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Not sure I understand what you mean by the 'south bank crowd'? Do you mean the people who programme these events in the venues or the people who attend? If you're focusing just on the programme for this year's Meltdown then I tend to agree with your statement. The programme is mostly boring, awful and just lazily curated.
I'm not one of these people that subscribes to the artist must suffer for their art mentality or should stay true a persona they had over 20 years ago. I don't have a problem with artists just having fun or earning a buck. Whether I part with my hard earned cash though to see it is another matter altogether.
Whether any of them are still relevant or not, time will tell. In all honesty, the only one we're probably thinking about here is Cave, whose output these last few years has been as solid as ever. McGowan is past it, Doherty never had it and the Arkestra is untouchable. And anyway, one album of Disney covers out of a back catalgoue numbering over 300 can hardly be considered a crime against art - and Sun Ra probably didn't make any money from it either.
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