In the end, all hidden treasures start shining. From our music snob’s bunker in the UK, blinkered by the home and Stateside successes of Franz Ferdinand and The Kaiser Chiefs, it’s been easy to forget that for the past decade Placebo have been slowly building into one of the biggest and best rock bands on the globe. In 2000, while we were all bemoaning the dearth of UK talent, Placebo were quietly selling a million copies of their third album ‘Black Market Music’ and hitting Number One across Europe. In 2003, while we were prostrating ourselves at the feet of The Libertines, Placebo’s fourth album ‘Sleeping With Ghosts’ saw them notch up 1.5 million sales, go Top Ten in twenty countries and play to 18,000 people at the Bercy in Paris. Like other darkly romantic acts that speak directly to the scorched human soul - The Cure, Depeche Mode, Morrissey, REM - theirs has been a steady, cultish global explosion on the outskirts of our narrow vision of the zeitgeist. But when Brian Molko, Stefan Olsdal and Steve Hewitt sold out Wembley Arena in 2004 during a triumphant homecoming jaunt to promote that year’s Singles package ‘Once More With Feeling’, with Robert Smith as special guest, the lid was blown on rock’s worst kept secret: for ten years Placebo had been creeping up on superstardom, now here they were taking their place on the podium. “The size of it has been gradual since the first album,” says Stefan, “every album’s done a little better than the previous one, so it wasn’t a big shock. We’ve learnt our trade through the years and the band has grown live as well - last tour there were five people onstage which freed me and Brian up to give a little more of a show. We kind of grew into those roles and we felt comfortable with them. But when we came to play Wembley last year it was a vindication.”
What’s truly remarkable about the rise of Placebo, however, is that it has always gone hand in hand with a rare hunger for musical inventiveness, personal discovery and storytelling nous. As they’ve gradually shed the androgynous shock-chic of their 1994 genesis for more stark, direct and mature dissections of humanity’s brimstone core - the perversions we hide from each other, the agonies and humiliations we inflict on each other, the addictions we put ourselves through and, on occasion, the hope we too often deny ourselves - they’ve also taken daring steps into fresh musical territory. ‘Black Market Music’ brought hip-hop and disco elements to their brooding rock blueprint. ‘Sleeping With Ghosts’ saw them experimenting with electronics, loops and studio jiggery-pokery galore. Bravely, they challenged their audience, only to earn themselves bigger and more avid devotion from an ever-growing legion of smart but damaged rock fans that were coming to expect and revel in Placebo’s unexpected stylistic turns. And fifth studio album ‘Med’ looks set to be their biggest and most gasp-worthy plot twist yet.
Written over the summer of 2004 in the south of France, recorded over four months of 2005 in Rak Studios with relatively unknown French producer Dimitri Tikovoi and mixed by U2 + Smashing Pumpkins legend, Flood, ‘Meds’ is Placebo: Laid Bare. Confident that they had written their strongest set of songs to date “We found ourselves in a position when we were making this record of having too many songs,” says Brian. “Before we were always missing one, so the quality bar has been raised. There’s at least five or six singles on this album”.
Protection - we do a lot of it these days. Sun cream for our skin, sunglasses for our eyes, condoms for you know where - but do you remember to protect your hearing?
Click to find all the information you need to look after your hearing now so you can enjoy music for years to come
The Raft has discovered The CarbonNeutral Company
They help business, government and individuals to tackle their contribution to climate change. In addition to forestry projects, their work includes carbon emissions reduction, renewable energy and biomass schemes, as well as carbon management and risk consulting
Live 8 DVD Release Announced
