Gordon in the morning: Meeting of minds

Exciting times for Gordon as Kasabian turn up to offer an interview. A long, long interview.

In which Serge makes a serious face and compares himself and his friends to Heath Ledger:

He explained: “I was writing Vlad and heath’s death just struck a chord.

“There are so many people out there who’ve got to a point when they need a bit of help to get to sleep.

“It could have been any number of people that I know. It was really sad. He was 28, just had this huge film where he stole the show, had his career ahead and life ahead of him and I just felt, I’ll see you on the other side, mate. He seemed a sweet guy.”

Kasabian, of course, are self-made men:

Tom explained: “Brits love an underdog. Critics sneered at us in the beginning but we did it all by ourselves.

“We toured so hard and worked our ar*es off. We got the following we deserved because of hard work."

I think you'll find the critics are still "sneering", Tom. If by sneering you mean "pointing out that Kasabian aren't very good".

You're on a major label, Tom. It's not like you're part of the DIY underground. To be fair, you did do a lot of work to get the deal, but since then, the large glossy adverts and the placing of your tunes on Top Gear and TV campaigns and big support slots don't suggest a campaign being run from a kitchen table in Leicestershire.

But it turns out that when he means by this is that 'Kasabian aren't famous because they went on TV':

"It’s not like Britain’s Got Talent. It’s a horrible show. SIMON COWELL’s all right, though — he just needs to get a better haircut!”

With Serge and Tom straining to puff themselves, Gordon has a hard time trying to keep up with the over-the-top praise. But he manages it:

Serge now has his career-defining collection of songs — all at the age of 28.
[...]
it hasn’t stopped Pizzorno penning an album that would grace any era in rock ’n’ roll...

I did wonder if this was Gordon slyly digging that the record sounds like it could be forty years old for all the invention and inspiration it shows, but... no, I guess he thinks that's a compliment.

Smart does take the chance for a little BPI style railing at the modern world:

A week before the album launched, a pal of Serge’s turned up at a gig and told him track two was his favourite.

It turned out the CD had been leaked and thousands of copies were turning up in schools and offices around the country, robbing Kasabian of cash.

The modern economics of the music industry don’t favour talented musicians.

"Robbing Kasabian of cash"? Really? And what do you mean by the "modern economics of the music industry don't favour talented musicians"? Are you suggesting they favour crappy musicians? Which is rather an odd way to conclude a piece about how successful Kasabian are and how well they're doing.