on Youtube, someone called him a 'one trick pony'. Yeldham wrote a pretty angry response, and rightly so.

from Feeder had to learn to deal with criticism before could be comfortable enough to release 'Forget the senses that are stimulated by music', or whatever their 5th was called.

Similar story for Kelly thingmabob from Stereophonics I believe.

The pattern I see are two good bands that learn to deal with criticism, and start upping the levels of bilge they produce, so lets hope most of them don't heed them.

that some bands had been very upset that negative comments about them on the DiS boards hadn't been deleted, and so had been uncooperative in terms of giving interviews and stuff

To these people i say this: lol @ your pathetic weeping vagina attitude to criticism and lol @ your probably shit music. LOLL

but more in terms of successful bands that lack critical credibility (i.e. acts like Kooks, Kate Nash or Scouting for Girls who'll sell fuckloads of records but probably get bad reviews on the whole) and whether they actually care about the bad reviews or think "well, fuck it, shitloads of peole have bought it".

Anyway in answer to your question I think the answer is probably "yes to an extent".

I mean most people are probably intelligent and sensible enough to know they should't take it too seriously but at the same time I suspect there's very few people who don't get at least a little hurt by someone saying unpleasant things about them, especially if they aren't fair.

I mean if you think about it it's never nice to be slagged off over your job whatever it is and probably even less so when it's something you've presumably invested your heart and soul into in the hope people'll like it. And I imagine when it gets personal it can be pretty unpleasant to read.

So, whilst I'm sure there's very few people who'd change what they do just 'cos a few people don't like it, I'm sure it hurts them a little when they read it.

including a bad album review on drowned in sound.

at first it is something you care about, you are really happy when you get a good review and you feel really bad after a bad one.

but after a while it just starts to wash over you and you don't even care about what people write.

I'm sure it is even more like this with bands who are really successful.

my experience from being around a couple of biggish bands is that they are surrounded by arse kissers the whole time telling them they are fantastic, so i'm sure a few negative comments mean nothing to them.

you click on their name and if their list of music is bands you think are rubbish you ignore it and if its bands you love you spend the day convinced yr life = epic fail. until you get to yr sportscar beach, obv.

I suspect never mind how much you go on about "we'd rather be hated than get no reaction", you'd have to be made of pretty stern stuff not to feel a certain way when the thing you've wanted to do all along and are now being paid to do to the best of your aptitude is branded shit, especially if it then delves into the personal. (It's probably a mixture of hearsay and apocrypha, but I heard a story once about a magazine who really ripped into a band in a live review, beyond their songs and into their perceived personalities and motives. One of the band worked for the magazine at the time, although not for too much longer.)