Don’t blame council for Blunt mistake

Don’t blame council for Blunt mistake
Lancashire Evening Telegraph - UK
... of hindsight. We, the public, are to blame for James Blunt not being invited to play Blackburn's Arts in The Park last year. The ...

DECCA turned down the Beatles. No one believed Led Zeppelin could sell millions without releasing a single.

Punk was dismissed as lasting no longer than any of its three -minute songs.

David Higgerson's view (LET, April 4) is a jaded one based on the wisdom of hindsight. We, the public, are to blame for James Blunt not being invited to play Blackburn's Arts in The Park last year.

The majority of people in the UK do not engage in the underground scene where the next Arctic Monkeys or James Blunts are before they become "famous."

If readers were polled, few could name more than three unsigned musical acts in the UK even fewer could name one from their own town.

A handful will list more because they are the minority who do support local, unsigned music or the "arts."

Blaming the council is lazy journalism. I have empathy for the council as it is damned if it spends too much on paying for the "best" acts and damned again when situations such as this are ironically reported.

I have been active in the underground music scene, promoting bands for over three years and I would not have booked James Blunt either. Apart from being unmoved by his performance, I loathe the marketing machine that churns out his type.

His demo CD, amongst others, would be dismissed as his songs are unremarkable. However, take the formula of lonely, humble man on a windswept landscape singing against the rain and wind, pay millions to put the video on prime time TV ads and yes, I'd have said book him' as it worked for Travis and Coldplay!

Solution for the future. Enlist the opinions of independent music shops, local recording studios, producers, websites, venue owners and musicians. Ask for three names of acts they would feel deserve to play the festival and why.

You do not pay councillors to give opinions on things they do not understand.

Equally you do not tell the public what they should or should not like. Give the people the vote and they will tell you and then no one is to blame as "the public gets what the public wants" to quote a singer-songwriter who was unknown in 1975 but was later known to millions as Paul Weller.