No Sugarcoating & No Bullshit: November
Written by Jo Hayes
Saturday, 28 November 2015 04:00
Hello again Uber Rockers. Being the month before Christmas, I’ve tried the obvious way to connect Rock ‘n’ Roll and Christmas, but aside from seasonal songs, I couldn’t think of much, plus it might be slightly repetitive, as I touched on that last year.
As it’s American Thanksgiving at the time of writing this blog, it got me thinking about Christmas, how I see it, and why I celebrate it.
I’m not religious, so I suppose you could call me an Atheist, although I hate preachy Atheists as much as I hate preachy Catholics or preachy anything. Therefore, Christmas for me has nothing to do with Christ, especially if the rumours are true, that he was meant to have been born in the summer. I guess for me it’s Yuletide, although the non-Pagan version.
This for me means spending time with friends, family, and loved ones – making the effort this one time of year, when everyone is too busy leading their own lives in the rest of the year. Each year we’re drinking and eating too much, even with any family disagreements, it makes me thankful that I have good people in my life.
I know you must be wondering what this has to do with music, well events two weeks ago in Paris, at the Eagles of Death Metal gig, across the city, and the atrocity in Beirut also made me feel thankful, aside from feeling immensely sad at what happened.
Sorry to put a downer on things and to be serious, but I thought this is a relevant subject to write about especially now in the season of giving and excess.
I didn’t know anyone who was personally affected by the shootings in Paris, but the EODM gig at the Bataclan struck a chord – as it was a crowd of music lovers just out for a good time. The amount of times I’ve been to a gig, I’ve always felt safe, unless a mosh-pit happens, but otherwise you expect to have a good night, and get home safely.
We are all music lovers, and EODM is a band that many of us have seen or might see. Regardless of the band, it could have been any gig, it just happened to be that night. If they’d chosen a different venue, maybe it could have been Motörhead, if it was the same venue, it could have been the Deftones.
I’m in no way glory-hunting and trying to say that I could have been there, because there was no way I would have been, however as it was a crowd of people just like us, that’s when it makes you think. To the 89 rock ‘n’ roll fans who lost their lives that night – R.I.P.
Obviously many people die every day from terrorist atrocities in the middle east, I’m well aware of this, however as these events haven’t happened here in a while, it might not be in our news cycle, however hopefully this atrocity will make people realise, that this happens all the time. Maybe dropping more bombs won’t help, but I’m all for unity rather than war.
I don’t want to get political, so I won’t. How does all of this tie into Rock ‘n’ Roll and Christmas being connected? The Rock ‘n’ Roll part is the ill-fated EODM gig, the Christmas part is feeling thankful for who and what we have.
I’m sure that many people will feel jumpy going to a gig at a large venue after this, but we can’t let this scare us, I imagine whoever is responsible would love this. In solidarity with anyone affected by terrorism, including the fans who died at the EODM gig, we need to try and carry on as normal.
Anyway, Happy Xmas 2015 to you all. Eat plenty, get drunk, and have an awesome time with your loved ones.
Until next time, folks…
Jo