Last month, Chris Moyles made comments on his show talking out against local/unsigned artists. Painting them all as “crap” and saying how it isn’t “his job” to play their music. You know, like a radio DJ does. Rightfully it kicked up a bit of a fuss online, and one band has decided to do something about it.
Local band and friends of the blog The Penny Antics have launched a campaign – the “Fuck Off, Moyles” campaign – to highlight how wrong he was with his comments. We had a little chat with Lewis of the band to discuss the purpose of the campaign, and what people can do to rally round and stick a big, collective middle finger up to that bastard.
What can you tell us about this campaign? On 17/02/2023 a certain DJ went on a tirade of abuse against unsigned bands on their show – at one point saying “…most unsigned bands are crap.” (We suspect they would’ve said much worse had there not been measures in place that prevent this person from swearing. Thankfully, when you’re in an unsigned band, swearing isn’t such a concern.
Inspired by the likes of The Kunts and Jon Morter’s 2009 Rage Against the Machine campaigns, we thought we’d have a go at standing up for unsigned artists by releasing and promoting a song titled ‘Fuck off, Moyles’ in the hopes of reaching that particular individual. If we’re being ambitious, our stretch goal after that would be to make it maybe even into the charts themselves. Ultimately, if we can turn something negative into something that’s positive and spread some laughs along the way, we’ll have achieved our primary goal!
Are you looking to get more bands involved in it? Yeah, definitely! The campaign’s running right up until the 31st of March (as that’s the last day of the month in which the charts are announced.) As I’m writing this it’s day 4 of the campaign and, as it stands, we’ve got a few mates in the unsigned scene who are interested in recording their own versions. We’ve been sending out all of the necessary resources to be as helpful as possible for them, but we’re always looking for more acts to help give the finger to that cretin.
Isn’t this all just a bit childish? It’s 100% VERY childish. Wouldn’t have it any other way!
These comments come at a time where BBC staff are looking to staff amidst news of the BBC cutting down on the likes of BBC Introducing across the country. How important is the likes of BBC Introducing to unsigned/upcoming artists? Firstly, it was really sad to read about the redundancies have been happening to the BBC Introducing team. In our personal experience, Introducing gave our tune ‘Manners’ a spin back in 2018 and it’s something that we still use in our promotional materials to this day, so it’s of great importance to us. On top of that, we’ve discovered loads of great artists through that service and to read that it could be suffering really hits home.
What is something people can do more to support unsigned bands? Go to their shows, buy their merch, share their stuff on social media etc. Random acts of kindness go a long way these days! For example, something a lot of people don’t know is that an act as minor as selecting ‘interested’ on an unsigned artists upcoming event on social media can actually help to boost their presence within these websites’ algorithms. Therefore, even if you can’t make it to this one particular event, the post could potentially make its way to somebody that might be able to!
Where can people check out and support the new single? The best place to visit for anything related to the campaign would be our website. Next up in terms of helping push the campaign would probably be to purchase and download the single as many times from wherever you buy your music from (Apple Music, Amazon, Bandcamp etc) followed closely by listening to and sharing our 24/7 streaming playlists on YouTube and Spotify. (Roughly 100 streams count as one download for Spotify premium users and 600 count as a download for those who don’t pay for Spotify premium. If you leave the playlists playing to themselves with the volume down, those streams will add up in no time! Just be sure not to mute them though as muted streams don’t count.) Will leave links for all of those below.
Those who are really keen on spreading the word can also save the image from our website that we’re using for the single and display it as their profile picture on social media!
LINKS:
Where to Find the Single: The Penny Antics – Fuck off, Moyles (Official Music Video)
Apple Music / Bandcamp / Spotify / Amazon / YouTube Music
24/7 Streaming Playlists:
– Please stream 24/7 from now until 31/03/2023.
– Don’t mute playlists. (Have them on low volume or play them through headphones/earphones.)
– Turn crossfades up to max if present. (They are on Spotify.)
– Keep refreshing your playlist(s) to make sure they’re still playing.
Spotify 24/7 Playlist / YouTube Music 24/7 Playlist (will need to refreshed every few hours!)
Don’t forget to share the hashtags: #chrismoyles #chrismoylesshow #chrismoylesofficial #chrismoylesradiox #chrismoylesbreakfastshow Lastly, we just want to thank you personally for helping spread the word by sending these questions over! As we mentioned earlier, random acts of kindness go a long way these days – especially when you’re trying to promote something as explicit as this campaign!