Separating the art from the artist.

I can picture the scene now, the time is pretty much any time between September 2001 until July 2002. The place is the kitchen in flat H, in Liddle Hall, Bute Street, Luton. There would be the usual crowd, Kev, Scott, Big Dave and Anna the Greek telling Scott to fuck off because he'd be doing something to annoy her. Abs would be hanging around trying to get Scott to notice her. Helen, Nathan, Jim, Kay, and a variety of other colourful characters would make guest appearances in our little world. We'd no doubt have Tony Hawkes 2 or This Is Football on the 12" portable TV and the little portable hi-fi would be the battleground for what music was being played. 

Now you may be wondering why I'm trying to paint such a vivid picture, well with the news that Ian Watkins has got what was coming to him in prison and has been sent to hell it made me think of those days. The Lost Prophets were a huge part of that time frame for me. I was beginning to become an adult, living on my own for the first time. I had gone to Luton knowing no one and was finding out who I was as a person. Everything in my life in this period was a little bit of a flux for a period but in that flat I'd found something that was the beginning of a foundation for everything I was to become.  They carried on being part my journey, with the release of further albums and many of friends from the time were big fans of theres.

I don't want to get into what he did, the world knows what an evil monster he is and the acts that he did were just wrong. I made the mistake of reading the judges remarks on his trial and I nearly threw up at parts of it, it's the stuff of nightmares, how he could do what he did is beyond my comprehension and although I've never been a huge supporter of harsh criminal punishments I think now that he's gone hopefully his victims can rest a little easier.

Immediately after it became public knowledge what he had done I went around deleting the entire back catalogue of songs that I had of there's. I got rid of the CD's and I thought I'd erased them from my life, until a few years later when due to me leaving my iPod at work I had to use an older one when I working out in the garden (yes it did used to happen occasionally), it was on random play and although it took a few seconds for it to kick into my head what I was listening to but it was the opening chords of Rooftops. I hadn't used this device in a long time but right away I felt dirty, as though I was doing something wrong as though I was rewarding Watkins and his choices in life. I immediately switched it off and I deleted the song that very same day.

It's not just the Lost Prophets that have me in a moral quandary. Everyone knows that I'm a huge wrestling fan and for a time I was a huge Chris Benoit mark. His triumph at Wrestlemania 20 and the celebrations afterwards with another great in Eddie Guerrero was one of the moments that imprinted itself on me. He'd struggled for years often being overlooked for not being the muscle bound giant that some in the business preferred to push. He had an intensity about him that I loved, he came back from near career ending injuries and his matches against Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho are among some of the best ever.  He had a style all of his own, intense and technical and when he pulled off that diving headbutt off the turnbuckle it was a moment of pure drama. I remember watching him win the Royal Rumble in 2004 with a group of fellow wrestling enthusiasts and all of us agreeing he was one of the best in the world and deserved to be in the main event. 

For those that don't know three after that triumph in 2007 he no showed an event and was later found dead at his home in a murder / suicide. He had taken the lives of his wife and son and then killed himself. I remember I was sat at home watching the pay per view thinking it was very strange that he hadn't turned up as he was in a title match and this sort of thing never happened. Then news broke out that he had died and fans world wide thought it was another Eddie type situation where death had been caused by natural causes. That weeks episode of Raw was dedicated to this memory with his fellow wrestling giving heartfelt, this was before all the facts had been found out. As soon as the true facts emerged and the horrifying events were announced any mention of him was taken off the air. His history from the company erased over night. Over time this has been relaxed ever so slightly with his matches being shown on pay per view replays from the past although his name is still not uttered by commentary or anyone under the WWE umbrella. 

Have I watched Benoit matches since it all happened. Yes I have, so maybe I'm a little bit of a hypocrite when it comes to things with the Prophets as both Watkins and Benoit did horrendous things so how can I still watch those matches and not listen to his music? I think it's partially down to the fact that it came out that Benoit had suffered from CTE and depression caused by concussions so there might be a slight mitigation to his heinous crimes. I would never come out and say I'm a Benoit fan, I can appreciate what he did in the ring but it's always with a caveat that I don't condone what he did. I also think it partly down to the fact I took the time to read the judges report and it repulsed me to the core. How anyone could do that to an infant is beyond me.

There are other people that I've had to make decisions over Kevin Spacey being a prime example, the oscar winning actor who appears in one of my favourite films of all time, The Usual Suspects, had his problems with being accused of sexual misconduct but was found not guilty so that helped me a little but the accusations still made me consider whether or not it was right to enjoy his work.

That is the crux of this post, can you separate the artist from the art? By all accounts Picasso was an absolute dick to pretty much everyone in his life but his work as an artist is revered by all. Roald Dahl one of the most beloved children's authors this country has ever produced was nick named 'Roald the Rotten' and had anti sematic views in his works but it beloved by many. There are arguments about Michael Jackson and what he did  before his passing, but he is treated like music royalty. These are all examples of people's work being separated from there work and still being enjoyed to this day.

The above examples show it can be done, but for my two main ones I think they are of different sides of the spectrum. Watkins and his work will never be allowed into the main stream again. It's never going to happen full stop. Benoit has slowly inched his way back into the wrestling community with some of his peers talking about him and he influenced them and the matches they had together but I think that's as far as it will go with him. He will never be applauded as of the greatest workers of his industry like he was on course to be. I don't want it to sound as though I'm exonerating him, what he did was evil but it hasn't effected me as much as Watkins. It's put a little tainted edge to my memories of sitting in that kitchen playing Tony Hawkes with my friends and that's something I could never forget.