Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Billie Eilish - I don’t understand.

I’ve always been interested in ‘pop’ music so out of curiosity I tuned into watch Billie Eilish perform at the Leeds festival last night. I’ve heard one or two of her songs and thought they were OK but unremarkable and was interested to see what she could do.

Massive crowd obviously, all singing along to her songs, most of which seemed rather depressing.

But..

It was obvious she was performing to a backing track and not singing or playing ‘live’ most of the time. She would point her mic at the crown but her vocals could still be heard, her brother would play a bass or acoustic guitar and be accompanied by keyboards or harmonies that were clearly pre recorded. She did ‘sing’ over the backing track and her brother did play guitar but it was very clear that most of what was being ‘performed’ wasn’t being played live. There was one section where her brother was playing some electronic drums and not hitting the instrument at all but the drum beat continued.

What I don’t understand is why this didn’t matter to her audience. They seemed deliriously happy to be in her presence and watch her pretend to be live. This I don’t understand. Her music isn’t complicated and she can clearly sing her songs so why not get a band together and some backing singers and perform the songs live?

I’m not decrying her abilities or her popularity. I just don’t understand why she performs in an artificial manner.

Ps, wasn’t that impressed by her music either!

A band is an expensive luxury....

It needs to rehearse and that takes stage time time = money.
The band members need to be paid = money.
There may be contract issues, especially if any of the band members have performing contracts with another producer = money.

Done well a hybrid performance will be better than live, and the joins should not show.....if they do it is just sloppy.
Many so called live shows are hybrid as some bands cannot reproduce studio effects live....
Top of the Pops was almost all recorded....

Loved the Northern Soul Prom recently- fab musicians and singers!

Peter J ... can see that for a pub singer (used to play in bands in my teens and early twenties and the sort of money pubs and local halls pay didn't go far between five!) .....But for a headline act and the sort of ticket prices that go with them ... nope, I want to see real musician people labouring over a hot musical instrument ... with all their chance of disaster or brilliance. The old '70s big-hair rockers used to replicate their studio sound with extra backing musicians in the shadowy background ... at least that was honest and up-front.

K

Peter, I sort of understand the financial aspects, although with a net worth of £30m at 21 years old I think that’s sort of a moot point. (Danny Bowes is worth around £5m and it’s taken him 40 years to accumulate that and he still plays with his full band live - Thunder)

What I can’t get my head around is folk paying a small fortune to idolise a performer who is essentially ‘faking’ her performance. Her music just isn’t that complicated.

I’d have hated to see the bands I enjoyed live faking a performance.

Agreed. Otherwise the audience may as well watch a pre-recorded video on big screen.

I don’t go to big concerts any more but I do go to smallish jazz/ jazz funk funk gigs mainly to Band on the Wall in Manchester which is a terrific venue and only about 40 mins away with capacity for about 500 people at a guess and allow the audience to get up close

Saw Femi Kuti (son of the late Fela Kuti) a couple of weeks ago with his incredible Afro Jazz band and there were 13 musicians on the stage, every note played live by supremely talented musicians

Tickets were £20 and what a night!!

Awesome music and energy but I couldn’t help wondering how on earth a UK tour of these type of venues pays for all their travel expenses and gives a decent income to all the band particularly now that streaming has killed off a lot of music royalties for recorded music

Guess I’ve just got to enjoy these bands while they are still live and want to entertain and spread their music

I went to KISS last year. My view was all the great bands are dying off and the new ones are just not that great. I was sure KISS are going to play music live and not skim on the show and I was right, you could tell it was played live and they must have spent heaps just on the fireworks. While I wouldn't say KISS is a band I would listen to that often at all I was not disappointed at all in the concert and well worth going to once for the experience.

I am still playing in bands in clubs/pubs and as far as I know people like live music, we seem to have a reasonable following. The issue is lack of venues, with only three having live music and each one having many bands on their books we only play about twice a month.

I know Countdown was pre-recorded and the bands mimed their performance and I am sure the UK version "Top of the Pops" was as well. I feel that is acceptable due to only one song performed by each band would have made proper miking up hard to do and keep the show flowing in front of a live audience. But I agree I don't pre-recorded music for a concert.

I feel Billie Eilish feel her target audience wants to hear what they know while they see just her so feels what she is doing is right for her audience.

She obviously knows something I don't because she has made millions times what I have earnt out of music. Maybe it is that the music is not important and something else is. As a musician sometimes I am asked what a song is about, I have no idea as I don't listen to words just the music. Maybe that is my mistake.

Thinking back to the music TV I watched when I was younger TOTP was almost always mimed due to some issue with the musicians union placing a strict limit on how much live music could be broadcast on TV. I think also it would have been difficult to assemble the variety of top level performers into one space to produce the show. OGWT did always have live performances as well as concert footage and some odd attempts at animated video. The Tube was a similar mix of live and pre-recorded. The only fully live show I think is Jools Holland but even that had some exceptions.

I don’t mind what they do on TV shows but paying to see a live show where the acts aren’t actually playing live seems wrong to me yet the folks paying for the show seem not to be bothered. That I struggle to understand.

Ps Chris. What’s the band you play in, anything I might know or can find somewhere? Pm if you prefer.

I also believe the BBC wanted to exercise some control over what was broadcast, you were never certain with some bands as to what state they were in when performing live and whether they might depart from the song lyrics, as some bands/artists were very 'political' and may have abused the opportunity a live broadcast presented to them.