Podcast number 6

After many failed, drunken attempts last night I have finally recorded and edited Podcast number 6 of Is This Thing On. 

People I mentioned were, in no particular order Matt Blake, Matt Stevens, Bete' deJour, Watch With Mothers, Joe Potter, Joe Woodham, 

Pure Acoustica, Red Stripe (Neil Drinkwater), Emmy-Lee, Twitter, Louch Manouche and Charles "Charlie" Olsen

All of whom are fantastic and wonderful. You should click on their name and find out all about them immediately.

As I said I will try to record another by next sunday at the latest.

I'm also planning a blog entitled "Why it's all still Thatcher's Fault" that should be ready by February. A non musical political rant. Bet you can't wait eh?

Chaplins....I should have known, all the signs were there.

I should have done this gig a month or 2 ago but the person that ran it had a great tragedy and decided she couldn't carry on, so I got cancelled.

Bugger!

Shame, it was a nice place to play.

Then I got an email telling me that Jase was now promoting and after a few back and forth email he booked me.

We arrived (Mrs Nick and me) a little early only to find that there had been a flood and that the gig would now take plae in the cellar bar underneath Chaplins. I did think "Food upstairs yet downstairs is dry?" but carried on regardless.

Jase is a friendly soul, he runs other venues in Bournmouth and has a gentle relaxed way of working so I felt at ease and pretty chipper.

The place did have an odd feel to it, the crowd all seamed to be hidden away round the corner and no one around the "stage" (read balconey see pic).

It felt a little wierd to be plugging in and it was cramped fitting the mic stand and leads aropund the chair etc etc etc you get the picture.

Well finaly it was time to begin, Mrs Nick had been joined by 2 hairy student types who sat alone at a table next to Jase.

I was a little unsure about about playing a ballad first but I cracked in to "I just Can't Get Happy" nevertheless. I was a bit unsteady and didn't as good a job as I had hoped but it picked up towards the end. As I played the last chord I looked up to see the reaction form the "crowd" and was greeted by the sound of.....well fuck all really. Mrs Nick just kind of looked at me with a "er?" look on her face. 

I wasn't expecting rapturous applause but I though a little clap and a cough wouldn't go amiss.

This non reaction continued for the next 4 or 5 tunes, I sort of zoned out into my own little world. I made the decision to play the best gig I could despite the flat reaction. To be fair Jase, hairy students (2) made the right faces whilst I was playing, Jase giving me the occasional reassuring nod and Mrs Nick smiled in a "What the fuck?" kind of way.

Then came the pissed women. 

Now 90% of the audience where hidden round the corner of the bar and couldn't see let alone hear me, but as the night (it seemed a very long night) progressed the odd drunk woman leered around one of the pillars to see what that noise was (me). Eventually one of them employed the same "Kestrel" principle as the drunk in the Eclipse 

and tried to focus on me as I ripped into "That Woman" the results of wich you canhear on the video cunningly inserted below.

I finished the set early, I couldn't see much point in carrying on, I'm no prima donna (anonymous, take note you shit!) but I had travelled 30 miles and was doing this gig for no money to an audience of 4 one of them being my wife, so.....

Jase seemed pleased regardless and offered me some more gigs at the other venues that he runs in and around Bournmouth, so not a total waste of time. I would like to just mention tat Jase was a star throughout and was totally unfazed by the lack of audience.

On the drive home Mrs Nick and I reran the gig as we usually do and decided that no one would have roused that crowd and that we put it down to a one off odd one. Mrs Nick commented that, ironically, I had given one of my best ever performances (bless her) and if people weren't into it fuck 'em!

So there it was....

No 

Not at all.

Those shits.

What then followed was 6 days of depression and self doubt.

Yes, I had played well (had I?). Yes the songs are great (are they?) How did the second band get on? We hadn't stayed for them. Did they bomb too? Who knows?

It's tough sometimes, you sit and write and craft the songs you try and believe that you're worth it. You rock up to a strange place full of people that you don't know and you sit there and push these tunes out and hope ...........

It's the self belief that's what you (I) have to have otherwise you (me again!) may as well stay at 

home and strum on your own.

So I lost it at Chaplins, but I got it back. 

I WILL lose it again and again I know I will, that's the way I am.

In other news I have become a great fan of Matt Stevens

of whom I will talk about next time. Check him out.

Now enjoy the video.....dum dum dum......

If you don't how can you expect.....

So how many independent artists do YOU listen to?

So you’ve got your myspace page, Facebook profile, Ilike perhaps even your own website. You have pictures of your beautiful self, mp3s of your songs, news of where and when you are playing.

Then what do you do?

You email all your friends, then you email people that aren’t your friends, then you email everyone that’s left telling them how wonderful your music is and how great you are and how much you’re looking forward to seeing them at your gigs.

After the initial traffic has dies down, you make a few changes. Some new pictures, MP3s and a few new gigs. Email the world once again. Then wait…….wait …..

Then you learn about Meta tags. These are those little keywords you can attach so that when people do searches, your site will appear.
Now you want to choose something that applies to you yes?

“Original” yes original’s good, what else?

“Independent” OBVIOUSLY

“Funky” “Eclectic” “Indy” I could go on, there are thousands.
You apply all these to your site and then wait.
Nothing happens, honest. You may get a few stray “robots” (whatever they are!) but other than that it’s pretty much Heartbreak Hotel.

So the big question is (here comes the point!) what do YOU use when you search for independent artists? What key words do YOU use when you search for other artists in the same boat as you?

You don’t do you? You don’t look for other artists just like you. So if YOU don’t then you can’t realistically expect anyone else to either can you?

It was only when I started to think about this whole “tag” thing I realised that I didn’t search out any independent talent either.

Do it, I did. There are some gems out there, all fresh and shiny and they haven’t had the corners knocked off yet. They’re still willing to experiment, yes sometimes it doesn’t work but then that’s all part of it. There are a plethora of websites that they (and me) are on and you can search for whatever genre (don’t get me started!) you fancy. There are some horrors but even they can be entertaining in a “car crash” kind of way. I have found some great artists this way and it has made me more optimistic about the music scene as whole.
There are a few nighmares, but that goes with the territory and can even be entertaining in a car crash sort of way.

If you are one of this band of “Indies” you must must must go and search for other artists.
If you are a regular punter then go get out there and discover your own pet band, you can adopt them, buy their music, go and see them and if you do, tell them that you found them on the internet because you did a search and they came up. You listened; you liked and then either went to see them or bought/downloaded their music. I guarantee you will make their day!