Well, I missed most of the other bands. But there was one left. But I was talking to Colin from Milque for the majority of their set. Whingeing on about how people never check out bands and just talk to their friends at the bar and all that crap. Yeah, I know, but I'd only been a hypocrite about 3 times today, so I still had my quota to get up to. But I did see the last couple of minutes, and I'm afraid the name Korn sprung to mind very much.
Arrgh, grrrr. No, I'm not going to rise to it. No. Oi, steady, I mean the bait on this. Grrrr .... Ok, argh. Fuck look. Sorry, but why, WHY. See, I just don't get all this. Your here, Rugeley. All due respect to the place, but it's a bit out of the way, it's a small town, there's no reason for any band to play here. Apart from the venue. A venue that puts on bands every week. And every time I've been here, which admittedly is only 3 or 4 times, it is abused by the people who populate it. I know, I've just been a hypocrite saying I was talking to someone while there was a band on, and I missed the other 2 bands. But hey, I've just driven best part of an hour to get here. I do go out of my way, so if I occassionally miss a band then I can live with that. And if I occassionally talk to people who I don't maybe see for weeks on end, I can live with it. But when it's the people that you go to school or college with everyday and you don't check out the bands that are playing in the venue, then it gets annoying. People talk of a lack of UK scene. Utter trash. It's right there in front of you. But, if you don't look, then it is going to go away. And if it does go away, it'll fuck you right up with respect to the American bands that everyone seems to feel that they can't live without. Do you really think they're going to come over, or be funded to come over, when they check on venues for booking a tour and discover that no fucker bothers to go and see bands there. They'll rely on the knowledge of there being a UK audience. At the moment, there isn't. See, Milque are doing their thing, busting a gut. A 45 minute set, the longest I've seen them do, which means the return of Nightmare, Deal With It and Target, introduced by Zoe as about "killing teenagers". And there's little pockets of people that come, and then go, and then come back again, and then go again. What, your attention span to pittiful. To small. Disinterested. Korn playing on the disco out in the corridors? Man, you don't know how lucky you are. There was nothing like this when I was growing up in Wales. You've got a place doing something for you. Don't lose it.
Still, Milque carry on regardless, with Violent and it's buzzing riff and Long Time both become standout live tracks. Old Man is dedicated to Ryan, who apparently asked for a song to be dedicated to him before the gig, and along with his friends, he asks if they can sit at the front of the stage. Which they do. Eventually they sit on the drum rise for the last couple of songs. Bizarre. But hey, proof again of the quality. I mean, let's face it, Hole have to go and drag people to sit on their stage, Milque have people asking! Can Not finishes a set, which has been strange, and bloody hot. And also annoying. Like I said, people complain about the UK scene, but last night Anathema played the second biggest city in the UK to about 40 or 50 people, tonight Milque played to dribs and a couple of drabs. How long can we realisticalyl expect these bands to plough on. I hope for a while yet, because hopefully they will eventually get the rewards they deserve. But for fucks sake, if there's a venue in your area that actually supports bands, and helps put them on, check it out. If you don't, it'll disappear. I guarranttee you of that. It's up to you to make it happen. go on, take the chance on a few bands.
Hmm, well restrained there. Yeah, I know, everyone reads these things just to see if I go off on a rant. No-one takes a blind bit of notice. Yeah, I KNOW that. I'm not totally naieve. Remember, the joke is on you more often than you realise.