coachella is a world away....

so, ihave a problem with the music industry. i want to know why it is not viable to host a proper music festival in southa frica. i suppose i have just been aggrevated by the knowledge that coachella festival is upon us again in the good ol u.s of a. and once again, i am not there. these international heavy weight festivals are not unique to the usa though, brittain has glastonbury,wireless etc. australia has summadayze and some others, europe gets exit festivals as well as numerous mtv events thrown in for good measure. here in sunny south africa, we are lucky to get two or three decent festivals a year, all of which only offer up local talent on display, this doesnt bug me, some of the local stuff is good, most of it though, is not. sorry, but its not great, badly produced, generic blah blah fucking blah. i know a lot of this has to do with money and corporate backing is obviously hard to come by for organisers.

i find it really frustrating that we have to be content with one or two, very mainstream and non-offencive international acts each year, where are the up and commers, where ais the underground, where is the initiative. this year, music fans have to be content with james blunt and the kings of leon. kings of leon are way overdue and i am a fan, so no worries there, but i am not about to spend my ill gotten gains on a james blunt ticket (it makes perfect sense to me that in the uk, the cockney rhyming slang for "cunt" is james blunt. eg, ur a right james blunt....)

acts do not become huge overnight, they are usualy the result of a group of talented individuals, touring extensively for a long time, this is what we in south africa re missing out on. promoters and booking agaents are unwilling to take a punt on a new act. i remember going to see kanye west in cape town in a crowd of 1000 people, and he destroyed us, blew me away.in other countries you could go and see five superstar acts in five days, often in small venues with litte or no promotion. there are really talented bands who i will most probably never have the pleasure of seeing perform live, purely due to the short sightedness of the south african music scene. why cant we bring in smaller hard working acts and superstars alike, who is to say that south africa cannot host its own glastonbury or coachella, a glastchella if you will. thats what i want, for people to take a chance and push for a real taste of music, i want rock and roll, 10 000 people, pyrotechnics, a bill of superstars. i mean south africa have never even hosted the rolling stones and they have been on tour since the fucking sixties. i still cant get no satisfaction so to speak.

i worry that we are a generation missing out, unfortunate victims of geography and beaurocracy.




the chunky hipster