#britishgrime

[toriwestonwriterartist]

10/26/06 Lady Sovereign Paradise Rock Club- @suzannemarieriley and I were REALLY into @lady_sovereign_ This show was one of the best #girlsnightout I was still all caught up in my grief and for that night she pulled me out. I believe we were the few in the audience that knew the lyrics to her songs. I wish #britishgrime caught on here in the U.S. We had a great time dancing and for a moment leaving the #adulthoodproblems at the door. 7/23/07 The White Stripes Agganis Arena- My friend Cara had an extra ticket to this sold out show. Her now husband Scott joined us and the first thing he tells us is to make sure we have ear plugs. Before this show I NEVER wore ear plugs. We had floor seats and as soon as Jack and Meg White walked out on the stage I was so glad we got ear plugs. SO FUCKING LOUD-SO FUCKING AWESOME!!! Like John Doe and Exene-Jack and Meg had this unspoken chemistry. This was the first time I was jealous of that creative connection. I want that. Each song melted into the other and then the lights came on. We walked back to Cambridge that night high off of the energy in the room. 7/29/07 The Police Fenway Park- This was my first time going to Fenway Park. (I know!!!) This show was a dream come true. @thepoliceofficial broke up before I could go to concerts and I have seen @theofficialsting in concert but it’s not the same. When it was announce they were back together and touring I immediately bought tickets. I wanted to share this moment with Suzanne. So, this show was her engagement gift. As I told her, I wanted to share a moment and not give a typical engagement gift. This gift you will remember. The day of show it was raining but as soon as the gates opened the sun came out. When they played #roxanne the sun was setting and the sky was this reddish pink. It was a movie moment. 10/30/07 Morrissey Orpheum Theatre- This is the second time seeing @officialmoz A and I became friends over the summer and bonded because we were the single ones in our group of friends. #morrissey was amazing but the guys trying to jump onstage and hug him to death was the real show. #torisconcertjourney #myconcertjourney @the_whitestripes #ladysovereign #thepolice https://www.instagram.com/p/BwrfnJqhSpf/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1pw8ypyffqq58

[stillcursed-blog]

The Brit Awards need to take responsibility for #BritsSoWhite

At the 2015 Brits, after the same old same old run out of pop acts and British indie noisemakers, the lights went up (not very far up ,but up) on a stage filled with what looked like a hundred men in black tracksuits. Two flame throwers blasted up front, and Kanye West started on ‘All Day’. The eagle-eyed might have noticed the cream of British Grime in the front of the pack - Skepta, Stormzy, Novelist, and Krept and Konan among others. To paraphrase Wiley, this was a party that UK Grime had never been invited to, and Kanye kicked the door down.

This year’s dry, pasty-faced, de-clawed Brits had nothing to rival last year’s grime invasion, in fact it was hard to spot any black faces amongst the nominees, the attendees, or the winners.

Can anyone tell me why Aphex Twin was nominated for Best British Male this year? One album in at number eight on the charts for the grand total of four weeks, not making a dent in the singles chart and yet pushing out Tinie Tempah, Naughty Boy, MNEK and Lethal Bizzle? What about Foals getting into the Best British Group category with one album which peaked at number three, when perpetual chart botherers Little Mix, who have also charted in America, are left out? That’s not to mention Grammy nominee Lianne La Havas who has been the poster girl for the #BritsSoWhite hashtag after being snubbed. To nominate Laura Marling, who again has had one album chart at number 8 in the eligibility period, and Amy Winehouse who basically made it in posthumously through a rules loophole, shows a huge measure of disrespect to La Havas, and makes the British music industry look ridiculous.

Since Stormzy called the Brits out on the lack of diversity in the nominees and they grovellingly  issued a statement about ‘looking into’ more BAME voters, apologists have been shrugging and citing eligibility cut offs like they were really keen to include more BAME acts but were somehow stymied by the rules they themselves created.

Even if we’re buying the ‘transparent’ voting process, the Brits need to be held accountable for other choices they made on the night. If they were so apologetic about Stormzy missing out on eligibility by one week, why not ask him to come and perform Shut Up? The musical tribute to David Bowie was nice, but did it also require a five minute ‘special’ Brit acceptance speech from Gary Oldman and Annie Lennox? I personally think David Bowie would have hated every second of that self-indulgent rambling speech which listed every synonym for ‘legend’ in the dictionary and was cloyingly desperate to evoke emotion in the boozy crowd of record industry blerts. That time could have been used to showcase British urban music instead if the Brits were so concerned about diversity.

Some of the biggest selling singles, and the music that will come to define 2015, were overlooked from start to finish. If the charts were dominated by OMI and ‘Cheerleader’, ‘See You Again’ by Wiz Khalifa, and ‘Trap Queen’ by Fetty Wap, then you wouldn’t have known it from the International Male category. Not even Jason Derulo made it in! If Fleur East’s earworm ‘Sax’ was one of the most played records on music radio, it couldn’t compete with Catfish and the Bottlemen’s number 10 placed album and complete lack of top forty singles - she didn’t even get into the Breakthrough category. Krept and Konan might have had a breakout album and single in 2015 - but would the Brits voters have even known that? The Brits are keen to tell us that the eligible nominees are picked from the top 1000 selling singles, but they are less keen to tell us how many of their voting panel are white. (There is a petition here for them to release the info).

In their month long advertising campaign for the live broadcast the Brits have been trying to push the idea that their show is ‘controversial’ and exciting, showing clips of Madonna falling on her arse and whatnot, but as long as the whitewashing continues, they are getting more and more stale, less relevant, and at times, downright disrespectful.