News Articles and Public Relations from the UK Goth Scene
Please note The Blogging Goth has now moved to its own dedicated website - linked above!
Bookmark it now for fresh updates - coming soon, a video-blog from Whitby Gothic Weekend plus interviews with Voltaire and Clan of Xymox!
For the benefit of Blogging Goth readers who aren’t following the WordPress version of the blog, here’s a link to the latest article on the Lanza shooting in the US, and critically - the response of some elements of the British media.
The response has been heartening and may go some way in turning the tide of bad reporting and bad representation of Goth in the media. If you enjoy the article, please share it to educate others.
Amanda Palmer and The Issue of Paying Musicians
Here at The Blogging Goth we’re always welcoming to guest bloggers - first in the casket is Mr Monahan - Old School Goth, Irish, ex-student radio DJ and photographer.
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Brechtian Punk Rock Cabaret Diva Amanda Palmer found herself once again the centre of attention during the months of August and September due an announcement relating to the ongoing tour for her new project, Amanda Palmer and The Grand Theft Orchestra, in support of their new album Theatre is Evil. This would not be unusual in itself, as Amanda is very good at marketing and getting noticed, except that the announcement is an open call for session musicians to play at her gigs on a volunteer basis. Instead of being paid cash for their services, they will receive beer, hugs, merchandise and thanks for a job well done.
This has caused quite an uproar from people who were unhappy with these arrangements, ranging from musicians, fans of Amanda Palmer and the internet and general. Some musicians such as Caustic and Unwoman have tried explaining her actions and answering her critics about Amanda’s decision not to pay her bit players. While Amanda has defended her actions,she has ultimately decided to pay all her session musicians that she will employ on her tour, including retro-active payment of all previous musicians who had volunteered on her tour.
While Amanda has a reputation for publicly asking for favours from fans in the form of loans of instruments and accommodation while on tour, the open call for volunteer musicians has been seen as condescending and insulting. Mrs Palmer has built a reputation on being an Indie artist who has struggled against the unfairness of the music industry (or at least, the unfairness of the executives at Roadrunner Records) and as an artist who built her name from the ground up. Such artist may be within their rights to ask for people to volunteer their skills for live shows, but such requests are kept to trusted friends rather then made to the general public. Facts such as said musician having made $1.2 million in pre-sales thanks to Kickstarter (more then a number of musicians will see in their entire careers), being married to bestselling author Neil Gaiman who has been promoting said Kickstarter, an established history and reputation or an extensive back catalogue does not help her case either.
Her success and fanbase, while doubtlessly well earned due to her hard work and talent, means that she can no longer regard herself as an Indie artist in the sense of a struggling self-funded singer-songwriter trying to share their vision with the world at the expense of financial security. If she sincerely wants to portray herself as an artist who worked to where she is now from scratch, then she must acknowledge that many of the musicians she works and will work with are in the place she once was in. And of the most sincere ways to acknowledge an artist’s talent and effort is to pay them a fair amount for their work.
Not only this, but Amanda can avail hers of a better quality of backing musician by offering them cash for their time rather then beer, thanks and merchandise. Professional musicians will, nine times out of ten, outperform amateurs and others working for free. Professionals can work out and charge a certain value based on their services and have the training, experience and work ethic to deliver what they are paid for. An amateur could be anyone who is willing to give it a go regardless of ability.
Some more serious reportage this time, from WGW November 2012.
So, when I’m neglecting this blog, I’m working on parody music videos.
Apologies to you all ;)
A must read. I was surprised they don’t mention the fact that two of the best Goth/Darkwave singers of the present era, Tobi O’Kandi of O Children, and Shannon Funchess of Light Asylum, are of African heritage.
Great article here. I’ve always kept in mind that Goth simply doesn’t feature a large proportion of non-Caucasians, and fretted over the fact that outsiders might consider that an intentional exclusion. It damn well isn’t!
One explanation that occurred to me was that the typically black music genres of R&B, hip-hop and rap offered the same lifestyle-defining subculture as Goth, and were more firmly rooted in black cultural history, so overall were more appealing.
I also liked the justification that the glorification of ‘pale and mysterious beauty’ was a Class, rather than Race thing - I’d say that was spot on; Goth is infamously middle-class, perfecting the art of social rebellion whilst being socially aspirational! I’m squarely in that bracket, as I grew up on a council estate but went through private school education.
Goth can be a spiky and insular culture, and some of the drama and bitchiness can be terribly isolating. But I’d eat my flour-covered cowboy hat before I’d accept Goths were ever racist.
Once again, Goth is under the academic microscope - this time at Northumbria University. Their upcoming symposium, to be held this Friday, features a keynote session with Dr Catherine Spooner who is a highly prolific author on Gothic culture and appears to be shepherding an entire coterie of budding Doctors of Goth, which sounds both ludicrous and awesome.
We’ve touched on academic study of Goth before, and it’s heartening to see it highlighted again as a major topic at this conference. I’ll keep referencing Dr Dunja Brill’s ‘ground-breaking’ research back in 2006 that received so much wry attention from the press, and yet surprised so many people who learned that Goths can be very successful.
There’s a topic that could probably benefit from some study. Sadly, The Blogging Goth won’t be able to attend, but I will be at the evening event - it might lack some typical Goth bands, but should see a mingling of many minds engrossed in subcultural study. And a bar.
<Review> Leon Steelgrave - More Stories about Drugs, Sex and Violence
Usually, author’s pictures aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. Who cares what the writer looks like? It’s the look of his words you’re more interested in, right? Revise that opinion then, because Leon Steelgrave’s battle-scarred back is the lining to this slim and sinful series of short stories.
Within, you will travel from Scotland’s roughest council estates to the highest echelons of American power, via the imaginary world that lies just a hop, skip and cup of Dr Leary’s patent medication away from our own. You’ll run into a broad array of characters all inflicting unforgivable pain and immeasurable pleasure on one another as they nestle in the heart of the ‘normal’ world.
Lady Sarah could give Christian Grey a run for his money - and probably should. Will you sympathise with the jaded tabloid reporter who stumbles into her world of ultimate control? The master chemist of ‘Salvation’ has all of the skill - and none of the remorse - to make an entire world pay, but can he escape one man? Anne’s brother believes nobody can touch him when he takes down those who did for his sister, but is he so certain of his fate?
Steelgrave clearly broke out of the Irvine Welsh Asylum for Bleak Scots, and he autopsies the worst of our collective subconscious for your mingled horror and fascination. This is a perfect coffee-table book - if there’s room amidst the needles, whips and firearms.
A hip and ironic online magazine sends a journalist and photographer to Slimelight - and this is his review.
The comments section is predictably frothing up as people clash over whether or not it’s amusing, with some people even deploying the Bacup attack as some kind of justification for not laying into the scene.
For what it’s worth, I think it’s an entertaining read - but it does require a broad sense of self-deprecation to accept.
Opinions?
Sentencing for Bury attackers
With thanks to the Sophie Lancaster Foundation who have begun circulating the news that sentencing has been handed down to the two men found guilty of assaulting two Goths in Bury, Manchester.
The case has been extensively covered by the Daily Mail, but we strive to offer alternatives to visiting the Daily Mail’s website. The Telegraph also has the disturbing video of the assault actually in progress which may affect sensitive viewers. Further coverage can be found by googling the victim in question.
This attack has been mentioned a few times on this blog, and we can now pass on the details of the case, and the sentence. One section that was repeated by the Mail was…
Kelsall of Cheetham Hill, Manchester, had committed 77 previous offences between 1980 and 2010 including assaulting a police officer and public order matters
His counsel stated… “He bears no prejudice on people who are Goths or who dress in that way. He accepts his actions were beyond acceptable.”
It is implied from the Mail’s coverage as well that there may have been some verbal altercation between McDermott and her companion, the victims, and Kelsall and Farrar. Regardless of the provocation, said Farrar’s lawyer…
‘There is no doubt the two parties did not like the look of each other. But whatever was said that is not an excuse.’
It is difficult at best to paint this as an alternatively-motivated attack - but it also cannot be discounted, and as a result we should be grateful that justice for such a vicious assault has been handed down.
