The Camden Roundhouse redevelopment is certainly overdue, but are the Electric Proms overdone? Illustration: James Anthony
Take one interesting idea - say, a five-day event in October featuring big rock acts doing one-off gigs that are in some way "different or unique". Stage it in the newly-reopened Camden Roundhouse, a venue steeped in pop history. Call it the Electric Proms - even if "Proms" gives it a mildly snobbish cast - and you're set for a memorable week.
If the BBC, which is behind the Electric Proms, had left it at that, it would have been one of the highlights of London's autumn gig calendar. But give the Corporation a simple idea, and they'll turn it into "a truly multi-media festival".
So "Electric Proms" doesn't just denote the five Roundhouse gigs. It also refers to a load of fringe events held in other venues across Camden: a film programme, a photography competition, workshops, intimate performances and a Peel Night. For those living outside the capital, there will be "full coverage online during and after the festival, and coverage on-the-go with interactive content on your mobile and through the red button on your TV remote".
Way too complicated, way too much. And much too self-consciously 21st century - it may be possible to watch a "workshop" online or via mobile phone, but will anybody with a life want to? The last thing we need after the festival-saturated summer of 2006 is another "festival" consisting of disparate bits of culture heaped under the Proms umbrella.
It smells suspiciously educational, a familiar problem for the BBC's big music projects. Does anybody remember National Music Day a few years back? It was a hugely unwieldy operation aimed at getting the entire country to bang a drum. Literally - one of Music Day's main showpieces was to have been a human chain stretching from Land's End to John O'Groats, with every participant playing a drum.
Gimmicks like that bloat an idea that was already fine as it was. Option paralysis sets in. When all you wanted to do was see The Who play their new opera (actually, can they just do their greatest hits instead, please?) or see Damon Albarn introduce what has been called the unofficial follow-up to Parklife, you don't need all these too-worthy extras vying for your attention.
