For a long time I have struggled with the idea/temptation of using a blog to communicate my thoughts as long as my books are not yet published. But the millions of bloggers who just give their comments on everything one isn't really interested in kept me from participating. Those were the moments when some sharp Irish Wilde floated through my head: Blessed be the ones who have nothing to say and still keep their mouths shut. I never wanted to be like that. Luckily I do have something to say ;-)
What arouses me now from the void? Unfairness and double standards.When one judges about art one should at least pretend to be objective even if objectivity is not existing at all. The so called serious newspapers and their online portals never forget to boast about that giving their readers the notion they could trust in what they are informed about. We cannot be everywhere and know about everything to always form our own opinionn without the help of others. It's what the media like to abuse.
In the case I want to refer to it's a combinition of false morality and pure imcompetency that was published online with the blessings of the Guardian editors: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/sep/25/peter-doherty-live-review?newsfeed=true#post-area
Ian Gittins must have vistied his first concert ever when he went to Peter Doherty's gig at the Brixton/Academy on 23rd Friday September. Otherwise he would have known that a lot of free seats don't say anything about the quality of a concert given by a man whose fans more or less belong to the rock genre. Whether he is on the road alone with his guitar or a band makes no difference to the people that want to see him live - they will of course use stalls standing, prefering the un-Guardian-like cheaper tickets and the experience of being in the middle of their jumping fellows. Doherty fans want to move, want to be close not sitting far away from the scene. That's why it actually can get dangerous when people press too much from every side of the audiance and people can't breathe anymore. This happened that friday and Mr.Gittins should have talked about it if he desperately searched for a point to criticise the gig.
Instead he needed to remind his readers of the songwriter's served jail sentence this year that the horrible waster did not even use for writing new material. One wonders where he got that information. Probably took a sneak peek into Peter's diaries and found the pages utterly empty. Probably doesn't know that he keeps a diary anyway. Probably didn't notice the new song for Amy Winehouse he played because dear Ian's pen was scratching too loud some mass media allowed sentences.
"Alone on the huge stage, without even a trilby at a rakish angle, and flanked only by two small amps, Doherty looks like a glorified busker and, as he rifles through his Libertines, Babyshambles and solo back catalogue, he effectively is." Proving to be a real expert in style and the public image that had been created over the years it seems not necessary to mention that it's the music why people go there and the "glorified busker" so nicely put to belittle the musician is no offence at all. Peter never sought for the distance to his audiance. Artistical intimacy is his and in so far he could be playing in the streets next to a bakery shop and it would be better than your high class bombastic rock show. It is only one of the reasons that make him different.
Since it easier to proclaim the old statement that the guy never really used his potential and everyone frustrated still waits for the good things to come it would have been too much of a demand paying justice to a very good concert. Peter's voice was clearer than ever and he played his songs with an energy matching the one of his fans who hadn't been satisfied with the original tour dates so that the management had to add some more gigs to the schedule. Wherewith the empty seats are fully explained. Nobody expected the O2 Academy to be sold out and after all it's about the people who were there and not about the ones who didn't attend. I'm still waiting for the music market related facts to leave art alone.
Hopefully next time Mr.Gittins will try to do some valuable research about the musicians and their audiance before he decides to write a review again. Then he will not hear a sigh of relief echoing in the hall when Doherty announces a gigless future to come until he put some new songs together. He will hear a kind of sadness - a feeling of loss.
