A friend in need is a friend, indeed. A friend with weed is better.
Only somebody with the sheer musical arrogance of Brain Molko could write something in the same vein, dismissing commitment and bonding in favour of drugs within a few words, but there’s a chance that Molko was referring to his cohort and co-founder of Placebo– the enigmatic, towering, and softly-spoken Stefan Olsdal.
Thirteen years on and those same words seem to send fans of Placebo, both old and new, in to a frenzy of reverential exorcisms and cathartic revelations at live shows –and it’s been documented in all of its androgynous and relentless glory for only the second time.
At the tail-end of their exhausting tour to support 2009’s Battle For The Sun was a show at London’s famous Brixton Academy which was filmed, recently released as a live DVD with accompanying tour documentary, entitled We Come In Pieces.
“I always found the visual is a very important aspect” says Olsdal, supping on his morning coffee, “That’s where you go to see the show, not just to hear the music, to see a show, to see a band performing – to feel the interaction between the band and the audience – the whole spectacle y’know...nothing will ever be the same as going to the live show – ever. That’s one of the few reasons why the live circuit is relatively popular. There are a lot of festivals and there’s a lot of bands gigging and there’s a lot of people going to see them and you just can’t get that experience any other”.
Formed in 1994 amidst the height of the culture-shock Britpop movement, Molko and Osdal’s creation was one severely at odds with what was going on around them. Decked head-to-toe in black, eyeliner smudged against bleary, drug-addled eyes – Placebo were the antithesis of everything that the Blur/Oasis crowd were trying to avert their eyes from.
“I think the Britpop tag – it was only tagged on to us because we were based in England” continues Olsdal, “None of us were British, we never really thought there was any great English heritage to our sound. It was more American ‘post-punk’, or what have you. I don’t think we ever felt we fit in to genre or movement in the 90s, just kind of doing our own thing. We always stuck to that and never tried to follow that, and never tried to be trendy”.
Despite the sheer contrast with what was going on in popular music, the countenance of the British public made Placebo a very, very successful band indeed; they’ve outlasted almost all of their contemporaries.
“I think in a lot of places and lot of times we’ve been very unfashionable” muses Olsdal, fast becoming more thoughtful, “I don’t know if that comes with arrogance or self-belief that what we were doing was the shit, y’know? [laughs] but it was the only thing that we could do, so it was following our instincts and following our hearts and with that self-belief and motivation and ambition I suppose, we just kind of kept at it and we didn’t think that just being big in England or just touring England was a be all and end all – we wanted to do it in the world and we had much more of a worldwide view”.
Ten million records is a lot to sell, but with all of the admiration and success comes the negative attention – both from the media, and from within their own ranks.
“I personally had issues with talking to the media and going public because I’m quite a shy, private person” says Olsdal, “So Brian became...it became the life and love and happenings and mishappenings of Brian Molko y’know, a lot in the early days. I think he was just very honest, and it garners a lot of good press and a lot of it became...it was verging on the tabloids, the way they were trying to go after anything apart from the music, which is the way the media in this country works. We were trying to hone it down a little bit to the music and just trying to protect ourselves for our own sanity. There’s been quite a few instances where we’ve been sat down by both publishers and record company and they tell us what to do, I mean they once told Brian to change the colour of his hair, someone told us we should release a cover as a single in the States to get success there quicker, that we should pan a certain video or not release a certain song as a video and y’know, we’ve had people come in and go behind our backs and tell our producers to change the sound of our record – it happened all the time”.
Rather than wallow, the band continued with renewed vigour that is so accurately demonstrated on We Come In Pieces – Molko and Olsdal in full effect, reinforced by a solid backing band, they dispatch even their most renowned work with ease and brevity.
Though whilst the original sentiment may not ring as true as it did 13 years ago, removed from tonal context of grunge-heavy airwaves, there’s still a moment where you believe that yeah, a friend with weed is better...
Only somebody with the sheer musical arrogance of Brain Molko could write something in the same vein, dismissing commitment and bonding in favour of drugs within a few words, but there’s a chance that Molko was referring to his cohort and co-founder of Placebo– the enigmatic, towering, and softly-spoken Stefan Olsdal.
Thirteen years on and those same words seem to send fans of Placebo, both old and new, in to a frenzy of reverential exorcisms and cathartic revelations at live shows –and it’s been documented in all of its androgynous and relentless glory for only the second time.
At the tail-end of their exhausting tour to support 2009’s Battle For The Sun was a show at London’s famous Brixton Academy which was filmed, recently released as a live DVD with accompanying tour documentary, entitled We Come In Pieces.
“I always found the visual is a very important aspect” says Olsdal, supping on his morning coffee, “That’s where you go to see the show, not just to hear the music, to see a show, to see a band performing – to feel the interaction between the band and the audience – the whole spectacle y’know...nothing will ever be the same as going to the live show – ever. That’s one of the few reasons why the live circuit is relatively popular. There are a lot of festivals and there’s a lot of bands gigging and there’s a lot of people going to see them and you just can’t get that experience any other”.
Formed in 1994 amidst the height of the culture-shock Britpop movement, Molko and Osdal’s creation was one severely at odds with what was going on around them. Decked head-to-toe in black, eyeliner smudged against bleary, drug-addled eyes – Placebo were the antithesis of everything that the Blur/Oasis crowd were trying to avert their eyes from.
“I think the Britpop tag – it was only tagged on to us because we were based in England” continues Olsdal, “None of us were British, we never really thought there was any great English heritage to our sound. It was more American ‘post-punk’, or what have you. I don’t think we ever felt we fit in to genre or movement in the 90s, just kind of doing our own thing. We always stuck to that and never tried to follow that, and never tried to be trendy”.
Despite the sheer contrast with what was going on in popular music, the countenance of the British public made Placebo a very, very successful band indeed; they’ve outlasted almost all of their contemporaries.
“I think in a lot of places and lot of times we’ve been very unfashionable” muses Olsdal, fast becoming more thoughtful, “I don’t know if that comes with arrogance or self-belief that what we were doing was the shit, y’know? [laughs] but it was the only thing that we could do, so it was following our instincts and following our hearts and with that self-belief and motivation and ambition I suppose, we just kind of kept at it and we didn’t think that just being big in England or just touring England was a be all and end all – we wanted to do it in the world and we had much more of a worldwide view”.
Ten million records is a lot to sell, but with all of the admiration and success comes the negative attention – both from the media, and from within their own ranks.
“I personally had issues with talking to the media and going public because I’m quite a shy, private person” says Olsdal, “So Brian became...it became the life and love and happenings and mishappenings of Brian Molko y’know, a lot in the early days. I think he was just very honest, and it garners a lot of good press and a lot of it became...it was verging on the tabloids, the way they were trying to go after anything apart from the music, which is the way the media in this country works. We were trying to hone it down a little bit to the music and just trying to protect ourselves for our own sanity. There’s been quite a few instances where we’ve been sat down by both publishers and record company and they tell us what to do, I mean they once told Brian to change the colour of his hair, someone told us we should release a cover as a single in the States to get success there quicker, that we should pan a certain video or not release a certain song as a video and y’know, we’ve had people come in and go behind our backs and tell our producers to change the sound of our record – it happened all the time”.
Rather than wallow, the band continued with renewed vigour that is so accurately demonstrated on We Come In Pieces – Molko and Olsdal in full effect, reinforced by a solid backing band, they dispatch even their most renowned work with ease and brevity.
Though whilst the original sentiment may not ring as true as it did 13 years ago, removed from tonal context of grunge-heavy airwaves, there’s still a moment where you believe that yeah, a friend with weed is better...
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
Kerry Lauerman
Joan Walsh
Salon.com
Comments