Blogs I Follow

Back in March I attended "Making The Tranzition – Music Industry Seminar" at South Birmingham College in Digbeth. I'd heard about it from a Music Lecturer and I think the guy who organised it may have been at my uni, but I'm not certian.

The was a number of speakers, all very interesting. The stand out speakers to me included Claire Edwards, the organiser of Gigbeth, Robin Valk a former BRMB presnter who runs a podcast called radio to go, and Andrew Dubber.

I learnt quite a lot from the day, and it changed my outlook on the industry. The most useful thing I've got from it, however, was to find out how useful blogs are. Andrew Dubber himself runs a couple of blogs, the most useful being New Music Strategies On this blog Andrew disscuss the ever changing state of play in the "music industry"

Something very very interesting has been happening over there for a couple of days as a number of commentators have locked horns over THE question of the moment for those involved in music (in there own heads anyhow!) should they be happy to have people finding and downloading thier music for free, or should they be angry that the product they have worked so hard on isn't making them any money?

I'll talk more about some of the other blogs I follow, but for now have a look at this one, Created In Birmingham www.createdinbirmingham.com

6 Days To The Terrible Tour

Next Thursday, October 30th I'm performing with Raving Loonies Stole My Heart at the Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton.

Raving Loonies Stole My Heart is a comedy group me and six others formed in uni. We've performed at the Arena Theatre Twice, The Edinburgh Fringe and on BBC3 (we thought it was going to be a talent show, but it wasn't really. Another post, another day!)

This show will be the first one since we graduated. Its called The Terrifying Tour of Terrible Terror, and features seven ghouls taking the audience through a town, meeting all manner of devilish characters. The Tickets cost £5, and we'll also be selling a DVD of the previous show, Captain Carstairs Cavalcade of Curiosities, for £4 after the show. This is me with the other loonies being "amusing"

The Soak

On Thursday, October 2nd I played at The Soak, in Selly Oak, Birmingham.

I hadn't been to this part of Birmingham much before, let alone played at the night before, which is always jointly exciting (this could be a great, great gig) and scary (what if no ones there, what if the venues nasty, what if the people I've invited are embarrassed for me when they see the place!!!?)

I had to get there first, and this proved not be as easy as I might have thought. I'd invited a good friend and house mate to come with me and arranged to pick him up from a theatre in Wolverhampton five minutes away from were we live, and then go straight to the gig. So, at the appointed time, I drove to the theatre. It was timed beautifully, just as I got there the audience were leaving. I parked up and waited. And waited. After a while I went into the theatre. My girlfriend (who works at the theatre) was on the phone, so I asked one of her co workers if she had seen my house mate. She didn't think he had been there. I put credit on my phone and called him. And woke him up, he was in our house asleep. I called him names and went back home to get him, then he and I, with my girlfriend following in her car, went to the gig.

The Birmingham new road is rubbish. That's all I want to say about the journey.

The Soak itself is a really nice pub, right next to Birmingham Uni. There was a match on TV and it seemed to me to be very full, although the promoter said it was usually busier. The night was open mic, and I caught a couple of cool acts before I played. The pub was very full, but the area where the music was happening was quite small, and so while I was playing it felt as though only about 30 per cent of the place were listening, although when I went to the bar later I noticed the music could be heard all over the room.

The gig was good, I enjoyed it. Because of the match and the size of the place there was alot of background conversation etc from all over the room and it was pretty hard to hear myself whilst playing, but I'm pretty confident everyone who listened enjoyed me, which is what we want! The night was well run, and again free....payment was a drink, which I may case has to be a coke, sadley.

The Terrifying Tour of Terrible Terror

The new Raving Loonies Stole My Heart show, The Terrifying Tour of Terrible Terror is on the 30th of October at 7.30pm. In the show seven ghouls will take you through the frightening history of the town, and you will see all manner of low life and terrifying events re-created before your eyes.

The Raving Loonies is a comedy group we formed in the second year of Uni, and we've performed quite a bit in the last two years, including shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, The Arena Theatre and on BBC3 during that competition I still haven't made my mind up about!

Tickets are five pounds, available from the Arena, check the gig listings for more info.

By the way, the show will feature swearing and may will leave you a little scared or disturbed!

Marston Green Village Hall

On the 27th of September I supported Mike Sheridan, a 1960s Brumbeat Pop Star, who performed along with his wife Suzi at Marston Green Village Hall.

It's fair to say that the audience were perhaps a little unlike the normal people who are at gigs I'm playing, on the whole they ranged from early middle aged to OAP, plus a few kids out with the family for a night out. This being said, the gig was well attended and the audience were very nice. I performed two sets, going on at the very start to do a few 1960s covers on acoustic guitar, then again after the interval with my electric to do a couple of mine and another cover. I enjoyed it very much, I love a lot of 1960s music and had tried to choose a couple of non obvious covers that genuine music fans might recognise, and that seemed to work out well. Even my two originals went down nicely, which was something of a surprise as they were the only songs played all night that the crowd hadn't heard before.

Mike and Suzi Sheridan, he on keyboards, she on Bass and both singing, played several tracks and had a really entertaining stage presence, and by the middle of their set the girlfriend and I had joined the majority of the audience to dance in front of the stage. This was more or less hysterical and a good time was had by all!

The Nelson Open Mic

Last Wednesday, 24th September, I drove down to the open mic at the Nelson Inn, Burtnwood. I'd been teaching a guitar lesson somewhere between where I live and Burntwood, so when I finished I went straight to the Nelson, using my brand new and rather exciting A to Z. I'd never been to Burntwood before, and very pretty it is too, although the very narrow and dark country roads just by where the pub is were just a little bit worrying when added to the normal pre gig nerves. I found the place OK, and walked in to a piratically empty room, where I was approached by a member of staff, who seeing my guitar said, "oh you must be Mike then."

I wasn't Mike, so I told him so, and it turned out he meant Mark anyway. I wasn't Mark either, but a duo called My Mate Mark were hosting the open mic, and I think he was expecting them to have turned up by now. My Mate Mark are two guys called Mark, one of whom, Mark Bennett, I had met at the crossroads blues jam (see a few posts back) When Mark and Mark arrived I had a good chat with them both, then Mark Bennett kicked the night off with a solo set. By this time my girlfriend had also navigated her way down the scary dark country roads.

The Marks played solo sets, and performed as a duo, and I did two sets of three and four songs. It was acoustic, and I played mostly my own songs plus a couple of covers I was getting ready for my next gig. The gig was cool, when we started there wasn't a lot of people in the place, but they were listening quite intently. As the night went on, more people came in, but the level of conversation increased more than the level of attention to the music! During my second set, I got the feeling the vocal mic was feed backing nastily, which was a bit off putting, but apparently nobody else noticed.

I really enjoyed My Mate Mark by the way, they had an interesting and diverse set, including a cool jazz/blues take on summertime, plus a really unique take on a supergrass song, Mary. Have a look at their myspace www.myspace.com/mymatemark