Kings Of Leon slam bootleggers

Kings of Leon Oxegen festival 2007. Pic James Quinton

Band say bootlegging stops them playing new material

Aug 15, 2008
14 Comments
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Kings Of Leon have slammed fans who bootleg their gigs and release live show recordings online, saying it holds them back from playing as much new material live as they would like to.

Guitarist Matthew Followill told BBC 6music that ideally his band would like to play more new material sooner than they have, but fears that recordings of unreleased material may be posted online made them hold back.

Kings Of Leon played a show at the London Brixton Academy last night (August 14), playing some songs from their forthcoming new album, 'Only By The Night'.

"It's difficult when you make a new record and you wanna play all the new songs live," he said. "But with technology these days, there'll be someone out there with a recorder and it kinda spoils it for us."

"You don't wanna play too many new songs because otherwise they'll be on YouTube or something," he continued. "So we have to pick and choose. If it was up to us we'd play all the new songs because they're so fun to play."

Keep checking NME.COM for the latest news, pictures, videos and blogs live from both V Festival Chelmsford and V Festival Staffordshire all weekend.

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Comments (14)

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gd1984

Aug 15, 2008

what a daft twit. what difference does it make if someone records it and sticks it up on youtube? he didn't bother giving any reasoning other than "it kinda spoils it for us".what a pompous arse.

croomian

Aug 15, 2008

i love these guys, but after reading this piece, i have to ask myself this - "if they are concerned about playing too many new (unreleased) songs for fears of bootleggers, then why play any gigs at all until the new record is out?"

gazhat

Aug 15, 2008

..slammed fans who bootleg their gigs ???........the new album is bound to be leaked before the release date anyways, so why fucking moan about it ????....be privileged to be in the place you are, most wannbe-artists would kill to have 5 minutes to play the BA and be bootlegged....

richypeacocke

Aug 15, 2008

Bootleggings fine. Anyone who would make the effort to get a bootleg is going to buy the new stuff anyway (from experience). With the internet, bootlegging is more a fan thing than a profit thing anyhow.They should embrace it like other artists do.

whatawasteoftime

Aug 15, 2008

Anything that stops these talentless dullards releasing new material is absolutely fine in my book. I wonder how much we'd have to pirate to get them to stop altogether and split up?

Stumbeleine01

Aug 15, 2008

In other words the songs aren't good enough and if they are out there on youtube they can see how inferior they are. My god get a grip man. Shjaring bootlegs has never hurt anyone.

dlc81

Aug 17, 2008

Yeah it's a bit of a lame excuse, but I can appreciate that they've put their hearts and souls into this album and the previews you can get off youtube etc are great for the fans, but as a band you'd want to release it relatively unheard in hope for the blown away factor.

DinaSaw

Aug 17, 2008

The logic doesn't stack up at all. I don't know anyone who hasn't bought an album because some low quality, amatuer footage went on YouTube of a good song/artist/gig. Unless the new material is rubbish and fans WON'T pay for it if they hear how poor it is in advance...

rubbersoul7

Aug 17, 2008

whatawasteoftime, how apt your name is. Calling KOL "talentless dullards" is hillarious and pathetic at the same time. If you don't like like them then DON'T FUCKING LISTEN TO THEM!! Jesus Christ, the idiocy of some people is unbelievable. KOL are easily one of, if not THE greatest bands on the planet right now. Looking at your profile I see you are a yank so its not actually that surprising that you don't know shit about music. You can't even recognise your country's own best bands. I bet you think The Shins and Fleet Foxes are no good too don't you? And stumbeleine01, I've heard quite a few of the recent bootlegged tracks and they definitely don't have anything to worry about regarding how good the songs are. This band can do no wrong.

jorges

Aug 17, 2008

Yeah...it's definitely a shortsighted thing to say. This is a a good example of "if you got nothing good to say, then don't say anything". To actually hang a guilt trip over somebody that pays to go see you play is a pretty lousy thing to do.

samkol

Aug 17, 2008

by the sound of things he's not "slamming" bootleggers; he'd just rather their songs weren't uploaded onto youtube and watched over and over as soon as they're debued live. i agree he shouldn't be complaining about it; it happens to every band and i don't see how its a problem, but don't shoot him for just saying it spoils it for them a bit. To me it sounds like this article has made something out of nothing.

xeopac420

Aug 18, 2008

You lot are so wrong. What happened to hearing songs for the first time once they're out on the album?!It's the death of live music.

powermonkey

Aug 19, 2008

FFS. "Bootlegging" isn't the same thing as recording live music. Bootlegging is SELLING live music. Taping shows and sharing for nothing, with other fans, that's all free promotion.Maybe KoL don't want people to hear their music? Ridiculous.

sc_87

Sep 1, 2008

Has anybody seen the video to Sex on Fire yet? I just checked it out on myspace and I think it's pretty cool.And yeah bootlegging is bad but... you've got to be a pretty clever person in order to stop it!