Article about bands doing soundtracks, BSP included

[Blackout]

it's "officially" a "thing" now, apparently......

http://www.londoninstereo.com/soundtracks-a-study/

I for one welcome the fact that now several of my favourite bands occasionally give me the chance to go and watch them while sitting in a comfy seat. Just hoping it doesn't go sufficiently overground that we start seeing landfill guitar bands whose idea of instrumental is doing their crappy songs without the singing having a crack at it...

(I think a lot of people of my generation were put off instrumental music in the pop/rock genres by that 80s major label thing of the single B-side being the A-side with the vocal track excised: pointless and insulting. And one of my mates only last year came out with the quite flabbergasting line in a review of excellent Motherwell band A Sudden Burst of Colour "it can be hard for a band to engage an audience without a vocalist"... I've been laughing about this ever since... they're playing Salford tonight actually, I do hope he's there... FWIW it's 30 years ago almost to the day that I first realised that a properly written instrumental could be at least as powerful as a song: happy birthday to The Chameleons' "Strange Times" and its exceptional singing-free last track "I'll Remember".)

.......Anyway yeah, leave it to people who know what they're doing please. (Basically British Sea Power and post-rock bands). Cheers.

[TheAlex]

It doesn't have to be instrumental though - a fair few rock/indie bands are writing soundtrack albums, albeit to their own commissioned films - though I can only think of Suede and The Wedding Present off the top of my head. I saw Suede perform theirs to the film and it was excellent - the film was on a huge projection screen in the Albert Hall (Manchester) and the band played behind it, lit up at times. I enjoyed it much more than the 'hits' part of the night.

Paul Steel actually did something like this about 10 years ago, but unfortunately wasn't able to perform it live. I guess others probably did it before him too.

It definitely seems like a new trend, anyway. I think a few bands/artists I was aware of started to release a video for each song on their albums in recent years. So perhaps it's all a combined evolution of that, the likes of BSP doing soundtracks, and trying to do something new and different to keep the fanbase interested, or attract new fans. I wouldn't have gone to the Suede gig if it was just a normal Suede gig, though it definitely doesn't seem new and different to me anymore!

I've noticed live orchestras to film becoming much more of a popular thing in recent years too. I think Psycho is coming up in Manchester soon? And there are live performances of game soundtracks to footage, and TV too. I saw BBC's Planet Earth (I think it was) performed with the Philharmonic at The Bridgewater Hall a few years ago, and it was one of my favourite music events of that year.

As for instrumentals of vocal songs, I enjoy hearing those. Though a sole instrumental as a b-side does sound a bit of a rip-off.

I've been listening to A Sudden Burst Of Colour while reading the article and I wouldn't have minded that Salford gig tonight.