It is also a more personal way for Placebo to say thank you to a public that has always supported them, Chile being one of the countries that considerably enhanced their popularity in South America. The gig also marks the beginning of their South American tour for promoting last year’s Battle for the Sun, which will have them visit Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Peru.

Brian Molko’s Promise HERE

In the Midst of This,

Download Info HERE

Niki Phaser: Battle for the Sun is the second Placebo album, that you’ve worked on, after Meds. How did you first meet the band and got to collaborate with them?

Fiona Brice: I have known the band socially for many years because we have several friends in common in London, and we used to meet at gigs before Placebo became hugely successful and their tours took them away for long periods. Brian remembers seeing me playing violin with Michael J Sheehy about 10 years ago at the 12-bar club in London. At the time I was playing and writing with various bands, including Dream City Film Club.  Coincidentally I was also in the band Tram for a while, and Bill Lloyd was in this band before me!   Small world… But our musical paths didn’t officially merge until the band decided to use strings on the Meds album.  They asked me to write with them, and we found musical material and a sound that could add something to the songs without overpowering them.  It worked well and after this I collaborated with Stefan on the strings for the Hotel Persona album.

NP: Are you satisfied with how the studio sounds have been transposed into live songs?

FB: Yes I am very happy with the way the ‘string’ songs sound live.  Our sound engineer is brilliant and has worked hard to ensure that combination of the samples and my live violin sound has a great impact.  Using an electric violin helps with this as an acoustic violin would be overwhelmed by everything else on stage.

NP: Are there any songs that you are particularly fond of playing live?

FB: I really love playing Battle for the Sun. I feel this is an important track for the band and it is exciting to perform.  Every You Every Me and Special K are amazing too.  I become a ‘fan’ again because I have always loved those songs and it reminds me of being in the crowd, rather than being in front of the crowd. It’s important to remember where you’ve come from!  Speak in Tongues is also very powerful.  I enjoy all the songs in the set for different reasons, and I am constantly finding new things in them to keep me inspired.

NP: Could you name a few highlights, for you, of the tour so far?

FB: The whole tour has really been fantastic so far. The Bucharest gig was wonderful for me. (I am not just saying that for this interview!) We were all in a good mood on that hot summer day, and the audience were so energetic and happy, I could really feel their excitement and love on stage, it was quite emotional.  I had a great experience in Mexico City and I also loved the London Roundhouse and 02 gigs. Aside from the gigs, some of my favourite experiences have been from travelling.  We visited the pyramids at Teotihuacan (Mexico) which is a truly awesome place. Visiting Tokyo for the first time was exciting, as was arriving in Rouen (France) after midnight and turning a corner to find the gothic cathedral shrouded in mist and lit by moonlight.  I fell in love with Lisbon too.

NP: What would be some of your least favourite aspects of touring?

FB: Touring can get tough when you are ill because there is no recovery time. We all get sick occasionally, and it can be hard to perform when you feel unwell.  I try to stay healthy on the road to avoid this, but jetlag and exhaustion can get to you sometimes.  Airports, flights and flight cancellations can be stressful too.  Travelling by tourbus is the best!  But really I have absolutely nothing to complain about because I get to play music and travel the world, and I feel privileged to do so.

NP: When you were asked to do the live tour with Placebo, was it a no-brainer, or was there some convincing required?

FB: I did not need any convincing! After the experience of playing at Angkor Wat (Cambodia) I knew I wanted to do the tour straight away. Who wouldn’t want to tour with Placebo? They’re an amazing live act!

NP: Hypothetically speaking, if you were asked to join Placebo as a permanent member, would you agree?

FB: Obviously it would be an honour to be asked to join the band permanently but it is unnecessary because I am very happy with my position in the band as it is.

Once again, thank you to Fiona Brice. Interview by Niki N. Phaser, January, 2010.

Bright Lights

            It’s one of Placebo’s more  (if not the most) upbeat and bright-sounding tracks and they haven’t got too many of those, at least, not in such a mainstream sense of the word. Besides being a different sounding Placebo, Bright Lights is also an interesting lyrical work for Brian Molko. Thematically, this is for him what Ashes to Ashes was to Bowie — a cynical and ironic look at his “crazy livin”’. It feels as if, for the first time, he doesn’t hide behind a character anymore and acknowledges his real life persona, expressing regret over the choices he has made (speaking a lot about his life in the early days, thus distracting the attention from the music).

             The Heroes for Zeroes-directed video is also in tune with the song, as it starts with a dark setting only to end with Placebo playing on a background of blue skies — the journey from darkness to light that Battle for the Sun supposedly embodies. The single version of the song is slightly different than the album, as it features backing vocals by Val Etienne & Hazel Fernandes (Kylie Minogue, Jamiroquai).

BRIGHT LIGHTS VIDEO

WATCH A VIDEO OF THE DISPLEASED CROWD

The Never Ending-Why, just like For What It’s Worth, will be pleasing the band’s niche, but not necessarily their faithful fanbase, as many music critics would think. The fans already own the album and for them a single is not an encounter with new material. They already have their favourites and an opinion on the whole thing. So, The Never Ending-Why, which is quite a great rock song by the way, is more about pleasing that segment which stands in between: they are acquainted with Placebo, but know only the singles (and maybe this time they’ll buy the album). In all probability, this song will not be a turning point in the band’s history and will not win them a lot of new followers. Songs like the two mentioned before or Speak in Tongues are reaching to a wider audience and could display the more complex side of Placebo, if released as singles. The future is wide open.

SEE PLACEBO PERFORM The Never-Ending Why LIVE

LISTEN TO THE SONG HERE

Placebo pleasing the crowd

For an EU capital, Bucharest is not the most tourist-oriented of cities. Finding Romexpo was quite an adventure and then finding the venue within Romexpo was quite a mini-adventure. The biggest procentege of the crowd waiting at the gates was pretty much what you would call standard Placebo fans: girls ranging from 14 to 18, wearing black and goth make-up, but looking very happy and excited. Of course, by the time access was allowed, a more “square”-looking audience started to show up. There was a bit of a delay, a bit of waiting in the sun, but there always is. While Expatriate’s crew were making final preparations, a DJ entertained the in-coming people with some well-suited indie classics.

Steve Forrest enjoying Expatriate's show

Placebo took the stage as the sun was setting and, no hello’s, no how are you’s, kicked off with perfect opener Kitty Litter. Setlist-wise, it was a standard non-festival Placebo date, circa summer of 2009. Still, for such a madding crowd, it could have just as well been an acoustic cover session of Barbra Streisand’s hits, the fans were that pleased to see their idols. Ashtray Heart was next and only after that, Molko greeted the public and announced that they will be playing a few songs from their new album. Battle for the Sun, despite its many lyrics, was well-known by the audience. All tracks were, new or old. At the end of the title track, before Molko moaned acapella “I will battle for the sun”, he took a break and demanded more and more noise from the audience. Some decibels records in human shouting must have been broken that night, because the sound was deafening, almost in a scary way. Molko’s big smile to his guitar-master, when changing instruments for the next song, prooved that the facts immediately sank in: Placebo is owning this crowd. Bands always talk about the exchange of energy in concerts. Sunday night, in Bucharest, this phenomenon was as visible as it can be. All rock’n'roll moves and postures were checked by the frontman, with his Fenders finding themselves between his legs on several occasions. Drummer Steve Forrest “broke” concert rules and catapulted his sticks into the sea of raised hands, after finishing certain songs, not just at the end of the show.

Brian Molko is glad to be smoking on stage

There were also some funny moments. Stefan Olsdal had some difficulties with the beginning of Speak in Tongues, fixed after changing “weapons”. Molko ironically commented: “Sometimes, guitars play all the wrong notes”. When presenting the band, he named Olsdal “the queen of Sweden” and Olsdal responded by calling Molko his “drama queen”. Towards the end of Black Eyed, the frontman signaled the need of cancer-stick to one of his tech-guys. Of course, a rain of cigarette packs, coming from the public, landed on stage (accompanied at one point by a bra, that is now probably a part of Placebo’s Tour Treasure… Chest). He lighted before Happy You’re Gone saying: “It’s fantastic to be in a country where you can smoke on stage. Where we come from, in the UK, they’re slowly taking away every piece of freedom we have left. So, it’s great to be amongst you filling our lungs together”. This might NOT make a good anti-smoking add. After Song to Say Goodbye, Placebo said good night, but it was obvious that this is not the end. The first encore was Infra-Red and Sleeping with Ghost‘s hit, The Bitter End. They closed the night with the classic Taste in Men, sounding more massive than ever. The band left the stage in an impressive roar of admiration from the mesmerized crowd. Steve Forrest left with his own little piece of “treasure”: a pair of pants, thrown on stage by some really desperate-to-be-remembered fan.

Brian Molko meeting some of his fans

Steve Forrest giving autographs

The night wasn’t over quite yet. A group of fans situated in the left side of the stage spotted Placebo’s backstage lodgings and cheered them out of there for an impromptu autograph session. This clearly wasn’t any promo duty for them, just a way of saying “thank you” in a more upfront personal way. Brian Molko was smiling all throughout the signing, but Steve Forrest seemed to be really having the time of his life. He was hugged and kissed and patted on the back and made pictures with anyone asking. He even graduated magna cum laude from the rock’n'roll stardom baptism of giving an autograph on a lady’s chest. Live ”sidekicks” Fiona Brice, Nick Gavrilovich and veteran Billy Lloyd joined the fun, as well as the members of Expatriate. Placebo’s longtime manager, Alex Weston, was also there overseeing the interactions and making sure everybody got their autograph. It was the perfect ending of a perfect night. After such a mind-blowing response, there is no doubt that Placebo will return to Romania. If not in the following two years, they will surely make a stop when promoting their now-unborn future album.

We had an article a few days ago about the battle (no pun intended) between Placebo’s latest indie efforts with their new album, Battle for the Sun and their ex-label’s (Virgin/EMI) attempt at banking on previous albums signed by the trio. Recent numbers, posted by Billboard, show that Molko and his Ste’s are winning this one. They’ve reached number one in the European Top 100 Albums, despite entering their native UK chart at 8. They’ve reached top spots in four other countries, including, of course, France, where they landed number one with each album since Black Market Music (2001). Top five spots have been assured in Holland, Finland, Switzerland, so the heavy touring really works. They are number one in Germany and Battle for the Sun was released there the day they headlined Rock am Ring. With this direction going so well and their agenda being full of summer festivals, followed by their own tour in the fall-winter season, we can’t help wondering what new heights are they going to reach.

Placebo seem to have enraged “the machine” and, of course, by that I mean the labelzilla Virgin, who previously “owned” them for more than a decade. The trio decided to go indie and sign with a label (PIAS) only for distribution, paying themselves for their new album, Battle for the Sun. In recent interviews, they’ve admitted to not being very happy on the Virgin mothership, especially after the guys who brought them in, were fired.

To slap the wrist of the alternative idols and cash in one final check off of them, Virgin decided to release a boxset containing all Placebo albums, except the last one, of course, an album of B-sides, one of live recordings and two dvd’s. As if trying the “if you are a real fan”-blackmail wasn’t enough, the label decided to release the boxset on the 8th of June. For those unaware of recent Placebo history, this is the release date (announced in march) of Battle for the Sun.

So, is this a cautionary tale for bands leaving their violent, brutal, come-home-drunk-late-at-night-demanding-a-hot-meal labels? Well, not in Placebo’s case. Their record debuted in the top 10 in several countries, their gig-agenda is record-breaking (the british band with the most dates this summer). Everybody already knows that big labels are part of the “machine”, so I guess this is just another specific example.