itch today responded to bits of the fruitbat letter:
“our beliefs about equality and peace had become publicity stunts”
I’m sorry to hear that’s how you feel but my beliefs have remained exactly the same. To ask people to believe that me and Jamie prepare weeks in advance for protests, then lug our soundsystem around, then play 4 hour sets no matter the weather, then drag it back and take it apart again for publicity is ridiculous. What publicity do we get from protests? Believe me, there are MUCH easier ways of gaining publicity. If grassroots resistance politics gains so much publicity and cash, why aren't there any other bands doing it? What pulicity did I get from speaking at the LMHR conference? What publicity did I get from writing the anti war poem and reciting it at the StWC march? Do you have any idea how long it takes to write a poem like that? An awful lot of effort for something I supposedly don’t believe in don't you think? Why would we back unpopular campaigns such as smash EDO and Anti fascist action if all we wanted were people on side? As for the political work me and Jamie did before we were in the band, was that all part of the plan too? What exactly do we get out of asking sophie lancaster’s mother to speak at our gigs? We get nothing from it, we do it because we believe in it. Since you left the band, your political work has amounted to zero, we’ve played the main LMHR London event, as well as help them curate their festival on the rock side of things, as well as try and help them with their days of action in barking as well as trying to get other bands involved in their campaign, we’ve also carried their merch with us all tour and invited speakers to join us. We’ve sold s.o.p.h.i.e. wristbands as well as asking them to speak at our gigs. We do this good work because we believe in it, if you want to slag us off, go ahead, but to try to take away from the good work we’ve done with these decent campaigns is beyond petty.
“If I wasn’t “working” for them for just a minute, I was a slacker”
why don't you tell everyone exactly what a day’s work involved for you fruitbag? It involved doing friend requests on myspace, that’s IT. Anyone who’s in a full time band knows just how much work goes on behind the scenes, the touring, writing and recording are only about 40% of it, EVERYTHING else was left to me and jamie to do, over those 5 years, you never did anything else. Yes, we wanted you to work harder, we are driven individuals who want to take this as far as possible, did it get frustrating when you’d be doing fuck all and we’d be working our arses off? Well yes, yes it did. Go ahead, enlighten us on what your terribly hard day’s work would involve.
“I’ll admit, I’m not the brightest guy around and I’m not particularly good at writing music”
so why should we use the music you write? Every single rehearsal I’d ask you if you had any new riffs, 9 times out of ten you’d shake your head. you’d write 3 chords every 4 months. To expect the band to use everything you write is an egomaniac’s joke. I invited you round to my house to write with me, but you never came once. It didn’t change after save the world…, it stayed the same, check the credits on under the fog and save the world… why don't you have any? Because you were lazy when it came to writing. You have a writing credit on headbutt, the one song we’ve released since save the world… pretty much proves you’re chatting crap right there.
“threats and abusive phone calls from Itch”
what threats? Like I’m gonna kick your arse? I’m a little geezer, you’re about 5 times my size for god’s sake. And abusive phonecalls? What would I do, heavy breath and hang up?
“John, Jim, Al and I, all left for pretty much the same reasons”
no, the other guys ‘left’ because we’d (we being me, jamie AND you) had started recording with other musicians. Al was clearly bored of playing this type of music, and John just didn't care about playing the bass. We bought him a bass for his wedding and he just left it in the studio to gather dust, he never practised it, I bought him a notebook to finish some lyrics to a song he’d been writing for months, he never finished the song. We got bored of playing with people who weren’t passionate about the music. We asked them, if all went tits up and we couldn't pay you anymore, would you still do it? No is what they said. So we decided why be loyal to people who are only in it for the money? And we got other musicians who were passionate about the music and about playing, that’s why they ‘left’.
It's a shame you won't reply to my emails, or meet up for a chat about this over a few pints. But there you go, that’s your choice. Other people reading this are going to believe whatever they want to believe, that’s up to them, but you know deep down that what you’ve written is a load of old bollocks. We've created something wonderful and with meaning by doing this band, don't try and smear all the good work done for your own gain
“our beliefs about equality and peace had become publicity stunts”
I’m sorry to hear that’s how you feel but my beliefs have remained exactly the same. To ask people to believe that me and Jamie prepare weeks in advance for protests, then lug our soundsystem around, then play 4 hour sets no matter the weather, then drag it back and take it apart again for publicity is ridiculous. What publicity do we get from protests? Believe me, there are MUCH easier ways of gaining publicity. If grassroots resistance politics gains so much publicity and cash, why aren't there any other bands doing it? What pulicity did I get from speaking at the LMHR conference? What publicity did I get from writing the anti war poem and reciting it at the StWC march? Do you have any idea how long it takes to write a poem like that? An awful lot of effort for something I supposedly don’t believe in don't you think? Why would we back unpopular campaigns such as smash EDO and Anti fascist action if all we wanted were people on side? As for the political work me and Jamie did before we were in the band, was that all part of the plan too? What exactly do we get out of asking sophie lancaster’s mother to speak at our gigs? We get nothing from it, we do it because we believe in it. Since you left the band, your political work has amounted to zero, we’ve played the main LMHR London event, as well as help them curate their festival on the rock side of things, as well as try and help them with their days of action in barking as well as trying to get other bands involved in their campaign, we’ve also carried their merch with us all tour and invited speakers to join us. We’ve sold s.o.p.h.i.e. wristbands as well as asking them to speak at our gigs. We do this good work because we believe in it, if you want to slag us off, go ahead, but to try to take away from the good work we’ve done with these decent campaigns is beyond petty.
“If I wasn’t “working” for them for just a minute, I was a slacker”
why don't you tell everyone exactly what a day’s work involved for you fruitbag? It involved doing friend requests on myspace, that’s IT. Anyone who’s in a full time band knows just how much work goes on behind the scenes, the touring, writing and recording are only about 40% of it, EVERYTHING else was left to me and jamie to do, over those 5 years, you never did anything else. Yes, we wanted you to work harder, we are driven individuals who want to take this as far as possible, did it get frustrating when you’d be doing fuck all and we’d be working our arses off? Well yes, yes it did. Go ahead, enlighten us on what your terribly hard day’s work would involve.
“I’ll admit, I’m not the brightest guy around and I’m not particularly good at writing music”
so why should we use the music you write? Every single rehearsal I’d ask you if you had any new riffs, 9 times out of ten you’d shake your head. you’d write 3 chords every 4 months. To expect the band to use everything you write is an egomaniac’s joke. I invited you round to my house to write with me, but you never came once. It didn’t change after save the world…, it stayed the same, check the credits on under the fog and save the world… why don't you have any? Because you were lazy when it came to writing. You have a writing credit on headbutt, the one song we’ve released since save the world… pretty much proves you’re chatting crap right there.
“threats and abusive phone calls from Itch”
what threats? Like I’m gonna kick your arse? I’m a little geezer, you’re about 5 times my size for god’s sake. And abusive phonecalls? What would I do, heavy breath and hang up?
“John, Jim, Al and I, all left for pretty much the same reasons”
no, the other guys ‘left’ because we’d (we being me, jamie AND you) had started recording with other musicians. Al was clearly bored of playing this type of music, and John just didn't care about playing the bass. We bought him a bass for his wedding and he just left it in the studio to gather dust, he never practised it, I bought him a notebook to finish some lyrics to a song he’d been writing for months, he never finished the song. We got bored of playing with people who weren’t passionate about the music. We asked them, if all went tits up and we couldn't pay you anymore, would you still do it? No is what they said. So we decided why be loyal to people who are only in it for the money? And we got other musicians who were passionate about the music and about playing, that’s why they ‘left’.
It's a shame you won't reply to my emails, or meet up for a chat about this over a few pints. But there you go, that’s your choice. Other people reading this are going to believe whatever they want to believe, that’s up to them, but you know deep down that what you’ve written is a load of old bollocks. We've created something wonderful and with meaning by doing this band, don't try and smear all the good work done for your own gain