The Rehearsal Diaries
So, I'm slowly emerging, battered but not defeated, from the fall-out from the post below. Most people have been really cool about the news and the decision, for which I'm grateful. Obviously, a lot of people are disappointed, and I'm worried about apologizing again in case it starts to sound worn out, but hey, I'm sorry. Something I didn't stress enough before is that 2000 Trees is a fantastic festival, and definitely worth attending with or without me. Some people have been pretty harsh about it, which does keep me up at night a little. I hope no one feels like I'm "ditching" the UK or whatever. It's not like that at all - a quick look at my gig list hopefully proves that. I guess I'd just urge those who are angry to put themselves in my shoes on this one.
In other news, we just finished day 2 in the rehearsal studio. I'm going to post some photos up as soon as I've figured out how to get them off my swanky new iPhone. Things are progressing really well, I've been pleasantly reminded how damn good the guys in my band are, and my confidence about the album is currently soaring. We have 8 songs down now - The Road, Live Fast Die Old, Sunday Nights, The Fastest Way Back Home, Dan's Song, Journey Of The Magi, Richard Divine, and Try This At Home. Matt's been playing around with crazy shit like Mellotrons and so on. The mandocaster made its first appearance today. I'm planning on decorating Tarrant's little corner with emo posters, and maybe the headline from today's Sport (which was too good to miss) - "Top Tennis Babe Has A Willy" (seriously). Good times.
Finally, my friend Sean now has a blog, and it's worth its internet weight in gold. Check it out.
In other news, we just finished day 2 in the rehearsal studio. I'm going to post some photos up as soon as I've figured out how to get them off my swanky new iPhone. Things are progressing really well, I've been pleasantly reminded how damn good the guys in my band are, and my confidence about the album is currently soaring. We have 8 songs down now - The Road, Live Fast Die Old, Sunday Nights, The Fastest Way Back Home, Dan's Song, Journey Of The Magi, Richard Divine, and Try This At Home. Matt's been playing around with crazy shit like Mellotrons and so on. The mandocaster made its first appearance today. I'm planning on decorating Tarrant's little corner with emo posters, and maybe the headline from today's Sport (which was too good to miss) - "Top Tennis Babe Has A Willy" (seriously). Good times.
Finally, my friend Sean now has a blog, and it's worth its internet weight in gold. Check it out.
posted by frank at 6:35 PM
25 Comments:
who really cares frank? personally i was more offended to find out that you give your money to mcdonalds. i'm sure you'll get on like a house on fucking fire with dexter holland though.. the man who wrote a song called "once we were anarchists" meets the man who owns an airplane called "anarchy airlines". two politically and culturally confused egocentric fuckwits together on one massive arena tour! i'm sure it'll be great fun!
What a relief then that I don't alter my opinions on my life based on illiterate internet rantings. Read the fucking lyrics to "Once we were Anarchists" (or even just the title). I'll eat, sleep and piss wherever I want to, dipshit.
Bakunin comes across as a bit of a jealous cunt.
'tis a great song though. Have always wondered why you used the word "jaded" in both the choruses as well as the last verse - to me sounds a bit repetitive?
But then again it's not my song, and I'm not the one being asked to open for the Offspring, so what do I know..
Congrats on the tour BTW, first saw you playing to about 30 people in 2005 (I think?) in a bar on the beach in Cornwall, now playing to thousands.
wtf, is this bakunin character for real?
as soon as frank gets some success it seems like all the retards come out of the woodwork.
'culturally confused'. lol.
Fuck 'em, Frank.
Music is about connecting with human beings. Yours most especially. And you will grow at your own pace, not at the pace dictated to you by interweb fuckwits.
I hope you have a great tour. Your success is truly earned and deserved. Your true fans, our hearts rise with you.
of course I'm biased but Bakunin = dick.
From my perch Frank appears to have earned every last bum on every last seat at all of his concerts.
I'm sure that if the people who aren't too fond of your decision to do the Offspring shows, rather than the two festivals, were in your position, they'd opt to do the Offspring tour as well. Go for it, you have to take every opportunity in life. Can't understand why people are so annoyed about it. There are some sad angry people out there.
Just to lighten this moment?
Is it a Mandocaster or a mandostrat, of which it was called at thye exeter phoenix gig?
Does it really matter?
I hope its not too clichè'd for me to say that any proper fan should be happy for you gettin the offspring gig?
Well done franky boy
Read the fucking lyrics to "Once we were Anarchists" (or even just the title). I'll eat, sleep and piss wherever I want to, dipshit.
Yeah then read the lyrics to Charlie and the Propaganda Myth Machine for confirmation that Frank was indeed once an anarchist. Or at least wouldn't eat at Mcdonalds.
Perhaps his next record could be a concept album/musical documenting his 'ethical journey' ?
Perhaps you should (a) mind your own business and (b) accept the fact that people who don't change their view of the world between 19 and 27 are arguably retarded? A lot of the shit I believed when I was a teenager I now think is bullshit. I used to listen to Korn too. To reiterate what I said above, I don't remember the moment when I handed over guardianship of my intellect to strangers.
No offence frank, but there's a distinction to be made between an evolving set of views and going from one extreme to the other. Claiming to have been once an "anarchist" then regressing to becoming a consumer at McDonalds? I mean, come on!
You were certainly never an anarchist (maybe you were a play-acting anarchist) but you certainly were a pupil of Eton. It shows.
looking forward to the new songs!....most people are miserable with the state of the world, so it may upset them that you aren't sinking along with them....an ironic comment about McDonald's clearly gave the haters some ammunition...the best revenge is to smile and live your life Frank....keep making music....the more fans you get the more likely one or two old ones will complain...who cares! - if it were me, I'd respond and comment on the positive posts, not the negative ones....the one asshole in class always got the attention....the sign of a good teacher is one that can ignore that asshole and focus on everyone else.
Fuck the silly little children (not literally. not a great career move. look at gary), someday they too will grow up.
My dealings with Frank over the past few years have always shown him to be an incredibly hard working, genuine and honest person. I am sure the decision to drop out of the UK festivals was a very tough one but 99% of his fans will understand his reasons.
I am sick to death of this childish fucking hippy attitude about everything. Frank wants to get his music out to a lot of people and make a comfortable living so that (I imagine) he can travel, spend time with friends etc without worrying about money constantly. Therefore he makes career choices which are sometimes tough ones, but what HE (not me, not you, not anyone else) thinks are best.
If you don't like it go and listen to someone else. Quite simple. The rest of us will remain fans. (Until the day he is a mentor on X Factor anyway).
Go make music Frank, make this album a killer!
Chill out Frank. I used to listen to the offspring! We've all made mistakes.
As LK notes above though, changing your view of the world between the ages of 19 and 27 is not quite the same as going from anarchist to patron of mcdonalds.
As you made your views so apparent in the first place it's inevitable that people will notice when you contradict them just as publicly.
Ah, a nice refreshing comment about his Etonian heritage (Is where they went to school really the best way to judge a person?). So, Lenny Kravitz, this wasn't a problem when he was in Million Dead but now he is getting successful as a solo artist you randomly point back to his origins? This doesn't really relate causally... Any progressions in his political attitude hardly have anything to do with his school.
Anyway, people really get too hung up on the anarchist thing - the whole scene seems incredibly stupid atm. I mean at least Frank seemed to be trying to get to grips with the whole ideology, rather than mindless rebellion against everything. Not like the G20 protestors ("Anarchists riot in favour of greater government regulation of banks" - um, duuuuuh! Is this not a contradiction?!?!). Some people really need to grow up.
Alexander, I would suggest you actually find a source of information about the G20 protests that isn't www.thesun.com
xx
Hey Frank,
Great news on The Offspring! Very happy for you. Really enjoying your blog and look forward to reading about what you're up to complete with iPhone pics!
Sian
x
@anon - I'm admittedly embellishing - of course there was no headline that put it quite like that - and I agree with the environmental and pro-Palestinian demos(would certainly have gone to the latter if I was in London). However, I think that sorta is a fair interpretation of the anarchist section of the protest. That or no message at all - more an irritating Sex Pistols "destruction!" view of anarchy than any real examination of a life without goverment.
Anyway, the most important thing is that people should stop forcing musicians to completely validate their political views the whole time. You can appreciate music (and lyrics) without necessarily agreeing with their outlook on life. Let's all hope Frank's next album is as fantastic as his last two, irrespective of whether he wants to munch at Maccy D's or not!
Agreed.
I myself am as hypocritical as they come, I find it hard not to be in the world we live in (without trying to sound too melodramatic)
Ahh Bakunin, the archtypal 'i'm gonna say something bullshit and obvious to cause offence just so people will respond to me so that it seems like i'm talking to real people and that this loneliness filling my life goes by the way for a moment'. Seriously dude, got outdoors for a bit and talk to people.
Personally i believe that people are allowed to change their opinions and attitudes, as they're only concepts we create in the first place and are not fixed states, so whether someone used to criticise a mulitnational corporation and then choose to eat there, or whether someone used to listen to nu-metal and then realises it's awfulness (although the odd song...)does not constitute them anything other than human! Jesus! Frank should not be idolised by people who want him to be the figure or symbol by which they wish to live their idea of life. Get out and do it yourself. From Million Dead to his work now, I believe that Frank has brutal honesty and beautiful truth in both his lyrics and music, this is why i love him and what he does. He is not perfect (sorry Frank), but i don't bloody want him to be!
p.s. hope you and The Offspring tour come to Newcastle UK :)
Dear Alexander Kealy,
Of course what school a person went to is no means to make a judgement on a person. It is however a means to gauge the kind of person they are, their class background and the kind of environment they were conditioned in.
How ironic though; that you attempt to shoot me down in flames for a crude statement about a school (that contributes consistently to the reproduction of inequality) whilst you yourself go on to make the moronic, typical, corporate media distorted, status-quo-as-fuck, correlation between acts of targetted property damage and "mindless rebellion against everything".
Oh, and i certainly would never hope for any musician to "validate my political views" - i do however take it as my right to criticise hypocricy, challenge idiocy, and call-out bullshit when i see or hear it.
Lenny Kravitz (brave pseudonym): "Of course what school a person went to is no means to make a judgement on a person. It is however a means to gauge the kind of person they are, their class background and the kind of environment they were conditioned in."
what's the difference, in practical terms? how does it reflect "the ind of person I am?" what on earth gives you the right to comment on the personality of strangers based on such criteria? you arrogant fuck.
Are anarchists REALLY not allowed to eat at McDonalds? And if they aren't, surely it's anarchic if they do?
I think if you're so concerned about the 'bullshit' Kravitz, perhaps you should have manoeuvred yourself into a position in life where you could try and do something about it, perhaps beginning with a good education, maybe at, oh I don't know, Eton?
Surely the point here is not McDonalds, Eton, Offspring, Politics, choices, opinions, views, comments, or actual actions, surely all we are really discussing here is one man's career as a musician. No one can have a vested interest in that other than the person who's path it is. Who are you to criticise? What are you criticising? All you are actually condemning is your own understanding of a song(s), what a prick. How thick have you made yourself look! Ha ha ha ha ha, oh god, that is actually very funny. If you are so offended that Frank hasn't come through and changed the world for you from behind his guitar, then get the fuck up and do something about it yourself you idiot. A note on anarchy; Nothing in the world has ever been created from anarchy cos it's never existed, and would fall flat on its arse if it happened, (wanna see your mum getting beaten with no old bill to call? Think not) you may have noticed an evolution and a growth over the years be it in nature or opinion (and certainly artist have played their part in changing opinions), use that as your starting point in trying to change the world, that's free info, you can have that. NB: I will retract that statement if it emerges that sharks actually gained the position of predator via anarchic actions in the pacific ocean (but please note my ability to change my opinions as I learn).
As you get older you realise that perhaps the world is always changing and that also perhaps a human life is short in comparison to time itself and that we cannot fully appreciate our effects in our lifetime. The small changes we make through our culture have huge repercussions further down the line. Your frustrations Mr Kravitz are symptomatic of your inability to view the big picture and your egocentricity gives you away.
Frank, you seem to have already made many people think about many things, and opened a few minds to some of your viewpoints, well done,(social commentary on Thatcher to a generation who don't remember her? Good job). Kravitz you have done FUCK ALL.
If you feel cheated for spending your money on Franks albums, then tough, you've paid a little bit towards Frank getting this (phenomenally well deserved) break, so you're guilty of making this happen too, and you're even more of a fool to have ever believed one man's musical talents was gonna turn this ship around. What instead you should be really thankful for is that this artist made you (and many others) think in the first place, and have some beautiful moments in life (surely the point of art in the first place), regardless of what you think of him now, that has changed people in one way or another. Personally Frank, I think you should get together with James Blunt and do a song about McDonalds called 'Send More money fatboy, I'm hungry for a burger'. Then we can all email Kravitz and thank him for also funding part of that illuminating escapade.
Feckless retard, use your mind for good Mr Kravitz, go do something productive like smash a window or write "I hate my mum" on a wall somewhere. No one is innocent, twat, and 'targetted property damage' never changed anything.
I Still can not believe that people are giving you shit for this. Next time any of them get a promotion at work i bet they don't think "nah actually fuck it i don't want to progress my career I'm just happy to not move on anywhere" This is such an amazing opportunity for you I'm glad you have grabbed it and i hope you have an amazing tour.
The more people that you have listening to your music the better, i hope you a) Have an awesome time (try and ignore the stupid complainers that have no right to have an opinion on what you do with your life and career)
b) Get inspired to write more amazing songs for more albums to come
c) Make lots of money! So you can afford to live a happy life and still make really great music for us to buy and listen to (without having to be someone that suffers for their art!) Too many good bands have had to stop writing music from not being able to cover the bills and I for one would hate to see things go that way for Frank, I would love to see another 4, 8, 10, however many more albums you feel you can make sitting on my CD rack in years to come.
Keep up the good work, ignore the people that feel you owe them something!
Ok waffled on way to much now, hopefully see you at the FLowerpot!
David Webdale.
p.s. thanks for the link to Sean's blog, very funny stuff!
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