Band implore to 'do something' rather than complaining'

LONGY has written an open letter to Noel Gallagher, attacking his stance against the state of working class rock music. Read it in full below - and check out the premiere of his 'Positively Unemployed' video.

Last year, the former Oasis turned solo star went on record as saying "Music is very middle class."

He continued: "My bass player summed it up, we’re constantly saying, 'Where is the next band coming from?' and he rightly says, 'Never mind the band, where are the people?' When I first started I wanted to get in the charts and wreck it, like stamp Phil Collins out and Wet Wet Wet, they've got to go, and all that '80s gear, we don't need that anymore. I don't see anything from the working class, I just don’t see it."

Sleaford Mods then went on to slam Gallagher's approach - arguing that he 'says nothing' about being working class in his music and lost his roots long ago.

Now, to launch the Gigwise premiere of the video for his scathing attack on Cameron's Britain 'Positively Unemployed', LONGY has written this open letter to Gallagher, calling him to take more action for other working class bands to break through the 'glass ceiling':

"Dear Noel Gallagher,

"You’ve shed some much-needed light of late on the fact that working-class British guitar music is under-represented at a commercial level, fair play, but saying it doesn’t exist just undermines the efforts of bands who are actually out here trying to break through. If I was in your position and I was pissed off about the lack of working-class talent getting through, I’d fucking do something about it instead of complaining about the fact that other people aren’t.

"I’d do my homework. Because at the moment it just looks quite a lot like a half-arsed attempt at giving a fuck in return for a few column inches promoting your new album. Why not point to the root cause? You should have read the i-D article about music becoming a hobby for the upper classes. It raised an interesting argument but only addressed one of two burning issues affecting hard-up musicians (that working for free is impossible to sustain unless you’ve got access to a healthy wodge of Daddy’s payola).

"It skipped-over the fact that most of the A&R’s, festival organisers, journalists and PRs are middle-class, which means in order for a working-class band to gain any traction, their music has to be screened by someone who has no frame of reference to anything they’re talking about. They may well enjoy jaunty tales of Stella multipacks and council estate woe, but the fact is they’d much rather work with that new dream-pop band whose bassist used to go to The Oratory or wherever.

"As someone who broke through the glass ceiling (at a time when it was still possible), wouldn’t it now be an idea to highlight the burgeoning talent pool of young, hungry musicians that never get any exposure? Ain’t it time you stepped up and created the platform for bands that the current framework has quite clearly robbed them of?

"Yours Sincerely,

"LONGY"

Watch the video for 'Positively Unemployed' by LONGY below

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