Friday night I had the privilage of seeing Chasing Ora play at the Water Rats, London.
Having liased with them beforehand on Myspace, it was great to see them playing live. They didn't disappoint. Strong, driving and foundational rhythms supplied by Steve the drummer and Darren the bassist, creative guitar riffery from Alex and Jonas, and the icing on the cake, beautiful, sweeping, haunting vocals from the lovely Natalie. The band delivered songs that were instantly memorable, and caused me to go and buy 2 of their tracks from ITunes!
Prior to the gig, I had suggested that they contact a certain magazine to try and get some exposure, and was told by a glum Darren that the magazine in question had slated them horrendously.
Astonished, I wasted several minutes of my life I will never ever get back, and tracked down and read said article. A classic example of lazy writing, cliches and somebody trying to be far more clever than they have the potential to be. Somebody I've never ever heard of before.
And here's the difference. Bands like Chasing Ora exist to play music. They want to succeed.
Critics like the one in question want to be famous. They don't care about success, they don't care who they hurt along the way, they only want to be "known".
Bands like Chasing Ora make people feel better, they take them out of the inane crapness life might be chucking at them at any given moment, and give them the night off.
Critics who think it's clever to destroy rather than build, just bring everybody down a bit more. They unleash their bitter desparation on a bitter, desparate world, and it achieves nothing.
Chasing Ora are driven by the memory of a beautiful and talented female vocalist, taken from them, and their fans, by a tragic accident. They are driven by the music she loved, and they love still. They believe in their music, and they desire to entertain people with it.
I wonder - what drives our friend the critic, and how proud they are of that article now?
The old saying "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything" seems appropriate...
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