Some News Items Are More Factual Than Others

By Rob Last edited 232 months ago
Some News Items Are More Factual Than Others
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[As per our fledgling status, Londonist is still recruiting writers to its grey and slightly drizzly bosom. Below you'll find the first post from our lastest signing: music correspondent Ken Yau. Ken's going to be writing on all the guitar driven gossip for us and will be posting regular bulletins from the front line of the capital's gig scene.]

London, for all its resources, does not punch its weight in the music scene, with Manchester, Liverpool and current favourites Glasgow claiming bragging rights over our beloved capital. So Londonist finds itself saddened when news that one of our own, The Libertines, could be splitting up.

The story deserves closer scrutiny, however...

An eye-catching headline on the main NME.com page announces: Exclusive - The Libertines plan split within weeks. This links to a story headlined No More Time For Heroes? Ah, the journalistic get-out clause - the question mark. The story itself then seems to be based on a conversation Carl Barat had with NME.com last week. So why the story now?

The cynical amongst us might imagine a bored journalist concocting a story in a slow news week; the even more cynical might even point to the apparent legislation that dictates at least one Libertines story per week must appear in the music press. Rumours of The Libertines' implosion have been rife since the beginning of time and the Londonist resolves from now on to write about The Libertines only when there is actual news - not speculation - to report.

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On to news of a less-celebrated London band (but no less favourites of Londonist), Athlete have announced tour dates. The tour is a small-scale album-previewing tour and Athlete play the Electric Ballroom on 17th January 2005.

Londonist started this post with laments on Manchester's superiority (complex) over London and speculation masquerading as journalism, but can't resist pointing you in the direction of a story on XFM.co.uk which reports on claims that "a musical based on around`the music of The Smiths and Morrissey is currently being written and will be staged at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith,". The musical is apparently to be named after The Smiths track Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others. The Londonist can't think of any non-smutty comments about this, so in the interests of being a family-friendly site, elects to stop here.

Last Updated 10 November 2004