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Placebo have - somewhat close-by the upcoming UK tour - parted ways with Steve Forrest, who has been drumming with them since 2008.
It's an amicable split (they say) and he's going to pursue his own musical projects (he reckons); the drum stool will now be occupied by Matt Lunn, late of Colour Of Fire.
That's really all there is to this story, apart from the observation that they're not small venues, but they're, shall we say "cosier" than the venues they played the last time they did a big UK tour:
25/02:Dublin Olympia
26/02:Belfast Waterfront Hall
28/02:Edinburgh Corn Exchange
1/03:Glasgow o2 Academy
3/03:Aberdeen Music Hall
4/03:Newcastle o2 Academy
6/03:Hull City Hall
7/03:Blackburn King George’s Hall
9/03:Leeds o2 Academy
10/03:Liverpool Guild Of Students
12/03:Manchester o2 Apollo
13/03:Sheffield o2 Academy
15/03:Norwich UEA
16/03:Leicester De Montfort Hall
18/03:Birmingham o2 Academy
19/03:Bristol Colston Hall
21/03:Bournemouth o2 Academy
22/03:Southend Cliffs Pavillion
24/03:London Hammersmith Apollo
Here's a lovely creative commons image of Brian Molko from 2007:
Let's come back up to date. Here's the new Placebo single.
I think the kindest thing to say is that at least Brian's rhyming dictionary is up-to-date, isn't it?
A couple of months ago, Filament magazine [NSFW] ran an interview with Placebo's Steve Forrest that they'd originally printed in the magazine in 2009:
If you were stranded on a desert island with Stefan and Brian, who would you eat first?
Definitely Brian. Both of them would be easy to take down, but although Brian is a small man, he does have more meat on his bones than Stef, and would probably keep me and Stef alive until help came. Plus I don’t think Stef would feed both me and Brian, so just to fill my belly I would have to then kill Brian, but would only be able to eat half of him due to already having had a helping of Stef, and that would just be a waste.
Having only done an ordinary version, a Limited Edition, and a Deluxe Edition, Placebo are convinced there's still a market for slightly rejigged versions of Battle For The Sun. So prepare yourself for the Redux Version.
No, I'm not sure either. "New and re-worked tracks" it says here.
Anyway, in a bid to pick the interest in the record, there's going to be a one-off headline gig at the Brixton Academy on September 27th. Tickets on sale to "fans" from Wednesday; if few enough fans snap them up, non-fans will be able to buy them from Friday. Although why a non-fan would want to go, I'm not clear. Perhaps it would be to boo?
Placebo's decision to press ahead with a gig in Israel shortly after the IDF had shot some people in the head for trying to take aid to Gaza has caused a bit of upset in Lebanon.
Which is unfortunate, as they're meant to be playing Lebanon tomorrow. Not if Samah Idriss has his way, though:
'You are not welcome in Lebanon,' Lebanese writer and editor Samah Idriss said at a news conference jointly held by five non-governmental organisations on the eve of the concert in Beirut.
'The band must choose either to play in Lebanon or to play in a state that continuously violates rights,' Mr Idriss said on behalf of the groups, which include the Campaign to Boycott Israeli Supporters in Lebanon and the Campaign for the Lebanese Boycott of Zionism.
rian Molko announced his 'endorsement' of Israel in an interview. The interviewer then asked if it was important to have Israel's endorsement these days, to which Molko quipped: 'Yeah, if you want to go sailing.' Molko's comment showed Placebo 'ignored the massacre last week against the Freedom Flotilla and went even further, announcing their support for Israel,' Rana al-Masri, one of the activists spearheading the boycott campaign, told AFP.
Given that Israel seems to enjoy being condemned, as it fuels the sense of hard-done-bys in the world's most Emo nation, the news that the Pixies and Placebo have pulled out of next week's Tel Aviv festival probably won't have much effect.
The Pixies haven't even confirmed that they've made a political decision, instead:
blaming "events beyond our control"
New-ish Placebo drummer Steve Forrest nearly set himself up for a sit com moment thanks to a scant knowledge of late 90s British androgopop:
Yes, he tells my paper from Sydney, Australia, where Placebo were touring recently, he even thought lead androgynous singer Brian Molko, 37, was a girl.
He recalls: "My tour manager played a Placebo CD and I said, 'This chick's cool. She has a really good voice'."
It was only later, when Forrest met Molko in person, that he realised Molko is a guy.
Don't forget tomorrow night sees the launch for the Art Of Music 09, the exhibition being run as part of pancreatic cancer awareness week.
They're still taking sign-ups for a chance to get into the launch, and a chance to bid on art by Placebo, Blood Red Shoes and... well, The Stereophonics.
Next week is pancreatic cancer awareness week. While some cancers get thousand upon thousands of people out jogging against it, and pink-coloured kitchen items, pancreatic cancer struggles to get its voice heard. If cancer had a voice. You know what I mean.
To help with the awareness-raising, there's a rock-meets-art affair at the Proud Gallery in Camden between the 19th and 30th November. The artwork is all by pop stars - Placebo, Maximo Park - and people like The Stereophonics; on the 18th and the 30th, there's a pair of special events which will include auctioning of said artworks.
Congratulations to Placebo, U2, Jay-Z and Beyonce, who won the prizes for bothering to turn up to the MTV Europe awards.
The prizes were handed out in Berlin, and it wasn't lost on anyone that this meant some sort of vague reference to the events of twenty years ago had to be written onto the autocue and read out in a slightly confused voice. Oh, and that Bono thing.
The irony of what MTV did isn't lost on the Guardian:
Twenty years ago, thousands of Germans converged at the Berlin Wall to watch as the hated barrier between east and west was torn down. But tonight, many fans hoping to catch a glimpse of U2 as they played a free concert to celebrate the anniversary of the historic event would have found a small obstacle in their way: a hastily erected wall.
The organisers of the event, the music network MTV, erected a two-metre high "sight barrier" to exclude those without one of 10,000 free tickets from catching a glimpse of the band.
Brian Molko collapsed during last night's Osaka gig. There's a statement:
We would firstly like to thank you for all your kind words and messages of support regarding Brian’s health after fainting at the show in Osaka, Japan, yesterday.
It is always incredibly disappointing when a show cannot take place for any reason, particularly on this occasion due to Brian being unwell, as we have looked forward for such a long time to these shows in Japan!
We have undertaken a gruelling and intensive schedule over the last few months and the last couple of weeks alone played 5 countries in 9 days. Brian picked up a virus which coupled with jet lag and exhaustion caused his collapse on stage. Thanks to prompt and professional care Brian is recovering well.
We would like to extend our grateful thanks and sincere apologies to the fans who made a huge effort travelling to see us in Osaka, especially after long queue’s in the heavy rain. We would also like to extend many thanks and apologies to the promoters, Creative Man, at Summer Sonic for all their help and understanding under difficult circumstances.
We are all the more devastated after such an amazing show in Tokyo on Saturday where the crowd was incredible. We were so excited to be back in Japan after a few years away and we were reminded what a very special place Japan is to us.
Thank you all for your ongoing support and we hope to make it up to you with new dates in Japan very soon. We love your country and can’t wait to come back.
Placebo - and Brian has a lovely head of hair, I'm just jealous - are going to host an online playback session for their new album. You have to go to their site and register and be online tomorrow, but that's, surely, a small price to pay?
During a fairly quiet lunch hour, I was quite excited to come across the Placebo tour dates, and posted them up.
I was a bit surprised logging on this evening to find this in the comments:
WEB SHERIFF
Protecting Your Rights on the Internet
Tel [...]
Fax [...]
[...]
Hi NRaRF,
On behalf of PIAS, Astralwerks and Placebo, many thanks for plugging "Battle For The Sun " (album street date 8th June) ... .. thanks, also, on behalf of the labels and artist for not posting any pirate links to unreleased (studio) material and, if you / your readers want good quality, non-pirated, preview tracks, the title track is available for fans and bloggers to link to / post / host etc until the 13th April at www.placeboworld.co.uk... .. for further details of the new album, on-line promotions, videos and 2009 shows, check-out the band’s site plus www.myspace.com/placebo and www.youtube.com/officialplacebo
To mark the launch of the new album Battle For The Sun, there's going to be a mini-Placebo tour:
Sheffield Academy - May 9
Bournemouth Opera House - May 10
Shepherd's Bush Empire - May 12
Sheffield. Bournemouth. Shepherd's Bush. The Grand Tour is back.
After the digital stuff, MIDEM turns to the music, and amongst the early announcements is that Placebo are signing to PIAS for the next album. They could have had their pick of the majors - they say - but instead fell for PIAS small-scale, big-idea charms:
Placebo frontman Brian Molko said “We are delighted to be signing with [PIAS], one of the world’s most respected and successful independent music companies. We were very lucky to have so many great labels interested in signing us, it means a lot, especially after 12 years of releasing records!! But we now feel we have the right partner for Europe in these ever-changing times to continue this crazy adventure and to scale even dizzier heights with our new record".
It probably makes sense that Placebo have replaced former drummer Steve with another Steve - it makes it so much easier when you don't have to learn a new name, doesn't it? It's a bit like when Elsie Tanner's second husband was, luckily, also called Tanner.
The band have poached Steve Forrest from Evaline, the band who supported them on their 2006 tour. Future support acts will do well to count their members as they pack up on the last night, lest Brian has pinched a bassist or a keyboard player.
Mariya (to whom thanks for the tip-off) points out that Evaline don't appear to have heard the news yet, as their MySpace still lists Forrest as a member. [UPDATE: It's been changed in the last hour to list Greg Petersen as drummer. We're assuming - since Placebo is their #2 friend, this is all been done with good grace.
A brief glimpse of a smiling John Peel, and then we're in to a slice of Placebo's 1998 Glastonbury set that, clearly, has been lifted from someone's Brian Molko VHS stash - though it how survived from the endless freeze-framing, we'll never know.
[Part of Glastonbury 1998]
Big thanks to Mariya for the email tipping our attention in the direction of Stefan's update on what's happening in the Placebo world right now:
Placebo have announced they're parting ways with Steve Hewitt, who's been sat on a stool behind Brian Molko for eleven years. Statement:
