I haven't been to all that many gigs lately so I guess it was a little odd that I wound up at a little charity night featuring female performers at Mayfields in Collingwood. There hadn't been any other Saturday night gigs to catch my attention so when two different friends mentioned this gig I said 'what the hell' and wandered along. Except for some unnecessary 'anti-men' comments by one of the organisers, it was an unassuming but fun night out, featuring an eclectic mix of performers simply doing what they do. The highlights for me were an ambitious solo a capella version of Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" by one of the evening's vocalists (Sylvie Meltzer) and the rocking final act which I never caught the name of. Apparently they were high school students and while they looked a little uncertain on stage, they put on a fascinating set of songs from bands like 'Rage Against The Machine'. Their drummer seemed to be having a blast up the back and out front, their lead singer had the sort of presence that suggested she might yet make a living out of rock'n'roll.
The folks over at Slashdot pointed out this interesting story about the business arrangements of the Rolling Stones. There's some interesting reading there but I guess some purists would find it appalling to read about the commercial beast that has been spawned from one of the most influential of all rock'n'roll bands. Unfortunately the article doesn't disclose the details of who gets what amongst the key members of the band. I recall reading that U2 split it equally five ways (their manager is the 5th "member"). I think Queen did a similar thing because with four songwriters they found themselves bickering over the writer of a single A-side getting the same as the writer of the B-side. With bands like Pink Floyd, well, I can guess that Roger Waters did better than the others. :-)
I haven't been to all that many gigs lately so I guess it was a little odd that I wound up at a little charity night featuring female performers at Mayfields in Collingwood. There hadn't been any other Saturday night gigs to catch my attention so when two different friends mentioned this gig I said 'what the hell' and wandered along. Except for some unnecessary 'anti-men' comments by one of the organisers, it was an unassuming but fun night out, featuring an eclectic mix of performers simply doing what they do. The highlights for me were an ambitious solo a capella version of Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" by one of the evening's vocalists (Sylvie Meltzer) and the rocking final act which I never caught the name of. Apparently they were high school students and while they looked a little uncertain on stage, they put on a fascinating set of songs from bands like 'Rage Against The Machine'. Their drummer seemed to be having a blast up the back and out front, their lead singer had the sort of presence that suggested she might yet make a living out of rock'n'roll.