Latest news with #ResidentAdvisor
The National
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The National
Artists held to account for taking Moscow's cash to perform
Baklanova, along with most other people in the city, wasn't in the habit of going to air raid shelters for the first couple of years of the full-scale invasion, but that's changed given the intensification of attacks lately. 'It's also because the Russians have shitty, imprecise weapons, and I live very close to an old Soviet defence industry factory in central Kyiv, which they shell almost every time they hit our city. I know one of their missiles could easily miss the factory and hit my house. It's been very rough since things intensified, and Bella is on antidepressants because of it.' A stalwart of the Kyiv electronic music and cultural scenes, Baklanova's roles have included communication and co-curation at Cxema, a Ukrainian independent cultural organisation and the biggest rave party in Eastern Europe, leading communications for Kyiv's K41 cultural hub, contributing to online and offline music and social activities including the Tight platform for contemporary music and visual art, and the LUST queer party series. She has also written for prestigious publications including Resident Advisor, Year Zero, Highsnobiety, Mixmag, The Wire, DTF Magazine and United24 Media. READ MORE: 'Completely unprecedented': BBC cuts live feed for Kneecap Glastonbury performance Soon after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, she decided to start using her platform in the music industry to expose the dubious morals of two sections of the electronic music community: artists, most but not all of them from Europe and North America, who continue to accept bookings from Russian clubs and festivals, and Russian artists – most notably the Siberian techno superstar Nina Kraviz – who support the Putin regime, either openly or tacitly by remaining silent about its crimes. Baklanova does this through social media, creating posts that list the artist and the event in Russia that they have agreed to play at, with the artists in question tagged. She has also been working on a website for some time that should be launched soon, on which it will be possible for promoters, agents or anyone else in the music industry to search artists' names and see if they have accepted Russian money. There are two main cohorts of Western artist willing to accept bookings in Russia these days – ones who actively support the Putin regime and its war in Ukraine, and ones dazzled by the high fees currently offered to foreign artists by Russian events, and too ignorant of the situation to realise why they should refuse. The first group are heavily outnumbered by the second, Baklanova says. A prominent example of the first is the New York artist Ron Morelli, the head of L.I.E.S. Records, one of the most influential and respected electronic music labels of the 2010s, and still a force in this decade too. He gave no outward signs of the direction in which his mind was drifting until last summer when he appeared on a podcast with heavy Maga sympathies and let loose a hurricane of far-right, anti-immigrant, misogynist bile, and fawning praise for Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Morelli is on the bill for July's Outline Festival in Moscow – and is presumably very much looking forward to the experience. 'There are some people like Morelli, but the main reason people play there now is money,' Baklanova says. 'I have a friend who is an established artist in the European scene who was recently invited to play at Signal Festival near Moscow, and the proposed fee was €5000. In Europe, you get paid that sort of fee if you're a superstar, or if not a superstar then something not far below that. 'They're offering that kind of money to artists who'll play for €300 in Berlin, so the motivation is pretty clear. It's attractive for people who don't care about politics to go and play and cover their bills for the next year. And when we highlight this and criticise them for it, they start coming out with all this 'philosophical' stuff about how they're doing it to go and support the oppressed people of Russia. We've found that they'll say almost anything to avoid looking like what they are: greedy and ignorant.' Even cursory knowledge of how the Russian government has treated its indigenous music scene since the invasion gives the lie to this straw-man argument. 'They oppressed and oppressed the existing scene there step by step and started to control it fully pretty soon after the full invasion,' Baklanova says. 'Now in Moscow, there's a huge new club which has opened with the support of Moscow's mayor and is booking foreign artists for huge fees using money from who knows where. There is no independent, underground culture in Russia now, and if there is, it is deeply underground and secret, and those running it wouldn't have the money or the ability to invite artists from the West to play.' Any artist accepting a booking from a Russian club or festival now is, therefore, automatically lending their support to the culture-washing efforts of the Putin regime. There's no attempt to hide that fact either – reportage from last year's Outline was broadcast on the Russia-1 state propaganda TV channel. Baklanova posted the footage to her Instagram account. In it, the reporter boasts that 'despite the sanctions, the festival welcomes artists from the USA, Germany, France, Italy, Portugal and Switzerland'. As Baklanova asked the artists involved in the caption of her post, 'Do you feel like you've been used?' So what is her message to any artist who might be considering taking a gig in Russia? Baklanova's answer could just as easily apply to Europeans and North Americans who have grown weary of hearing about the Ukraine war, or are even turning against the idea of continuing to support Ukraine. 'My message is to discover more,' she says. 'Watch more documentaries about Russia and Russia's intentions in this war and other wars. Be realistic and recognise that it's a matter of time before Russia attacks Europe, that you are not safe there and that it's better to listen to people who are going through this war. (Image: Supplied) 'Also, the first and second years of the war were totally different to this year – people in Ukraine are exhausted, they have PTSD, and many of us have died. It affects everyone – one of my best friends died on the frontline at the end of May, and honestly I cannot connect these two worlds, the world where my best friends die defending Europe and the world where other Europeans are going and playing for the Russian occupants. 'So my message is to be more empathetic and realistic, and to make sure you keep your eyes on what is happening in Europe as well as what's happening in the Middle East, and keep remembering how cruel this war is.' Baklanova's friend who died recently was a tattoo artist named Roma Sova who Baklanova worked with at K41, where he was part of the security team. He joined the army at the beginning of the full-scale invasion – one of many prominent people from Kyiv's creative scene who have fought and often died on the frontlines while people from parallel scenes in Moscow and St Petersburg carry on with their lives and book Western artists to play their clubs and festivals. Roma featured prominently in videos from the frontlines over the past three years, and he was honoured with a banner after his death by fans of the famously politically engaged German football club St Pauli. 'He is a hero and he died a hero, for all of us,' Baklanova says. 'His sacrifice, and the sacrifices of thousands of others who stood up against this evil, shouldn't be ignored. 'Europeans and Americans shouldn't be carrying on happily with Putin-supporting Russians during this genocide while Russia continues doing business as usual, as if they haven't destroyed millions of lives.'
The Independent
18-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Radiohead appear to confirm first tour in years after ticket donation sparks rumors
Rumors of the first Radiohead tour in seven years are heating up after it was revealed several tickets to a 'Radiohead concert of your choice' were recently donated to a charity auction by the band's management. The acclaimed British rock band last toured in 2018, and last released new music with their ninth album A Moon Shaped Pool in 2016. Resident Advisor reports that four Radiohead tickets to an upcoming tour were donated to a Los Angeles fire relief auction run by Palisades High School, apparently by the band's management. The auction listing noted that the highest bidder can select their preferred city and date 'based on the band's tour schedule.' The publication went on to claim that a source close to the group has confirmed the band have placed holds at venues in a number of European cities for a run of residency gigs this autumn. Earlier this week, Pitchfork reported that the band's five members — singer Thom Yorke, guitarist Jonny Greenwood, bassist Colin Greenwood, guitarist Ed O'Brien and drummer Philip Selway — have recently formed a new business as a limited liability partnership, RHEUK25 LLP. Similar business partnerships have been formed by the band in the past, as they operate outside of the record label system. In 2016, they formed Dawn Chorus LLP shortly before announcing the release of A Moon Shaped Pool. In the time since the band last toured, many of the members have been busy with solo projects. In October last year, Yorke walked offstage after being heckled by a pro-Palestine protester during a solo show in Melbourne. Footage filmed by a member of the audience showed a man in the crowd yelling at Yorke about the ' Israeli genocide of Gaza ' and the death toll, half of whom he said, 'were children'. Yorke could be seen standing and listening before he told the heckler to 'hop up on stage' to make his remarks. Yorke and his Radiohead bandmates have come under scrutiny in the past over their decision to continue performing in Israel. Last September, Colin Greenwood revealed that Radiohead had recently reunited in the studio to rehearse some of their old songs. During an appearance at the Hay Festival Querétaro in Mexico via video call, the bassist said: 'We did some rehearsals about two months ago in London, just to play the old songs. And it was really fun, had a really good time.'
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Gaffe: New nightclub opens in Wandsworth Road after council drops objection
South London has a new 150 person nightclub after a council dropped its objections to the venue. Gaffe, also known as Commune Studios, off Wandsworth Road will be able to open until 3.20am on Fridays and Saturdays going forwards. The venue, which describes itself as 'a new home for the heads' on Instagram, will hold club nights on weekends and be rented out for activities like DJ workshops and birthday parties the rest of the time. DJs including Hodge, Parris and Seb Odyssey are expected to play at the club over the next month, according to listings platform Resident Advisor. Luca Marchal, the man behind the club, told a Lambeth Council licensing meeting that he wanted to create a permanent space where artists could perform, after successfully hosting a limited number of events at the venue in 2024. Speaking on Tuesday (January 28), he said: 'It's a place where… the LGBT+ community have [sic] found a safe haven for expression and where photographers and film-makers are building their portfolios. 'We've had to turn away so many incredible events due to our limited licence which just shows how much South London needs cultural venues like this, especially when they're disappearing at an unprecedented rate across the UK.' After the club's bid to open permanently was blocked by councillors in 2024, Mr Marchal brought back the application to the council with extra security measures including ID scanning and beefed up security. Hannah McInerney, a promoter who held sober rave Club Soft at Gaffe in November last year, told the meeting that attendees reported they had 'never felt so safe' in a venue. She added: 'I was really impressed with the soundproofing. I stood outside the venue and I thought you could barely hear anything. […] It's clear that the Communal [sic] Studios team have been very thoughtful at ensuring the venue had [has] minimal impact on the surrounding area.' One resident, whose flat is next to railway arches where the club is located, said he had some noise concerns and complained there was broken glass on the floor the day after events. Councillors David Robson, Sarina da Silva and Adrian Garden approved the application with conditions, including that the venue provides a 'safe space' for customers and passers-by during its opening hours. Cllr Robson, chair of the committee, said: 'The applicant has taken time to submit a well thought out application and was satisfied the business model put forward and license conditions will promote the licensing objectives.'
