666 : Why I ain't doing live streaming gigs!

I’ll let you into a secret, I just don’t get filmed concerts. In lockdown, I have tried the plentiful streams coming from some of my favourite artists (Insomnium, Enslaved, Swallow the Sun, Hevy Devy) and I also tried revisiting films of classic shows. Both have sadly left me cold. I adore Frank Turner’s “England Keep My Bones”, but heretically I left his full album performance on Thursday midway through coz I was bored. You can see me surging in the crowd in the footage from both AC/DC and Iron Maiden triumphant early nineties Donington headline sets, yet I barely get through the opening numbers with both shows before I decide I have something else tp do.

666Author : Stewart Lucas25 April 2020Live Stream, Hevy Devy, Enslaved, Insomnium, Frank Turner, Blog Post, Stewart Lucas, Isolation, CrowdComment

666 : The Dystopian World of Live Music, What Next?

If you read the comments on Facebook regarding the few festivals that are left, you will see that opinions divide neatly into two camps: those desperate for the events to go ahead and those weary of ever again being within two meters of another human being. This split is also evident in national research on how the general public view the potential return to some form of normality. On Radio Five this morning, they hypothesised that if Coronavirus stuck around for years to come, there could develop a real suspicion of social mixing that would intrinsically change the way that we operate as human beings. This has led me to mulling over how this will affect live music.

666 : What is Metal?

Our universe is vast. It is full of melodic mountains made up of euphoric life-affirming anthems. Music that makes you feel invigorated. There are also dark recesses where the pain and anguish run as torrents of harrowing human misery. Music that speaks to the broken and down-trodden. Yet, both exist side by side. Both are Metal. Metal started as Sabbath. Sabbath was Metal, Metal was Sabbath. Simple. But then like any virus it started mutating. And that's the point. There is no blueprint or grand plan for this music. It is not built to some preordained structure, it creeps, it develops and it evolves. Which begs the question “What actually is Metal?”.

666 : The History Of Metal

Earth change their name to Black Sabbath, come up with that riff and metal is born. In this country, they appeal to kids bored by their elder brothers Beatles records. In the states, they appeal to kids bored of smoking spliffs to the Grateful Dead. Some stay awake long enough to form Aerosmith, Kiss and the Alice Cooper Band.

666Author : Stewart Lucas4 March 2020The History Of Metal, Stewart LucasComment