It was really generous of the Red Hot Chili Peppers to play the Reading festival, wasn't it?
Come on – we all know what it's like. You get into the party mood, you take a few too many narcotics, you end up so wide-eyed and wired that sleep seems about as likely as an intellectual conversation with a News Of The World reader. Which is really quite depressing – the last thing you want is a bout of insomnia ruining your fun for the next day.
Thank God for the selfless actions of the Chilis, then. Because – let's face it – if anything will send an entire stadium to dreamland, it's their overwhelmingly tedious 'funk-rock' stylings ricocheting from sleeping bag to sleeping bag. Man, they're like the Virgin-radio-approved Sandmen. What a bunch of nice guys.
Hold on? What's that? They were playing Reading because people actually like them?
Christ.
Oh, you know us. We're just joshing. We're well aware that the Red Hot Chili Peppers are possibly one of the biggest bands on the planet – much in the same way that we're aware of the undying mystery of the Bermuda Triangle or construction of the Pyramids. We were, then, pretty surprised to hear that the tedious Californian droners had been 'booed off stage'. Had people finally come to their collective senses?
No. They hadn't. The reason the audience were booing was because – of the 80,000 fans bustling in the venue – a good proportion of them couldn't hear the band play. Sound problems, y'see. Now, while the inability to hear the Chilis would have brightened hecklerspray's weekend so much we'd have begun to exude sunbeams from our nostrils, it turns out that a lot of people don't feel the same way.
Apparently:
Frontman Anthony Kiedis disconnected a power cable while dancing. Festival-goers yelled for engineers to "turn it up" but the problem persisted – until Kiedis calmed his dancing down. Music magazine NME reports: "According to a spokesperson, Kiedis jumped on the cable by accident, causing the problems, and his band responded by cutting their instruments in and out of the song amongst the confusion."
Which leaves the band with two options. This could, after all, happen again. Therefore it'd be best to either a) avoid having the frontman dance like a bluebottle on a barbeque, or b) cut out the middle man and stop playing altogether. Forever.
Either's good.
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Shane Lewis says
It seems to me that in your obviously limited musical experience you cannot wrap your mind around the depth and quality of the Chli Pepper’s music.
With all of the flash in the pan cookie cutter rehashed nonsense put out by most “artists” these days, perhaps the collective conscience of so-called music
critics is unable to fathom a group of truly original pioneers. With many thousands of concerts played with reckless abandon and seemingly endless energy
to millions of grateful fans to their credit, the Chili Pepper’s are an icon to multiple generations. I wonder where you will be in 27 years. Probably writng a back
page paragraph on the turmoils of basketweaving. Good luck…
Gilbert Wham says
Or, alternatively, they were a bit good in the 90s, but then stopped taking drugs, wrote a dull song about it and it was all downhill from there really.
Adam Gade says
No the Rolling Stones are an icon to multiple generations. The Red Hot Chili Pepper’s are icons to people who didn’t like the funk/rap/rock on their own but mashed together like a kid playing with his food.
Morgan Condon says
the guy who wrote this, i’m 100% sure, is probably wearing a pair of drainpipes, white trainers and has a ‘scraggy’ hair do…….ie, he looks like and is a c**t.
to refer to the chilis music as all the same is one of the most uneducated judgements to make on such a band. all you have to is listen to their last album…
no two tracks are the same. ….or even sit down with a copy of freaky styley and by the way……..no other band since the beatles has hit more genres
and styles, not to mention the catchiest tunes.
i could really get on my high horse here and slag this so called reviewer off , but i will say this; it’s the likes of this guy that slagged off the beatles in the
late 60s, the doors in the early 70s, zeppelin the late 70s and most definitely, the pistols and the clash in the 80s. wait til about 5 years from now when
‘blood sugar sex magik’ and more albums from 1991 are referred to as the chic retro albums to name drop…….then this guy will be looking for a sock to
stick on his dick!!!!
get your head out of your trying to be fashionable arse !!!!
Gilbert Wham says
…misusing ellipses…makes you look like…a cunt…
Adam Gade says
Haha. I love Gilbert’s comments the most.
vas says
One of two things. Either you are a total slave to modern music and commercialism that you fail to appreciate more original sounds like the Peppers? Or you love alternative music so much you detest the fact the Chilis have made it big on the modern music scene.
There are many people like you who ask why the Chilis are so fascinating for so many people. The reason? They’ve managed to appease both modern music companies and also the majority of critics who feel their work is original enough not to be branded as commercial puppets. And their range. Whenever they’re done, the existence of the Chili Peppers will be viewed from top to bottom and the one word that will spring to mind is versatility. theyve managed to transcend genres for 20 years, and there lies the appeal for so many people.
JoelB says
What’s an ellipse? Other than a squashed circle?
JoelB says
Oh yeah, I forgot.
My local community Radio Station (Edge Radio, if you can be arsed) had a presenter who reckoned, quite seriously, that the Chilli’s lead guitarist was better than Jimi Hendrix.
I don’t even know who the RHCP’s guitarist is.
Gilbert Wham says
An ellipsis is three full stops … like that. The plural of which is ellipses. They go AT THE END of sentences and nowhere else people. Mmmmmkay?
reginald says
actually ellipses are … of space?
i know you … but thats okay
are you … works?
dumbass
a representation of space
might be too stupid to get it
starting to see how it works
Gilbert Wham says
No, you are wrong. They are used, in a conversational style of writing, to represent the tailing off of a sentence suggesting that there is more to be said(although this could be regarded as merely a literary conceit limited to the world of fiction, or ‘creative writing’). Or, if you wish to present only the pertinent points of a text in a quote, you utilise them to indicate the omission of material from the original source. viz. “actually…you..dumbass…starting to see how it works?’ (attributed to Reginald, posted 31/8/7 http://www.hecklerspray.com).
Please observe my comment of 29/08 for further details.
Ithangyew.
JoelB says
You dudes want to bring it down a level?
I’m having trouble deciding if I’m having flashbacks from that bad acid back in ’86 or if the preceding posts consisted of (in parts):
“a representation of space
might be too stupid to get it
starting to see how it works”
and
“Ithangyew.”
Just when I though I got ellipses under control…
Gilbert Wham says
Okeydoke.
Morgan Condon says
whoa…..who the fuck is Gilbert Wham and how much does he need to be fucking bitch slapped???
mmmm, ……..someone who picks up on the ………are you from surrey by any chance?
do you live at home?
does your mother take your overblown comments of cheek from you and feel proud at the cunt she has raised?
i bet you dont tidy your room……naughty boy!! did you by any chance type this message on your laptop in a coffee shop in camden and then rush to waterloo to get the train back to guildford?
oops…..i’ve done it again.
what overblown load of wank literary slag off from the vaults of stephen fy is Gilbert Wham going to throw at me now??
i reckon i should have used some capitals there……..oh no!!! Gilbert Wham is going to come after me with an oxford thesis on the incorrect usage of !s ?s and all round *&&^)$£ and lets not forget………….
JBollocks says
Hi Morgan,
I used to be JoelB but then I saw the light.
I’m not saying I like GW, but compared to him you’re a piece of shit (actually it’s “contrasted with”, but who cares).
You are joking? Red Hot Chilis? Not quite one-hit wonders, but to mention them in the same blog as the Beatles or Led Zepp. Hope the drugs wear off slowly for you, it’s going to be a big let down.
As I’ve said more than once, Red Hot Who?
Adam Gade says
See now, I’m betting Mr. Wham is too mature to respond to a vapid response like yours. I however am not so mature to allow such annoying stupidity go unanswered. If you expect your comments to be taken seriously, write them seriously. All the playground antics and petty rantings in the world can’t help you there. So, I imagine some sort of education is in order; luckily, there are those of us here to cure you of your malodorous ignorance…
Lady Morgan says
JBollocks I commend thee on seeing Morgan for what he is. I hope the drugs wear off soon too. Bit of a long standing infatuation there with the Red Hot Willy Whippers. I suppose as a useless tosser, he does need his idols. Is he still threatening to kill stand up comedians during their shows.