Page 23 - RYAN'S GIG GUIDE July 2014

grey beast chugging along at
barely any miles an hour
with a dodgy copy of
Windows from a work mate
of your dad's and a gentle
hum of radiation from the
monitor lending every song a
hypnotic undertone drone that
still makes me imagine a steady
four time beat whenever I
vacuum the lounge
Much like the good Sister and
the number thirty two bus a
great impact was made the day
I first encountered the internet;
all the years spent tracking down
elusive albums or exclusive
art work adorned singles
suddenly counted for nothing
My library of LP's and collection
of cassettes made completely
moot almost overnight With a
title to search and enough vari
ants on the phrase 'download' it
became possible to secure so many
songs I was forced to upgrade my
hard drive twice in six months
Now in the future and listening to
the complete works of Simon and
Garfunkel on a device so
small I'm not sure it even
exists it's easy to
become complacent
about the simple act of
discovering information
on the musicians I favour
along with the latest in new music Within a few
clicks I am presented with an alphabetised army
of exciting new sounds and imaginative new
bands and obituaries of the artists I was
planning on going to see
No longer am I forced to learn second hand that
my favourite artist had been been caught
cheating on their spouse; now I can watch the
temptress them self give intimate details about
the whole juicy affair with times and dates
and measurements on hand and catalogued
via their personal blog and vlog site
And should I hear of my beloved bands coming
to a venue near me I can choose to either fight
in the mosh pit like an epileptic on a
trampoline or slump on the sofa with soda's
and snacks and stream the event instead A T
shirt available only in Argentina or a collection
of nasal extrusions taken from the tour bus
everything and almost anything is available in
the ether of the ever giving greatness that is
the World Wide Web
Yet for all this insta access of ease and
interaction between fans and their bands this
munificence of much modernity has afforded
us I feel a certain romanticism has been
forever lost to all future generations Not for
them the endless trawling of high street stores
to find the one with an up to date chart listing
on their wall; nor will they understand the
sheer unadulterated joy of stumbling upon a
live boot leg recording of their favourite band
buried amongst the Euro pop and import
section out the back where the till jockey can't
see you slipping it into your coat
And maybe these are just the lamentations of
an old fart with all his own hair and most of
someone else's teeth whose trousers are
always kept at a respectable mid drift level
doesn't understand the angst of a generation
born into an instantly available ' Click' world
yet is still some years young of a free bus pass;
'too young for the grave but too old to save'
as it were Working for the very system I once
raged against I am obsolete in my opinions
and of no consequence to the marketing men
So forgive me if whilst queuing back stage to
get what Ozzy calls his autograph gouged into
my original pressing Black Sabbath twelve
inch I ask you exactly how your iPod is going
to magic your downloaded copy into a
tangible surface ready for the superstars
illegible scrawl
EXCLUSIVE ARTWORK
BECOME COMPLACENT
CAUGHT CHEATING
NASAL EXTRUSIONS
FUTURE GENERATIONS
I AM OBSOLETE
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