Should we worry about Little Boots?

Posted Thursday, May 20th, 2010

Mere cancellations or something more?

Cancellations? Why they are as rock n roll as amps that go up to 11 and girls that like to service the boys in a band. There are always plenty of reasons to have cancellations but sometimes the reasons for them happening start to add up.

Now, sometimes that adding up leads to 2 + 2 equalling 5 but in the music industry, too many cancellations can sometimes be a bad sign for an artist. As regular readers will know, we’re massive fans of Little Boots on this site, dating back to the Dead Disco days and we keep a close eye on her movements.

Okay, some of the pop forums like to give her a kicking from time to time as the sales haven’t reached the levels of a Florence, an Ellie or thingumy but for us musically, Victoria outstrips them all.

The first real worrying signs came when the American tour at the start of Spring was curtailed early. The Coachella festival ensured that it there was a logical conclusion to the trip but far too many gigs in the middle went missing. As always, this got some of the Americans hot under the collar and angry about our popstar.

Cancellations are never great but heyho, the best and the bold have had problems finishing US tours so its not as though it’s the first time this has happened.

However, the news that her very own Little Boots Camp, scheduled for Leeds this Saturday night has been cancelled is more concerning. More so because there has been no explanation or reasoning behind the cancellation.

We’re not the type of site that demands to know everything an act gets up to, so we’re not clamouring for every detail but when there is silence, it’s only going to cause people to think the worst. Especially when Little Boots is still scheduled to dj at the London leg of the Stag and Dagger festival.

Are poor ticket sales behind the cancellation?

Are the record company getting twitchy about funding any more work by the artist?

Again, a switch to acoustic shows this summer has got people thinking aloud but after touring for a couple of years, it may be that Victoria just fancies a change of pace whilst working on new material. If that’s the case, then all credit to her for delivering something fresh and interesting.

She also appears to be ploughing on with new material, both under her own name and with the Lovers & Gamblers collective. Twitter is a great way for artists to share information with their fans and LB is quite forthcoming with news.

We’ve gleaned that perhaps around 10 new songs have been placed in various states of completion and today has been Devo day for Lovers & Gamblers, remixing one of the band’s tracks.

We’re up for this…Devo are excellent and in 2008, we managed to catch their live show twice….they were great both times.

So……is there anything further in this latest cancellation and should we be worrying about what Little Boots will be up to next?

They hype machine that got rolling behind her has probably caused as much harm as good but we feel it has actually overshadowed much of her good work. Some wrong turns were maybe taken in initially chasing the indie-cool crowd, a more organic path could have been better to follow.

In that regard, a change of label or direction would not be the worst thing for Little Boots. We’re not sure if everyone will agree…and we aren’t too fussed but we’re still hoping for a blockbusting second record that will see her on top and bigger than she was ever tipped for.