The band have announced they will not contiue.
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The band have announced they will not contiue.
That's an horrible news. RIP Dave & thanx for the music you created.
Thanks for that update. Even if it isn't 100% accurate, it does shed maybe a little more light. I do hope that something definitive will be released to the public at some point regarding cause of death and the circumstances. I have been scouring the net for three days trying to find anything I can on the situation. If anyone else here finds any news, please post it. Thanks.
Sandi
Mmmmm? Swedes and drugs are not synonomous at all. This is a dry country, believe me. They talk the talk so to speak. My info from Universal was that they were sent home from Japan recently cos they were not good enough live. I saw them at the Access All Areas showcase recently and I agree. Second Division totally.
We mentioned this on another thread. I think they were gonna be dropped and I think he flipped out over this. Only an opinion. With the exception of Dregen and Nicke Borg most Swedish bands are fucking second raters when it comes to living it like they talk it. You need to be match fit and nothing about CD ever made me think they were in it for the long haul. I think Universal were always looking for a quick hit and a buck. You take it badly. Its a shame.
Some fair points. For sure, bands who really want to can improve. There are millions of examples of bands who suddenly find their extra gear or hit the niche. No issue with that at all.
As for the business about Live. Again I 'm just repeating what I was told. The promotor in Japan was less than happy with the shows and sent them home. Universal then locked them in rehearsals 8 hours day with orders to sharpen it up.
As for being dropped, it was just an opinion. I have no idea what options were available to the label or the band. Its all about sales at the end of the day and if you don't sell you get dropped. I don't know what they sold but i suspect it wasnt as much as Umusic expected.
That said, the Swedes suffer terribly with this winter/dark day depression syndrome. I would never have belived it was so debilitating if I hadnt lived here.
As early as October people are rueing the winter and talking about how depressed they become during the short days. It just seemed bollocks to me. Coming from UK its dark about 3.45pm in December and January and most people don't go hanging themselves. Here in Sweden its maybe 3.20pm but loads of people top themselves.
Even my mate Tom was sat with his head in his hand last week and mumbling about how he hates this time of year and the darkness makes him so down. Its unreal how it affects people.
dave lepard could just as easily been prone to this.
Sweden has the highest suicide rate in Europe and its all becuase of the dark days.
I've never heard of Crashdiet until the news of Dave's death was posted here... seems like I might have missed out on a good band there.
It sucks when people die like that. My thoughts go out to his family and more importantly his bandmembers.
There are some really interesting things being discussed here, and I appreciate it, if only to keep the name Crashdiet in circulation.
I've done a lot of traveling in Europe (although I haven't traveled to Scandavia yet). The traveling I've done myself though has been in the summer, and it hasn't gotten dark until nearly midnight, which drives me nuts. Where I'm from, even on the longest day of the year, it's never light past 8:30 p.m. I like darkness myself, and welcome the shorter days of winter. I have heard a lot though in the past about the problems of high suicide rates in parts of the world where it's either dark almost the entire day or light almost the entire day. Regardless, it's something that certainly could have played a factor in this situation.
As far the ins and outs of what was or wasn't happening in the Crashdiet world, it's all speculation. The live video footage I've seen, some clips they sound incredible, and in all fairness, some they sound pretty bad. The album charted at #12 in Sweden, so I wouldn't think album sales would have been an issue, at least not at this point in the game. Any label who thinks they can sign a hair band that sounds like they are from 1985 just to cash in with some quick record sales is nuts. If all you want to do is cash in on quick sales for a novelty act, there are far more mass-appealing style's of music than bands like Crashdiet. If anything, signing a band like that takes a huge set of nuts.
The bottom line for me is quite simple: This sucks. Whether Crashdiet was good or not is an opinion. I happen to be of the opinion that they were the greatest glam band certainly of the last decade, and they were the best chance that any of us had at bringing the record industry back to where we want it to be. Regardless of their live presentation, the reality is that 90% of the people that ever heard Crashdiet heard them on a radio, the internet, their cd, television ads, etc. Because they played so rarely outside of the borders of Sweden, their fan base never really saw them live. We loved them because of what they were, which was a balls-out glam band...period. I was SO looking forward to going to see them in the States in March.
I can only hope that somewhere out there is another band of similar spirit and talent that another label will take a chance on. There are other quality sleaze bands in Sweden now, from Loud'n Nasty to Slowpanic Sweethearts that could carry the torch. It's unlikely though that the torch will ever again burn as bright as it was burning for Crashdiet. I believed, unconditionally, in that band...
Sandi
<font size="4" face="Arial">I can't argue how much you liked them or what you felt about them, but I highly doubt they were the saviours of Glam. They were good, no doubt, but I have played it around "regular" people recently, and they all asked "what the hell are we listening to?" and not in a good way.Quote:
I happen to be of the opinion that they were the greatest glam band certainly of the last decade, and they were the best chance that any of us had at bringing the record industry back to where we want it to be.
As for the quick cash in from Universal. We are in an era of The Darkness, a nostalgia/novelty band that hit gold that made a ton of money. It isn't beyond the realm of possibility for a label to sign them for that, as they were a "novelty" to some people. Anytime you are that much of a throw back, you are viewed as a "novelty".
As for things being based on the Live show, well, considering they were slated for a SXSW appearance (cool for that to happen, but hundreds of bands play it, lets not forget), and just a few months earlier than the showing they get booted from a Japanese tour for being bad live, I would bet a TON of money on it that Universal wasn't happy about it. It also could have strained them all quite a bit. If they weren't cutting it live, and there was a chance of having SXSW pulled (it is a LIVE event after-all, and if you suck live, you will not make an impression at all), and then there is a depression going on there...there is some sense in those events.
Good band, but this style has survived with the loss of many. Dave showed a ton of promise and his loss is terrible. But I ain't packing in the mascara yet...
I see where you are coming from, and can't totally disagree with any of it. I would just contend that The Darkness, for all of their finer qualities, was viewed as a novelty from the beginning because of the falsetto singing and the "over the top just for the sake of being over the top" quality of the band. As much as I like them, bands whose primary appeal is that they are "different" never have a very long lifespan. This is evidenced by the fact that after the first week, virtually nobody has bought the new Darkness cd, which is a shame because it's brilliant.
Crashdiet was VERY different from the Darkness. They were not a gimmick. They were serious. Their songs were serious, their videos were serious, and the band members were serious about what they were doing. The Darkness for the most part are just having a good time being ridiculous. In short, the Darkness makes you laugh. Either you laugh and say "These guys suck" or you laugh and say "These guys are brilliant," but either way you laugh. Whether you like it or not is based on whether or not you "get it." Crashdiet was not a "get it" band. Love them or hate them, they were what they were. Unabashed, dark, heavy glam rock.
As for your comment about "normal" people not liking it, like most things in life, it goes both ways. I'm a high school coach, and when I was driving our team to the state championships in November, I popped my Crashdiet cd into the player because we have one kid on the team who's a big 80's hair-band fan. I was curious if he would be into it. He wasn't really into to be honest, but everyone else in the van, all emo kids who are 14 to 15 years old and spend their entire life listening to Simple Plan and Blink 182, were like "WOW! Who is this?" After our trip, I ended up having to burn copies of the cd for every kid that made it to state because they couldn't afford the $40 to import it. Still, I see them walking around this little high school in Missouri singing "Riot In Everyone" to each other. To be honest, it's pretty cool.
There are a lot of kids right now of high school age who have parents who loved Motley Crue and Poison who are just starting to realize that that crazy music their parents listened to is actually pretty good. For those kids, Crashdiet could've been a Godsend, and for these kids here at my high school, they were. One of the kids was crushed when I told her the singer of the band was dead.
I agree though that we shouldn't be packing in the mascara or anything. I just really, really believed in them. There have been so many great bands from Heart Throb Mob to Big Bang Babies and on down the line who I said "These guys are great, but they have no chance of bringing it back to the mainstream." Crashdiet was the first band in 15 years that I thought had a chance, not because of their songs, but because they were good, and they were serious about it. It was all balls, no fluff. Unfortunately we'll never know what might have been.
For the most part though, you are I are in agreement [img]smile.gif[/img]
Some really interesting comments here. Regarding this winter depression. There were more Swedes killed in the Tsunami disaster than any other nationality other than those indigenous to the region. About 7000. I think that says something about the extent of this seasonal feeling that decends. If the Swedes can afford to get away they do. One of the guys in the Sunshine has just been with 30 members of his family and friends. 20th dec to 10th Jan. It says it all.
As for Universal. Its strange one. I deal with them here and i never get the feeling they look too much at long term projects. Sweden is only 9 million people in an area 6 times as big as UK and to be honest a top 10 chart placing isn't a lot of sales.
No disrespect to Crash Diet. i thought A Riot In Everyone was great track, but where as the Darkness are just giving Queen fans a new band to feel good about, I suspect Umusic had the same idea in a Crue vein.
I read sites like this and I constantly see openings. How many people post stuff on here about GnR, Pussycat, Lillian Axe, Love hate Roxx gang Pretty Boy Floyd?
If I was working at Universal I wouldnt have missed the red light here. There is a big market for some new heros but I definitely would not have tied it up to 2 or 3 albums from the start.
I would have had an option on the second one, based on sales of the first. Its my fucking job on the line based on how much money I generate.
As carl so rightly pointed out, the music business is about making money. Being in a band is about making music. There would be alot more successful band if bands got their heads around that a lot earlier.