Yesterday it was announced that U2 were to cancel their headlining Friday night slot from Glastonbury due to U2 lead singer and infamous hypocrite Bono having a bit of back trouble and needing surgery. This now leaves a slot open for one of the most covenant slots in all of music, a chance to headline the biggest, and most famous festival in the world. This following blog is my reasons for why in my opinion Alabama 3 should take the slot….
Now I know first of all Alabama 3 are already playing twice at this years festival and they are almost part of the furniture there after playing pretty much every other year and I know traditionally the festival headliners are top selling artists mainly of the rock genre, however I feel that since this year is the 40th anniversary of the festival, a festival from my own experience and from what I’ve been told is a festival rich in tradition, diversity, and high quality and due to these circumstances the organizers should try something new and celebrate these traditions with a band like Alabama 3 headlining the Friday.
When asked who Alabama 3 are and what they play, my usual response is “have you ever seen the Sopranos?” and if they have then the reply of “They do the theme music to it” and when they haven’t I usually get the question “What kind of music do they play?” which is when I’m given the opportunity to explain the concept of the best band in the country today…
Alabama 3’s obvious main influence lies within their southern American country and blues vocals, as well as adding acid house drum loops, rock n roll guitar rifts, politically and socially charged lyrics which usually involve communist, anti racist and drug based themes, as well as frequent references to old delta blues and country singers (Robert Johnson, Woodie Guthrie, Hank Williams etc) sometimes sung in the style of a rap by supporting vocalist and co writer D-Wayne Love.
Now you may be wondering how a band like this could of possibly spawned well the founders are; Larry Love (aka: Rob Spragg) who is the son of a Welsh Mormon minister and D-Wayne Love (aka: Jake Black) who is incredibly Scottish. The band aren’t from Alabama, they was formed in Brixton and there aren’t 3 of them there are between 8-11 when they perform live. Now it’s not just A3’s diverse music style and eccentric set up which I think makes them worthy of headlining Worthy Farm, it’s everything else they represent and for everything they stand for…
Now I often get asked by fellow fans of the band “Why aren’t they bigger then they actually are?” I think the answer to this lies within the bands ethics of making music and going about as a band. They are on an independent record label for starters, they have never played a venue bigger then a 2,000 capacity and even when they do it’s for no more then a reasonable 20 pound a ticket, one of my particular favorite traits of theirs is the fact that they let the producers of The Sopranos use their track ‘Woke Up This Morning’ for nothing! And to this day have absolutely no regret to what they did and never actually mention it unless asked, now I don’t know how much it would cost a television producer to play even one of the later, mundane U2 tracks like “Vertigo” or “City of Blinding Lights” But I’m pretty sure Bono and his men wouldn’t let it be played without a figure with at least 4 0’s on the end of it. Also when it comes to charity work Alabama 3 have trumped’s U2 yet again. Now I know U2 have given a lot of money to charity, if you don’t know this then you must be completely death or have ignored everything for the past 25 years. But despite what ever U2 does for charity it just proves them of further hypocrisy. The band hold duel passports to several different countries and as a result do not pay any tax to either of them since they don’t live in the country for long enough, they support helping climate change but are currently on a 14th month around the world tour, where they are probably all flying in their own private jets and also jetting around there 20 ton 360 stage, burning Christ knows how much electricity on one of their over produced 2 hour stage shows. Another thing I’d like to note on the recent tour was the irony behind the tours sponsors and one of the recent U2 tracks of their latest album. I don’t know the tracks name but the premise behind it is basically a dig at how are communications are being controlled by technology. THE TOUR WAS SPONSERED BY FUCKING BLACKBERRY!!!!. Ok I think I’ve vented enough anger about U2 so I can get back to promoting my campaign….Now the contrast between U2’s preaching, hypocritical charity campaigns and Alabama 3’s slight mention of a charity every gig and ask to donate to it at the end is a great one, also considering that all of U2 are on multi million pound contracts who could probably pay off the 3rd world debt if they all chipped in a bit and Alabama 3 make enough money off ticket sales, merchandise and their music to probably live without thinking of having to take up a day job. Like that passage in the bible where Jesus and his mates are hanging out in a temple and there is loads of rich people donating money to it, then a peasant woman comes up to the box and puts in like one coin and all of the rich people turn their noses up, I think Jesus then has a bit of a go at them which then leads to one of his mates asking him what the deal was, to which Jesus replies “those rich blokes have given just a fraction of what they can just to look good, even though they gave loads it don’t mean anything to them. Where as that bird is completely skint and has given all she has to the cause” It was words to that effect anyway. But anyway my point is Alabama 3 on the whole do more for charity.
I would like to start rolling things up now as I’ve noticed that I’m starting to ramble a bit and kind of getting away from my point, which is this in a few words….
Glastonbury festival is like I said earlier, a festival of great tradition, diversity and love. It also gives lots to charities and gives creative people platforms to express these on, The main one being the headlining slot. I feel that Alabama 3’s contribution to music and the world is worthy of that slot. The Guardian to this day states that they are the best live band in the world, and I probably wouldn’t fault that statement, not only do I feel that they are of the quality and have the back catalogue to headline, I also feel that a band that has been able to mix so many traditional forms of music from all over the world and turn them into songs refrencing old time artists as well as famous Brixton landmarks and streets, they have written one of the greatest drinking songs of all time (Old Purple Tin) a tribute to Tennants Super. ‘Mao Tse Tsung says’ which is mainly just a Jim Jones sample with D-wayne hitting a nice rap in the middle of it. The song isn’t much of a recorded track, but live it is followed by a left handed communist salute and is one of the bands landmark tracks…I could go on but I’ve got things to do….I just feel that a band as inspiring as Alabama 3 should have the privilege to headline this years festival instead of some shit like Coldplay.
Further watching….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpGgLyfDERI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAFU9cHZ1Xo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grPFfrLRBRI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHEjuZmVTi4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tmxVAEMxDI
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