Cute is What We Aim For

Saturday May 31st 2008

Birmingham Carling Academy 

I went to see Panic at the Disco not so long ago. It was jolly good fun, if you ignore there were a thousand fourteen year old girls wetting their knickers every thirty seconds...

 Panic at the Disco Live Review over @ Banidge 
& & & a bonus Pretty. Odd. Review @ The Linc Issue 6

So yes, a lot quicker than I expected it to be here's some actual material from the Kids in Glass Houses show at the Birmingham Barfly on Sunday. 


Finally, some real journalism in here for a change instead of caffine-fuelled rantings. Although, this isn't even real journalism. At least not in the eyes of some of my university lecturers... Music journalism is bollocks, dontcha know?

Kids in Glass Houses: Live | Kids in Glass Houses Inteview. 
&
Photography: SaidMike | Tonight is Goodbye | Kids in Glass Houses 

 I interviewed Aled from Kids in Glass Houses and Ant from Tonight is Goodbye this afternoon. It was a lot of fun. We sat around and played Connect 4 and discussed Haley from Paramore, OCD, music(!!)and some other stuff, too. You'll be able to read it all soon over on Bandidge.


While I was sat in their dressing room at the Barfly singing along to Cornershop and debating the merits of Tangfastic Haribo's, something dawned on me: in my two-and-a-bit years now at university...


...not once have we been taught proper interview etiquette.


Now, I'm not an idiot. I know to say thank-you when someone does something for me. I know to say please when I'm demanding something. And I also know that every interviewee is different, and therefore every interview is different. But still.


I'm in my final year of the degree that is going to 'make' me a journalist, and today was the first time I've interviewed someone face-to-face that I hadn't met in some capacity before. I've done phoners, I've done emails and even hand-written interviews. But never have I been left in a room before and been expected to run the show.


So, as I said. I did what I do best. I whipped out Connect 4 and challenged them to war.


It worked a charm. But why do I get the feeling that if I write that in my Specialist Feature Development log, I'll get punished for it... 


Basic predicaments: I was told to get in touch with their tour manager at 6pm. Do I ring bang on six and risk there being a problem? Do I ring early, and risk annoying a busy busy man? Do I ring a few minutes late to give him time to finish what he's doing, but risk looking lazy, late and unprofessional?


And once I'm in there... when is it polite to whip out the dictaphone? What do I do if they're bored but I'm still looking for a good quote...? What if it's the other way around, I'm bored senseless but they're loving every minute of it? 


I'm all for independent learning. I'm all for first hand experience. But they say they're teaching a journalism degree. Sometimes it feels like we're teaching ourselves...

Perhaps I'm alone in my snobbery towards bad album art. Actually, who am I kidding. I don't have snobbery towards bad CD booklet design-I have it towards bad design in general. I must be a nightmare to work with at university...


Both this year and last, group work has revolved heavily around design, and apparently I can't just sit back and let people make something pretty by themselves. Oh no. I have to try and interfere. It's a compulsion. But I try not to criticise other students' design work too  much....


Up in the newsrooms at  the University of Lincoln, we're all learning. None of us know how the hell to use Quark to it's full potential, and ditto for Photoshop. And yet students in the MHAC building churn out better stuff in an hour than they've produced for Blackout. And at a drop of the price.


Advertising is big business these days, in the music industry as much as any other. Mega-bucks will have been spent working out just how to pitch Britney's comeback given the sorry state her life seems to be in right now. And that is what "professionals" come up with.


It's not just Britters' album though. I mean, there's been a wiiiide selection of awful album covers of late. Lets see:


   


No one is going to spend a tenner on Britney's new album when they can just download the important stuff [so... umm... Gimme More & Get Naked (I got a Plan) then, in the case of Ms. Spears/Federline...] for 79p a track. Or for free, depending on just how loose their morals are. 


Once upon a time, albums were released with complex booklets, with unique photography, lyrics, stories, posters, artwork. Pick up the likes of Michael Jackson's HIStory, Oasis' Be Here Now, or even the Spice Girls' Spice and you can see right off that you got more for your money back in - dare I say it - the good ol' days.


The media insists on telling us why people download albums these days... s because the public want to steal, it's because it's quicker, it's cheaper... Maybe it's just because record companies aren't putting in the effort anymore. If toddling down to HMV in the pissing-rain and  handing over your £12.95 is only getting you a box and bit of paper more than what you could have swiped from iTunes for £7.90 then... what's the point?


And in all of that, I've not blamed Britters once. Although if it turns out they let her design this while she was off her face on crack, then my face will be very red indeed...