Heart of a Punk Soul of a Rasta

When the Trolley comes Off The Wheel
or
When the Fan Hits the Shit
or
Freebies, sweeteners, promos, special editions, limited editions, gimmicks, fads, hype, social media and the marketer's manipulation of us great unwashed, Part III.

As I've already said I'm a sucker for freebies, sweeteners, promos, special editions, limited editions, gimmicks, fads, hype, social media and a bit marketeering manipulation. Obviously it was best 30 years ago when you'd get something for nothing. My personal favourites are coloured vinyl of any kind; Peter Tosh's Marijuana scratch & sniff sticker on his "BUSH DOCTOR" LP; the METAL BOX from PiL; Free Psychedelic Furs T Shirt; the odd free single with LP's from TV Smith & the Explorers, WIRE etc and the many from The Stranglers who were serial offenders where this was concerned, a Freebie with "Rattus" and "Black & White"; something physical for nowt was always priceless. Wa Wa, Waaa.

In recent times, though you've had to pay for something extra but there have been a few gems. The deluxe edition seems to be king nowadays and The Madness box set produced for their 2009 "Norton Folgate" LP was a good example of the good example. It wasn't cheap at £40 but for your HEC (hard earned cash) you got 3 cd's, vinyl, books, badges, posters all encased nicely in a well designed folio looking case. But as far as these deluxe products are concerned love or hate can only be in the eye of the punter who's shelling out the brass. There's nothing for free it's just a case of how large you'd like your portion to be.

As for gimmicks or novelties Burning Spear's "Our Music" in 2005 came out as a CD/DVD. A CD one side, flip it over a DVD on the other, an interesting product. I thought it would have been rolled out on mass - "take two discs into the shower, not anymore with the new CD/DVD". But what happened? Well it didn't catch on. Perhaps there was a problem with manufacture, or perhaps the record companies deemed that us punters would be too dim to ever work out which side was which.

So that's the upside done what about the downside. Well in the mid eighties the freebie was deemed to be naughty naughty, very very naughty, and got outlawed. The record company's marketeers now changed tack and began to release singles in multifarious formats. This obscene practice reached its zenith between '88 to '92 when music in the UK was at its shittiest; it mirrored the times. In these days a single would be released on CD, 7", 12" and cassette. Then there would be various mixes, live versions, different coloured vinyl, different B sides etc. Some singles ("Pictures of You" by The Cure is a good example) could be released in as many as ten different formats. This was done in an attempt to get the DIE HARD, DYED IN THE WOOL FAN to buy all the formats and so HYPE the single into the charts. How robbing the most loyal fans was ever seen as a good marketing move the Lord alone knows, but the days of the freebie were over, and hard nosed blunt capitalism was the order of the day; again this simply mirrored the times.

There was still some fall out to be felt from the days of the Freebie in 1997, when Paul Weller released his fourth solo album HEAVY SOUL. Rather than having a booklet made up of lyrics and images in the Special Edition of the LP, there was a booklet of lyrics and 4 separate square postcard images. These postcards were deemed to be freebies by the powers that be. Of course in the normal world this was bollo. No one had gone out to buy Weller's new LP to get their hands on 4 photos. But PW got his knuckles well & truly wrapped, HEAVY SOUL went straight in the LP charts at No.1 but the Special Edition sales were discounted and so HEAVY SOUL only reached No.2.

This tragic incident of course ended Paul Weller's career, he was dropped by his record company Island Records and devastated by the treatment he'd received he never made another record. Today 14 years on, he works at POP the boutique on Oldham Street in Manchester. He doesn't like to talk about the old days now; in fact he's very much in denial. When I went to interview him recently, all he had to say was "look I'm not Paul Weller, now either buy something or fuck off out my shop". Tragic really; apparently some one told me recently he used to be in The Jam, whoever they were.

Bringing us up to date then, there have been some annus horribilis moments in the world of freebies, sweeteners, promos, special editions, limited editions, gimmicks, fads, hype, social media and the marketeer's manipulation of us great unwashed in the last year. Head of the queue in the horribilis stakes is PLEDGE MUSIC.

I came across PLEDGE MUSIC in January 2010 when Gang of Four announced they were releasing their first album for donkey's years thru' PLEDGE. I didn't know anything about the concept. Is it a concept? It sounded good anyway: Involve Your Fans - Keep Your Rights - Fund Your Music - Raise Money For Charity. A dream ticket? Everyone wins? Or fine words butter no parsnips. I couldn't decide.

I signed up in January 2010 pledging £8.99 of my HEC. For this £8.99 I was told I'd get some exclusive content, some social interaction and some of the money would go to charity. Personally the talk of charity didn't do anything for me when I give money to charity I give money to charity I don't buy music or play the lottery. You see I'm not bright enough to make such a sophisticated connection. When I give to charity I put my KA$H in a tin or in a geezer's plastic cup - my brain can cope with that, just. Also I guess the charitable element of my £8.99 didn't do a great deal for
anyone either.

The FAN oriented interaction bit, that spewed forth once the PLEDGE MUSIC "project" got going, was pretty good and mildly diverting. The free downloads were OK too (if you like that sort of thing). Of course all the PLEDGE exclusive downloads were also immediately made available to non pledges via the deadhead pirates of interweb - but what can you do?

As the release date of the "CONTENT" came nearer, and was eventually passed, the Gof4 social interaction and blogs on PLEDGE were taken up with apologies rather than exclusive content. And the so called FAN comments area was choc full of disgruntled knob heads moaning about not getting the LP on time - YAWN!

When I finally got the Gof4 LP, I decided to ask myself the question. Was Pledge Music a pleasurable experience? I tried hard to remember. Oh yes, in January 2010 I'd handed over £8.99 and almost a year later I'd received in January 2011 ten downloads. No CD - no artwork - no high quality files - just ten tracks in digital dust format. On the day my downloads of "CONTENT" by Gang of Four was delivered I could have bought the physical CD from Amazon or Play.com for £7.99. Pleasurable experience? No! But hey perhaps the album wouldn't have got made if Gof4 hadn't got my altruistic donation of £8.99 a year previously. Yeah I'm joking.

In January 2011 I also bought the Wire's new LP "Red Barked Tree". I bought it a week before its release not a year before it hit the streets. It cost me £10.99. For that I got a vinyl copy - sweet! Downloads both MP3 and FLAC - nice. And a FEEBIE! Yes with a FREEBIE! In the shape of the stella "Strays" EP. Compared to the way Gof4 LP had been delivered there was no comparison. Happy I was.

I'd like to think that overall PLEDGE MUSIC will be a good thing but as far as Gof4 went it was well and truly PANTS. How music is delivered, hyped and marketed will always be a hit or miss affair. Whether for good or bad someone will always want to give the machine an extra little greasing, the plastic an extra gentle push. Freebies, sweeteners, promos, special editions, limited editions, gimmicks, fads, hype, social media and the marketer's manipulation of us great unwashed will continue. Sometimes we'll be left with a bitter taste sometimes with a warm glow. What we're left with at the end of the day are a handful of rusty badges and a pile of crumpled posters - the eye wash is soon forgotten - the music remains.

Finally let's finish on a hysterically funny note with the Radiohead newspaper; a wonderful piece of exclusive content. A £32.00 newspaper! Ring my doctor! I think The King of Limbs paper does truly sum up the age of the idiot we are living in. For £32.00 of HEC, Radiohead presented me, along with their underwhelming "King of Limbs" on luscious clear vinyl & CD, a newspaper. A newspaper full of artwork, lyrics and incomprehensible blurb. A £32.00 newspaper!

In the paper we are also told how wonderfully biodegradable the paper and cover of the LP is. I don't know whether this is why it cost £32.00, but perhaps it is. Have I mentioned this PRODUCT cost me £32! Quite obviously the product itself is not as biodegradable as no product at all. No product would be the greenest surely? Or am I missing something?

Also creating a "King of Limbs" newspaper seems a very strange choice for Radiohead. The newspaper is the No.1 symbol of the immediately disposable wasteful world we've created in the last 200 years. Creating a green newspaper is no different from creating a green car; the problem is perpetuated not eradicated - and the symbol remains. Very strange then. A big thick heavy book, smelling sweetly of china clay, something full of insightful blurb and crisp exquisitely printed artwork would have been nicer. Something that could never be recycled but used to prop doors open with for the next thousand years. Not a newspaper that begs to be used to ignite a bonfire. A £32 bonfire igniter. A 32 quid newspaper! I really have more money than sense; and I'm completely broke.