how massive is too massive (for D.C.)?

(I originally started this post on 20/12 but have finally gotten around to posting it.)

it's hard to tell with Friendly Fires as to when they are joking. I thought Ed Mac was joking when he said to me in Nottingham that their next video would be filmed in Ibiza. at the time, "Kiss of Life" was another 2 months away from being released and none of us outside the Friendly Fires camp had heard anything about any new single. but then the video came out and my jaw dropped. Ibiza. I'd been told before anyone else. of course, at the time, I had no idea...but never mind that. you couldn't get me off that cloud at the time of the discovery...and even today I still feel special! ::grin::





I don't know if Edd and Ed Mac were joking when they told me during my interview with them in Nottingham that they didn't want to return to D.C. but I worry about it for a v. good reason that I'm sure exists in the back of their minds.

it's a long story, but here's the somewhat shortish version: Dulles Airport (IAD) customs (or possibly Virgin Atlantic?) lost their/Jack's drum kit when they arrived for their first headlining tour of North America in March directly before their gig at the Black Cat, PopWreckoning review here. they ended up using White Lies' drum kit, which at first struck me as v. odd but this was later explained to me rather clearly. I remember this v. well, b/c Ed Mac and I swapped MySpace msgs over this. we talked about D.C., I found out how old he was (just a boy!), he called me "madame" (the first time in my life I'd ever been called that term of respect that so much was I surprised by this that I nearly keeled over from the politeness, heh!), etc. and at the time, I was just starting out as a blogger, so I was bowled over by the attention and this obvs endeared the band to me.

while I'd love to see them again of course, I'm not sure whether it's actually going to be feasible. if they become like other big-name acts that skip over Washington and play somewhere else, I'll probably have to pass, unless I have a really good reason to be at that "somewhere else." they've grown by leaps and bounds and if their second album does well, their star will no doubt skyrocket. I can't quantitate it but I'm sure through my own word of mouth, telling people how good they are live, AND all the posts I've written about them have certainly gotten their name out (along with everyone else's coverage like Niall Doherty's FLY MAGAZINE and such of course).

I'm starting to feel like Cathy from the Cavern circa Liverpool 1962, when the Cavern devotees started to realise the Beatles weren't ever going to come back to play for them at the Cavern again. they'd just become too massive. it's a tough call. you want your friends to have success, but you don't want them to become so massive that they totally forget what they were like when they were starting out, and they forget you too. I'm totally not begrudging them anything, b/c they've worked so hard - to the point of exhaustion/illness a couple different times in Jack's case, poor fella! - but yeah, having seen a band through the beginning, from their hard slog to win over White Lies's fans at the Black Cat (and myself having to convince girls outside the club that yeah, you should stop smoking your fags and get in there to see Friendly Fires before your White Lies come onstage), so yeah, I feel like they're my boys.

silly? quite possibly yes.