Cravats,  on a bus, yesterday…

If you want the Membranes bit then cut to the chaise down there beneath the Cravats video, before that, let me tell you about pokey man and his pointy finger.  Got poked at by a pokey man the other day, he was rather annoyed with us so it seems. It works like this around here these days, some days we’ll throw up a million words and a bag load of fractured photos, a review of an art show or a gig that excited us or an album that stands out from the crowd and the hundreds that do still land here every month, some days we’ll post a whole load of thought, opinion and more, and then on other days, days like today, we’ll just throw up a useful parish notice or two, a link to something happening or something being released or a new video or a track on Soundcloud or something painted in an exciting way. Let’s be honest here, Organ, in terms of music, isn’t needed now in the way it was back at the end of the last century (or even the start of this one), it felt like Organ was kind of needed back when things weren’t just a mouse-click away, back when no one else much was really covering the thing we were, when things took a little more time and effort to find if you wanted a little more that the norrow window of music the mainstream press were serving up back there. There days things are far easier, there’s a million music websites, back in the day when print was the only real option it was a lot tougher, we kept Organ constantly in print for something like twenty-five years, we reviewed tens of thousands of gigs, demo tapes, albums, we interviewed hundreds of bands, it was fun, it was hard work, it was a constant fight, it was fun though (oh the tales we could tell). We had next to no support and very little thanks back there, now and again someone would make noises about backing us but it always came at a cost, “if you stooped writing about bands no one cares about like those damn Cardiacs you keep going on about, if you compromised and covered a few more bands that were actually popular instead we could make something out of this Organ” said a suit one day – or something along those lines, I can’t remember his words now, I remember him, it was in the Marquee, he was poking his fingers as well, there’s been a lot of poking fingers at us. We’d hear things like that regularly actually, put this band on the cover and we’ll back you, stop talking about prog rock and we’ll fund you

Last week someone came up to me, beer in hand, I was at an art show minding my own business, man with free bottle of beer in hand starts poking at me in a kind of passive aggressive way, his problem was that we didn’t write about music anymore, he accused us of letting people down, actually he stopped being passive in the way before end of the conversation. Hey look, we gave up so much to keep Organ going for all those years (and years), it cost us a lot in so many way, we’re still paying the price and quite honestly if we had the chance to do it all again I probably wouldn’t. I still love music, I’m still excited by it, we still see and hear things that we need to share on a regular basis, there’s still the bits we post here and there’s still the radio show. We’re just enjoying sharing more than the occasional slice of earfood here on these pages, there still plenty of wordy album reviews or gig reviews up here if you bother to look, and anyway, there’s hundreds of good music websites now, there’s even one or two who are prepared champion beautiful bands like Cardiacs (a little late in some cases, ex-inkie press mainstream music journos who now claim to be life-long fans who strangely never managed to find the courage to lift a pen or type a word to say so back when it would have made a real difference). So Mr not so passive rather aggressive finger poking free beer in hand man thinks we’ve let people down because we don’t spend hours writing music reviews every single day of the year now – he got really annoyed when I said I had other priorities now and that my own art is far more of a priority then telling people about what other people are doing, that sent him into a complete rage, he told me I was selfish, that I had let everyone down, that he was going to go home and burn all his old copies of Organ. I don’t know why I tell you this today, partly because it was bothering me that he should feel like that, partly because I hadn’t actually written anything substantial on these pages for a week or so. and hey look, we did it for years, we gave up so much to keep the damn thing going, we got no support, very little thanks, no nothing really (we got attacked a few times), I probably maybe would possibly do it all again, there again probably not, but hey, we gave more to the cause then most and this on this website is how Organ is these days, if it isn’t enough for you then fine, there’s plenty of good music websites out there these days, you really don’t need us covering any music these days (you probably do need us covering the art we cover, so many good art shows that no one else bothers to write about, kind of like it was for music when we first started out). We’re as passionate about music as we ever were, I don’t need no pokes from no angry beer-drinking man telling me I’ve let him down, we didn’t let anyone down!.

Here’s today Organ Thing of The Day, those Cravats are playing on what looks like a rather interesting blll, looks rather exciting to us anyway, ‘;d probably go but hey, can’t afford the ticket prices these days and every spare penny goes on paint, and those Organ debts are still being paid off and don’t ever poke your finger at me and tell me we let you down, you have no idea what it took to keep Organ in print for so many years and how much shit we took off people while we were doing it. Here’s today’s parish notice on the other side of this Cravats video…

.

“This is a rather jolly big event and tickets are going out like hot cross buns so book now or forever hold your kettle” said The Cravats, and indeed it does look rather tasty, “The Membranes bring their 20 piece choir to London with a mini fest of great bands Steve Ignorant Slice Of Life, The Cravats and The Wolfhounds”. The show or gig or event or whatever you wish it to be, happens on October 5th at Islington Assembly Hall, London N1. No idea what the Membranes with a chor will sound like, the idea of see those Cravats through a decent sized PA though, here’s the Facebook event page with more details…

.

X