I thought that it would be a good idea to include some columns in this newsletter. But now that I'm sat at my PC staring into the screen, I don't know what the fuck to type.
So I think that I'll just ramble on about a load of crap and see what comes out. Well let's talk about the weather, when you can't think of anything to say the British public love to indulge in boring conversations about the "inclement weather we are having for the time of year" or "how the garden is suffering from the hot spell". I know these things I work in a shop and that's 90% of our customers opening lines. I mean, get real!!! Who cares ? We all know that the British climate is crap yet everyone moans about it. "It's too hot" or "It's too cold" bloody hell nothing's ever right is it ?!
I think that some people are only happy when they're moaning. Anyway it's sunny today, but I'm stuck inside working when I could be out in the sun getting pissed - look, even I'm at it now! It must be a bloody disease!

I think I'll move on a bit, it seems that more and more bands are signing to major labels in the latest band wagon - Punk Rock II, 20 Years On.
I'm not goint to cast aspirtions about selling out and all that malarky. I can see the benefits for any band, I mean it looks great on paper. The label offer you £x amount cash advance - you think new equipment, get wasted, tour van, etc.. They book you into a flash studio costing god knows how much and you record your material and it sounds fucking amazing. They press up CDs, LPs and cassettes and promote you on TV, radio and in magazines, etc... and you're digging the fact that you're on telly, got your photo in the paper and on top of that you are earning a living wage doing what you want.

The they lay the truth on you, that your "advance" has been used up and you are actually in debt to them now and further more the sales of all formats are not going as well as they thought.

In actual fact the advance is exactly what it says it is... a loan, recoupable from the band and its royalties. It's the old adage of selling your soul to the devil at the crossroads. To think you could have done it all yourself and so uch cheaper, pressed up one format and instead of borrowing money from the major, who now have you tied into a contract to so many releases. You could have got a loan with a bank and done it all yourself - it must be a hell of a blow.

So as I said I can see the attraction and to be honest bands like Green Day don't really piss me off because they never aspired to be anything more than a really good pop band. Their lyrics didn't have a lot to say, they are just a good band to go and bop to. But bands like Bad Religion, the Blaggers etc despite their musical acumen are nothing more than hypocrites, I know they have families and are getting older and probably want to make a living from doing what they love. But they are going have to lose their roots, they sing songs with a political agenda and how not to conform. Then they go and join the biggest rat race of conformity and become a safe band under the jurisdiction of the label and its image.

Look at Citizen Fish, a prime example of a band who have made a living through touring, selling records, etc... and I'm sure they are happy and still firmly attached to their roots and their original motivations for being in a band. I think that bands who sign to majors lose that edge due to the fact that they lose control of their own destiny. The label tells them when they have a tour or what ever and obviously this takes a strain on the people involved in the band.

If you think about any popular band bar a few, they either split up, someone leaves or Ods. If they had control themselves then they could say "we need a break, OK we'll be skint for a while but when we come back we'll be refreshed". But the label sees the band as a commodity, a product and if you are not cutting the mustard then they push you harder to make your more profitable for them. They squeeze everything out that they can. I think that at the end of the day the only bands who ever win with the majors are those that understand the industry and the way it works and who can utilise the loopholes and who have an inner strength that stops them from being fucked around by the label, oh yeah and who have a really cool lawyer to read the contract.

But I think that this finally raised the point that when it has got that far it becomes a business and not just fun. After all 90% of major label bands are either influenced or who have come directly from the underground scene.

Underground music is the most creative, experimental and interesting for one reason. The people are doing it from the heart and because they want to, not because it is their job!

On the other side of the coin some people go too far the other way and become a pain in the arse ranting on about how right on they are and slag off anyone who doesn't fit their picture of the world. One example to me was Maximum Rock 'N' Roll. Now I used to love this mag, it was full of interesting stuff. But how right on can you get refusing adverts, etc.. I mean they must make a mint out of those ads in any case, the last issue I read had so many ads that they all went over my head, it was like where's the content. In comparison to the NME or Melody Maker, MRR had more ads in relation to its pages than the bloody music press did, maybe we should be calling MRR "sell outs" and "profiteers"!! The point I'm trying to make here is that everyone in the underground scene who produces zines, records or what ever WILL MAKE SOME PROFIT - now I know that this may be a bitter pill to swallow for some of you but it is true! Now, the important point here is, whether or not you sell enough to make that profit and the duration it takes to sell them - I mean you could have 12 releases and not have made a penny, in fact you could well owe hundreds or thousands of pounds to banks or rich family members! Most do what we will do if we eventually break even and that is to invest any profit back into the next project. To be honest I think that the important fact is not that anyone is making a profit but whether we are selling our stuff fairly.

The point of punk or the underground or whatever you want to call it, was to do things for yourself, take chances and risks on bands or projects that we believe in and make it accessible to those who wanted to hear/read about it all, the forethought here is not "How much cash can I make if I put this reocrd out or write this zine" but "This band are fucking great and I want to put a 7" out so that other people can hear them and also because it's a lot of fun too".

It also gives you a great deal of satisfaction when you see the finished product after many hours of hard work. Anyway going back to MRR, they recently made a song and dance about underground labels using large distribution companies. In theory it sounds easy: contact shops, mailorder and underground distros. But in practise it is quite another matter, the majority will only carry your releases on sale or return or on 30 day terms, so you are constantly ringing up and writing letters following up non payments and they just don't cough up or return the goods. So you get ripped off as it cost too much to pursue it legally and you learn to deal only cash up front or with those that you trust and who do pay. So I can see the need to use distribution companies and the need for a cut - for the hassle!

After all they have more backing and strength to recover unpaid bills, of course there are those that don't pay the labels on time either (and holding all the cash) but I guess that there's always someone trying to rip you off and it's easier to select a distro company that cherry pick a couple of hundred shops.

In fact to totally DIY you should distribute the stuff yourself or use non-profit distros -actually to be totally right on you should only accept trades, as cash is a symbol of the capitalist system - right kids ?!

But I don't know of any label or zine that refuses to accept money for their products, so none of us are truly punk are we ? We're all capitalist money grabbers!!!

The point I'm making is that by being PC or ridiculously extreme, you become pathetic. The time wasted moaning about who's sold out and what label's being distributed by whoever could be used more effectively and in any case if you don't like what's happening - do something yourself instead of sitting around waiting for others to do something and then moaning about them when they do something.

Well, now I've moaned and winged a bit and I feel a lot better. I've probably depressed you but that's life. 'till next time...