I feel slightly sick...

2005-05-31

I know that much of life is a facade, created by cold-hearted businessmen with an eye only on shareholder value. All the same, a small part of me still wanted to believe there existed such a thing as "music of rebellion", even if the bands delivering it up were signed to the major corporates.

So, when I stumbled across the web site of Grabow (tagline: "putting showbiz into your biz") and found that many so-called rock heroes were available for office parties (albeit big ones) and corporate events, I was just a little bit uncomfortable with the whole thing. Nothing wrong with the model, I'm sure the Grabows lay on a great show - but with just about everybody represented I just feel slightly sad. It does conjure up a raft of images however - fancy Slipknot playing at the shower curtain ring sales summit (John Candy RIP), or Eminem at the oil seed suppliers convention? Perhaps if I started saving now, I could get AC/DC to play my retirement bash in 20 years' time. Maybe we could share the occasion.

I shouldn't be so surprised - a few months ago I had the dubious honour of seeing Carlos Santana play at a Cisco event. Frankly he didn't look like he was enjoying it much - a bit like if his kids had disturbed him in the middle of his favourite TV show and asked if he would play a few songs. Might not be too far from the truth.