I first met Longy and the Feral Child in 2013 in Jerusalem bar near Tottenham Court Road. I was helping another band out at the time, Leika: taking photographs and doing a bit of promotion. Longy was on guitar and singing and Feral was playing the trumpet stage left. They started playing Walk With Fire which is a weapon of a song. I looked into his eyes, his soul, searching for the meaning of his songs. That much talent and I was the only one watching? The trumpet player was a seriously skilled and accomplished player having been to Guildhall. I went to Longy’s next two gigs in Camden, Barfly and Bar Solo (which has since changed hands). I was working a dry, corporate job and listening to the lyrics, ‘I need someone to walk with’, I thought maybe I could help this guy fly. I’d been aware of the industry for a couple of decades and it was just in a complete state so I was perfectly happy to work for free. It felt like I owed it to the artists, I’m from a privileged background and due to several reasons having not done it myself, I wanted to promote working class talent. Longy worked his arse off but is your classic artist where they can be a bit all over the place and need a bit of organising/structure. The way he juggles multiple things at once though is impressive to say the least. He got a guy on board who he nicknamed Glassman who had experience within the industry. Glassman was the manager and it was Longy’s idea to make me his publicist which, to be honest, was probably one of the best decisions he ever made without realising. We got our heads together and worked on the #WHOISLONGY campaign.
I feel like Longy & The Gospel Trash are an example of the state of the music industry. They’ve supported The Who who said they’re really good and rated them. Now these are the things to consider; reputation, respect, attitude. The reputation does exist, good and bad. Some people on the music scene would consider Longy a veteran and someone they look up to. The bad also exists but my point is, why are you focusing on the person/band and their traits when you know how good the songs are and the songs speak for themselves? Respect; respect goes both ways. When I was working with the band and Glassman, Glassman and Longy went along to a meeting that they fucked up. The truth is, I get why they fucked it. To them, they’re posh twats trying to make money from them. Again, when contracts/industry or opportunities have arisen, signatures weren’t signed. As a result, The illusionist was born/written. Now this is why their story is so important. How long have the industry been trying to make money from the artists that they’re signing? They are businessmen and the industry wanted respect from Longy but if you don’t have the artists’ best interests at heart and you are just trying to make money from them then you can understand why the artists want to say ‘fuck off’ and walk away. It gets their backs up, it is pure exploitation. A few examples spring to mind but I won’t mention names. Do you play instruments yourselves? Are you fully aware of how much time, blood, sweat and tears has gone into the songs, every song? How much practice and rehearsal time? How much it is costing them to record, remaster and put one song, an EP or album together? If it wasn’t for the investors and people rating the band’s talent then these songs would never have seen the light of day. Now for all the songs that have been released on YouTube, SoundCloud, Apple and Spotify, how much money have the artists in the band and the people behind the scenes made from those songs? Snoop Doggy Dog made it very clear how much money he made from one billion streams on Spotify for his song ‘Young, Wild & Free’, “That s**t wasn’t even $45,000”. According to UNILAD, ‘His revelations have since raised a lot of questions as it’s thought that one billion streams on Spotify should earn an artist as much as $3 million. As per the Spotify website, it depends on the artist’s agreement with their label regarding how much they’re paid.’ Whatever the true amount is, it is clear that the fat cats of Spotify are the big winners and the artists aren’t getting a fair amount for their art. I wonder if you can imagine how many songs haven’t been released due to this and so many other reasons.
On Spotify alone, Longy has released twenty singles/EPs and one album, Songs from the Seaside. Songs from the Seaside really does encapsulate Longy & The Gospel Trash’s sound and skill. The variation in the music portfolio is what is so impressive and that’s what really makes him stand out as an artist/musician compared to others. He’s a complete maestro. If you listen to Live at the 606 Club, one of my favourite EPs of his, compared to iMerica, everybody should listen to Potential, No one goes cold on my watch Vol I, Katherine’s Wheel where the Sex Pistols and Johnny Rotten seems to have been resurrected, You’ve got yourself (Live) which has some of the most incredible songs on it, Black Hills and Sala (that song is sacred and a masterpiece). When it comes to Longy, if you look at his social media, his videography is beautiful and that takes so much time to put together. As much as artists probably enjoy the process and creation of their art, the fact that they are having to do everything themselves and there is hardly any financial reward for it makes me think of no other word than grating. Van Gogh springs to mind.
In 2017, Longy had the idea of doing 500 gigs in one year. An almighty task that took a lot of team work and skill sets in different areas. Cara Williams was the booker and what a booker she was and quoting from her article written on Medium, ‘The rules were as follows: 1. Each show had to take place at a different venue. 2. He had to play three songs minimum per venue. 3. He could perform solo, or with his band, the Gospel Trash 4. Each gig had to be documented.’ Although I was aware of the 500, I was not completely switched on as to the complete lack of promotion or support from the industry or media. It seems that the industry are more interested in personality these days than talent. It also appears like there was a collective decision across the board that he wasn’t written up, the 500 wasn’t documented, talked about on the radio, written about in the papers or interviewed on TV because of who he is as a person? There was no financial reward for this achievement, I valued it at £500,000 for a reason and no award presented to the artist for this record breaking, stamina defying accomplishment. My biggest question is why? This brings me to the title of my article, ‘Troubled Artists’. Artists are artists for a reason. There is a reason why people end up on stage or need the stage which maybe the audience or industry don’t fully understand or appreciate. People end up on stage for different reasons and I would say the reason why Richard Ashcroft is on stage is a very different reason as to why Freddie Mercury was on stage. I think the reason why Richard Ashcroft and Longy are on stage is fairly similar and Longy would definitely say that Richard Ashcroft and The Verve have been highly influential on his music. I think it is important to note the class and as much as I would like to bring that division together, I fully understand the difference between I would like to be an artist or I need to be an artist as this is my only way out. Imagine if it was your only way out, you are that bloody talented, you’ve put decades of your everything into it, compromised more than he would like anyone to know, rated by so many people, artists and industry but hardly making any money from it. What does that do to your soul? This goes back to reputation. In the end, it’s just gonna grate on you and cause a shit tonne of issues and lack of confidence or belief in what you’re doing due to the injustice of it all. People will just end up getting hurt, it’s like a drop of water that turns into a mega tsunami.
This leads me to my final point which is, at what cost? I don’t think anyone but Longy and the band truly understand at what cost but actually there are a ridiculous amount of people who have been affected by this cost or lack of. People behind the scenes, investors, family, friends, fans, a lot of people having put in a lot of hours for free to get Longy & The Gospel Trash the recognition that they deserve. It’s hard to put into words how much time and money Longy has put into the songs and without Feral and his musical skills, the arrangement of the songs and working out who comes in when, the notes, crescendos, frequency, everything, these songs wouldn’t be what they are. It is hard to quantify but due to no contracts being in place, that is why I have valued each member of the band. We all have different tastes, not everyone gets the Longy thing but for some people like me, the music really speaks to us and if it’s healing the artist then it’s healing us too. Someone once said to me who didn’t rate Longy, ‘He’s the Bob Dylan of Essex’. He was being sarcastic and taking the piss but I would like to know what Bob Dylan would make of this story and what he thinks of Longy’s songs/story. The state of the industry and the recognition of the artist has to and must change. Music is alchemy, spiritual, healing medicine and has been around for a lot longer than money but now that money has taken over and we can’t seem to function without it like we used to then the music needs to be valued and the artists need to be put first for their worth, effort, stamina, dedication, talent and skill.
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