Where Worlds Collide

A lot’s been said recently about Peter Mandelson’s so-called “Digital Economy” bill, a Big Media wishlist allegedly concocted on a yacht in Corfu at David Geffen’s expense.

Charlie Stross and Steve Lawson have expressed strong opinions on what it’s likely to mean for creative artists who aren’t megastars. Go and read what they’ve written.

I’ve heard people dismiss concerns about this bill as pure hysteria and panicky scaremongering, suggesting that if you don’t download, you’ve nothing to fear. Yeah, they say that about ID cards as well. How many people still buy that one?

Mandy’s Law has the potential for enormous collateral damage. For starters, I have no confidence in their ability to distinguish between legal and illegal downloads without generating a great many false positives. While industry apologists claim they’re only going to target a small number of heavy downloaders I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised if they used the same shotgun approach as they’ve used with DCMA takedown notices in the past. After some rudimentary traffic analysis they’ll just assume everything that appears to be a music file but isn’t from some whitelist of industry-approved download sites must be an illegal download. And out will go potentially millions of nastygrams threatening disconnection.

Think I’m exaggerating? I work in the software industry, as a tester. I know all about bugs in complex software, which is more than can be said for a technological illiterate like Peter Mandelson.

It’s likely have a chilling effect on MP3 blogging, which admittedly inhabits a legal grey area, but who’s absence will limit the exposure of new bands. The false positive risk may even discourage unsigned bands from giving away free downloads, for fear that fans may be disconnected because www.myobscureindieband.com isn’t on some secret whitelist.

Of course, for the cartel of big media companies, that’s not even an unintended consequence - adding a lot of additional hassle for unsigned bands works very much in their favour.

It’s OK for industry shills to claim that this won’t happen, but I’m not willing to give sweeping powers to the music biz on a vague promise that they won’t be evil. Their past track record means they simply do not have my trust.

I also have a problem with the whole issue of collective punishment and guilty-unless-proved-innocent. The typical filesharer is a kid living with parents, or a perpetually-skint student in a shared house. The threat of collective punishment for entire households effectively conscripts everyone into being unwilling enforcers of an unpopular law. At the risk of breaking Godwin’s law, it’s the way the Nazis enforced order in occupied France in World War II. Hyperbole, maybe, but when you hear filesharing compared to terrorism…

So says Peter Gabriel discussing the future of the music business. There’s no doubt the big business end of the music industry is in crisis, as the disruptive technology of broadband internet undermines the existing business model of the major labels.

Put next to a young boy
In a knee-deep trench
Whose hand even trembles
When he keeps it clenched
We attack tomorrow
In dawn’s early light
And as this sinks in
I’m so scared
I can’t wait for it and tonight
To be over

- Twelfth Night: Sequences

Welcome to Hell
Welcome to Hell on Earth
No need for sin
No sign of Man’s rebirth

- Magenta: The Ballad of Samuel Layne

Gather round reluctant marksmen
One of them to take his life
With a smile he gives them pardon
Leaves the dark and takes the light

They dispatch their precious cargo
Knock him back right off his feet
And they pray may no one follow
Better still to face the beast

When the field has become a garden
And the wall has stood the test
Children play and the dogs run barking
Who would think or who would guess

- Magnum: Les Morts Dansants.

It’s the second year running I’ve been to a gig on Halloween - Last year it was Panic Room in Worcester, this time it was Mostly Autumn in Burnley, the eleventh time I’ve seen the band this year, and the 38th time I’ve seen them altogether.

The website invited people to come in Halloween costumes, although very few people did (I’m sorry to say I chickened out). The band, on the other hand, really went for it. For a few moments I didn’t even recognise Olivia Sparnenn and was wondering if they’d got a new backing singer!

Heather as The Evil Faerie

They replaced the normal intro tape something much spookier-sounding, before Iain Jennings played the opening bars of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in A Minor. Then the full band tore into their traditional set opener “Fading Colours“. Mostly Autumn have been a great live band all year, but tonight’s performance was as strong as I’ve seen them play all year; everyone on superb form. While they’re a very different band to the one I first saw in 2004, I’m of the opinion that the current incarnation of the band, with Iain Jennings on keys and Gavin Griffiths back on drums is the best live lineup of the band I’ve seen; the eight-piece band produce a huge multi-layered sound high on energy, atmosphere and emotional intensity.

Tonight’s two and a half hour show was very much a greatest hits set, seeing the welcome return of old favourites like “Shrinking Violet” and the epic “Mother Nature“, neither of which they’ve played for a while, along with “Winter Mountain” and “The Dark Before the Dawn” which they’d bought back earlier in the year. We were also treated to a rare appearance of “Ghost in Dreamland” from the “Storms Over Still Water” album. Probably the mark of a great setlist is there was nothing I’d really rather have heard at the expense of songs they played.

I’m very grateful to the band for allowing me to use my DSLR - I’ve uploaded many more pictures to my Fotopic.net photo site.