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Elbow: File-sharers are going to hell
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 23 September 2010
Elbow frontman Guy Garvey has proclaimed that file-sharers who illegally download music despite having enough disposable income to pay for it are all going to hell. They’ll get their own private room, though. So, it’s not all bad. En suite and that. Though this does all presume that the concept of absolute good and evil exists, there is an afterlife and we are the creations of one supreme being. Maybe that’s not a debate for now.
Garvey told BBC Newsbeat: “Without the live side nobody’s making any money. If you genuinely can’t afford music, then of course you’re going to rip it. If you can afford it and you don’t pay for it then you’re going to hell and you’ve got your own room. Especially when it’s a smaller band. There’s no excuse”.
He added that the label system of financing artists is still very important, and something Elbow are very glad to still have after 20 years together and a much publicised rocky start in the industry: “You come across people [at record labels] who’ve dropped Elbow all the time. If you throw a rock in London you’ll hit one. We’re lucky to have a paymaster in the current climate. It’s not lost on us”.
