wasn’t very clever.”

𝗪𝗘'𝗥𝗘 𝗧𝗔𝗟𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗢𝗜𝗡, 𝗬𝗘𝗦?
📢 “Yeah.”

𝗔𝗦 𝗔𝗡 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗟𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗠𝗔𝗡, 𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗢𝗡 𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗛 𝗗𝗜𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗚𝗘𝗧 𝗜𝗡𝗩𝗢𝗟𝗩𝗘𝗗 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧?
📢 “Because I’m an old romantic, really, with an excessive personality. It was always going to happen. I managed to pull myself out of it before anything got very serious.”

𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗗𝗜𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗨𝗟𝗧 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧?
📢 “When you have a band threatening to kill you … Well, when you’re placed in a position where you go: career, friendship, music, art or heroin, you make the choice pretty damn quickly. I didn’t get into it deep enough to develop a nasty habit, but physically, giving up is days of discomfort and being really down, but you start to rise out of it.”

𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗟𝗢𝗡𝗚 𝗜𝗦 𝗜𝗧 𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗩𝗘 𝗧𝗔𝗞𝗘𝗡 𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗢𝗜𝗡?
📢 “God, ’98. I don’t really do drugs anymore. After heroin, I had a real problem with cocaine as well. I remember talking to my manager and saying, “this is all getting to be too much effort, I don’t know if I can deal with it, I just want to get back to where I was before”, which was just a drinker and a smoker. It agrees with me; the rest of it doesn’t really at all. And that’s all I am now, a drinker and smoker. It’s good. A stoned band is a happy band!”

𝗗𝗜𝗗 𝗜𝗧 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗚𝗘𝗧 𝗦𝗢 𝗕𝗔𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗛𝗔𝗗 𝗧𝗢 𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗖𝗞 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗢 𝗦𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗢𝗥𝗬?
📢 “It never got that bad. I’ve always had a really strong survival instinct, which has prevented me from jumping in at the deep end and staying there for too long when it comes to things like that. I’m very proud of the fact that this album has no drug references.”

Photo credit: Perou

𝗜 𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗜𝗖𝗘𝗗 𝗢𝗡 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗪𝗘𝗕𝗦𝗜𝗧𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗡𝗢𝗪 𝗗𝗘𝗦𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗕𝗘𝗗 𝗔𝗦 '𝗔𝗡 𝗘𝗫 𝗚𝗜𝗥𝗟𝗕𝗢𝗬 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗥𝗨𝗠' 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗩𝗘 𝗔𝗟𝗦𝗢 𝗛𝗔𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗛𝗔𝗜𝗥 𝗖𝗨𝗧 𝗦𝗛𝗢𝗥𝗧. 𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗘?
📢 “I still wear make up a lot! I’m actually wearing more, it’s just more expensive and better applied! The hair, well it took me 25 minutes in the morning to get to a point where it was suitable for Brian Molko to walk the streets with. After BMM, it was cut all your hair off, it’s low maintenance, you’re taking a break and anyway, you don’t want to be recognised walking around London, I want to be able to pass a bit incognito. This is your sabbatical from the rock bubble. And I felt like being a boy again for a little while. I’ve been this boygirl for so long that I just thought it would be interesting and different to just be a bloke again and wear jeans and a sweater and just wander around and be a regular Joe. I wanted to be able to take the Tube and for people to go ‘nah, can’t be’”.

𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗚𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗕𝗔𝗟𝗗?
📢 “I don’t know. I haven’t really lost any hair. I’ve been like this for the past seven, eight years. If it was to happen I’d just do the honorable thing like Michael Stipe and just get over it. I just hope I have a nice shaped head. There will be no transplants and no combovers, that’s for sure. If it happens, there’s nothing you can really do. I’m quite philosophical about it. They say it’s a sign of virility anyway!”

𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗖𝗟𝗢𝗦𝗘 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗧𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗙𝗔𝗠𝗜𝗟𝗬?
📢 “My father and I don’t communicate anymore. We’re just not good for each other so we’re not in each other’s lives. I love my mum. But she’s deeply religious, she’s a Born Again Christian which is what I was raised in. I left the church at around the age of 13, 14 as I started to discover my sexuality, which was definitely at odds with the church. My mum lives in Dundee. With my mum, our conversation is limited because I essentially do something that is not the way of the Lord. She’s just had to get used to it. I think the make-up is the thing that annoys my mum the most. Thankfully she’s hard of hearing, so she hasn’t really got the records fully. I have an older brother who I’m really close with, and that’s it.”

𝗗𝗢𝗘𝗦 𝗜𝗧 𝗠𝗔𝗞𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗦𝗔𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗗𝗢𝗡'𝗧 𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗔𝗡𝗬 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗧𝗔𝗖𝗧 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗙𝗔𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥? 𝗗𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗞 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗖𝗢𝗨𝗟𝗗 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗕𝗘 𝗔 𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗖𝗜𝗟𝗜𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗗𝗦?
📢 “With this kind of relationship, there usually is one somewhere along the line, but there’s no direct reconciliation planned at present by any means. Sure, it saddens me; cos of that, I’ve always had problems around the time of birthdays and Christmases and things like that. But I’ve learned to deal with it. I’ve always been the kind of person to look towards the future. Perhaps cos I’ve made so many mistakes in the past, I want to run away from them really quickly.”

𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗥𝗘 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗔 𝗕𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗔𝗣𝗬 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗡?
📢 “I’ve considered it many times. I’ve been very close to going to see people; I’ve cancelled appointments on the day for many different reasons. But to be honest, I’m lucky to have the music, that’s totally where I get it out. I’m quite happy with the amount of neuroses I’ve got now. They keep me ticking over. If I got rid of them all, who knows, I might become Sting for God’s sake, and I can’t imagine anything worse on this planet!”

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗜𝗦 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗙𝗜𝗥𝗦𝗧 𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗟𝗗𝗛𝗢𝗢𝗗 𝗠𝗘𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗬?
📢 “I was in Africa where we were living at the time. I was about two years old and I remember being in my cot, and it seemed to me to be like a prison cell already. I remember staring through the bars watching our maid sweep the floor.”

Photo credit: Tracey Griffin

𝗗𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗕𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗘𝗩𝗘 𝗜𝗡 𝗟𝗜𝗙𝗘 𝗔𝗙𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗛?
📢 “Organised religion has always seemed a bit of a cop-out to me, cos you’re accepting a list of rules without finding your own morality and your own principles – which takes more effort, but is infinitely more rewarding. The idea of life after death, which I grew up with all around me, is that it almost seems like an excuse for not living your life today. Life is so precious that it can’t be a rehearsal for some idyllic existence in the clouds. If you realise there could be nothing at the end of it all, it doesn’t mean you have to have a massive existential quandary about it, it just makes every second that you live all the more precious, and everything you do and every effect you have on other people much more important. When we go, we go. I’d like to believe in reincarnation. It would be nice, but I’m not too sure.”

𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗦𝗘𝗘𝗡 𝗔 𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗗 𝗕𝗢𝗗𝗬?
📢 “Yes, when I was a kid, in a car wreck on the way to school one morning. I was shocked at how ghost white this body way. And it was very soon after the accident. It’s an image that’s never left me.”

𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗨𝗦𝗘𝗗 𝗩𝗜𝗢𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗔𝗚𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗦𝗧 𝗔𝗡𝗬𝗕𝗢𝗗𝗬?
📢 “As a kid, everybody slaps their peers around, but I was always very small so I was usually on the receiving end of bullying. I think that had a lot to do with the fact that at home, I didn’t really have the family unit that made it good for me to interact socially with my peers.”

𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗕𝗘𝗘𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗩𝗜𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗠 𝗢𝗙 𝗩𝗜𝗢𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗜𝗡 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗔𝗗𝗨𝗟𝗧 𝗬𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗦?
📢 “Oh shit yeah, I’ve been threatened with violence for wearing make-up. I’ve had a lot of aggression from a lot of people but I take it with a pinch of salt. It’s okay. Thankfully, my band are bigger than me! Don’t mess with my drummer from Manchester, that’s for sure! Haha.”

𝗗𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗞 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘'𝗦 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗔 𝗖𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗩𝗜𝗢𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗖𝗔𝗡 𝗦𝗢𝗟𝗩𝗘 𝗔𝗡𝗬𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚?
📢 “Big abstract question! Probably.”

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗜𝗡 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗫𝗧 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗪𝗔𝗥?
📢 “I was on the march (the anti-war protest on February 15). This is a war that America decided to have even before September 11, and whatever justification that anyone can find for this, you can’t get away from the fact that they’ve been waiting for an excuse. When September 11 happened, the Americans were ready to attack straight away, but it was like, let’s hold on, as the media aren’t gonna take this very well – let’s get Afghanistan first, we were going to invade them anyway. It’s a case of America trying to force its way of life on the rest of the world and I think, simply on a philosophical level, if this is what the genocide of children is about then you have to make a stand about it. And if we weren’t going to war over the exportation of the American way of life, we should be marching against it anyway, against globalisation and America’s policing of the world when it sees fit – when it has financial or political interests, or when it has both in this case. You have to march, cos so many people are buying this bullshit. I do believe in peaceful protest and civil disobedience when it comes to this.”

𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗡 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗪𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗣𝗜𝗘𝗦𝗧?
📢 There was a period in 1999 where I was gloriously happy, but I was delusional! (laughs) I was head over heels in love and I thought that this was it and that I was sorted and that a whole bag of worries had just left me, like Pilgrim’s Progress, losing the burden of the sins on his back. I felt deliriously happy. But in the immortal words of Ian McCulloch, nothing lasts forever.”

Photo credit:  Spiros Politis

𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗜𝗡 𝗔 𝗥𝗘𝗟𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗣 𝗔𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧?
📢 “Next question.”

𝗪𝗛𝗢 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗜𝗥𝗦𝗧 𝗪𝗢𝗠𝗔𝗡 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗗?
📢 “The woman I lost my virginity to. I was 14, she was 16. We lost our virginity together. She was a beautiful French girl called Carole. She was my first proper girlfriend.”

𝗪𝗛𝗢 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗜𝗥𝗦𝗧 𝗠𝗔𝗡 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗙𝗘𝗟𝗟 𝗜𝗡 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛?
📢 “I was 17. It’s when I moved to London, and fell in love with a third year drama student. I think he relished the idea of breaking me in probably more than was actually in love with me! I’ve had sporadic relationships with men since. I think we’ll probably all evolve to a point where we’re all bisexual. It may become the cultural norm. But in order for that to happen the church has to stop having such a massive influence on everyday culture. When that starts to happen, it’s very possible that culturally and sexually we’ll take on the natural state, which I think is closer to bisexuality than anything else. I remember a fantastic quote of Derek Jarman’s which was “the world has to realise that heterosexuality is not the norm, it’s just common”. That says it all for me.”

𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗛𝗔𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗧 𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗞𝗘𝗡?
📢 “Many times. I’ve been a heartbreaker too. Which I find funny cos I’m the guy who couldn’t get laid at college. Which is why, when people treat you like some kind of sex symbol, I find it quite embarrassing. I’ve been a bad boy, and I’ve hurt people along the way. It’s impossible to exist and to take risks in life without hurting people along the way. There’s nothing worse than not attempting something cos you’re worried about a negative outcome. That’s self-censorship on a life level.”

𝗗𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗞 𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗩𝗘 𝗗𝗘𝗦𝗘𝗥𝗩𝗘𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗥𝗘𝗣𝗨𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗢𝗙 𝗕𝗘𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗦𝗘𝗫𝗨𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 𝗟𝗔𝗦𝗖𝗜𝗩𝗜𝗢𝗨𝗦 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗔𝗦𝗧?
📢 “I’m happy with the idea of the myth but you have to understand that a myth is a myth. A lot of music culture is about the propagation of those myths: I mean, I’d hate to be Sting or Gareth Gates or Fran Healy. It’s just all a bit too nice. Certainly for many years I was a tart, but similarly with drugs there’s a point where you can’t do that forever, that becomes very boring as well. If you have any depth to you as a human being you’re going to start looking for something else.”

𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗩𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗗 𝗕𝗘𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗡?
📢 “Yes, shock horror, Brian Molko is a love cheat!”

𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗕𝗘𝗘𝗡 𝗧𝗢𝗧𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 𝗙𝗔𝗜𝗧𝗛𝗙𝗨𝗟 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗠𝗢𝗡𝗢𝗚𝗔𝗠𝗢𝗨𝗦?
📢 “Yes. But not recently! (laughs) I often wonder if monogamy or marriage is one of these social constructs that has been put in place in order to control the general public. It’s a kickback to the Old Testament. It’s very uncommon for animals to mate for life. And there was a study done on pigeons and they found that 13% of pigeons are inherently homosexual. Gay pigeons, let’s go! (laughs) I’m convinced my dog was gay when I was growing up, too.”

𝗜𝗙 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗠𝗘𝗧 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗚𝗥𝗘 𝗦𝗘𝗟𝗙 𝗡𝗢𝗪, 𝗪𝗢𝗨𝗟𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗕𝗘 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗗 𝗢𝗙 𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗗 𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗡𝗘𝗗 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗢?
📢 “Yes, I'm improving as a human being. I have more respect for people, I'm learning to become less egocentric and arrogant and I'm learning to listen to people a lot more, which I think is really important. If I went back and saw myself at the age of 22, 23, I think I'd be shocked, and I'd realise why I got such a bad reputation and why I had a reputation for being a drunk and other things.
If I was able to go back to myself at that age, I think I'd say to myself "drink more water and don't worry about it, it's going to get better". And I think it does. For me, my twenties were definitely a second adolescence which I feel I'm coming out of right now, cos I've just turned 30. It was a chaotic, schizophrenic and excessive time and I experienced a lot and learned a great deal from it. I would have a real problem as a human being if I hadn't. I do think it gets better. I wouldn't necessarily do my twenties again, cos it was a very difficult time. But the demons don't shout as loud anymore. It's okay being me right now.”
(X-Ray "Molko on life, death, smack and make-up", April 2003)

Post by Silke

📌 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞 📌

𝘏𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘯?
”Many times. I’ve been a heartbreaker too. Which I find funny cos I’m the guy who couldn’t get laid at college. Which is why, when people treat you like some kind of sex symbol, I find it quite embarrassing.”
(X-Ray, April 2003)

Photo credit: Carole Epinette

Post by Silke

🔷𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐁𝐎 𝐀𝐋𝐁𝐔𝐌 𝐓𝐈𝐓𝐋𝐄𝐒🔷 part 2

Dear soulmates!
Today, we're going to continue discussing 🔷𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐁𝐎 𝐀𝐋𝐁𝐔𝐌 𝐓𝐈𝐓𝐋𝐄𝐒🔷, so I prepered some quotes by 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒇 regarding three latest Placebo studio records.

Photo credit: Trip Fontaine, 2009, album covers; edit by Olga

🟦𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐒🟦
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: “I don’t know, it was the best album title that we can come up with. You always look for an album title which isn’t the name of one of the songs but we couldn’t really come up with one that we thought was strong enough in a way. So we went for Meds because it kind of seemed to represent the anesthesia that exists on this record. But I think as well we wanted to have an album title which was short because the other album titles have always been very long: Without You I’m Nothing, Sleeping With Ghosts, Once More With Feeling, you know… We just wanted something short, snappy – Meds – and something that anybody could say in any language.”
(𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜 𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑃𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑟𝑡, 𝑁𝑃𝐴 𝐶𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑙+, 27.02.2006)

Photo credit: Nadav Kander

🟦𝐁𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐔𝐍🟦
📢𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧: There have been a few track in Battle of the Sun. There were more songs in this album that we did, that ended up in the album. And for the first time, we had the title of the record very early on. Usually with Placebo, it’ll be like: “the album is going to be pressed tomorrow, we need a title for the record now”! And it’s like “sh*t, what are we going to do”? And then we panic! But for this album we already had the title quite early on which allowed the theme to evolved and to be looked at in more perspective throughout the recording process and that was different for us. It also helped with the artwork and the whole idea on what this whole album was about.
(𝐻𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 "𝐼𝑐𝑜𝑛: 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜'𝑠 𝐿𝑜𝑢𝑑 𝐿𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒", 𝑆𝑒𝑝'13)

Photo credit: Scarlet Page

🟦𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐃 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄🟦
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: “I wanted to call our last album "Speed of Sound" before Coldplay beat us to it with their single. So this time I scoured the internet to check that "Loud Like Love" had not already been used in a musical context which, to the best of my knowledge, it hasn't. I can't remember exactly when and where and why it came to me, but it was sometime during our first phase of writing. It occurred to me that an underlying theme was emerging. We stood at a turning point: were we to follow our instincts and recognize that this theme was a manifestation of our collective sub-conscience and have the courage to explore, in our own singular manner, the subject that remains the most explored in popular song? Or were we to embrace the intellectual and steer the album’s subject matter away from its natural course out of fear of appearing cliched? Thankfully we chose the former and never once questioned that choice. And the results have exceeded our own expectations.”
(𝐵𝐾 "𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑀𝑜𝑙𝑘𝑜", 𝐴𝑢𝑔'13)

Photo credit: Joseph Llanes

Post by Olga