@@Mark-bm5nk i do my best! <3

@@leodivine you're too kind. :) thank you.

@@leodivine it's already online... i guess youtube is doing a bad job of actually showing people the long videos these shorts are from! :( the one about unforgettable fire is also already available... aren't they linked anywhere, when you watch the shorts? if not, as soon as i manage, i will put an actual link in the comments or description of each... on my end, the shorts should lead people to a connected long video. :/

​@@SimonMas wait - they do - my mistake - I just assumed they were for an upcoming video - never thought to click on the links - silly me!! 🤷🏻‍♂️

@@leodivine all is well what ends well! :D i rarely announce long videos. lately, i've been uploading a lot of short extracts because i'm working on a *long* user tutorial on bandcamp... probably the first and last tutorial i will ever do (at least for a mighty long time :D), so all the shorts refer to longer published videos :)

@@leodivine ah, i can't agree with you, here! as much as i like the joshua tree, i would choose the unforgettable fire or acthung baby over it any day :D to each his own, i guess :)

​@@SimonMas pistols at dawn it is!! 😅 🔫

i think their peak was wish, but these are tastes and only relatively matter for debate. i don't think it's odd, objectively, that the cure did best with tolhurst, though. apart from whatever chemistry: they were young, hungry, they had things to prove (to themselves, if nothing else), and an urgency in doing things that naturally diminishes as one ages. for good or bad. it's not that people change and the fire goes out... it's not that simple, not necessarily. take the last album. smith gave it time to grow. it was recorded. played around a bit. re-recorded. played around some more. finally released. the way the cure are today, and the way the music business is today: why not? what's the urge? if that had happened in 1985, for example... no, it couldn't have happened. it was just impossible to keep a band together, if they toured every now and then, and without any release for years on end.

@@leodivine glad you liked the extract :) EDIT: it is a really fascinating album. i can't tell you if it's his best, i'm undecided. but it's dense with interplay between religious views and hope and fearful images and tender moments... all things that make me love his music.

@@PastaAndBeans ...yes, i live in italy. why is everyone suddenly asking? :D are you hailing from italy, too? :)

hey, thank you for the kind words! if you haven't seen them already, there a couple more videos about the cure on my channel :) i hope there will be a complete series, starting at some point in 2025. :)

indeed! my favourite gabriel's is his 1982 album, so the live is really close to my heart, too

oh, but i have already: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bGakfZ-XnLl7eKM look into my old videos, there's an ongoing PG series (among other things... you might also be interested in a couple of beatles-related videos or in the day by day story of the fabs, an audio-only podcast) ;)

@@leodivine i think it's the key :)

@@vic3925 how so?

really? i never realised that. that's a good excuse to listen to both albums again :)

i'll see what i can do. as long as the pictures are not out of context with what i'm saying, why not :) thank you :)

ah, it's just one of the noises i use. i used to censor bad words with a toy trumpet, but alas, it's too loud for where i am now, so i use whatever comes in my way. and indeed, yes, i am living in italy :)

@@alexisquim4502 i like precision ;)

believe me: i've been thinking all day to sum up all the things i want to reply. i'll try to be short, but i might not be. for a start, if you really don't care about what people say about klein, there's no point in any discussion. i've decided to write anyway, because while you might not care about him, you might care about the reasons why people (like me) don't just trash him. i can't vouch for anyone but myself, so i'll just talk about me, although i wouldn't be surprised to see other people share my approach or view. in the three videos i have made about allen klein, i've tried to present the viewers with a balanced view about the man. his strong points, what he did well, his genius, AND his wrongdoings and shortcomings. i can't remember if i said it in this video, but i've certainly said it in the comments: i think the only reason why klein didn't screw the beatles up was that the beatles had already collapsed onto themselves by the time he was in the position to screw them over. and he did take advantage of them, singularly. i don't do this because i think klein was a delicate flower that has been misjudged by history. i do think he comes off as the bad guy in the beatles breakup just because he *was* a greedy bastard, too, because he did many a horrible things to people on the beatles behalf, and because people love mccartney and mccartney despised klein from day one. but rest assured: klein *was* a bad guy. but the beatles weren't and aren't angels either. and as for the rolling stones... well. sam cooke was probably the only big name klein screw over that i can't come up with some *serious* wrong doing off the top of my head. oh, and jodorowsky. but i don't know them anywhere near as well as i know the stones or the beatles. if you wanted, we could discuss details, but... well, you don't care. the reason why i tell klein's story as i do is not that i think klein is a more interesting character to talk about, that way. the entertainment value would be just as high if i turned him into the cartoonish character you would be comfortable with. the reason why i try to talk about klein as a tridimensional person, capable of good, intelligent, even kind acts is that i want the listener to be equipped when they will find the kleins in their lives. to spot them. to avoid their bad qualities while blinded by their good side. if one thinks evil is just, well, one dimensionally evil, then they *will* get screwed over. the worst person you can think of, in your life or in our history, is probably charming, capable of good, compassionate about something. if you ignore that, it will take you much longer to protect yourself when that charming, apparently lovable person rips yourself apart.

@@Ni5ei i disagree with you about the continuation: i find the fact that they changed time and again both interesting and liberating... but i do agree with you 100% that the band couldn't go on smoothly, after pornography. they needed a break and a fresh restart. it's a pity it happened with a violent altercation... but i guess it's all well what ends well. besides, it's perfectly legit to like only part of a band's output. your friends should have no problem with it... do they give you hell?

@@SimonMas I think, tracks like "Shiver and shake" or "The Kiss" from "Kiss me..../1987 could have been on "Pornography".

@@pauljohnston8011 trent?

@@gregoryedmonds4421 i'm not sure about what your point is... michael rutherford being the least talented of the lot? 🤔

@@Sumon-n7d3r yes indeed. this is the first of 3 videos about italian progressive rock.. as i've written elsewhere, i would love to cover more "local" musicians and musics. even discovering them with the community would be lovely. but, alas, again... it will take time :)

@@SimonMas okey thank you

@Sumon-n7d3r my pleasure. in fact, having encouraging comments is a huge payback. so thank you :)

@@Sumon-n7d3r thank you :) i'm glad you are liking the videos :)

@@SimonMas welcome. give us more content like this

@@Sumon-n7d3r of course i will... in due course, though, as i have to work to pay the bills and i'm forced to do this in my scant free time :) (EDIT: sorry, you can probably feel my frustration here... but it takes time to do the content i like and that you deserve, and i am having almost nothing these days. i know i'm not alone, but that doesn't make this situation any less maddening)

@@johnmchugh8049 i've read it from a number of places through the years, but that book is really good. although, i much prefer his own story of fall and redemption :)

@@Sumon-n7d3r i hope it got you to re-listen to the songs :)

@@SimonMas yes

@Sumon-n7d3r mission accomplished then :)

@@cloverfield911 both great tracks. fascination street, in paticular... ehm... fascinates me: it's an endless crescendo! good stuff!

@@computer_toucher i will be featuring napoli centrale's first album in a future video. it's a must.

@@Violette-k1w big love :)

yeah, it's all great music. as for the labelling, as i was saying in another comment: it depends on the definition of prog... it is an even more volatile label than the other generally used to call genres (like rock, or blues...). as you can see in a couple of comments, the thought that battisti, dalla and de andré might have come up with music that could be considered progressive (even progressive pop) is heresy, so it really depends on the personal definition of the genre. which is ok, as long as one is prepared to admit that his definition might not be shared by others. the way i see it, non al denaro is more prog than storia di un impiegato. perhaps tutti morimmo a stento would indeed have been a better choice, given that it was the first time De Andrè tried to tackle a concept album with orchestral accompaniments and a certain complexity in the lyrics and in the structure of the album... but i honestly didn't think about it when i was putting together the video :D it happens.

@@SimonMas well, prog rock is way more specific than generic rock 😁 and, despite some differences from artist to artist, prog is always recognizable about the comments of other people I've read too... just ignorant radical chic 😆

@@IIISOLOIII nah, i don't think labels are that useful to cathegorise music... take dire straits, for example. are they rock? are they pop? what about the beatles? are the rolling stones blues? blues rock? pop with some blues thrown in? with prog, it is even more difficult to give an exact definition. my definition is that "it is music that tries to advance what you can do with songs", but by that definition, yes stopped being prog by the 1980s. and they are definitely prog. on the other hand, one (not me) could make a case that by that definition david bowie is more prog than genesis... labels are a just quick, slippery way to put music in a certain bracket... and yeah, if one is not careful to remember that all the time, you end up being elitist. i know because there was a time when i was. then i went places and realised the folly of my youth! :D

@@SandrOliva have you listened to the albums? what you are saying is exactly one of the things i say at the start of the video: it can't be prog, because it's too accessible... define prog, then.

@@SimonMas I own those albums since they came out I have been following those singer-songwriters since their early days, and though well respected and top sellers, they have never considered rock. They have evolved using arrangements and sounds of the times, but their target wasn't Rock fans (though many enjoyed at least two of them, De Andrè and Dalla). For anybody who's not into Italian '70s music: Lucio Battisti was more of a vastly succesful hitmaker who since the late 60s wisely explored different generes and sounds, but always within the song format. At the end of his career he released a string of albums consisting in weird lyrics on electronic backing tracks. Lucio Dalla after years of great reviews and poor sales in his last years became more and more mainstream, while De Andrè, who had started outin the early 60s as a singer-songwriter inspired by French Chansonniers, later expanded his sound palette with the collaboration of other musicians from different genres. Our Prog bands were PFM, Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso, Trip, Le Orme, Osanna (though more on the heavy Rock side). Nothing in common with those other three artists

@@SandrOliva look, i don't want to be disrespectful, but the lesson about who dalla, battisti, and de andré are... misses the mark. if we want to talk labelling, your point have the merit of being somewhat aligned to what the common listener would think in the 1970s (and not even much: for my master thesis i watched *hours* of debate aired on RAI about "progressive music" or "new music" and i can tell you that even back then there was a sizeable portion of young listener that had a problem putting dalla, de andré and battisti in the same box as lucio villa, al bano, morandi, di capri, and so on). if we are talking labels, though, i also have to point out that all of these three albums are marked as "rock progressivo" both in the italian wikipedia pages, which are most likely written and edited by italians. like you and me. it means very little, naturally, but so is any discussion based on prejudice. once again i ask you to define what progressive rock is for you. without that, there no possibility for a discussion on ideas. by your definition, these might very well have nothing to do with prog. but by my definition (prog is something that tries new ways to create popular music, with new sonorities, with more ambitious goals than simply "singing a song that sells"), there are 100% prog. in addition, as i have written elsewhere, i find hard to spell out a coherent definition that puts these albums out of the prog genre while saying that le orme, celeste, goblin, jumbo, and many others are in. the reason why i wanted to start my 3 video miniseries on italian progressive rock with these albums, as opposed with those i will feature in the other two videos (whcih are more readily accepted as prog by prog fans) is to underline that prog is much more diverse and interesting than what the prescrittive stands of hardcore fans make it to be... and, yeah, to piss those fans off. i admit as much. i have long grown impatient with that elitist approach. ;)

more in detail: battisti was "always in the song format". ok, so... you are saying that the songs in anima latina have a introduction, a refrain, a pre-chorus, a chorus, a coda? can you point them out to me, song by song? if you try, you'll find that most don't have a traditional song structure at all. those that you call "weird lyrics" are hermetic poems. again, a matter of labelling. :) when you say ""They have evolved using arrangements and sounds of the times" aren't you really saying that they evolved using arrangements and sounds taken from prog bands? making their music, de facto, prog? or does something stop being prog just because of the name of the artist? or maybe you mean that since these were not born prog from day 1, then whatever they do cannot be classed as prog? as you see, prescriptive labelling does create severe problems. as i said: let's talk ideas, instead of labels. labels are worth very little, and should be just a vague indication of what the music actually is. ideas... that's a different story. :)

@@SimonMas I say that, being probably much older than you, I have been living those times day by day. And none of those artist were considered Prog or Rock, neither by critics, nor by music consumer (or by musicians, as I already was back then, even if then my recording and touring days were only a teenage dream). Updating one's arrangemet according to YESTERDAY'S fashions was the norm. What months before was considered Rock, after a while was Mainstream A month back then is equivalent to 5 years today, every week radically new things were coming out and the old ones were surpassed and copied in Pop productions. You have to have lived through those times to understand what was happening, to know how genres were classified and to which different audiences they were aimed (One question, which country are you from?)

i beg to differ, obviously. how can le orme, or goblin, or celeste be considered prog (and they are: for example, they are discussed in italianprog.com) while these three albums are not? listen to these three albums without prejudice and tell me that they sound middle of the road, that they don't try to advance pop music, that they sound like adriano celentano, gianni morandi, rino gaetano, francesco guccini, massimo ranieri, al bano, claudio villa, or any of the other non-progressive acts populating italian music at the time. or tell me what your definition of prog is. to me, prog is about PROGressing popular music in new ways, finding fresh ways to put together a pop song or album that doesn't rely on the usual structures, sounds and expectations. in this sense, these are way more prog than other "prog" albums i've put my hands on. if on the other hand something is prog only if deliberately obscure, if it has tempo changes every other section, lengthy instrumental solos, and/ or doesn't sell as much as it should, then, yeah: these have nothing to do with prog. but so don't half of the stuff produced by le orme, pfm, area, banco, and so on. i know you won't be convinced and you will consider me a heretic... but, honestly: why?

indeed i am. i will do a similar video about 3 "basic" italian prog rock albums (basic as in fundamental), and 3 "alternative" ones. these were the "progressive pop" choice. if those go well, i can do more. one of the goals i have for the channel is to speak about non anglo-saxon music. i've done a tiny tiny tiny bit this far, but there's *a lot* more i want to do. in a small part because i know about it already... and mostly because it will be fun to discover it with the community. especially if it gets global. a music lover can dream :D besides: check out other albums by lucio battisti in particular. he was bowie's favourite italian musician and i found he goes well with british friends. his albums from the 1980s onwards become more and more abstract and might be too dependent on understanding the (hermetic) poems he was using as lyrics, but those from the 1970s should be accessible regardless of lyric understanding :)

@@SimonMas thanks for the suggestion. I will check Battisti, sounds promising. It's a pity that we can't find many more videos about other European artists, other than the British (both French or Italian music scenes, for example, are just as good). Sometimes I search reviews or rankings for other artists, and there's nothing. And, hey, don't get me wrong... being a huge Beatles fan, I love Anglo-American music, of course. But there's a lot of other artists out there that deserve a lot more recognition.

@paulotapadas4648 i am on your same page. there's thousands of great records the world over we never hear a pip about! i want to do my part to change that and to learn :)

i didn't know about it, thank you for the suggestion. it's always nice to discover new prog albums :)

@leodivine i've given it a listen. it has prog elements for sure, but i'd class it as metal more than anything else ... labels are just an indication though :) a bit too screamed for tonight but it's an interesting record. loving the horns! :) thank you for the suggestion :)

​@@SimonMas just seen this reply - really cool of you to actually check it out & get back to me - much respect!! - no doubt it's metal above anything else - but if you're big into modern metal - as I once was - the prog/art/jazz elements would certainly stand out a lot more 🤟 🎶

@leodivine of course i check it out! learning new things is one of the reasons i keep on working on this channel. :) i'm not a big metalhead... although i listen to it more easily, these days than, say, 10-15 years ago. i can certainly hear some non-metal influences, though :)

thank you for the kind words... and the donation! (that was you, right? :) ) i am going to keep doing videos, i've just slowed down a bit for two reasons: i'm doing (on top of everything else) a soundtrack for a videogame, AND i've started to think about whole series. not like the peter gabriel one i'm doing, with videos uploaded when i can. i want to finish the whole series so that there's something to watch every first of the month or whatever. the cure are going to be the second or the third band to have their own series. it's going to be a number of videos about their history (i would like to do the whole story, but i'm really short on sources after 2001, so if you know of articles and books...), a review of all of their releases (i'm going to put singles and bsides together, i guess), and who knows what else. these things usually start little and then explode in my face. the first series was going to be a single video about dookie, and i'm clocking at 20 videos at the moment, including slight spin off (the gilman street videos are part of that green day series, for example). so i would think it will be the same for the cure. long winded reply, i know... perhaps i should do a video at chirstmas about this kind of announcement? anyhow, thank you very much. i hope one day you can point at this comment and say: "i was there first". it'd mean i have kept doing good work :)

@@happisakshappiplace.6588 it's a solid album, but i had never heard of it or springfield either. no love for him in italy. it gies to show that there were hidden gems even back in the day. now... there's a ton of them per month :D ps: thank you for the comment. on this video, in particular, it hope it will definitely help convincing youtube to show it around more :)

@@johnmchugh8049 it's really personal. and... i don't know if it's true, i don't know the man, but i feel like it reflects the way he is. it's in the nuisance of his writing, in the way he presents his viewpoint. not every biography is like that.

@@SimonMas he’s very open and honest - he was such a powerful creative force of the cure in the beginning but so humble about it

@@johnmchugh8049 see, for me it's really hard to see that, because i got in the band when they had already turned him into a joke (or, honestly, he had done a lot for them to do that). i really would like to read a more detailed account of the creative flux within the band in every era.

i'm not too keen on the smiths for personal reasons (big love for johnny marr, though), but yeah, it's one of my favourite periods of pop music, if not the one i like best, ever. i am thinking of changing the way i organise the videos, perhaps i should be moving towards series... and if i do (and i will) one of the first series will be about the cure. the videos are going relatively well, so why not. then, from that period, i might be doing joy division, or siouxise and the banshees, or japan, or... ;)

​@@SimonMas sounds great - I get the ick with The Smiths - Morrissey is a twat - but I can't deny his talent - I'd actually like to hear why you don't like The Smiths too - if that's something you'd have the stomach for - doesn't negative content do even better on KZbin? - might be nice to show that side of yourself & spice things up a little - but this is just me thinking out loud✌️

@@leodivine brace yourself: wall of text coming :D when you say you can't deny morrisey's talent, you have one reason why i don't cover stuff i don't like. "talent" is often used in a subjective way. there are technical reasons why a piece of music works in a certain way, and god knows i know how to be pedantic and technical if i want to... but what's the use? perhaps even more than any other art (but this is true with art in general) music and especially popular music doesn't appeal to the technical knowledge of people. late billie holiday is probably the worst singer i have ever heard. her tone is shit. she can't really hold a pitch properly. yet she opens her mouth and a piece of stone cries warm tears. what use is there for me to come and say: "AAAAAAH, THE EMOTION!!!" or to point out to the many technical failures due to the disasters in her own life? and if you came to me and say: "nah, i think she's shyte", are you going to change your mind if i went on for half an hour about the way the contrast of the smoothness of the accompaniment and the roughness of her voice reflect the contrast between what she had wanted and what she could manage to have? if i told you that the beauty is in the voice being crap, because it encapsulate the human existence: fragile, faulty, fallible, and always short of our desires however much we try? so, the smiths. yeah, i don't like them because of morrisey, but not just because he (or rather, his public image: i never even met the guy) is that of a waste of space. i can't stand his singing. the tone. the way he articulates the lyrics. the pose of the tortured artist. even his lyrics leave me cold, to be honest. it doesn't help that when i was in high school (damn those formative years! :D) people who professed their love for the smiths used to be self absorbed loudmouth and narcissists. bread and butter rockers and metal head were much more relatable (i was the only prog head in the school). even the disco people were better and funnier, and i profoundly hated disco, at the time (it didn't help it had a political connection and that i still think keyboards in mainstream 90s eurodisco sound like cars horns...). i could never cover the smiths fairly. and, to be honest, i do not want to have a saint paul moment about them :D [...]

@@leodivine [...] when i started the channel, i told myself that i should never cover stuff about bands that i love too much to speak ill about, nor bands i hate too much to see any good about. it's a pointless exercise of self indulgence. it doesn't grown me, it doesn't offer the viewer a constructive platform onto which they can grow (musically and as human beings), and it does nothing to help great music to come out. look at all the posts by people saying that X is crap. what a disgrace. imagine having 15 minutes of fame with that post going viral and been seen by millions of people... and instead of saying: "LISTEN TO THIS!" you are just publicising something you yourself think it's crap. that doesn't mean there should be no space for talking about what doesn't work with music (or with anything), but what makes social media content move is not a balanced/ realistic/ deep discussion of why a certain idea is not good, but crass oversimplified statements appealing to the lowest instincts of the audience. see what happens in the political arena, for example. i had discussions in drunken bars at 4 am topping the average comment section under a political piece of content. and that content is usually full of drama and light on, well, content if it needs to "go viral". besides, i've published one video where i only speak bad of something: the beatles' worst 5 songs. i did it because i had already completed 366 episodes worth of a podcast telling you why the beatles are mostly great. the negative video (quite successful for my standard at the time) still attracted the wrong kind of people. people i do not want to have much to do with. people i wouldn't write this wall of text for, because they wouldn't even read it, let alone understand it :D i want to build a community here. and it has to be a good community i can be proud of, because when i'll be gone, i want people to say: "damn, at least he tried". if i wanted to make a quick one exploiting the system, believe me: having a youtube channel would be a rather labour-intensive and dumb way to go around it ;)

@@leodivine (ps: imagine me talking about the smiths before i tell everyone who has earsa what a great band japan was, for example. heresy! :D)

@@leodivine thank you for the kind words :)

@@JAMESMUSIL i'm not sure i understand :D

@@cloverfield911 it's a peculiar song... one of those that when i first listened to the album didn't make much of an impression, but it stood with me after each listening. it just sticks in my head. now i visualise it as some kind of abstract diagram with parts moving into their respective places... it's fun. what do you think of it? and... have you listened to the original? i only found out there was an original while researching this video! i think so's version has an edge thanks to rodgers guitar, but that one is something, too

@@SimonMas The early version with Laurie Anderson is cool

@@cloverfield911 it is, but i give this one the edge :)

@@TheDelicats yeah, unfortunately i found out that videos much longer than 10-15 minutes somehow do less well on youtube. not in general, just for me. i guess people get tired of my moving around as i talk :D so i have to cut whole sections of my notes or albums i talk about. i chose to talk about mercy street because i've immediately loved the track, from the first listening... but even on that i didn't say many of the things i wanted. i guess i have to start making shorts featuring each song of each album. at least shorts, but i could really do a (2-5 minute) video for each song, sometimes. maybe when i can afford paying for one or two people to help me out... as it is i really can't afford to make much more videos :( thank you for the kind words that are really appreciated :)

@@RyanWessell-r8s it certainly dates me badly, but that's how i still think of them. and, most importantly, since this is a record and it come straight from the record-oriented era, it is how everyone involved thought about it. ...not that i would refer to a 2024 release in any other way than "album" or "record". as you said, it dates me, but hey, i never said i was young and hip :D

indeed! i love it... sooner or later i'll do a whole video about it :)

if you've watched my last video about the cure, you know i disagree :D i love that version, they were really powerful in what they did, but they were also severely lacking in the variety department, something other versions of the band didn't :) let's just call us lucky that we can pick and choose :)

@@animalsinbrief_br thank you very much!

@@tojorozombie LOL, it would've been a pointless exercise, otherwise :D

@@m8discovery i have to listen to it more... which is good, because it means there's something to listen to: alone is layered and it's the kind of old school piece that you grow attached to as you listen. i also think it will make more sense in the context of the whole album. having said that, and since i've written that last sentence: i hoped for a different kind of single. the first impression was that smith had written a song that long term cure fans would love, aiming to cater to the most broadly accepted view of what the cure are like. which is not bad, per se, but it can be a step back from doing the unexpected mixing pop, madness and darkness, so to speak. tl;dr: i'm giving it a provisional 6 out of 10, waiting for the album, but i think as a single it might send the wrong message... not that smith cares :D what do you think of it?

​@@SimonMas hey Simon! I'm watching the videos you've created for The Cure, really well done and so informative for a new fan such as myself. So, what do you think of the new album? I'd love your thoughts on it, preferably with a new video. 😊 Take care

@@Naty_1980 first of all, thank you for the kind words. as for the new album (or for new videos, for that matter)... let's say i didn't have the time to delve into it. that's partly true. i have been caught in a maelstrom of stupid things to do while i was preparing a *really* long video and it derailed everything, so no video uploaded for... a month? 45 days? god. the other part of the truth is that this is really not the time for me to delve in that album. death: not a topic i want to look at too closely at the moment. sorry. i don't want to make promises, but things will get better, and the cure will, eventually get their own series, with all the history and all the albums (and the b-sides or the non -album singles) released. but it's not going to happen too soon, unfortunately. it's gonna change, though. hang in there, if you can. :)

@SimonMas I'm sorry to hear that Simon, I hope you feel better soon and that time will do what it does best: numb the pain. 😔 You're right about the album, it's a welcome to an abyss of sadness I guess, so it's a good self preservation mechanism that you've developed there. 🙃 Anyways, I've subscribed, so whenever you're ready I'll know.♥️ Thank you for the reply

@Naty_1980 thank you. sadly, such is life. if one wants the good, he has to allow for the bad, too. i'll be back in the saddle soon :)

thank you for the great story! so, gilman also served as a rehearsal space, or was this a special arrangement? when i was a teenage, there were 3 similar groups in two, 3 associations. there was a culture and film one, a comics and japanese culture one, and a roleplaying game and "intelligent" pastimes one. i was in the last one, and we sometimes visited the other two (which shared the same place). these were meaningless groups, in terms of how big they were compared to the rest of the city, but it's unbelievable how much stuff came out of these people, including us kids. events, pubs, fairs, shops... every penny spent into these "meangingless" spaces and people generated at least ten times at that for the whole city, both in terms of taxes and ideas, culture, things to do. i'm glad you find my video honest, i hope people who have no idea of how key these things are will be able to understand. :)

@@SimonMas All band members were Gilman core volunteers so I guess it was by special arrangement.

@@Azarakh_Zine cool :)

@@SimonMas I understand this as I am re-visiting some of the old pre-Riot Grrl punk that I loved, namely Spitboy. The worthiness of well loved volunteer run communities and cutting edge art has historically ALWAYS been undervalued. But look at the incredible social changes these people and their work can bring about!

@@Azarakh_Zine i was actually talking about this with a friend last night, for a reason unrelated to music, but it applies 100%: thatcher (principally), and the whole "think for yourself" of milton friedman's acolytes have brainwashed whole generations that we are individuals. but this goes against the *whole* human experience and evolution. for millions of years human meant community. there's no humanity in isolation, no humanity without people to share your individuality, no value in it and no hope for any future that is not the bleakest crap you can come up with. reality rolls in and the self-evident truth is that the only reason for humanity is getting back our communities and fight for bringing them back at the centre of human experience, where they have always belonged. rich people still have a very strong sense of community. evidently, this "there's only the individual" mantra is good only for them. as someone else very eloquently said: socialism for the rich, capitalism for the rest. sorry for me going off a tangent there, but like you said: music only makes this whole thing even more evident and in our face. it should be talked about more. and, for one, i will make a point to bring it out when i can.