A rough month to be a music fan

You may have noticed that I've not been bombarding you with posts this month. Truth be told it's been a pretty rough month for music legends. As you may or may not have seen I did share my thoughts on Lemmy's passing from cancer at the end of last year. In the time since I last posted here at Norris Approved we have lost fantastic musicians including Mott the Hoople's Dale 'Buffin' Griffin, Eagles guitarist Glenn Frey and of course the incomparable David Bowie. (That's not even including actor Alan Rickman who also sadly passed away this month) No matter what way you look at it it's been a rough month to be a fan of classic rock.

Both Lemmy and Bowie knocked me particularly hard. I've listened to David Bowie since I was a 6 year old boy nosing through his dad's CD collection. Meanwhile Lemmy has been part of the soundtrack to my life since my early teens. In a random moment, I thought to myself how respectful people were being. People were united in grief, particularly for Bowie. Fans of his music as well as fans of the movie 'Labryinth' same together online and shared their grief and I can genuinely say I didn't see anything spiteful or inappropriate.
Today on my Facebook feed I came across an article from the Guardian which really piqued my interest. The article compared how the world (particularly the online world) grieved for David Bowie earlier this month and how the online world has reacted to Eagles' guitarist Glenn Frey's death this week. For those who don't know a lot about Eagles they are a huge band beyond their seminal hit 'Hotel California'. They like Bowie have sold millions of albums and toured the world several times over. To my surprise the article claims that the same people who grieved so publicly for Bowie are now mocking Frey and his fans!

The article which can be read here raises a very interesting debate. How does the work of Frey get ignored upon his death in favour of a punchline or the suggestion that he's 'no loss' compared to the Starman?

I thought back to around four years ago when Robin Gibb passed away. Like Bowie, the Beegees have been a huge part of my musical childhood. Beyond the 'Saturday Night Fever' era that everyone associates with the band, Robin was part of one of the greatest songwriting partnerships in music history. Yet what did I hear online (and via texts from people who knew how much I loved the Beegees?) Jokes! Jokes about 'Staying Alive'. It was too easy. In that moment because the Beegees didn't rewrite the rule book, the death of one of them was merely joke fodder. I'm sure it was the same when his brother Maurice died years earlier but the online community wasn't as strong back then.

Take Steve Irwin. Steve Irwin was a true hero of mine. Yes he was wacky and a strong TV personality but he did so much for the environment and to raise awareness of endangered species throughout his life. People knew the high esteem in which I held him. That didn't stop people texting me sick jokes within hours of his death.

What we're talking about here is a side effect of celebrity. It's almost as if we think because we see them everywhere that we KNOW them and OWN them. At the end of the day they're people too! I'm guilty of it myself. Someone on my Facebook made a joke about swapping Lemmy for Justin Bieber and I went along with it. But... and this is the only time you'll EVER hear me say this... if Justin Bieber was to die tomorrow I wouldn't mock him. If One Direction were to die in a plane crash I wouldn't poke and prod at their fans who love them. I can rip their musical output until the cows come home but they are people too.

 Several months before Amy Winehouse passed away I predicted she wouldn't make the year. It didn't fill me with joy to learn that I was right. Others however joked and cajoled at the death of a very tragic figure in music. With all the respect in the world to David Bowie who I loved and respected just as much as everyone else, why is his death any different to Amy Winehouse's or Robin Gibb's or Glenn Frey's? It doesn't belittle what any of them did in life to treat their deaths with the same respect such a sad occasion deserves.

I sincerely hope that this trend of great musicians (and other national treasures) passing away isn't a sign of things to come. Of course death is always prevalent but it certainly seems all around us at the moment. But if yet another public figure passes away soon, think before you comment. They have a family. They have fans. They have a right to be celebrated by those who loved them.

Throughout 2016 I will be raising money for Cancer Research UK. My first fundraising idea involves my tackling a life long fear and going on a rollercoaster. You can donate at www.justgiving.co.uk/mike-norris

Thanks

Guns N' Roses- will the reunion happen?

There are certain landmarks in life that people remember until the day they die. That single moment where your life changes in a way you can't ignore. Usually we'd be talking about weddings, births and other such life events but sometimes these landmarks can come in a more subtle moment. 

Let's go back to the mid 1990s. I''m going to guess 1996 but I'm not 100% sure (for such an important landmark you'd think I'd remember the date right?). I'm a ten year old boy with a love for music that my friends thought was "for old fogies" Since I was 4 I had raided my parents' CD collection and discovered such great artists as Queen, Elton John and David Bowie. It's fair to say that already at such a young age that the likes of the Spice Girls and All Saints just weren't going to cut it. In August 1996(ish) I will have been in the Lake District. My family used to holiday there every year and we all loved it. As I looked round the shops of Keswick I found a CD called 'The Best Rock Anthems... Ever!' I remember thinking it might have some cool stuff on I hadn't heard before so promptly bought it and popped it in my DiscMan (the 1990s version of an iPod for those born this side of the millennium) as my dad drove us back to the caravan.

So I hear you... what the hell are you blabbering on about Mike? Well it was on that car journey that I first heard a genuine rock classic: 'Sweet Child O' Mine' by Guns N' Roses. Sure I'd heard some fantastic rock music in my time but THAT opening riff from Slash blew my mind. I'd never heard anything like it. It made such an impression on me that I immediately paused the CD to take it in. Yeah I get that that sounds pretentious but that's genuinely what happened. I'd been so blown away by the first ten seconds of 'Sweet Child O' Mine' that I needed time to process it. Twenty years later it is still my favourite song of all time. It was also my first introduction to Guns N' Roses... and my first real introduction to hard rock.

Fast forward ten years from that first introduction in Keswick and I'm standing in the hallowed ground of Donington Park watching Axl Rose's latest incarnation of GN'R headline on a hot Sunday night. It's not the first time I've seen a band calling themselves Guns N' Roses. Their Leeds Festival show in 2002 was my first ever live music experience. Sadly Download 2006 wasn't quite cutting it. Don't get me wrong, the band were very accomplished and slick for the first 30 minutes. However as Axl stormed off stage after slipping during 'Sweet Child O' Mine' the atmosphere changed. We GN'R fans have put up with a lot. Yes at this stage Axl's diva theatrics are almost part of the show but as bass player Tommy Stinson hits a camera man with his guitar while storming off stage, the Donington faithful started booing, throwing bottles and (where I was at least) started chanting for the previous night's headliner Metallica. 

Sure Axl and Stinson came back but personally not even cameos from Sebastian Bach and founding member Izzy Stradlin could take the bad taste from my mouth. I just felt a little... fed up. At that stage there were two things that I (and the world) believed would never happen:

  1. The album that GN'R had been working on for over a decade, 'Chinese Democracy' would never come out. It was eventually released in 2008 and despite most reviews I actually loved the album.

  2. That original line up would never reunite again... much less Slash appear on a stage with W. Axl Rose.

Well if the rumours are to be believed, Hell had just frozen over.

On the same day that Lemmy sadly passed away, rumours were flying all over the Internet that Guns N' Roses would be headlining Coachella in 2016. A Guns N' Roses with Axl (of course), Duff McKagan and... Slash! Freaking Slash! The most volatile rock partnership perhaps of all time may just be back on the road. But let's look beyond the headline. 

Despite the headlines this is only a RUMOUR at this point. Many websites are reporting it as gospel but until it comes out of the mouths of Axl and co or the Coachella organisers then I wait with baited breath. What's also clear from looking deeper into the the various articles is the fact that this isn't exactly a Kiss circa 1996 reunion. Drummer Steven Adler and Guitarist Izzy Stradlin are unlikely to be involved. Instead reports indicate that it is more likely to be current band members filling the gaps. If those members are the likes of Dizzy Reed and Richard Fortus then we are actually going to have a line up that encompasses all eras of Guns N' Roses from 1985 right up to present day. Maybe that's not such a bad thing.

Of course we would all love to see Adler and Stradlin hit the stage at Coachella but let's be realistic. Any Guns N' Roses headline show isn't going to be 'Appetitie For Destruction' from 'Welcome To The Jungle' through to 'Rocket Queen'. There's going to be 'November Rain'. There's going to be 'Knockin' On Heaven's Door' and yes 'Chinese Democracy' will take up at least some of the setlist. It's somewhat sensible to keep some of the current line up on board even if it is less exciting than a full 'Appetite era' reunion. It's a debate that rolls on with so many bands. 

   

  "Queen isn't Queen without Freddie and John."

  "Kiss are just a tribute band without Ace and Peter."

Can Guns N' Roses be Guns N' Roses without Izzy and Steven? They can certainly give us one hell of a show.

One of the greatest moments in my gig going life was hearing Slash at  Download 2010 play that same riff that got me hooked on Guns N' Roses during his solo set. The mere thought of Slash, Duff and Axl reuniting to play GN'R songs old and new is so exciting as I thought it would genuinely never happen. The cynics may cry that it's not genuine but this may be the closest we'll ever get and it's certainly exciting for long time fans no matter what they say. Now all we need to worry about it whether this can last without falling apart! We're 'Right Next Door To Hell' and it may have just frozen over. Only time will tell...