HEADLINE MAGAZINE EDITOR: Sara Irvine FEATURES: Craig Hanna and Tori Coffey REVIEWS: Ricky Patty FEATURE WRITER: Mark Higham PHOTOGRAPHY: Chris Sweeney DESIGN: Gordon Wilson
BBC BLAST Custom House Square 28th-30th of June 2007
Right Hook It s one of the most ferocious debates in the music industry today: is Pete Doherty a poet and living legend or drug-addicted loser? Mark Higham and Craig Hanna battle it out in the office. Mark- Doherty is in no way overrated! Craig- Personally Mark, I disagree, I feel that he is an overrated waster. M- No he is not, he is a god. C- Why is he a god, why? M- Because he is the best thing since sliced bread! C- Why though, there has to be a reason you like him so much, you cant just say I like him, there has to be a reason why! M- Because he is the best song writer of my generation. He is a total genius. C- He s not from your generation. M- Yes he is, I m living in this generation. C- That s like saying its your father s generation, it s just stupid. M- OK, fair enough, now look, back to the point. He s great because he has produced two of the greatest albums in recent history! And even though Babyshambles are a recent band, you can tell that they have influenced news actslike the Arctic Monkeys C- Well that s all good Mark, but we re talking about Pete Doherty, not Babyshambles or The Libertines, and personally, I think that Pete is an idiot, but I think people are more influenced by things that they would have been listening to at a younger age, therefore with Arctic Monkeys it would have been Oasis or someone like that and the Arctic Monkeys aren t even that great! M- That s lies, if there not so great when why have they had so much success? C- Because the Arctic Monkeys success isn t based on their musical ability, it s based on their ingenuity, innovation, and use of the internet. M- Well a lot of bands like them have been influenced by Doherty because they have all been at his gigs, and listened to his music, all the things that you just listed, he had already done first. C- By this stage they would have already been playing music and have found their own style, and on top of this, Doherty is a mockery to music with his drug muppetry. M- Drugs have nothing to do with it, its all about the music, artists like The Beatles and Bob Dylan used drugs in their day and they are now seen as legends of the industry! C- Drugs effectively help their careers, shaping their style, where as Pete, goes on stage, off his face on drugs and makes a prat out of himself, and is an all round a disgrace to humanity - I hate that man! M- He takes drugs, thats not a problem, the problem Pete has is his high profile girlfriend Kate Moss! C- He s only going out with her because he got her so off her face that now she thinks he looks good. M- He is a beautiful man! In the past he has even been in the running as women s most desirable male, he was nominated for a Novello Songwriting Award and OK, so he has been arrested a good few times but still, he is one of the greats.he is a poet in his lyrics and he has shown this potential from a young age, winning a poetry competition from the British Council to go and study poetry in Russia, he acheived highly academically and this shows in his lyrics as they are amazingly amazing. C- Yeh, but he has been in rehab more times than the rest of humanity would change their clothing, thats hardly a trait someone would aspire to have - and he is not beautiful. M- Well I disagree because many people obviously do aspire to be like him as in the past he was voted by the readers of NME s as the Hero Of The Year. C- He s hardly heroic, it s not like he s done anything for society or today s youth, all he has done is get off his face and write some child s poems, even his paintings are a joke, how much? 50,000 for a nose bleed on a child s sketch? I hate him, I hate him so much. M- Doherty is a true hero that s all that has to be said! What do you reckon? righthook@headline.com
Back in Facts 1. The name for the band did not come from what we would have thought would be a hardcore, electrifying subject, it was in fact from a sewing machine which belonged to the sister of the Young Brothers. The letters AC/DC really stand for Alternating current/direct Current instead of the Anti-Christ/Devil Christ which many religious figures have suggested. 2. Here, we refer to AC/DC by saying the letters individually, while in their home, Australia, the band is popularly referred to as Acca Dacca. 3. The school uniform outfit which Angus famously wears at every performance was originally from his secondary school, the idea came initially from his sister Margaret after Angus had tried out wearing many other outfits such as Spiderman and Superman. 4. This year, critics noted that along with Thin Lizzy, UFO, Scorpions and Judas Priest, AC/DC were among the second generation of rising stars ready to step into the breach as the old guard waned. 5. Angus Young is well known for mooning his audiences while on stage. 6. Although being in a world famous rock and roll band, Angus Young remains a devoted Teetotaller. 7. The band has released 21 studio albums, 5 live albums and 12 discographies. 8. The band s headlining tour of Britain was poetically called Lock up your Daughters. 9. Ex vocalist Bon Scott died in a truly rock and roll situation, after a heavy night of partying he passed out, was left in a car by someone he knew named Alistair Kinnear and was found the next morning. When Kinnear found him he was rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival. Some people have questioned the details of the death and have offered the idea that Kinnear did not actually exist. 10. Back in Black became the bands biggest selling album and by 2006 it had sold over more than 21 million copies within the United States. The album reached number one in the United Kingdom and number 4 in the US where it stayed in the top ten for 131 weeks. 11. Despite their reign in the top music in the US, one critic stated that the band had made the same album nine times. 12. AC/DC was considered the eighth biggest disappointment of the year in 1984 by the Kerrang reader s poll. 13. Angus Young was voted 96th on Rolling Stone s 100 Greatest guitarists of all time. 14. 22 years after the band was down-rated by Kerrang s readers, Young received the magazine s Legend Award from the editor, Paul Brannigan. Brannigan then went on to describe AC/DC as one of the most important and influential bands in history. 15. Renowned for his onstage antics, Angus Young is known as a memorable performer. When singer Bon Scott was still alive, he used to climb onto Scott s shoulders during concerts and they would then make their way through the crowd, with smoke streaming from a satchel on his back. This was done while playing a stifling guitar solo, most often during the performance of the song Rocker. 16. Young developed the spasm by accident. It was really created when he was playing live in a small club in Australia. He had accidently tripped over a cable and covered it up by having a seizure- like spasm while on stage so that he could make it look like part of the act. Ever since, it has become a trademark for him. 17. In some cultures, the band s name is a slang term for bisexuality, but the band members claim not to have known this before the name was created. In fact, the only reason they found out was because a taxi driver informed them on the way back from a concert early on in their career. 18. In the band s early days, most of the members would wear some sort of outfit, consisting of some form of silk or satin, but this whole look was ditched after they realised that the band Skyhooks had already adapted this style of stage performance. 19. The band has inspired many tribute bands, one of which being AC/DShe which is an all female group from San Francisco. 20. They Rule! 20 things you need to know about AC/DC... By Tori Coffey, Sara Irvine
THE NEW ALBUM OUT NOW ON INFECTIOUS RECORDS FEATURING THE HIT SINGLES POLARIS AND YOU CAN T HAVE IT ALL The music of a reflective adult... - HEADLINE MAGAZINE