If you had seen me walking back to Brixton tube station late last night, you would have been forgiven for thinking that I had spent the evening participating in a rather realistic recreation of the riots that graced those very streets back in the early 80s. At the very least I had the look of a guy who had taken a drug called Charlie Sheen.
But this for once this wasn't Charlie's fault. Even more surprisingly it wasn't mine either. The blame falls squarely on the shoulders of one the greatest UK acts in the last decade. The Streets.
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Last night marked the last ever London Streets gig. I haven't been this gutted since Cold Feet ended, but with the overwhelming sadness that knowledge brung, also came an itching anticipation for the night ahead.
Apart from the fact you always leave smelling of weed and covered in snakebite, there has always been something very special about Mike skinners approach to a live show. Never has audience participation been held in as much regard as the music itself.
Actively encouraging a party and asking all involved to "pretend we are partying in my living room" was just the beginning of a gig that (as always) would leave me waking in the morning feeling like I'd gone abseiling without a rope.
Actively encouraging a party and asking all involved to "pretend we are partying in my living room" was just the beginning of a gig that (as always) would leave me waking in the morning feeling like I'd gone abseiling without a rope.
The use of the "Go Low", "Riding the waves", and the German style mosh pit all made last nights gig one of the greatest Streets gigs of all. Fitting as it was also one of their very last.
Despite all that, I don't really want to talk about how epic the gig was, rather look to the future and ponder (and when I say ponder I mean worry) on where British music is going now one of its greatest products has bowed out...
Mike Skinner disbanding The Streets has left me without yet another one of my paddles as I float through the sea of utter toss that is most modern music.
The formula of a great first album (made for the love of music), quickly followed by a second album you wouldn't wipe your back side on (made for the love of money) seems the norm now in the UK. Mike was one of the very few who made music from start to finish for the love it.
Promising acts who speak for the UK in the same way Skinner did (Devlin as a prime example) need to learn to keep hold of what has made them popular in the first place.
This way they can avoid another embarrassing Dizzy Rascal-esk career.
As sad as this may seem, the music which speaks for generations and the UK as a whole is the music that is spawned from hard times. The Happy Mondays, New Order, The Clash and The Sex Pistols all found their voice in a country that had been thrown in a black sack and dropped in the river.
Now in 2011 we find unemployment at an all time high, immigration, taxation and red tape are out of control and the government do pretty much what they like because they know we no longer have the balls to riot like the Egyptians or the French.
If ever there was an environment fertile enough to grow the next generation of voices, this is it.
The term "selling out" has been used since the first cave man banged a drum so I don't really like it. But it does have a definition in my eyes.
Take your 5th album, go back in time and play it to your younger self before you were famous. If your younger self calls you a dick, tells you to turn that shit off and then goes back to playing World Cup Italia 90 on the mega drive, you've sold out.
Should Dizzy have this opportunity, his younger self would no doubt kill him where he stands.
I'm rambling, but the point i'm trying to make is that i'm unsure there will ever be another Mike Skinner. It seems impossible for today's talent not to be dragged by the suits kicking and screaming into T4 on the beach.
If we are to preserve our UK indentity as artists, we need to learn that the money we make will dissapear when we die. The music we make will last forever. If you're going to tatoo the face of history, make sure it's not propper crap... and that David Guetta never remixed it.
Despite all that, I don't really want to talk about how epic the gig was, rather look to the future and ponder (and when I say ponder I mean worry) on where British music is going now one of its greatest products has bowed out...
Mike Skinner disbanding The Streets has left me without yet another one of my paddles as I float through the sea of utter toss that is most modern music.
The formula of a great first album (made for the love of music), quickly followed by a second album you wouldn't wipe your back side on (made for the love of money) seems the norm now in the UK. Mike was one of the very few who made music from start to finish for the love it.
This way they can avoid another embarrassing Dizzy Rascal-esk career.
As sad as this may seem, the music which speaks for generations and the UK as a whole is the music that is spawned from hard times. The Happy Mondays, New Order, The Clash and The Sex Pistols all found their voice in a country that had been thrown in a black sack and dropped in the river.
Now in 2011 we find unemployment at an all time high, immigration, taxation and red tape are out of control and the government do pretty much what they like because they know we no longer have the balls to riot like the Egyptians or the French.
If ever there was an environment fertile enough to grow the next generation of voices, this is it.
The term "selling out" has been used since the first cave man banged a drum so I don't really like it. But it does have a definition in my eyes.
Take your 5th album, go back in time and play it to your younger self before you were famous. If your younger self calls you a dick, tells you to turn that shit off and then goes back to playing World Cup Italia 90 on the mega drive, you've sold out.
Should Dizzy have this opportunity, his younger self would no doubt kill him where he stands.
I'm rambling, but the point i'm trying to make is that i'm unsure there will ever be another Mike Skinner. It seems impossible for today's talent not to be dragged by the suits kicking and screaming into T4 on the beach.
If we are to preserve our UK indentity as artists, we need to learn that the money we make will dissapear when we die. The music we make will last forever. If you're going to tatoo the face of history, make sure it's not propper crap... and that David Guetta never remixed it.
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