“I left in love, in laughter, and in truth and wherever truth, love and laughter abide, I am there in spirit.” - Bill Hicks

On the 26th of February 1994, aged just 32 years old, William Melvin Hicks died from Pancreatic cancer. Bill Hicks, as he was commonly known, was a stand-up comedian whose satirical, visceral and philosophical humour generated controversy and acclaim in equal measures. But Hicks was much more than a simple comedian. He was a musician, a philosopher, a satirist, and to some, a prophet. Hicks never resorted to “Blue” humour, even his infamous “Goatboy” routine was based on a very real tradition of Greek myths about the half-goat God Pan. Instead he presented the world as he saw it to his audience complete with all of its hypocrisy, hate, apathy and mediocrity, and tried to show the world for what it really was… Just a ride.

Hicks was born to a typical Southern Baptist family in Georgia USA, and lived in different states within the American “Bible Belt” in his formative years. As a young teen he discovered the comedy of Woody Allen and Richard Pryor and began to perform routines with friends, first at school and then at local clubs. As Hick’s style began to evolve he would often be compared to the likes of Lenny Bruce and George Carlin for his offbeat tangents and politically charged rants. But there was always more that could be done. Hicks would experiment with drugs and alcohol, and chain smoke on stage. This gave his work a fevered energy akin to a punk rock show. Hicks style was intimate and confrontational. He would viciously shout-down hecklers and never sugar-coated a single thought. But as Hicks’ personal philosophy sharpened, so did the messages in his act. After he gave up doing drugs, he would take an unpopular pro-drug stance because, unlike a lot of people with an anti-drug stance, he had experienced first hand the beneficial effects of drugs like LSD Marijuana and Magic Mushrooms, as well as the bad effects. One of his most famous riffs was on the lack of these positive effects in news reports which only ever focus on morons that throw themselves off buildings while on acid.

“Today, a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration — that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death; life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves... Here's Tom with the weather!” - Bill Hicks, ‘Revelations’ (1993)

Consumerism, society, religion, politics, philosophy, popular culture and (perhaps most importantly) Bill Hicks were all subjects ruthlessly deconstructed in front of his live audiences. A relentless pursuit of “The Truth” featured throughout his material which often meant cutting through the pre-conceived notions of his audience in order to lead them, not to his point of view, but to their own. In an episode of the BBC series ‘A Question Of Taste’, in response to the line of questioning regarding his act, Hicks repeated a comment he once heard from an audience member who stated “We don't come to comedy to think!”, to which he retorted “Gee! Where do you go to think? I'll meet you there!”. He questioned the alleged guilt of Lee Harvey Oswald in the JFK assassination as well as David Koresh in the conclusion of the Waco siege and other conspiracy theories to make the point that the “truth” that the media presents is just one version and that it isn’t, by any stretch, gospel.

In the seventeen years since Bill Hicks death little has changed. Though there are many comedians around today who are inspired by, and pay tribute to Hicks, few take the bold and lonely stance he once did. In the age of surveillance, instant information, the war against terrorism and international fraud dressed up as capitalism a man like Bill Hicks is perhaps needed more than ever. Even senior Labour Party MP Stephen Pound paid tribute to Hicks on the tenth anniversary of his death in the following early day amendment.

“That this House notes with sadness the 10th anniversary of the death of Bill Hicks, on 26th February 1994, at the age of 33; recalls his assertion that his words would be a bullet in the heart of consumerism, capitalism and the American Dream; and mourns the passing of one of the few people who may be mentioned as being worth [sic] of inclusion with Lenny Bruce in any list of unflinching and painfully honest political philosophers.” - Stephen Pound, MP: ‘Anniversary of the Death of Bill Hicks’ (EDM 678 of the 2003-04 session)’

It is easy to think that we lost Bill Hicks too soon and wonder at what might have been if he’d lived to see the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, George W. Bush, 9/11, The Second Gulf War, and the election of Barack Obama. But he did leave us with words to help us look for our own truth in the world. Perhaps Hicks’ most resonating pearls of wisdom came at the end of his 1992 show ‘Revelations’, that was broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK, the words of which sums up the truth of life as he saw it.

“The world is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it’s real because that’s how powerful our minds are. The ride goes up and down, around and around, it has thrills and chills, and it’s very brightly colored, and it’s very loud, and it’s fun for a while. Many people have been on the ride a long time, and they begin to wonder, “Hey, is this real, or is this just a ride?” And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and say, “Hey, don’t worry; don’t be afraid, ever. Because this is just a ride.” And we…kill those people. “Shut him up! I’ve got a lot invested in this ride, shut him up! Look at my furrows of worry, look at my big bank account, and my family. This has to be real.” It’s just a ride. But we always kill the good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok? But it doesn’t matter, because it’s just a ride. And we can change it any time we want. It’s only a choice. No effort, not work, no job, no savings of money. Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one. Here’s what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defence each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.”

R.I.P



http://www.billhicks.com/

This is a transferred post from my previous wordpress blog published on: Apr 15, 2010.



“Well, that's it, that's all we have. I hope it wasn't too disappointing…” - October Rust 1996

Everyone has a band that speaks to them. That one band that you ‘Get’, that has never released an album you didn’t like, that has a song for every mood you’ve ever had or will have. Type O Negative were that band for me. A band to be a little fanatical for.

As I’m writing this I’m on my third rotation of October Rust and struggling to find the right words so expect this to be a little bit of a ramble. Ask any genuine metal fans though, and there will be nods of agreement amongst them that this album was the bands finest moment, and it ensured their place in the annals of music. For me it was the first album I genuinely and whole-heartedly loved. In the 11 years since buying it, whenever I need a pick me up, something cathartic to drink to, or even something to seduce the girls that wander into my lair with - this album has been the soundtrack.




I suppose like a lot of people I was sceptical at the news at first. The band famously made a bad joke about Peter’s death in 2005 on their website. Peter had been in fact detained in a psych ward due to his substance abuse. But it felt different this time. The outpouring was so immediate that it felt all to genuine.


At the time of writing there is no confirmed cause of death. The widely held rumour is of heart failure, possibly linked to Peter’s well documented years of substance abuse.



But grief shouldn’t cloud the genuine brilliance of a career. A lot of bands over the next year or two (probably my own included) will make a public tribute of some kind and that’s fine. But when you start trading off someone else’s name, then we’ll know when it has become a marketing ploy.


The strange thing in all this is I wrote a career overview of Peter/Type O Negative back in January for a University portfolio. In the notes I wrote “Please excuse this if it reads too much like an obituary rather than a profile” (I‘ll post that up in due course). Long-time fans of the band will know what I mean by that. Type O’s musical legacy is one fuelled by Steele’s personal demons. From substance abuse, bad break-ups, and family tragedies they all went into creating a palette to draw from. It’s not like the band were without a sense of humour though. Songs like ‘We Hate Everybody’, ‘Kill All The White People’ and covers such as ‘Angry Inch’ showed that it wasn’t always doom and gloom, even if the humour was a little black. Instead the band , with Peter at the helm created a unique sound that bridged alien influences such as The Beatles, Black Sabbath, and The Sisters of Mercy and moulded them to suit.


But that was Type O Negative and Peter Steele - unique, contradictory, brilliant, and genuine.



RIP Peter Steele

This is a transferred post from my previous wordpress blog published on: Oct 10, 2008.

It has emerged that former Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids bassist and Unpop artist Gidget Gein has died.

Gidget (real name Brad Stewart) co-wrote many of Marilyn Manson's early songs and played on the 1994 debut album Portrait of an American Family. He is also credited as the main influence behind the early visual aesthetic of the band.

After being forced out of the band on the eve of the release of the album, Brad moved to New York and formed his own art-rock band The Dali Gaggers, and released one album; Confessions of a Spooky Kid. After moving back to his home state of Florida, Gein worked as a 'bag boy' for the coroner's office, which he recorded on his official website http://www.gidgetgein.com/.

 

He mended the bridge with former bandmate Marilyn Manson and appeared in the video for (s)AINT along with a sculpture (later bought by the video's director, Asia Argento) entitled In Case of Emergency Break Heart.

He moved to Los Angeles in order to further persue his Art and Fashion, and became a member of the Unpop art movement (alongside such notoraries as Boyd Rice, and Adam Parfrey). He was exhibited at a number of shows in the Hollywood area, and made his art available through his fashion line Gollywood. Gidget's art dealt with alot of themes common to the unpop movement - degenerate art thematically heavy with aspects of American pop culture now swept under the carpet. In 2006 he appeared as Detective Jeffery Mourir in the film Black Dahlia. In 2007 he released three new albums of music and recently began playing live again as part of the band People.






The one constant in Gidget Gein's varied and artistic life was his battle with drug addiction and on the 9th of October 2008, it was a battle he finally lost.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gidget_Gein






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I had communicated with Gidget numerous times via his personal myspace page and had always found him to be a wonderfully polite, smart, witty, and obviously a very talented person. As a fan and admirer I am deeply saddend by this news and my heart goes out to his friends and loved ones.

RIP GG