1 post tagged “nude”

 It was In The City this weekend, and I’ve learnt another valuable lesson about the music industry. It’s very much a people business. It’s all about talking, talking, drinking, and more talking. In fact, people are so desperate to talk that they’ll even hire limos and drive round the city with no particular destination in mind just to have a chat. I was rather surprised to find myself in the back of a limo on Saturday afternoon discussing This Morning Call with some industry folks and a couple of other acts, with the free champagne and the blacked out windows. Just one of the rather bizarre and interesting things to have happened over the weekend.

With the recent death of Tony Wilson, there was a definite sense of a city pulling together this weekend, and it was great to go round and enjoy myself in all the great venues. Not just ITC delegates, but lots of ordinary people and music lovers turned out to support. Also, and quite unusually, there wasn’t any particular act that I thought was grabbing all the attention. It was quite an open playing field, and I think that makes for a much more interesting festival. You don't quite know what's going to happen.

Friday night, I took myself (and my already protesting liver) down to The Enchanted Brave, which takes place upstairs at the Britons Protection pub near the GMEX and is one of my regular haunts. Their ITC showcase did not let me down. Some great music was on offer, all on the acoustic trip, including Gillan Edgar who is a wonderful performer with decent songs, and I also managed to catch a set by Mcr band “The Travelling Band”, who used to be called “The Brothers With Different Mothers”, who play this wonderful mixture of Crosby, Stills and Nash-esq folk tinged pop, stripped down melodic indie and gipsy soul. I liked it. Too many guitars in the band, though. At one point they had three acoustics and one electric and the room only seats 50!

Anyhow, Saturday arrived and involved my inpromptue attendance at an industry seminar that I think was called “Break In The City”. Now I didn’t know until Saturday that this was going on, I literally just turned up, and I must admit to being a bit lax in the demo production department. I arrived with one CD and about 50 flyers in my pocket. Thank God for them. I could have done with about 200 CD’s and 1000 flyers. Next thing I know I’m in the back of this limo with my one CD on the stereo, talking to the fella who books for the secret garden festival and an A+R chappy, who talked a lot, but I’d never heard of the label he apparently works for. The other artist sat next to me said he was a builder from Preston and put his music on and our jaws dropped to the floor, it was that good and so unlikely to have been generated by a builder from Preston. His stuff I could hear on Radio 2 – had a touch of the MOR about it for sure – but I could tell the industry guys were impressed. I gave him a flyer. He gave me his CD. I’ve now got a lot of new CD’s after this weekend. Literally a CD in every pocket. I fell into bed last night and when I woke up this morning, there was a CD right there in bed with me. Ridiculous.

Saturday day flew by. I get some really useful contacts re. synchronisation. Early evening, I hook up with my mate Alex from Gecko and get introduced to some music journos. What a bunch of gobshites. I mean that in a nice way, though. They have to be, its their job. I liked the fact that they had so much to say. I also liked the fact that they put me on the door for stuff. I liked that fact that he seemed interested in This Morning Call. I didn’t like the fact that I’d only brought one CD along and had already given it to the secret garden agent from the limo (…. I really want to play some festivals next year). But hey, I had flyers, so flyers will have to do. We went to the Green Room on Whitworth Street near the Palace Theatre and watched Stuart Avery and his band, who do competent, neat, indie rock, and some fella with an acoustic and a sequencer called Kev. The jurnos immediately took to him, in fact they were raving about him, and I came away thinking that this guy could do very nicely out of this years event. I gave him a flyer. Must remember to look up his surname.

Sunday came along, and it was our gig. Things started to go wrong fairly quickly as I managed to turn up to the wrong rehearsal room for the pre-gig run through and by the time I’d got it all sorted out, we only had about half an hour left. I'm normally so organised. Then the keyboard decided it wasn’t happy and the power kept cutting out. Gaffer tape just about kept it under control. Then we turned up to the venue to discover there was no guitar amp included. Drummer dashes home for gear. Guitar goes through a DI. I get the shakes for 15 mins due to drinking a red bull too quickly. Then we discover that every other band in the building is playing what I call “proper rock”.

Later, we wander onstage in a relaxed fashion doing our downtempo electronics, fat 303 bass drums and singy songs. We just about got through the set unscathed! The band on before us, Parkha, from Glasgow, ripped the place up completely. It was such an inappropriate contrast. My onstage banter included me describing us as "rather Baroque" and having songs "that sound good under duvets". Probably not our finest hour, but hey, happens to the best of them. Having said that, we did an interview for Coke Music and got the film crew down, so if nothing else, that was a success.

Sunday evening arrives. I’d promised to do some reviews for a local e-zine called “Guestlist”, and Sandman Magazine (which publishes out of Sheffield). I go down to see Dodoz, (French punk/new wave/retro thing, very young band, hot female singer who also plays bass, worth checking out) and Swedish for Beginners (leftfield Scandinavian pop, with 2 singers, sounds like The Magic Numbers, rather odd but lovely). Whilst accosting the Dodoz manager for a CD, I meet Saul who says he works in A+R. I say, “oh yes, anybody I might have heard off?” He says, “yes, Nude.” I big up everything under the sun to him, and then another A+R from Chrysalis, who heard me talking to the Nude guy and wanted a piece of the action, came over and wanted a word. I duly gave them both a flyer. I help interview the Dodoz for Coke Music, and then meet the guy who signed Radiohead, who also appears to be involved with Coke although I’m not sure in what capacity. I'd known him from a while back when he came to see one of my old bands in a rehearsal room in London. He’s the sort of guy who just needs to turn up to lend and event an air of credibility. He didn't remember me but told me I was a very nice man, which was lovely, and we had a proper chat. I gave him a flyer too. God damn not having any CDs!! Next thing, Channel M turn up, and say hello. I’ve started accosting people now, because I’m tipsy. So I accost Producer Dan from The City Centre Social, whom I need a DVD of last weeks TV gig. I think to myself, “If there are tumbleweeds blowing through my inbox this week, I may cry.” I resolutely decide to spend at least one evening this week actually making music.

And today I’m so croaky and husky in the voice department that I think I may need to have words with Stephan Hawkins.

Ben