I could stay awake just to hear you breathing

Watch you smile while you are sleeping

Far away and dreaming

Awwwww. How sweet!

Sticking with the watch-you-while-you-are-sleeping theme, we now go to REM, who are at their most romantic in ‘At my most beautiful’:

I count your eyelashes, secretly

With every one, whisper I love you

I let you sleep

Many of us would find it quite romantic to know that our Valentine is watching us while we are sleeping. Yet, there are a few people who would “run…run…” as the character in Radiohead’s ‘Creep’ does. Yes, some people would actually consider a ‘sleep-watching’ guy to be a creep. However, there is a certain romantic something hidden in this kind of creepiness. And “Creep” is kind of romantic – in a creepy sort of way!

When you were here before,

Couldn’t look you in the eye

You’re just like an angel,

Your skin makes me cry

While Radiohead lets the object of their affection “run…run…”, Morrissey, the former frontman of The Smiths, lets the object of his affection know that running is of no use, in the disturbingly romantic ‘The more you ignore me, the closer I get’.  And Morrissey manages to use both sleep and creep in the same verse!

When you sleep

I will creep

Into your thoughts

Like a bad debt

That you can’t pay

Appropriately, this song was released as a single in the month of love, February 1994.

Happy Valentine’s day, everybody!

We pray he well be healthy and back soon!

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His concert fans used to throw live animals such as cats, frogs, chickens, snakes, etc. on the stage. During his “Bark At The Moon Tour” a bat was tossed on the stage and he grabbed it and bit the head off. He had to get two weeks of rabies shots after that.

Marilyn Manson

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During one of his concerts he degraded a security guard by grabbing the man’s head and pressing it against his gyrating hips. He was charged with criminal misconduct, of course, but that didn’t stop him from repeating it at another concert. Maybe he just had a bad itch?

Madonna

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In 1992 she published Sex, a book of photographs consisting of sexually explicit images. One photo shows her kneeling on the ground with a dog underneath her lying on its back, creating the impression that she is being intimate with the dog–in an unnatural way.

Flea

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Long-time bassist of rock group Red Hot Chili Peppers, Michael Balzary, more popularly known as Flea, often performs on stage wearing nothing but a tube sock; no shirts, no pants, no underpants, just a tube sock–and it’s not for his feet.

Keith Richards

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Two years ago Richards revealed that the strangest thing he ever snorted was his cremated father, saying his father wouldn’t have mind. A music channel immediately reported afterwards that Richards was only kidding.  Five months later, however, Richards confirmed that he had, in fact, snorted his father’s ashes.  He even went into detail describing how he opened his father’s box, laid a little bit of his father’s ashes on the dining room table, and snorted it up with no cocaine mixed in.

Perhaps snorting human ashes provides a totally different kind of high.

Music artists. Peculiar bunch, aren’t they?

Strange as may seem now, in post-war Britain the teenager never existed. The only way to distinguish between a sixteen year old and a sixty year old was to count the wrinkles. We sub-twenty year olds dressed the same as our dads, who in turn dressed the same as their dads. We watched the same movies as our parents and listened to the same music.

It’s not that we didn’t want to be teenagers, we did. We wanted to be like the kids in America. Didn’t they have the best crooners in Johnnie Ray, Guy Mitchell and Frankie Laine? Didn’t they have the best film idol in James Dean? American kids had drug stores that they arrived at in their hot rod Fords, where they ate burgers, drank sodas and danced to the jukebox. The youth of Britain wanted this too!

Then in 1955 all was about to change. The first rumblings came in the autumn of that year with the UK release of the Glenn Ford movie ‘Blackboard Jungle’. What made this movie a defining moment in British history? The theme song was “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock” by Bill Haley and his Comets. Rock ‘n’ Roll had entered the lives of British youth. The revolution was upon us.

The recorded version of the song spent three weeks at number one in the UK charts from the end of November to halfway through December and then on January 6th 1956 it spent a further two weeks at number one. We had a honking tenor sax to rally us around the flag and a drummer boy to lead us into battle. We had our own identity, our lives had changed forever. Yes, we were gonna rock around the clock, but not just tonight but every night and every day until the end of eternity.

Five months later, on May 12th 1956, Elvis Aron Presley entered the UK charts with the song ‘Heartbreak Hotel’. That was it, the revolution was complete, we had our king. In the immortal words of Danny and the Juniors, ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll is here to stay, it will never die.’

Suddenly the marketing men had a new target. The teenager was a viable financial proposition. Instead of racks of dowdy grey or pinstripe suits, gentlemens outfitters started stocking pastel coloured jackets which were soon to be followed by lurid Lurex weave ones. Incidentally, my first jacket as a neo-teenager was powder blue! Instead of twin sets and pearls, girls were wearing dresses with flared skirts, printed with music note and treble clef motifs, topped off with fluffy bolero jackets around their shoulders.

Coffee bars with the much lusted after jukeboxes popped up all over the place, and record shops started installing listening booths for the convenience of the new teenage clientele. Music shops also jumped on to the band wagon. Where they once only stocked sheet music and harmonicas, their walls were now lined with guitars. I recall in the window of our local music shop they had a display of ‘Hofner’ acoustic guitars, ‘Sunburst’ with ‘f’ holes, retailing at £29.19s.11d, that’s £29.99 in today’s decimalised currency, which is roughly £600 at today’s prices. What we wouldn’t have done for one of those!

Then joy upon joy, a burger joint hit town in the form of the Wimpy franchise. The high street started taking on a new appearance as shopkeepers began to dress their windows with more vibrant and dynamic displays. Their motto seemed to be ‘Adapt or Die’. If you weren’t ‘hep’ you were so yesterday!

This wasn’t a new era, it was a whole new world. This new world kept evolving through the decades, British music headed by the ‘Beatles’ in the sixties, disco in the seventies, the new romantics of the eighties, Brit Pop in the nineties and what ever genre you would like to choose for this new millennium.

This new world still exists today thanks to all of us revolutionaries. So teenagers, don’t ever forget that it was people like me and all of my contemporaries, Britain’s first teenagers, that had to ‘fight for the right to party’!

People loved and adored Elvis all over the World. Even after his death there have been a few people to report that they have seen Elvis. If this is true, why did he leave a life of Fame and Fortune to live a life almost isolated from the world?

If what people are saying about Elvis is true, the reason could be the need for some privacy.  Many Celebrities even today have the desire to just for once be like everyday people. Some Celebrities can’t even shop in peace or eat in a restaurant without all the flashing lights. Some might comment: “They are in the Public Eye. We have the right to know what is going on!” Well, maybe that is true to a certain extent. But, if every time a Celebrity look around the paparazzi is following them while picking  up their children from school or a following them into the Bathroom.  That is a different story.

So if Elvis is alive, give him the space he wants right now. When he is ready to make his comeback, he will let us know!

Get Your set List

Get two or three set lists. In these set lists you need about 20 songs or 45 minutes of music for each. Gigs will generally only ask for one or two, but you may need a third to pull songs from in case you still have time left. Next you need to find covers you can do. You need to pick the classics, the popular songs, and then originals. If you play classics then you will get a wider range of people listening to your music. Many places will look for the bands who like new rock, but also appreciate and is willing to play the old. With classics and popular songs you will get a bigger amount and wider range of fans. The step after this is to throw your originals into this. Put one every four or five songs. This will show your fans that you do have your own music and you are willing to take this band into a new level, hopefully to get big. Eventually when you have enough originals to filling sets then you can stop doing covers.

Get a Band Email

In our generation email is so big, and it is the perfect thing to get a solid fan base. Make an email for your band then start collecting emails. Ask your friends, people at school, and set up a box at gigs and ask for addresses. Once you have a good amount of emails then you can start sending out band updates. Things like “Great new equipment bought. Get ready for an awesome sound show next time!”, “Got a new set list. Check it out!.” or the best, “Gig next week at the Rock and Roll House. Be there 9 o clock Friday!” People will be able to log on to their email and find out what is happening with the band and when they can expect another show.

Get a MySpace

Myspace is a great tool to use to give bands a look at your band and what you are doing. You can post updates here and get more emails for your band email. At Myspace you can also post recordings you made, videos of the band, and pictures. It is great to put up demos and see if you fans like it or not. This will help you gain some popularity as well because you can add other bands and people who like those bands might check out yours.

Get Some Merchandise

This is nearly the best thing you can do. There are only two pieces of merchandise you really need. CDs and t-shirts. CDs can be recordings of your originals that you made or recordings of your gigs. People can buy these and now they will be able to listen to your music anytime. To get you CDs sold you can use production and distribution companies like CD Baby. Now people can even go to your Myspace page and buy a CD or whatever merchandise you offer. What is good about t-shirts is that now you have walking advertisements. People will ask about the band on the shirt and they other person will say that it is a great band. If they other person likes you then you will have another fan! Now what you can do is order merchandise before shows. Then when you have a show, you will be able to sell your merchandise there to people who may not have your email or Myspace.

Get a Band Webpage

The last thing to do is get your band a webpage. With a webpage you can get emails, sell merchandise, and give updates. This will up your popularity by hundreds or even thousands of people because now you’ve gone past local. Your band can be found by people through Google or Yahoo. Now you can sell CDs and show your band to everyone else!

Final Words

With all these wonderful things that our offered to you, your band can now be as popular as any other. While you work and build up your fan base you might get the chance to get a contract signed and become one of the big bands out there. Because of all the work you have done to build your fan base you will be off to a better start. Population growth is exponential. The more fans you have, the quicker and easier it will be to gain more.