Keep on rocking in the green world: eco bands

Forget the sex and drugs, these days it’s all offsets, biodegradable mugs n’ rock ‘n’ roll. Surely a good thing, but why does it seem such a turn off?

My idea of an eco rock star conjures up dreadful images of ice cream eating hippies and smug poseurs like Sting, who ironically was branded an eco-hypocrite for the Police reunion tour.

Last year, the good people at Grist compiled a list of green bands, which went some way to dispelling this myth (Green Day? How perfect!). The list reminded us of the likes of Willie Nelson, surely one of the coolest people in music who lives, breathes and smokes green.

The mythos of rock ‘n’ roll is inherently wasteful. Self destruction almost guaranteed icon status for the likes of Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain. Likewise, some of the defining moments in rock involved wanton abuse of instruments, think of Pete Townsend, Jimmy Hendrix or even Jerry Lee Lewis, who himself is seemingly indestructible.

However, replacing a broken Fender Stratocaster is small fry compared to the larger impacts of bands. Now your favourite act can load up on recycled guitars (despite them being really quite ugly) and power their buses with biodiesel. But that world tour is always going to incur a massive carbon footprint, even if they offset flights with the best companies.

Does the average fan care though? I believe that even the greenest individual is prepared to cut their favourite bands some slack in this area, just as they would with football teams and international athletes. After all, what real fan wants to see a webcast of a live show rather than have the band visit their country?

Radiohead have garnered a great deal of praise for their touring methods, not least from support act Liars, whose tour diary included this nugget:

At the outset we were all given tour water flasks. Plastic anything is, like, contraband. Every bus and truck runs on biofuel. There is no idling, rather some new-fangled way to deliver electricity cleanly. They don’t do air freight either. The list goes on… Everything is supremely managed to reduce the ‘footprint’ and it’s inspiring, in that its ‘real’ and should set the standard for other big productions.

I can’t help but smile at the thought that on a Radiohead tour you’re more likely to get in trouble for carrying plastic rather than whiskey or groupies backstage. But more power to Radiohead and those who can afford to make similar efforts.

So if the tour must go on, what else can bands do to be green?

Famously Radiohead also released their In Rainbows album as a download - surely this is the next step for bands seeking to be eco-friendly? That album did eventually come out on CD and vinyl, and Radiohead’s intention was really about countering illegal file sharing. But it is not uncommon now for bands to make digital-only releases.

For the purist it’s just not the same, but on the format debate I’m down with the kids. CDs are ugly and wasteful. More than one billion jewel cases are produced each year in North America alone, out of materials that are difficult to recycle. Perhaps keep a limited quantity of vinyl for the product fetishists (with a voucher to download the MP3 files) and charge a premium for it. But let’s say goodbye and good riddance to the CD.

Gaia gave rock ‘n’ roll to you.

Thank you to Sarah Murphy in BBC Music for the Radiohead image.