Ladies and gentlemen, this Saturday night you all need to be at Hideaway in Streatham.
It’s our first ever Bond theme extravaganza featuring two of my favourite vocalists; David McAlmont and Annabel Williams and some amazing new arrangements by our MD Janette Mason. We’ve got three horns on this show and if the rehearsal on Tuesday was anything to go by, it’s gonna be a fantastic show.
We played two nights at Hideaway last week to celebrate the venue’s third birthday which was a riot. David and Annabel were on these shows too (as well as Brendan Reilly and Gwyneth Herbert) and we previewed a couple of the new Bond arrangements. There are so many great Bond tunes to choose from. Needless to say we’re doing all the classics!
Here’s a video from the birthday shows featuring a duet between Annabel and Brendan Reilly. Loved playing this song…
If you can’t make this Saturday, fear not: we will be playing the Bond show with David and Annabel again for three nights April 18-20th so you’ll have a second chance to see it. If you do want to come tomorrow night I strongly suggest you book your tickets right now as I know it is selling out fast.
Whether you’re a music fan or an artist, the brand new fan pages from Bandcamp are really rather exciting.
Now anyone that has bought music via Bandcamp can sign up for a free fan page where they can showcase their music collection and browse the collections of other like-minded music lovers to discover new records. Yet again Bandcamp has come up with a clean, simple and effective system where iTunes has failed. The ill-fated iTunes Ping service lasted all of five minutes with it’s fussy interface and attempt at creating a social network, and now Bandcamp has managed to achieve a fully integrated music recommendation system without detracting from its core values or functionality. Here’s what my fan page looks like today (you can click on the link if you want to follow me!):
As you can see, you get a really straightforward page showcasing the music you’ve bought on Bandcamp. You can show or hide whatever you like on your page, add reviews/comments to albums and select your favourite track for the player. You can follow both artists (which automatically signs you up to their mailing lists and lets you know when they release new records) as well as your friends and other fans so you get notified when they buy new music. And once you’re signed up as a fan, a little thumbnail of your profile picture will appear beneath any album you’ve recently bought on the artist’s page in the ‘supported by‘ section, as will any comments you’ve added as a recommendation.
This new feature has benefits for both fans and artists…
Fans now have access to a great music recommendation and discovery system for all the excellent independent music available via Bandcamp. Since they introduced the Discover feature last June, Bandcamp has steadily improved the way in which new music can be discovered in it’s vast library. Artists have been able to add up to three albums in their recommended section, which now features on their band page:
Fans can now be notified immediately when their favourite artists release new music or their friends buy a new record. And now you can show off your impeccable taste in your own personal corner of Bandcamp, and publicly show your support for your favourite artists. You can see who else has bought a particular record and explore the rest of their collection. There is also now a wishlist which enables you to save albums you’ve found that you might like to come back to and purchase at a later date. All of these functions are presented in the most straightforward way with an excellent UI. Marvellous…
Artists can now engage more with their fans and other artists alike. Fans are incentivised to pay for your music so they feature on your page as supporters and showcase your music in their collection (free downloads don’t offer these possibilities). Your music can now be found via genre and tag searches, artist recommendations and fan pages. You can expand your mailing list as people start following you and automatically gain access to your fanbase when you really need to; when you release new music.
So in a nutshell, You Need This!!! If you’ve ever bought music via Bandcamp (and hopefully most of you reading this will have bought one of my records at least!) you should sign up for a fan page immediately. It’s dead easy and it gives you instant access to a whole world of music discovery. I’ve already found a fewlittlegems purely through browsing my friend’s collections and the recommended pages of my favourite artists. The worst thing that could happen is that you end up blowing loads of money on some great new music…
If you have yet to use Bandcamp to purchase music, I shall of course suggest checking out my latest solo release [un]plugged and our new trio recording Foreground Music, Vol. I with Jez Carr and Mike Haughton. Of course. What better way to start your collection and connect with other music lovers? Enjoy…
Turned out the world didn’t end and we’re all still here and probably should have done the Christmas shopping earlier.
Following on from the previous post, I can report that the Duke Special gig at Shepherds Bush Empire was really rather excellent. We had some superb guests including Michele Stodart, Boo Hewerdine and Beth Rowley. It was so good to be playing on stage with all the regulars again after such a long time.
A few videos have already surfaced on YouTube from the show. Here’s the Duke and Michele performing John Prine’s In Spite of Ourselves. Loved this performance…
And here’s an old favourite, I Let You Down, featuring Chip, Ben and me at the start of the show. The Undertaker did indeed make an appearance. Frankly, I needed little excuse to don the tailcoat and top hat once again…
That’s all for now. Hope to see you all at a gig sometime in the new year. Have a lovely Christmas. I shall leave you for now with the latest offering Foreground Music, Vol. I from me, Jez and Mike. Do pop over to the Bandcamp page and grab yourself a copy (my solo records are all available on the same link). We’re all so proud of the record and we’ll be looking to do some more recording and live shows in the new year; watch this space! Until next time… See y’all in 2013 🙂 x