The Most Important Concert Ever?
I just saw the movie Control about the sad life-story of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis, and quite liked it. In an interesting act of synchronicity, Andrey Zhukov then sent me a link to the blog zenhabits, where there is an article about how to Punk Rock Your Life. The link between the movie and this is that both refer a sparsely attended concert by the Sex Pistols, which spurred the music careers of e.g. Morrissey (who I never liked) and the Joy Division, not to mention the entirety of rave culture, the indie music scene, and the notion that culture could exist in Manchester. There were about 42 people in attendance at this gig.
Think about it. 42 people, watching an unknown band in a less than pleasant venue. We always talk about supporting innovation and creativity, but could the powers that be even see the potential in something so small and grubby? No, they couldn’t, and you know that. This is the problem with assuming innovation can be managed. Yes, sometimes it can, but often it is this kind of mad, improbably thing that’ll be the most important. And that can’t be handled with innovation strategies and lovely little white-papers.
God Save the Queen.
