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A MANIFESTO FROM THE MINISTERS AT WORK
A MANIFESTO FROM THE MINISTERS AT WORK
Alabama 3's next album will be created and disseminated without
interference from labels, shops, manufacturers or distributors - a
virus transmitted directly to the people.
Fans will be directly involved in the selection of songs and the
conceptual direction of the album. You, the Converted, will be our
executive producers.
Members of the congregation will be invited to re-mix tracks from the album, and they Shall Be Released.
THE 12 STEP PROGRAM
We hereby invite all Believers to join the Band, and to kick the
gong around with us in an anarcho-syndicalist clusterfuck in the middle
of the information Superhighway. The Faithful may be initiated into the
fellowship of the Alabama 3 by signing up to our All New 12 STEP
PROGRAM.
At the end of every month, up until Xmas, Alabama 3 will make available, for 12 days only, 3 demo tracks of 'work in progress' for Free Download.
The tracks will be related to a different Theme each month. January’s theme was LOVE.
You are invited to decide which of the three tracks each month makes the album.
You are invited to remix any of the 12 tracks chosen.
You will be invited to a mind - blowing 12 hour XMAS gig at the end of the 12th month, to celebrate the 12th anniversary of the band. You will be given a CD of the 12 tracks, a CD of the 12 chosen remixes, and previously unreleased DVD.
Enjoy!
STEP 1 – LOVE
Children you have spoken; phase one is complete. The response has been fantastic. Your voices have been heard, brothers and sisters, and the data is being collated as we speak. Once the chosen song has been identified, you will be able to download the individual sound files that make up the track, load them into your computah, then go fucking mental with it. The best remixes will appear on a limited edition CD to be given away FREE at the Xmas gig, which has been scheduled to coincide with the destruction of the planet Earth.
STEP 2 – HATE
Alright! Alright! We've had enough! Please, we don't want any trouble!
Last month we invited you to take part in our Hatefest, and you nasty bastards turned up mob - handed. You brought along all your mates, and really got stuck in. The website took so many hits it starred bleeding and crying for its mother. The response to Step 1, 'Love' got us moist, but the response to Step 2, 'Hate', has revealed how twisted you dangerous freaks really are... and we like it! ANGER IS AN ENERJEEEE!
Voting is now closed, and we the results are being calculated on a comptah.
The winning song will appear on the new album, and be available for remix by you, the fans (that's short for fanatics...)
Log on at the end of this month for Step 3. This things building folks, growing like an unstoppable mutant blob inside a hurtling snowball. Get involved. Be a part of the solution.
STEP 3 – REVOLUTION
GET YA MOLOTOVS OUT!
In January we tattooed LOVE on the knuckles of your left hand. in February we tattooed HATE on your right. Now clasp your hands together. What does it spell? thats right. LHOAVTEE. Okay, that dont mean anything, but look again. That's right. LHOAVTEE is an anagram of VOLE HEAT. Now add a couple of letters to VOLE HEAT, and ignore the H, the E, and the A, and what have you got? that's RIGHT! It spells REVOLUTION!!!! SPOOKY or what!!? That's dialectics in action, kids.
This month we called on all comrades to join us at the barricades and blast open the continuum of history in bloody REVOLUTION. Revolt against corporate tyranny and join in a subversive act of professional suicide by voting for your favourite pig - bothering anthem. The winning song will take its rightful place in history on the next Alabama 3 album. Those responsible for writing the remaining two will be taken out and shot.
STEP 4 – SEX
Oooooh baby. You sure are looking fine tonight. You know I think we've really got a connection. I'm talking BROADband, baby. Take those off honey, while I put this little blue pill in your martini. Don't worry sugar, It's herbal. Now let me turn the lights down low, and slip into my silk kimono. What's your star sign, beautiful?....yeah i thought so, VIGRO, the dyslexic. I'm HERPES, the messenger. We're so compatible. Let me show you something. its a little....uh implement I picked up in Old Compton Street....see? It's got a selection of three interchabeable heads. The first one I call BLUE ARSE JOY. That's a real backside bruiser, baby. The second ones a rotating knife head. I call that NECRO BLUES. And this last one does absolutely nothing. I call it STRANDED. Choose which one you want, baby, bend over and turn it up to THIRTEEN. After that, I'll let you do me, any which way you like.
Oooooooh BABY! I wish my boyfriend was a FREAK like you!
MANIFESTO
Let’s talk business. Let’s talk about the MUSIC business, and let’s talk about DEATH.
There's been a lot of talk recently about the DEATH of the CD, the
DEATH of record shops, the DEATH of record companies (hurrah!), while
the record companies themselves have been talking about the DEATH of
MUSIC (by which they mean the DEATH of profit margins). Anybody
who remembers Peter and the Test Tube Babies- you know who you are-
will call to mind that mordant slogan: 'Home Taping is Killing Music'.
And anybody who remembers our screamingly camp and fiercely intelligent
friend Jeff, God rest his soul, will remember the patch on his leather
jacket which said ' Home Fucking is Killing Prostitution'.
Digital downloads and file - sharing have made shiny pieces of
plastic virtually redundant; prices for CD's have been slashed by 50%
and the companies are still hemorrhaging money. Groucho Marx
historically said ' he who controls the means of production controls
pop music' but the technology for pressing, playing, recording and
distributing music is now within reach of anyone with a PC and a
broadband connection. The average asbo-dodger from Chiswick now has the
technology now to record and disseminate an album with all the
production values of Phil Collins' 'In the Air Tonight from his
bedroom. Which begs the question 'What exactly are record companies
for?’.
Previously, these loan sharks justified their racket on their purchase
over the hardware of manufacture and distribution, but, like the
mercurial policeman in Terminator three, the machine has gone soft,
melted through their fingers, and stabbed them in the arse. Late, and
unfashionable gatecrashers at the digital party, Sony et al have been
desperately trying to pimp and police the shadowy domain of Cyberspace.
They might as well try to set up a Neighborhood Watch scheme in
Narnia.
Now we have a hoo - ha over Arctic Monkeys, Lily Allen and Kate Nash
going supernova from their bedrooms, the entire apparatus of the
Industry replaced by a webcam, a Myspace page and a couple of guitars.
On closer examination, however, we find that these cyber -anarchists
have had considerable promotional assistance from their labels. The
spectacle of democracy has once again been carefully stage - managed;
The devil's best trick was convincing people he didn't exist.
What is to be Done? Is it possible to circumvent the Industry, and short-circuit the Machine? We're going to find out...
