Time

It doesn't seem like five short minutes since "In The City" last came round. ITC is an annual urban music festival based in Manchester and usually gets lots of music industry types up from London, enticed by the prospect of hearing great new bands that they might want to sign, and also some great seminars and fringe events. I've been interested in ITC for a number of years. Its rather hard to ignore it as a musician living right on its doorstep. I have to say its often both a blessing and a curse.

Each year, it become painfully clear year in year out that there really is a vast multitude of crap bands desperate to air their wares. Equally true, though, is that if you dig deep enough you'll find a gem or two. There's always one or two really hyped unsigned bands that get presented at ITC each year - I remember a few years back it was "Nylon Pylon", who went on to self-destruct and then reappear recently as the far less interesting "The Whip". Then there was "The Deadbeats", who seemed to be everywhere at once for a while, and have now reappeared as the rather less omnipotent "Ten Bears". This year, it comes as no surprise to me to realise that "The Travelling Band" will probably command attention, their alt-country sound has already impressed the judges at the Glastonbury Unsigned competition. Lets hope they don't go the way of the other hyped bands that end up at ITC!

For my part, I have grown a little tired of these strange little gigs that get put on around town by various promotors, the "fringe events". The sound is never up to much and there's nobody paying the bands - instead you have these ticket deals whereby you are supposed to sell a number of tickets to your mates in order to make sure you have an audience to play too! These are essentially "pay to play" arrangements in all but name and its not something I'm proud of being involved in as an artist. With all the best will in the world, and although its great to get friends to come down and support you, you could be the best band in the world and you still wont get all your mates down to every gig, its just not going to happen. And who say's the quality of music should be judged on its popularity, anyway. I mean, another Manchester success story from 2008, "The Ting Tings" are supposedly popular, and also rubbish. 

I've been speaking recently to a Swedish electropop record label called Substream, and there is some talk of (finally) releasing some of the tunes that "This Morning Call" in its various guises has been working on. No promises yet, but I thought it was worth a mention at this stage. It'll be digital only releases, but also via this online resource that produces bespoke CD's to order, for the more old fashioned fans out there. The releases will focus on the more electronic side of things. So expect a reworked version of The Observatory, and old gems resurfacing. I'm in the process of going through the old stuff to see what can be used and improved and have so far rediscovered the tune "All I Leave Behind" from the Shue days which I think stands up quite well. I've rerecorded the vocals and the beats and its nearly ready to go. Expect to hear that on our new look MySpace player soon, and also on VOX if I can get the damn thing to accept any of my music files ever again. I've also written a new song called "Carousel" but struggling on the arrangement a bit at the moment. Hopefully, when that comes together it should be quite good too.