I remember watching the Glastonbury highlights this year and being genuinely embarrassed by the interview with Kasabian following their head-line slot. They were obviously drunk and came in swearing, arsing about and being cocky (like so many bands tend to) and one of them stood on the table to moon the camera for a bit. None of this I found particularly offensive, but what really embarrassed me was that the band either felt like they had to (or really wanted to) make this behaviour seem rebellious and youthfully irreverent. The interviewers (the same desperate nobodies approaching thirty and hating themselves for it) laughed and said things like "oh my god you guys are so mental. what are you like" for a bit whilst they waited for the band to calm down and sit down. I sat there thinking "is that it? Is this rock and roll?" It was unarguably, truly tragic. Interviews are pretty lame these days, mostly due to the way interviewers have changed.
Bands like the Sex Pistols, the Stones and the Beatles had such a wealth of opportunity to appear genuinely cool, witty and rebellious in interviews because those asking them questions were the squarest people on earth. With their ties done up to eleven, their comb-overs and their questions like "why do you play such ghastly music?". These days, the bands haven't changed. Their answers haven't changed, the only thing that's different is that their interviewers are wannabe hipsters who appease their rowdy behaviour and often encourage it to make their programme seem "down with da kids".
Maybe there's just nothing left to rebel against anymore...just misogyny and non-vegetarianism...and we've got to have some fun...
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'Well, I'm a common working man,
With a half of bitter, bread and jam,
And if it pleases me, I'll put one on ya man,
When the copper fades away!' - Jethro Tull
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