Member of the St John Ambulance and groups of trauma councillors are being sent to rock festivals in Gloucestershire and Staffordshire because gloomy rockers Radiohead and Morrissey are performing........
The Times August 18, 2006
Outlook is gloomy as rockers sing the blues at 'mopefest'
CAN the combined forces of Morrissey and Radiohead sap the will to live? Trauma counsellors are being placed on standby when music’s leading miserabilists unite for tomorrow’s V Festival.
A wave of depression is forecast over England as fans gather in Chelmsford and Staffordshire for a weekend immersion in the dark arts of gloom-rock. Misery may love company but the organisers have called in St John Ambulance staff trained in depression counselling to cope with fans who find two days exposed to the world leaders in angst a little too much.
The misanthropic Oxford rockers Radiohead are the headline act tomorrow. The band are expected to premiere material that they describe as more terrifying than their acclaimed 1997 album OK Computer. The centrepiece of singer Thom Yorke’s new solo album is Harrowdown Hill, a song about the suicide of Dr David Kelly.
Morrissey, the “pope of mope”, will close the Chelmsford show on Sunday. The Manchester icon will perform classics by the Smiths alongside new anthems You Have Killed Me and Life is a Pigsty.
Birmingham's The Editors: they play very dark music.
Fans will be “warmed up” for the headline acts by Editors, the icy black-clad band hailed as successors to Joy Division, Manchester’s other titans of gloom.
Early arrivers can sing along to a chorus of “You had a bad day, You’re taking one down”, when Daniel Powter opens the festival with his hit from 2005.
American rockers the Dandy Warhols will perform their song Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth, which contains the lyric: “If you think that I don’t know about depression and emotional pain, you’re insane.”
The up-and-coming indie band the Young Knives have a caustic song, Loughborough Suicide, just for the occasion.
Parents gatecrashing the show can wallow in a greatest hits set from Echo & The Bunnymen, the post-punk band whose fans adopted the black overcoat as their uniform. Terry Hall, the doleful singer with the Specials, and Paul Weller, not always the happiest camper, will also appear at the event, dubbed “mopefest”.
David Cameron, the Tory leader, has requested tickets. He has said previously that Morrissey and Radiohead are two of his favourite acts.
Alcohol-related injuries provide most cases for treatment at British rock festivals, but organisers of this one are prepared for a more existential form of malady.
St John Ambulance said: “We will have six medical centres and 125 volunteers on duty around the V site. We are there to help anyone who feels upset or overwhelmed.”
Gloomy rock, most commonly associated with the “gothic” style of music and clothing, has been given fresh impetus by the arrival of the American genre, “emo-rock”. An amalgamation of male lyrical angst and metallic rock, its leading exponents My Chemical Romance and Dashboard Confessional will spread a little unhappiness at next weekend’s Reading and Leeds festivals.
thetimesonline.co.uk
The Times August 18, 2006
Outlook is gloomy as rockers sing the blues at 'mopefest'
CAN the combined forces of Morrissey and Radiohead sap the will to live? Trauma counsellors are being placed on standby when music’s leading miserabilists unite for tomorrow’s V Festival.
A wave of depression is forecast over England as fans gather in Chelmsford and Staffordshire for a weekend immersion in the dark arts of gloom-rock. Misery may love company but the organisers have called in St John Ambulance staff trained in depression counselling to cope with fans who find two days exposed to the world leaders in angst a little too much.
The misanthropic Oxford rockers Radiohead are the headline act tomorrow. The band are expected to premiere material that they describe as more terrifying than their acclaimed 1997 album OK Computer. The centrepiece of singer Thom Yorke’s new solo album is Harrowdown Hill, a song about the suicide of Dr David Kelly.
Morrissey, the “pope of mope”, will close the Chelmsford show on Sunday. The Manchester icon will perform classics by the Smiths alongside new anthems You Have Killed Me and Life is a Pigsty.
Birmingham's The Editors: they play very dark music.
Fans will be “warmed up” for the headline acts by Editors, the icy black-clad band hailed as successors to Joy Division, Manchester’s other titans of gloom.
Early arrivers can sing along to a chorus of “You had a bad day, You’re taking one down”, when Daniel Powter opens the festival with his hit from 2005.
American rockers the Dandy Warhols will perform their song Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth, which contains the lyric: “If you think that I don’t know about depression and emotional pain, you’re insane.”
The up-and-coming indie band the Young Knives have a caustic song, Loughborough Suicide, just for the occasion.
Parents gatecrashing the show can wallow in a greatest hits set from Echo & The Bunnymen, the post-punk band whose fans adopted the black overcoat as their uniform. Terry Hall, the doleful singer with the Specials, and Paul Weller, not always the happiest camper, will also appear at the event, dubbed “mopefest”.
David Cameron, the Tory leader, has requested tickets. He has said previously that Morrissey and Radiohead are two of his favourite acts.
Alcohol-related injuries provide most cases for treatment at British rock festivals, but organisers of this one are prepared for a more existential form of malady.
St John Ambulance said: “We will have six medical centres and 125 volunteers on duty around the V site. We are there to help anyone who feels upset or overwhelmed.”
Gloomy rock, most commonly associated with the “gothic” style of music and clothing, has been given fresh impetus by the arrival of the American genre, “emo-rock”. An amalgamation of male lyrical angst and metallic rock, its leading exponents My Chemical Romance and Dashboard Confessional will spread a little unhappiness at next weekend’s Reading and Leeds festivals.
thetimesonline.co.uk
Listening to my old Joy Division Cds always bring me out of my usual deep blue funk.