[kj] The Only Poll

[ade]

Thanks for that. The Death of Rave 101 is excellent - plenty to listen to
on the brainwashed site!

-----Original Message-----
From: gathering-bounces at misera.net
[mailto:gathering-bounces at misera.net]On Behalf Of Stephen Robinson
Sent: 10 January 2007 22:37
To: gathering at misera.net
Subject: Re: [kj] The Only Poll




> Seriously though, imo, any band that has a record contract has lost

> some element of "sincerity" and purity of art once they are writing

> songs with the intent of getting radio play or even with the intention

> of selling records and playing shows to a paying audience. It doesn't

> matter if they're wearing makeup or a sock on their dicks or just

> everyday jeans, they're in the music "business."


I got the following text from the end of year send out from VVM, it's not
short, but I though I'd share it with you,

Is it nearly over ? You can damn sure bet your standing leg it is. One whole
year of making free audio, so far well over 500 tracks with the aim now
being around nearly 600. That is over 5GB of brand new recorded audio in
MP3 format all given away. free of charge and gratis throughout 2006.

When other musicians next send you a lame fucking mailout saying how they
have provided a free MP3 or even worse some fucked up myspace preview which
sounds like the audio is being dragged through Rupert Murdochs gravelled
drive send them to me and i'll tell them the real score about freebies and
how it is to be true to yourself and respectful to your audience. Giving
the music away does not mean it has no value, on the contrary the value is
held within the music itself. There will be a change, it won't be anytime
soon, but there will be a change. People will begin to think less and less
about what they create in terms of getting a monetary return. Too often i
read mails from sad twat musicians "oh i can't do anything anymore because
no-one buys my music so it's not possible to release things... blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah". Well you stupid fucks check this out, do it
and give it away for no return. The audience are speaking and they say "We
don't want your mass produced discs any longer, it's a
dying format". Give something of yourself away instead of crying about how
you can't afford to make things when you already earn more than i do
anyway. The fact your sales are falling is delightful for me to see. I hope
they all continue to fall and you all get fucked over. I have no love for
YOU.

This year has been one long goodbye and the thanks for me to YOU is in what
i have given away all year. Being able to make music over such a long
period of time has been one big unexpected accident i guess, an accident
which was funded by YOU people buying the audio. Not funded by a bigger
label waving a wad of cash in the hope i would take their major label cock
up my arse, or some kind of sugar daddy, rich relation or someone else
pulling strings for me. It's been kept going by a desire to do what i can
to try and change a few things and offer up audio i have liked over the
years and i guess some people liked it. The fact that i wound almost every
other label and most artists up who came close to V/Vm is a bonus and was
done in a desire to actually make them think about what they were doing to
YOU which ultimately they didn't. Lazy labels and artists and lazy labels
and artists you are now sadly left with because of the lazy and fucked up
people who fund them by buying their shit with no idea that they are
all laughing at YOU in the process. All of this done for that one golden
sale. To these people sales = profit = a nice night with some cocaine and
then a tiny bit of each sale invested back into more shit and safe audio
put out to con YOU even more into feeding them more drugs and so the
hamster ball keeps on rolling. Welcome to the real music business.

It's all a big game out there and the only way to play is to play to win. I
played to win and i won because i have no regrets, no major debt and a
whole host of shit behind me which can only be a positive thing in this day
and age where people generally "talk the talk but seldom walk the walk".
365 was a solo project, one man, one goal, like old Freddie Murphy(sic)
used to sing - ONE VISION.

So here it almost is V/Vm 365, in CD terms (because people still love the
physical format) if you were to burn it end to end it would fill over 42
discs so far (i am told) and that is at 74 minutes a disc. To put that into
context that is longer time wise than the highly praised for its volume
MERZBOX (as most of those discs were just over 30 minutes in length).
Playing V/Vm 365 from start to finish would take you around two days to
hear everything. V/Vm 365 has all been recorded and constructed in one
calender year by one person. Importantly it was given away for free, not
pressed up and sold for 150 pounds (including a limited edition V/Vm potty
and nappies and special V/Vm arse wiped toilet paper from when i had the
shits*** which incidentally to this day have never cleared all year because
i couldn't rest up at anypoint during this project - ignoring doctors
advice to take it easier and continuing the push ***oh yeah the push***
right till the bitter end). So that's at least 400+ tracks made this year
when i had the neverending shits. A remarkable achievment - audio on the
run(s). Remember everybody, everything for free which is unprecidented in
the history of music because like the old saying goes there is never a free
lunch. Usually there is a catch but this time there is no catch.

Not only that it's all creative commons so you can do what you want with
creatively with it as long as you don't release it which i can't actually
stop anyone doing so who gives a fuck about that either. Do what you want,
i don't care. It's all yours to do what you want with, burn it, deface it,
delete it, ignore it- i just don't care. All five hundred plus tracks.
GRATIS and OVER.

The next time you read about that musician who has been really busy
recording their 10 track album and it took a lot out of them, point them at
this. Ask them if they can do it ? It's not for everyone. If you try to do
this yourself you will face challenges for instance,  like when you are
sick and you have to go through the sickness to make more and upload more
and that in turn makes you even sicker 00--. Not only that the only way to
do this is to be NON-FUNDED, that's right, no arts grant or financial help
because only cunts apply for funding for recorded audio projects. Sorry if
you applied for funding for your recordings and that offends you but that's
how i feel about it. Do it and pay for it yourself and it means so much
more than being given it on a plate and going through the motions.  Also
you should be the one who uploads the audio, half of the work is right
there in the upload and that is what makes it nonstop. Create - Upload -
Distribute with no cash, no real encouragement and hardly any press
coverage (Bizarrely even from Creative Commons themselves who were made
aware of this project and chose to ignore it never mentioning it once and
yet christopher willits puts one of his tracks online to remix and it's
promoted everywhere by these sad fuckers. Complain to them now on my behalf
and ask them why a guy gives one track away to remix is on there homepage
and i do over 500 and they can't even type my name anywhere or shed any
light on this project?). It's sad that even those i support like creative
commons give me nothing back in return. But hey that's how it is. Some
people can shit in a cup and it's big news others can shit all year in cups
and only the cup manufacturer is happy. Contact them from here
http://creativecommons.org/ and ask them why ? Mia Garlick was the one who
mailed me back when i told them what i was doing last year so be sure to
drop her a line mia at creativecommons.org as i'm sure she will love to hear
from those of you who followed what i did this year.

It's also essential (to be true to this project and it's style should you
choose to emulate this undertaking because that is all you can do now) to
fuck some part of your body up at a show where you dress up as Elton John.
I dislocated my knee which had me creating in immense pain for around 6
weeks. All of this adds to the challenge you will face should you do it
going through the pain barrier to record even more when you can't even move
your knee.

But here is the kick everyone, no established musician will do a release
like this ever because they all want the cash for every rotten note they
record. Every fucking single one of them believes what they do deserves
untold riches so they will never do a gesture such as this for you. If they
try they will also give up after a couple of months because they don't
receive the same ego stroke (and paycheck) that they get from their safe
little ten track compact disc which sounds awfully like their last one they
did and gets basically the same review in the press as the one before
(titles changed, track titles changed - a cut and paste job). >From the
lowest on the chain musicians charging you for cdr's through to Sir Elton
John none of them will give you jack shit audio for free because they want
your money at all times, we make it - YOU PAY FOR IT.
God bless P2P is what i say.

To wrap up around here i guess it's like all the fucked up, frustrated and
bitter press people said over the years, all i did was hack up shit and
even half of the musicians out there who constantly ignored V/Vm (though
you copied what V/Vm did watered it down and made more cash than i did
through V/Vm) ,, well you all like to believe this myth you generated and
spread about it being a one trick pony//-  There are people who won't admit
there was more than just hacks, but all of you all chose not to see it
which is a big, big, big shame,, but c'est la vie and it's all water under
the bridge now. I only hold a few grudges and these are with valid reasons
and in time i will be reminding myself of these so please be aware there is
always a threat there for you as i am one to remember and sort a grudge. Oh
and hey and remember all of these years i have had no cash. As soon as i
work and get paid i will have disposable income so please don't sit so easy
out there and think it's over because the fun will start
against each and everyone of you then, i promise, that will be the payback
right there.

To all of you who made it this far and followed what has happened over the
years i hope you enjoyed some of the 365 audio, it's a real mixed bag of
output to sit through but some of the best i have done which is actually a
good thing and shows i cared about what i actually did with this project
rather than going through the motions when due to bad health and also those
low mood days it would have been easier to do nothing. Every other label
and artist out there who pack it in and run to the hills go out with a
whimper, well this has been a near on 600 track whimper and the most
productive ever year for me so it's nice to buck that trend. There is no
fucking sob story around here.

To all of you out there if we don't speak again or our paths fail to cross
after this mail then please remember what that great well educated eastend
philosphy graduate, deep thinker, poet, barman and loverat Nick "Wicksy"
Berry once said  to Sharon Watts back in the day when things seemed more
real and anything seemed possible because these words my friends will bring
you comfort on the darkest of days and nights...

"Every loser wins, once the dream begins,
In time we'll see, fate holds the key,
And every loser knows, the light eternal shows,
Will shine on you, and all those who knew,
We nearly made it."

http://brainwashed.com/vvm/micro/vvmt365/months/12/13.htm (to download)

This version was one i made for you all to sing or hum along to and i hope
you accept it as one ending of many as there will be more to follow as the
month pans out to its final conclusion.

The lyrics are here >>
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/gary.hart/lyricsb/berryn.html

It's all over around here real soon and all that's left are the memories. In
just over two weeks i can have a rest and raise a glass by myself on the
31st and you know that is a deserved glass for once because each year we
all look back on what we did through the year and hopefully we all did
something and changed a little and i hope you did that this year. It's a
time for reflection and to look at ourselves before the 1st offers us
chance for movement and change we all need to keep fresh.

Those who helped on the voyage over the years know the score which is how it
should be and each of you are in my thoughts right now as are those who are
no longer with me but were there on seminal parts of the journey. Those who
let me down will be totally ignored shortly.

Tomorrow the party starts and it doesn't stop till January the 1st.//

Keep watching that particular region of sky ---- look out for some leon and
hits one day because they will be there// maybe even sooner than you think.
keep the dream alive.

ROCK ON TOMMY

<OUT for now

------------------------------------------------------
Follow me through, into the sun,
And we can smile at everyone
You gotta join in with me, then we are free
It isn't hard to do

I said life is a song, so just sing along
And then we know we can't go wrong
Just you and me, come on and see
Together we'll be o.k.


www.brainwashed.com/vvm



--
I wrote this on my Amiga One runing OS4, now with screen dragging
http://os4.hyperion-entertainment.biz/


_______________________________________________
Gathering mailing list
Gathering at misera.net
http://four.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/gathering