Category Archives: Music

Voices from the Ealing tweetup

Posted on September 4, 2011 at 9:10 am UK

Just under a year ago, I went to my first Ealing Tweetup in Ealing, west London. Organized by Mark Hillary, it was unlike any other tweetup I’d been to before in a number of ways especially the local-community, non-geeky feel to it. It was terrific and I’ve been hoping to be able to go to another one.

I did just that a few days ago when I joined nearly 200 other  people at “The biggest Ealing tweetup ever!” on September 1.

ealingtu10

This event abounded with superlatives, starting with the bold description on its Twtvite page:

Since 2009, probably the best social media event in London! Certainly the tweetup with the best music, the best networking, and most interesting bloggers!

I wouldn’t argue with that based on the one I went to last year, the relentless buzz on Twitter since then and the sheer drive of prime organizer Mark Hillary and, for last week’s event, Hayden Sutherland.

Amongst all the informality, buzz, conversation and enjoyment, last week’s tweetup had a serious intent in supporting community businesses in the aftermath of the London riots of early August (Ealing suffered but is recovering):

Help Ealing… #ealingunites
Coming soon after the attacks on Ealing (Phil Smith stayed up all night defending the R&C) this is going to be an even-more-important-than-usual community event… staff from many other attacked pubs, including The Kings Arms, The Red Lion and The Castle will be here…
We will be collecting cash from Tweetup guests for the Mayor of Ealing’s Relief Fund. This special fund has been created to give help directly to local citizens and small businesses affected by the recent riots… do something to help the community…

The tweetup’s primary sponsor, HCL Technologies, offered to contribute £2 to the Mayor of Ealing’s Riot Relief Fund for every tweet or retweet that included the hashtag #ealingtu. Fuller’s Brewery in Chiswick – just down the road from Ealing – provided welcome pints of delicious London Pride for everyone. And of course the pub itself – the Rose and Crown – was magnificent in its hospitality for such an exuberant crowd.

I could stay only for a short time so I arrived at 6pm on the dot and was able to be there until about 7.30pm – just before the bands started playing and the real fun began.

But during that 90 minutes, I did manage to meet and chat with a few handfuls of people to get their views about why they were at this Ealing tweetup, capturing their thoughts with my handy Zoom H4N portable digital audio recorder.

You’ll hear from Hayden Sutherland, Dawn Stewart, Karolina Shaw, Rachel Stone, Ben Gould, Virginia from the Red Lion pub, Karen from Charlotte’s Place restaurant, Bryan Glick, Ranjana Sharma, Laura Spence, and Rory Cellan-Jones.

Thanks to all who were willing to share their thoughts.

It was a great event, thanks to Mark, Hayden and everyone who took part. Undoubtedly others will be posting their opinions, photos, etc, so follow the hashtag #ealingtu to find more.

Rock your holiday weekend

Posted on August 27, 2011 at 7:38 am UK

therockshow

It’s late summer bank holiday weekend in the UK, noted in the cultural calendar as not only the conclusion of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe but also for two big music festivals – Reading and Leeds – where thousands of music fans congregate over three days to enjoy some terrific live sounds.

If you can’t get to Reading or Leeds this weekend (or even if you can), you can also enjoy some terrific sounds with this week’s episode of The Friday Rock Show with Ewan Spence which I had the great pleasure of presenting on Ewan’s behalf while he continued presenting and producing The Edinburgh Fringe Show podcasts.

Tracks in this episode:

You can subscribe to The Rock Show in iTunes or any other RSS Reader so you’ll never miss a show. Feel free to leave your comments on this post or drop Ewan an email (ewan@thepodcastcorner.com) if you have any suggestions for the show, or want to appear.

This is the second time I’ve presented Ewan’s show – the first time was in March 2007 – thanks again, Ewan, it was a blast!

Campaign launched to help labels affected by Sony warehouse fire

Posted on August 10, 2011 at 5:25 pm UK

sonywarehouse

While emotional opinions and anger run high as looters roamed the night-time streets of many British cities, one of the most heart-breaking stories of consequential loss as a result of the violence and destruction in London this past weekend is the impact on many independent music labels following the total destruction of Sony’s CD and DVD distribution warehouse in Enfield, north London.

The warehouse was the only one of its type in the UK.

A report in the London Evening Standard says that the independent music industry is facing its biggest crisis in decades as the arson attack by looters on Sony’s warehouse destroyed probably the entire stock of CDs and vinyl from more than 100 small labels.

[...] New releases from the Arctic Monkeys and Charlie Simpson have been affected or delayed after all copies destined for the shops were destroyed.

XL Recordings, the company behind chart-topping Adele, is among those hit. But while it will be able to shift stock from Europe to cover the shortfall on her hit album 21, smaller niche labels fear for their very existence.

The sector has been hit so badly because Sony DADC stored and distributed the entire stock of indie marketing company Pias, which acts for more than 100 indie labels. There are even fears, not confirmed, that master tapes and hard drives have been destroyed, meaning recordings could be lost forever.

labelloveThere is good news, though. The Guardian reports on a campaign to raise money for these indie labels via LabelLove, a website set up by to let music fans pledge their support.

As a business podcaster for the past six years, I strongly support independent music – Shel and I play a podsafe indie track at the end of every podcast, usually sourced from Music Alley, as one way of bringing indie music to the attention of people who may otherwise not discover it.

Please support this campaign. As LabelLove says on its website:

[...] Our aim is to try and rally the music industry, both on the artist and the audience sides, and see if we can raise some money to see those affected through the tough times ahead.

You can support in these ways:

If you don’t want to do any of those things, how about buying digital copies of some of those indie artists’ music?

More details on the campaign in the Guardian’s story, appended below.

(The Guardian’s report is published here with permission via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.)

Powered by Guardian.co.ukThis article titled “Campaign launched to help labels affected by Sony warehouse fire” was written by Tim Jonze, for guardian.co.uk on Wednesday 10th August 2011 13.31 Europe/London

A campaign is underway to raise money for independent labels affected by a fire that destroyed the Pias distribution centre in Enfield on Monday night.

The blaze, which started during the London riots, destroyed the Sony warehouse holding the Pias inventory. The warehouse contained records from almost 200 indpendent labels, as well as singles and albums set for release by more established artists such as Arctic Monkeys and Charlie Simpson.

Now a campaign has been launched to help labels affected, with the LabelLove website set up to allows music fans to donate money to the cause. People can also email labellovebenefit@gmail.com to find out about other ways to help out. Dan Salter, one of the campaign organisers, said: “We’ve been amazingly inundated with offers of help and support on this idea, and we are going to concentrate on trying to organise a series of live events to help this cause. Based on the offers we’ve had already, this is looking likely.”

The Twitter account @_label_love_ has been set up to keep followers updated with the latest news while the hashtag #labellove is being used by music fans to voice support. Musician Dan Le Sac used it to tweet: “I’d sell a kidney for independent music, without passionate people doing it for love, I would still be behind the counter of HMV. #labellove”

Sean Adams, who founded the website Drowned in Sound, has compiled a spreadsheet of the artists distributed by Pias. He aims to open this up to hackers in the hope they can build tools using the data to encourage fans to buy music on the labels affected. Adams said: “I imagine there are some life-changing labels, who’ve bravely put out records that have shaped our music scene, who may struggle over the coming weeks and months. The idea [to compile the spreadsheet] came because I couldn’t find one place with links to all the labels’ websites and I thought it’d be cool to look at all those amazing labels’ catalogues, and perhaps link it with Last.fm to see which acts it recommends or to create a video jukebox or do something amazing with SoundCloud players.”

guardian.co.uk/music will be posting updates on the situation and how it affects labels and artists over the coming days.


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Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

Feeling good

Posted on December 31, 2010 at 10:52 am UK

Another year – and a decade – draws to a close. I don’t know about you but my thoughts tend to look forward to what may be coming in the New Year rather than only looking back on what has been.

In spite of an uncertain economic outlook in 2011, I’m feeling good about the coming year both professionally and personally. One song in particular epitomizes that outlook for me, not coincidentally called Feeling Good.

Many artists have covered this song since it first appeared in 1965. My two favourites are the versions by Michael Bubl̩ and Nina Simone Рtwo singers who bring very different and powerful treatments to a modern classic.

Choices and best wishes for the New Year.

 

The success of the Ealing Tweetup

Posted on October 31, 2010 at 9:42 am UK

ronanmacmanusIf you’ve been to a tweetup, you know the kind of thing it typically is: an informal get-together of like-minded people, usually in a pub or other social venue, who sign up on Twtvite to say ‘yes’ or ‘maybe’ they’d be there. It’s advertised and promoted by the organizer and anyone who tweets or retweets about it. And there’s a hashtag. Usually, a tremendous time is had by all.

So it was last Tuesday at the sixth Ealing Tweetup organized by Mark Hillary, hashtag #ealingtu. This one, though, had three significant differences from your average tweetup – a food-and-drink sponsor, a recording artist, and a strong mainstream media presence in the form of BBC Radio 6 (listen to their event report) and the Ealing Gazette. Plus a local politician or two.

Along with more than 80 others, I took part and thoroughly enjoyed it. I met a handful of familiar faces including Kerry Bridge, Jonny Ashton and Tom Raftery, the latter visiting London from his base in Spain for a conference. (Tom ended up being co-opted by the Ealing Gazette as the official press photographer – nice camera, Tom! – and I imagine Tom’s photos have appeared in the print edition; not yet online.)

The evening’s sponsor was Xerox UK represented at the tweetup by Darrell Minards, Head of Communications Xerox Europe, and Sonia Panchal, European PR and AR Manager. This is the same company who is the sponsor of Technology of Business, a new online TV series from the BBC comprising 24 short features around the role of technology in the world of business, that launched earlier this month.

The star, though, was the recording artist – Ronan MacManus. You might not yet be familiar with his name but you’ll undoubtedly have heard of his elder brother, Elvis Costello. Ronan describes himself modestly as a "Singer/Guitarist from West London." He creates great music. What especially interests me about Ronan are his clear views on social media.

Take a look at this Ealing Tweetup promo video Mark Hillary created and listen to what Ronan has to say about social media and what it can do for musicians.

Some further thoughts about the event:

  • Like most things, you have to get the word out. While attractions like a sponsor and a recording artist undoubtedly help, you have to proactively communicate your event especially if you want to bring it to the attention of  a wide audience. Mark did a good job with that, discreetly and regularly tweeting which many people including me were happy to retweet to our followers. Twtvite, too: I liked the reminder tweets that came now and again.
  • I had a brief chat with Ronan but no time for a proper conversation: he was popular with participants and with the media grabbing his attention. Hope to get a chance for a chat soon.
  • When I asked Xerox’ Darrell Minards what his goal was in sponsoring the tweetup, I very much liked his reply: he wasn’t totally sure. It was an experiment, he said, to see what happened and what it might lead to in the future. He said being part of it was the important thing and he and his colleagues will learn from the experience that will help him understand what next steps might be. A refreshing and open attitude – a leaf for the taking for communicators and marketers in other companies.

Finally, check out Ronan’s music – you might find something you like – and video on YouTube.

(Photo above of Ronan MacManus by London location portrait photographer Quoc-Huy Nguyen Dinh.)