I never thought I’d see this again!
Net Cafe, a TV show in the 90’s, did an episode on music and the web with a really good interview of my old friend Dan Prothero, along with a cringe worthy interview of my brother Peter and me.
The clip of my brother and me starts 7 minutes in. Way back machine, indeed.
My favorite bits:
(thanks Adam)
When I did my predictions at the What’s UP 2007 the prediction that seemed to get the most snickering and eyes rolling was my suggestion that “DRM finally goes away”.
Well, it’s official. EMI is making their entire catalog available on iTunes completely DRM-free.
I made my parents ballistic with the music I listened to and bashed out on my drumkit as a teenager. They often wondered aloud, with a snicker, whether I’d be listening to the same crap when I’m 40. I sometimes wondered the same thing.
I’m not quite 40 yet, but I am one of those old geezers that is ecstatic to hear that The Police have reunited and are hitting the road for the first time in nearly 25 years. I have to admit that I am fairly surprised that I still love The Police, as much as ever. Stewart Copeland is still by far my favorite drummer of all time.
I pretty much gave up on a reunion ever happening. I assumed it was for the best, considering their solo careers have produced some truly wretched and embarrassing music. However, seeing them play the Grammy’s and then reading this gave me a lot of hope…
The trio played a short set of material this morning, including “Message in a Bottle,” a medley of “Voices Inside My Head” and “When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around,” and “Can’t Stand Losing You,” which featured band members yelling out upcoming chord changes to one another. They also played their breakthrough hit, “Roxanne,” which they performed to open the Grammys last night.
Sting said the tour would be a stripped-down affair, with no backing vocalists or horn sections. “It’s going to be three guys on stage–that’s all,” he said. The setlist will consist entirely of material from the Police–none from Sting’s solo career, he later added.
They seem to be going back to their roots, playing the raw music live and improvised. To me they were never a rock band. They were a funk, punk, reggae, and jazz trio with pop hooks and catchy, clever lyrics. They were a white version of James Brown, Bob Marley, and Miles Davis. They were true musicians who knew how to play their asses off.
I was mostly interested in the bootlegs. My brother and I would hunt for bootlegs in the Village at places like Bleaker Bob’s and Second Coming. I amassed a great collection of records, cassettes, and even videos, that cost an absolute fortune. But it was worth it. Every performance was different. You could hear the music evolve with each tour – the jam in the middle of a track from one tour would evolve into a new song several albums later.
It’s taken a while, but now most of those bootlegs that I had are available as BitTorrents or even on YouTube. Plus, many others I had never heard or seen before.
It’s interesting to see the band vanish in the 80’s and reappear in the era of the world wide web. They announced their tour online, setting up an online fan club. I’m a pretty die hard Police fan, but there’s no fucking way I’m going to pay $100 to get “exclusive” video and advance ticket sales – tickets that will themselves cost $200+. Nevertheless, I’m sure there are plenty of people coughing that up – it’s a smart, if not shamelessly greedy, strategy. If they were really smart, they would sell copies of their shows online. That I might actually buy.
Here are some choice clips from YouTube:
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