Brian

 

Brian Molko (born December 10, 1972 in Brussels) is vocalist, bassist and guitarist with the band Placebo. Born to an American international banker father and a Scottish born-again Christian mother, the Molko family moved frequently during his childhood, including spells in Scotland, Liberia, Lebanon and Luxembourg. Brian has referred to his mother's home town of Dundee, Scotland as "where I grew up".[1]. In 1990, he attended Goldsmiths College in London, where he studied drama. He describes his childhood as a period when he felt very lonely and alienated. He started to wear make-up at the age of 11. He was an actor in a school drama theater.

 

While Molko was brought up in a strict household that disapproved of artistic expression (his father wanted him to become a banker) he rebelled by affecting an androgynous image, wearing nail polish, lipstick and eyeliner, and listening to punk and glam rock. In his late teens, he came out as bisexual.

 

Molko and Stefan Olsdal both attended The American International School of Luxembourg (now known as The International School of Luxembourg) in Luxembourg, but they were never friends. When Molko moved to London to study drama at Goldsmiths College, where he graduated with a degree, he met Olsdal at South Kensington Tube Station. Molko invited Olsdal to one of his gigs in a club, which he played with Steve Hewitt. Olsdal was impressed with Molko's voice, and together they formed Ashtray Heart; eventually they changed the name to Placebo. Together with drummer Robert Schultzberg (a friend of Olsdal's from Sweden) performed together in 1996. Schultzberg did not fit in the band, however, and was soon replaced with Steve Hewitt, who played on Placebo's demo tracks.

 

Molko's musical influences include Dead Kennedys, Bad Religion, Sonic Youth, PJ Harvey, Nick Drake, Joy Division and Pixies. Molko taught himself to play guitar. At the age of 16 he got a fake Telecaster as a present from his parents. He soon bought a real guitar, with actual strings. He plays other instruments such as bass, harmonica, keyboard, saxophone, drums and turntables. Occasionally, Molko works as a disc jockey at clubs, but he admits he's not very good at it. Nowadays Molko listens to Peaches, Ladytron, At the Drive-In, Jane's Addiction and many more. He likes to experiment with electronic sounds.

 

Along with Hewitt and Olsdal, he had a small role in the 1998 film Velvet Goldmine, for which Placebo performed the T. Rex song "20th Century Boy." He played Malcolm, a singer of the fictional glam rock band, "The Flaming Creatures."

 

In 2005, Molko's long-term partner, Helena Berg, gave birth to his first child, Cody. He said he named the child after his long time friend who died in a car accident, but others claim he is named for the Mogwai album Come On Die Young. Although there has been some rumours about the status of their relationship, Molko has confirmed several times they're in a quite stable status, "more or less married".

 

He has performed as a guest vocalist on tracks by Timo Maas - 'Pictures', 'Like Siamese', 'First Day', Alpinestars - 'Carbon Kid', Trash Palace - 'The Metric System', 'Je t'aime, moi non plus' (duet with Asia Argento), the AC Acoustics - 'Crush', Kristeen Young - 'No Other God', Dream City Film Club - 'Some' and with Jane Birkin - 'Smile'. He also wrote the English lyrics to 'Pink water' version 3, a song by Indochine from the album that is due to be released at the end of 2005.

 

Stefan

 

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Stefan Olsdal (born Stefan Alexander Bo Olsdal) is the bass guitar player of the band Placebo. He was born on 31 March 1974, in Göteborg, Sweden.

 

He moved to Luxembourg when he was young and went to the American International School of Luxembourg along with fellow band member Brian Molko. Stefan began playing music in his school's orchestra in 1987. He completed his high school education in Sweden and moved to London with his parents, where he attended the Musicians Institute. He is openly gay.

 

Stefan met Brian by chance outside South Kensington tube station. The two of them formed Ashtray Heart with a friend of Brian's, Steve Hewitt who couldn't be in the band later when they formed Placebo because he was already signed to another record company. After that, Stefan introduced old schoolmate Robert Schultzberg to join as Placebo's drummer. Brian Molko was openly influenced by Sonic Youth and still uses alternate tunings and SY-like riffs.

 

He has stated that some of his influences have been Depeche Mode and Eurythmics among others.

 

Steve

 

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Steve Hewitt, drummer for the band, Placebo. Steve was born in Cheshire and met Brian Molko through his then-current girlfriend. Even though he appeared on some early demo tapes for Placebo, he wasn't able to join the band at first due to prior commitments to British band Breed. Placebo then earned their record deal, with replacement drummer Robert Schultzberg. After Breed realised they weren't getting off the ground they split, conveniently coinciding with Schultzberg's departure from Placebo and Steve took the invitation to join Placebo permanently.

 

About the band

 

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Placebo was founded when former Luxembourg schoolmates Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal met by accident at South Kensington tube station in 1994 and decided to form a band. While briefly known as Ashtray Heart, the band quickly settled on the name Placebo. The band could not decide on a drummer at first with Steve Hewitt and Robert Schultzberg alternating on the spot. While Hewitt was the preferred choice, he also had other commitments as drummer for London band Breed, leading to Schultzberg being the drummer when the band signed its contract with Caroline Records[citation needed]. The band officially say that "family commitments" was the reason for his absence. As the other band members were having difficulty getting on with Robert Schultzberg, they persuaded Hewitt to rejoin the band in 1996. The band gained some measure of notoriety for the sexualities of its members (Olsdal is gay, Hewitt is straight and Molko is bisexual) and their excessive lifestyles, often chronicled in their songs (the title of the track "Special K" from Black Market Music, for instance, is a reference to the drug ketamine).

 

The singles "Nancy Boy", from Placebo (1996), and "Pure Morning", from "Without You I'm Nothing" (1998), were the peak of their British success, both charting in the top ten. Since "Without You I'm Nothing" the band have fallen out with the British music press, who regularly mock the personality and pretentiousness of its lead member, Brian Molko.[citation needed] However, the band retained a huge popular and critical following in continental Europe. Their style altered little from Placebo through "Black Market Music" (2000), based around fairly straightforward guitar playing, often influenced by the style of 1970s British and American rock, and Molko's high-pitched vocals.

 

The band was asked to play at David Bowie's fiftieth birthday party at Madison Square Garden. The band's glam connections continued in 1998 when they recorded a cover of T. Rex's "20th Century Boy" for the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack. The band also appeared in this film. Placebo played "20th Century Boy" live with David Bowie at the Brit Awards show in 1999.

 

"Sleeping With Ghosts" (2003) was more adventurous, experimenting with dance influences and a less polished guitar sound, though keeping the traditional sound for several songs, including the first single "The Bitter End".

 

In the autumn of 2004, Placebo released the Singles Collection Once More With Feeling (on both CD and as a DVD featuring the bands videos) and played a one-night-only gig at Wembley Arena. Robert Smith of The Cure guested with them on 2 tracks, "Without You I'm Nothing" and a cover of the Cure's "Boys Don't Cry". This performance was to be their last UK gig until 2006. After the Wembley gig, Placebo went on a short "Once More With Feeling" tour in South America. On July 2nd 2005, the group performed "Twenty Years" and "The Bitter End" at the Live 8 concert, at the Palais de Versailles in France. Their 2006 tour of the UK sold out in one weekend, and certainly lived up to expectations, as their single London date at Alexandra Palace had fans queuing up from 8pm, ready for the doors to be opened at 6pm the next day.

 

In September 2005, the band finished the recording phase of their new album, which was released on March 13th (Delayed in U.S. until April 4th). The first single on the new album to be released in the UK on March 6th was titled "Because I Want You". The band will be working with Timo Maas for some songs as Brian has also worked with Timo for his new album, with his vocals featuring on the single "First Day", which was released in May 2005.

 

In November 2005, Molko revealed in an interview that they had been working on 15 new songs since the June of 2004 in the South of France, and had been in the studio recording since August of 2005, working with French Producer Dimitri Tokovoi, who is a friend of the band and has produced the songs "The Ballad of Melody Nelson" and "Running Up That Hill" for the band in the past. They have also been recording tracks at RAK studios in London earlier in 2005. Molko said that the new songs are sounding more guitar based, like "The Bitter End" off their latest album and like many of the songs on their first album. Most of the tracks are based on 2 guitars, drums and a piano. Recording has been finished and they have been mixing since October 29th 2005. Two duets with American singers were also confirmed, who are Alison Mosshart (from the band The Kills) and Michael Stipe (from the band REM).

 

Meds was leaked over the Internet on January 17, 2006. No details are available on how the album was leaked. However, the official release date of Meds was 13.03.06, making the leak almost two months early. The album contains 13 tracks, different from their last three albums which have only contained 12 tracks, but Meds has no 'hidden tracks'. The video for the single 'Because I Want You' was shot on the 24th of January at Koko in Camden, London. The leak was projected by the band's record label to potentially cause a very dangerous loss of profit upon the albums release, although this has proved to be wrong in most countries with the album debuting at #4 in Australia, and #7 in the UK. The second single from 'Meds' is 'Infra-Red', it was released on June 19th 2006 in the UK.

 

A limited edition U.S. Meds was released on April 4th, making the gap between the leak of the album and the official release date even longer. The reason for the delay was what the band called "extended manufacturing needs". The limited edition U.S. "Meds" features a DVD in the NTSC format compatible with U.S. DVD players, plus the CD. The limited edition U.S. "Meds" is not the 'deluxe' version with 40 page booklet. It comes in a standard jewel case and regular CD booklet.

 

The band are set to play at several European Festivals over the summer of 2006, including Rock'n Coke, Oxegen, Isle Of Wight, Nova Rock, Open'er Festival, Reading/Leeds, Sziget, Lowlands and Festival Internacional de Benicàssim. It was recently announced Placebo will also make their first live appearance in Romania on August 13th, as well as returning to Mexico City on October 31st.

That was a great reading! Thanks for this, I didn't know much about them members of the band until now, lol.

I have one question... :) How tall is Brian (in cm)? :unsure:

I'll try and find out for you.

 

I know he's very, very short though. Perhaps even shorter than me. :o :lol:

Thanks Aly :) , try to found out that...

 

I also read that he is very short, that's why I'm asking... ;) But he doesn't look small on stage... ^_^ I think he is shorter than me, also... :lol:

Well, I have a 6ft friend who has met him (yes, I am very jealous :lol:) and she said he came up to just below her shoulders, if that gives you a rough idea. I will look it up for you though.

 

Apparently he also gave her a kiss on the cheek, awwww!

Wow, how lucky is she... :o :lol: :heart:

 

I don't know how much is 6ft. I only know cm... :blush: So how much is 6ft in cm? :unsure:

6ft is about 180 cm. ;)

Ok... So he is maybe 155-160cm... :D

I just found out for you!

 

Brian is 5ft 6", so this about 165cm. This is also about the same height as me.

Yey... :dance: Cool I'm happy that he isn't shorter... :cheer:

 

But I'm around 170cm... :)

Never knew the drummer was English

I have one more question... :) Does Brian have any tatoo? :unsure:

I want to know about the MY SWEET PRINCE story...if there is one

I'll see if I can find anything out for you.

 

Welcome here by the way. :D

I'll see if I can find anything out for you.

 

Welcome here by the way. :D

Thanks :)

I heard,,I can't remember well, that Brian wrote the song being inspired by the suicide of his girlfriend,,,she wrote on the bathroom mirror:My Sweet Prince :cry:

Welcome to Placebo forum Special_Dreams2211! :D

Welcome Special Dreams2211!!! :D

Thanks :)

I heard,,I can't remember well, that Brian wrote the song being inspired by the suicide of his girlfriend,,,she wrote on the bathroom mirror:My Sweet Prince :cry:

 

I've been looking around, and this appears to be true. Poor Brian. :(

This is true? :( Ow, poor Brian. :( :heart: