There was a nice article in Spin (I think it was) about how boring many of today’s rock stars are. Not sure if you heard about Iggy Pop’s antics at the Glastonbury Music Festival, but it’s not the kind of thing you see Celine Dion doing (not that she’s a rock star, God forbid, but you get my drift.) Iggy apparently did a bit of stage diving and inviting people up onto the stage and chaos ensued, as it does in these situations. However, that’s what they fucking SHOULD do. Who wants their rock stars to be the boring, sober, cleancut neighbors next door?
Not to downplay the talent of Pete Doherty in any way, but he’s exactly what I want in a rock star in terms of his personal life. Gorgeous supermodel girlfriend, drug issues, a very nice hat…I could go on all day. He doesn’t strike me as someone who’s going to come offstage and do anything tame. We all lament these stars who do drugs, go to rehab, get arrested for drunk driving, and generally act like idiots but when they have musical talent I’m willing to overlook it on some level. That isn’t to say I want them living next door to me though. I enjoy my chaos at a distance, preferably with loud guitars and maybe some smashed instruments.
The photo of The Clash’s Paul Simonon smashing his guitar is the absolute defining image for the kind of rock and roll that I want. It perfectly conveys the out of control attitude that I want in my bands. Not all of them though…I really don’t think I would have cared to see ABC smashing their synthesizers or Adam Ant shooting up onstage in all his makeup. That would just be disturbing. However, I think many bands today could get away with a smash here or there provided nothing hit me in the audience. I saw The Church back in the late 1980s and Marty Wilson-Piper threw his guitar to the side of the stage, where it seemed that someone was expecting this. Not to be outdone, lead singer Steve Kilby threw his bass and you just heard a loud crash. That was pretty rock and roll I thought.
Julie Joyce's Non-SEO'd Music Blog 
I’m assuming you heard the Hillary Clinton picked a Celine Deon song as her campaign them song. I wonder how many votes that cost her?
I’d say a lot…she should have picked The Clash’s Train in Vain. Would have been more appropriate.
We have some big commonalities in musical taste.
London Calling is a monumental moment of art.
It IS a monumental work of art! I’m going to go listen to it right now, in fact. This blog is horribly out of date. I will think about updating it, once I’ve calmed down from the excitement of having someone comment on it.
I’ve been looking for a poster of this image for ages – any idea where I might get one?
rockstars smashing guitars are lame as fuck. simple as. whats the point? to show how cool they are? its really cool that the clash had to cancel alot of their earlier (and very few of their later) gigs because they didnt have instruments to play with… i bet their fans loved how much of a rockstar they were then.