The BBC has published its ’strategy review’, “to decide what the future direction of the corporation ought to be”. The review has recommended that, amongst other offerings, BBC 6 Music be closed.

You can have your say on the proposals online, and it’s important that if you have come to rely on 6 Music as I have that you make sure you’re heard. From what is being said in the media, there’s a good chance that public feeling could reverse this recommendation. You should also join the Save BBC 6 Music group on Facebook, and spread the word via Twitter using the #saveBBC6Music tag.

My consumption of BBC output does not include sport, nor famous people congratulating each other on being wonderful in the guise of an interview. I do not care for those same celebrities ‘competing’ in mindless entertainment shows, nor for most drama – especially the drivel that is soap opera.

If BBC 6 Music closes I will almost wholly consume only news from the BBC – Today, Newsnight and Question Time. Although I believe this to be some of the best of the BBC’s work, and far superior to most commercial news programming, does it represent good value for my licence fee?

I understand and champion the fact that we pay into a central pot so that our money can collectively go further, but I do feel that too much of it is being spent on chasing ratings. BBC 6 Music, in contrast, provides a space in which people can teach each other about new genres and artists – a space that is offered by no other (non-Internet) radio station. This goes as much for listeners as it does presenters, who are encouraged to share the music they love.

Perhaps the most galling aspect of the consultation, therefore, is the fact that 6 Music is said by the BBC to play ‘pop music’. Taking this as a given, the review concludes that as Radio 1 and Radio 2 already play pop music there is no need for 6 Music.

This, however, is not my experience of the station, nor that of myriad people I have spoken to. I’m sure the same goes for the 100,000+ people who have joined the group on Facebook. Does the BBC Trust simply not understand what 6 Music is?

There is literally no other music station that I listen to because they all play – mainly or wholly – playlists dictated by advertisers and large record companies, rather than what presenters and producers think we haven’t heard before and might enjoy – or at least appreciate. BBC 6 Music is as close as we come to having something like Kooba Radio on a national scale, championing unsigned and unknown acts.

For this reason, I affectionately call the station ‘John Peel Radio’, and I think he would be appalled that BBC 6 Music, out of everything the BBC provides, is facing the axe. If BBC3 or Radio 1 were to go, people could access almost exactly identical programming elsewhere. Not so with BBC 6 Music; it does what the BBC should do – serve its listeners and funders, not the market.

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The BBC has published its ’strategy review’, “to decide what the future direction of the corporation ought to be”. The review has recommended that, amongst other offerings, BBC 6 Music be closed.

You can have your say on the proposals online. Here’s what I said about the only music radio station I can listen to.

I do not consume sport, most entertainment (eg famous people interviewing each other or ‘competing’ mindlessly) or most drama (eg soap operas) produced by the BBC. If BBC 6 Music closes I will almost wholly consume only news from the BBC – Today, Newsnight and Question Time. Is this good value for my licence fee? I understand that we pay into a central pot so our money goes further, but too much of it is being spent on chasing ratings. BBC 6 Music provides a space in which people can teach each other about new genres and artists – a space that is offered by no other radio station. There is literally no other music station that I listen to, because they mainly or wholly play what advertisers think listeners want to hear, rather than what presenters and producers think we haven’t heard before and might like to. I affectionately call the station ‘John Peel Radio’, and I think he would be appalled that BBC 6 Music, out of everything the BBC provides, is facing the axe. If BBC3 or Radio 1 were to go, people could access almost exactly identical programming elsewhere. Not so with BBC 6 Music; it does what the BBC should do – serve its listeners and funders, not the market.

Do I need to say more about the BRIT Awards 2010 other than to remind you that Robbie “I’m rich beyond my wildest dreams” Williams received the ‘Outstanding contribution to music’ award? I don’t deny that he’s been very successful, or that many people have enjoyed what he’s created, but does he really deserve to stand alongside The Pet Shop Boys, Paul McCartney, Paul Weller, Tom Jones, David Bowie, Eurythmics, The Beatles and The Who? Then again, Oasis, Sting and U2 have all received it as well.

If the award was for an outstanding contribution to the music industry then I wouldn’t be so indignant. Williams’ rise to solo fame on the shoulders of a manufactured pop group, the money he was able to demand for his services, and his ability to alter his persona and performance to ensure that he was as successful at the Glastonbury Festival as he was on Top of the Pops, demonstrated what was possible for the industry in the years leading up to the end of the 20th Century. But I fail to see in what way he has contributed to music.

And this is my criticism of the entire event; the BRIT Awards are not a celebration of music, they are a celebration of the industry. Just as the myriad polls that declared The Strokes’ ‘Is This It’ the best album of the 2000s, they conflate the ability to sell albums and fill column inches with artistic achievement. All of the winners have achieved stardom, but not one has done anything substantial for music:

• Dizzee Rascal: rap/mutilated hip-hop
• Lily Allen: girly pop
• JLS: talent show pop
• Kasabian: indie rock (apparently)
• Florence & the Machine: quirky girl pop
• Spice Girls: bad pop
• Jay-Z: just another rapper
• Lady GaGa: mainstream dance
• Oasis: Beatles rip off
• Elli Goulding: no idea, sorry

I want to reiterate that I’m not necessarily saying I think these ‘artists’ make bad music (although for the most part I do), simply that they have contributed little or nothing original to music as an art form.

Perhaps I’m making a mistake in thinking that these awards are meant to be about music itself (although in the case of the outstanding contribution award there can be no doubt). The BRIT Award website simply doesn’t say whether the winners received awards because they were the best singer or musician, or because they sold the most albums or singles.

However, the Awards are arranged by the British Phonographic Industry, an organisation which describes itself as “the representative voice of the UK recorded music business”. That is, the BPI promotes the industry on behalf of its membership, which includes the four major music companies: Warner Music Group, EMI, Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group. As it boasts on its website, “BPI members account for approximately 90% of all recorded music sold in the UK”.

Let’s take another look at the winners and see if an answer begins to suggest itself:

• Dizzee Rascal: independent labels, but distributors include Universal and Sony
• Lily Allen: London Records (Warner Music) then Regal Recordings (Parlophone – EMI)
• JLS: Epic Records (Sony)
• Kasabian: RCA (Sony) and Columbia (Sony)
• Florence & the Machine: Island Records (Universal)
• Spice Girls: Virgin (Thorn EMI)
• Jay-Z: Roc-A-Fella (Universal), Priority (EMI), Def Jam (Universal)
• Lady GaGa: Interscope (Universal)
• Oasis: independents

Before I began researching this I really didn’t know who these acts were signed to – honest. I was confident I’d find information to back up my point though because it’s just too obvious that these events are nothing more than promotion for the big labels, a big pat on the back to the performers for bringing in the cash.

Possibly the most sickening element of the spectacle is the acts deluding themselves that they’re being rewarded for their artistic talent, but I suppose it’s not surprising when you consider the extent of their self belief; Lady “I’m so crazy” GaGa acts as if Madonna never simulated masturbation or the shagging of a black Jesus some 20 years ago.

Music shouldn’t be an industry in this sense, and it doesn’t need to be either. Listen to the latest edition of the Jonny & Alex Show and you’ll hear several great bands that haven’t needed a major label to produce wonderful music.

The success of Kooba Radio and similar efforts also proves we can distribute the unsigned music we love. The sad fact is, however, that most of the bands we showcase probably do aspire to be signed to one of those major labels.

PS If you’re still not convinced, consider the fact that Coldplay, Dido, and Duffy were amongst the nominations for the best album of the past thirty years.

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How does one begin to write a book? Grammatically correctly, obviously. I think there’s a story inside of me, or maybe I’m that story. Looking out from this mass of… stuff, I want to try and let you know me, but I’m not sure how. I mean, what me am I talking about? I could describe everything I remember, childhood memories and all that, but it’s not strictly relevant to that which I refer to when I say ‘me’. I don’t deny that any memory I have is a part of me, in some particular way that is rarely obvious, but ‘me’, I think, refers to now, the present. At an extreme it refers to right now, the moment at which I attempt to describe what I am attempting to describe. Tomorrow, or yesterday, I may feel completely different, sorry – be completely different. My me varies constantly, growing, in a shrinking kind of way, into the moment. So if this all comes across as a little disjointed at times, it’s because it’s a reflection, or an attempt at a reflection at least, of something that is constantly inconstant, as far as I can tell. I can do no more than look out, see the pen moving in my hand, or my hand moving with the pen, or the paper moving beneath my pen, and my hand, and judge whether or not the resultant marks, indentations, are what I truly wish them to be. But I don’t think I’m totally sure what I want them to be, or even if I want them to be anything in particular at all, until I, or me, perceive them in the way you are perceiving them right now, if indeed you are. Are the words still there when the book’s closed? Or are they there in a different way, only becoming what I’m writing now when you see them? Will they ever be what I’m actually writing to anyone other than me? And I can’t even be sure that they’ll be what I’m writing to the me in the future, beyond this moment. I think what I’m trying to say is, I’m going to tell you a story (I could say ‘try to tell you a story’, but that would imply I have a story in mind; I am going to tell you a story, I just don’t know what it will be at the moment), and I’d like you to keep up with me in the same way I am, by allowing me a little room, by taking each moment as a moment. In what other way can you read a book, really? It might be different if you were psychic or something, could tell what was coming next, but where would be the fun in that? Once I’ve finished writing whatever it is I’m going to write, I’ll be in the unique position of knowing what’s coming next, for myself at least. What comes next for you is up to you, or kind of dependent on you, waiting to be interpreted by you. But I’ll know the order of the words. I believe. And then the fun will be over for me. I’ll be waiting for the next moment, and the fun of that moment, if there is any.

Breton are Fox & Firkin regulars and favourites, putting on an amazing performance at FoxFest 2009 (I’m sure we’ll be seeing them in 2010 as well). Roman’s nipples added to the excitement (maybe we’ll see them again too).

If you don’t know the band, I thoroughly recommend you watch VIRAL, a two minute film that has been made with such clarity of purpose that it I believe it succeeds in the considerable feat of representing what Breton is.

On film, as in their music, they have the confidence to shun the habit of specificity. Carl 2bob says they’ll never sound the same twice, and I think I’m inclined to agree. But I’m not sure that there isn’t something underlying all of what they do, that could be used to pull it together.

VIRAL exemplifies the source of my confusion. It pieces together finely cut slivers of Breton’s varied catalogue and drapes them around images of dedication to their cause and of the self belief that has to be what underpins the artist. On the one hand VIRAL communicates the diversity of the music they create, but on the other it shares with us just one idea: Breton.

It’s also like an episode of Art Attack that might have been shown on Channel 4 in the nineties at two o’clock in the morning and aimed at students.

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