Tag: iona

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practice – it's a slow process

Every now and again, arty types stumble on something that in a split second changes the way they do what they do. Could be a thought, an idea, something concrete like a new instrument or gadget…

By ‘every now and again’ I mean ‘once in a blue moon’.

The rest of the time it’s about edging forward little by little. About frustrating hours spent playing the same old shit, looking for something new to say, new ways to say old things, anything but yesterday’s news. Sometimes there’s a chink of light. A new note in an old tune, a pair of chords that suggest a different kind of mellow melancholy, a sound that speaks in a new voice, a loop trick that means the recorded noises come back in an unexpected way.

But then they need assimilating, then integrating with what you already do, and then comes the innovation, once there’s a level of comfort with whatever the new thing happens to be. Imitate, Assimilate, Integrate, Innovate – that’s the process, the order.

So I’m here, trying new things, with some loops running that show promise, some new bleeps, some old sounds, some tweaked sounds and thoughts of how those sound willl work with drums and double bass on Wednesday.

What I still haven’t learnt to trust is that Recycling is all about the combination. It’s not about me coming in with ideas. It’s about the musicians acting and reacting, finishing each other’s sentences, providing the punch line to a set up line, painting scenery for the others to act in, [insert endless stream of collaborative metaphors here]. The compositional process is all but finished when the musicians are booked. It’s a rarified form of sonic alchemy, choosing the right ingredients. Players that should sound good, but surprise each other. where the setting will take people out of what they always do into a musical world of fewer expectations and more possibilities.

Having said that, both Seb and Andy have such insanely broad skill-sets, I doubt Wednesday is really going to stretch either of them. Great music runs in their lymphatic system. It’s glandular, they’re bloated with taste and tunes and timbres and tonalities. I just need to sit back, do some StevieSounds and enjoy the ride.

As can you, obviously.

See you there.

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More on indulgence in music…

Been thinking about this whole question of indulgence in music, sparked off by the discussion over on the forum, and I think I’ve hit on something that might make sense of it. Maybe the difference between acceptable and unacceptable indulgence is whether the musician is playing the music they want to play or the music they want to hear – it makes some sense to describe musicians playing in front of an audience who play music that is more fun to play than to listen to as being overly self-indulgent. If instead the musicians are focussed on playing the music they want to hear, then the indulgence is from the point of view of themselves as their own audience, rather than as a performer disregarding the audience… does that make sense as a distinction? It’s certainly where I come from as a musician, particularly when making a CD – I make albums that are what I’d want to listen to. One glance at my most listened to artists list over at last.fm reveals that I spend a disproportionately large amount of time listening to myself. Everything I record is listened to repeatedly before being accepted for release. It’s run by a couple of other people whose input is appreciated, and then if I’m enjoying it, it stays. It’s not really about things that are ‘fun to play’ or clever, just those things that sound like the soundtrack to the world around me…

Does that make any sense?

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How to do the Fringe

This is as much as a note for me to refer back to next year as it is info for you lovely bloglings, but if any of you are planning on going to The Fringe, maybe some of these tips will help –

  • Venue – things to take into consideration.
    The average edinburgh audience size is about 6, literally. If it’s your first year, you’re very likely to end up doing a few shows to virtually no-one. With that in mind, book a small venue. It’ll save you money, and feel less crap when you eventually get up to 15-20 people.

    a lot of venues charge more for ‘prime-time’ slots, so think about when your show is best going to attract an audience. I seem to do pretty well late night, so can take a cheaper slot between 11-12, rather than trying to book between 7-10pm, which is pretty much the main time for shows.

    When you talk to the venue, haggle over the cost of the room. I’ve never paid full asking price for an Edinburgh venue. Check what the extras are (do you need a tech? lighting engineer? door person? backstage help? most of that will be charged) – bargain with them. The usual deal is to pay a ‘guarantee’ and then it’s a 60/40 split in your favour over and above that. Some places do a straight hire fee where you get all ticket money. others can be convinced to do a straight 50/50 split.

    It’s also worth finding out what kind of publicity the venue are going to do. If you go into one of the ‘big five’ – The Pleasance, The Underbelly, The Gilded Balloon, The Assembly Rooms or C Venues – they’ll have a load of publicity of their own. It’s not worth relying on (shows in each of these venue complexes still end up with 2 people in the audience), but it’ll help. A bit. possibly.

  • Promo before the fest. Make sure you get signed up to the EdFringe press office mailings, there are lots of useful things to do in there. They send out info of lots of press opportunities and other promo things like playing at the Fringe Opening party, Fringe Sunday etc.

    Get good photos! there’s no substitute for having a really eye-catching image, something that says something about your show. Remember, there are close to 2000 other shows on, putting on nearly 30,000 performances in the month. That’s a lot of competition, and a tiny amount of time you have to grab the focus of your prospective audience – you need to grab them with the picture and show title first, then the strap line, then the blurb. It’s all got to be there, arty doesn’t really cut it. I’ve been given flyers where I can’t tell a) what kind of show it is, whether it be music/drama/comedy/physical theatre/dance etc. and b) what the story is if it happens to be a narrative piece. It’s all got to be there on the flyers and posters.

    Also worth spending a lot of time on is your fringe programme entry – you’ve only got 40 words, so they have to be the greatest words you can think of to describe what you do. Quotes are good if they’re relevant. be descriptive, pique people’s interest, be hyperbolic – everyone else will be.

    Work out your budget for promo. Flyers and posters are a must. An absolute must. But you might want to take out an ad in the programme, or some ads in the free papers at the festival (Three Weeks and SkinnyFest), or even on the EdFringe.com website. Again, you might be able to haggle on price, or team up with another show to take out an ad between you.

    One way to expand your budget is to get sponsors – this can either be individuals – see Richard Herring’s SCOPE appeal for more on this – or companies that have some vested interest in the publicity you can offer. For the last two years, my show has been sponsored by the Bass Institute – an excellent music school in West London. They can obviously get access to loads of people interested in music, particularly bassists, through my show, and I give them a logo on thousands of flyers and posters, as well as a full page ad in the show programme. A great deal for all.

    Use the press list! The Fringe press office sends out a press list, with the contacts of everyone who writes or broadcasts about the Fringe. Write a great press release (get help if needs be), and follow it up with additional news etc. Stick to the recommended method of communication, and don’t bug the people if they ask to be contacted only once. This again is where those killer photos come in handy. Press people are 100x more likely to write about you if you got good photos. head over to Steve Brown’s site for photo stuff – he regularly takes magazine front covers, so knows all about generating eye-catching, product-selling images for artists.

  • Once you get to Edinburgh – keep doing all of the above. Use the internet to follow up radio and press contacts, chase up reviewers and sort out cabaret and showcase slots. There are a few of these – you should contact them before the fest if possible, and then follow up when you get there. Some times people have slots to fill last minute, make sure they’ve got your mobile number for last minute bookings. A lot of the showcase and cabaret slots will be 10-15 minutes long – make sure you’ve got a highly portable extract from your show. This is harder if it’s a play, but it’s worth doing for the audience it generates. Shows like Mervyn Stutter’s Pick Of the Fringe are a great way to reach a much bigger audience.

    And now all those flyers and posters come into their own – put posters up in every legal possible place. Shops are a great one, cafes, restaurants – get there early to guarantee a slot on the walls. Make sure your venue has done enough promo around the building, you want to catch as much passing trade as possible. Don’t go too mad putting out piles of flyers alongside all the other piles of flyers – they get buried fairly quickly.

    Then it’s time to hit the high street and sell the show – have a one sentence description – ‘late night music show’, ‘chill out comedy’ bizarre road trip comedy’ ‘shakespeare on ice’ – something that’ll grab people’s attention. Then have a prepared one paragraph description, so you don’t um and ah through it. Be confident and smilie, very friendly, ask people’s names, shake hands, say how much you’re looking forward to seeing them at the show. In short, make them feel like they are as special as the show is, and they clearly belong at it! As for quantity, you really need about 7000 flyers for your first week, and 5000 for each successive week. We had 5000 this year, and could easily have done 7000 in the time we were there. If you can get friends to come and stay and flyer for you, that’s great, but there’s nothing quite like people seeing your picture on the flyer and then chatting to you about the show.

    Same with posters – about 150-250 a week should do it – make sure you put them up on the pillars on the Royal Mile at least three times a day, as they get covered up pretty quickly. Same for the boards outside the E-ticket tent.

    Work out with your venue before hand what they are happy for you to do in the way of comps, 2 for 1 deals etc. Do you need to have special stickers for it? can you just write it on the flyer? how precious are they about it? If you’re doing three weeks, I’d recommend doing maximum effort in the first week just to get people through the door, try and create a bit of a buzz, get the word out. Lots of two for ones, comps to the casts of other shows etc. Be generous with other performers, most of them won’t have much money for full price tickets.

  • Take care of yourself. Edinburgh folklore is all about people staying up late, getting drunk, stoned and shagging anything that moves. Clearly not a good idea if you actually want it to be a success for you. Almost everyone at the fest loses money. Perhaps this is why. I’ve never lost money there. I hardly drink at all while I there, and try to get enough sleep – I really don’t want to be falling asleep on stage. If you’re a pro, it’s work, 24 hours a day. If you take it seriously, you can do well there. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t go out late night – it might be a great way to meet people who could come to the show, or review it. There’s a whole other world at the fest that starts at midnight. Just proceed with caution. ;o)
  • And finally, make sure the show is shit-hot. If your show is lame, all the promo in the world isn’t going to sell it. People will come, and you’ll get crap reviews, crap word of mouth and the crowds will die off. Come with a great show, and it’ll go the other way. Spend the time making it right, and you can do really well.

    What have I missed? If you’ve ever been there, post your best tip in the comments section…

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Travelling musicians…

The current clamp-down on carry-on rules for planes is already bollocksing things up for lots of musicians such as these orchestral musicians, destined for the Edinburgh Festival and the Proms.

What a load of balls – are these laws making us safer, or just there to let us know how serious the threat is and make us oh-so-grateful to our loser government for protecting us from a possible attack.

Andrew Collins, whose blog is one of my current faves, highlights the vagueness of the current ‘news’ in this brilliant blog post. Have a read. Let’s see if anyone ends up in court.

And this post by Bruce Schneier highlights the utter uselessness of basing security measures on what the ‘terrorists’ have already planned. Here’s a couple of choice quotes –

None of the airplane security measures implemented because of 9/11 — no-fly lists, secondary screening, prohibitions against pocket knives and corkscrews — had anything to do with last week’s arrests. And they wouldn’t have prevented the planned attacks, had the terrorists not been arrested. A national ID card wouldn’t have made a difference, either.

and

Banning box cutters since 9/11, or taking off our shoes since Richard Reid, has not made us any safer. And a long-term prohibition against liquid carry-ons won’t make us safer, either. It’s not just that there are ways around the rules, it’s that focusing on tactics is a losing proposition.

It’s easy to defend against what the terrorists planned last time, but it’s shortsighted. If we spend billions fielding liquid-analysis machines in airports and the terrorists use solid explosives, we’ve wasted our money. If they target shopping malls, we’ve wasted our money. Focusing on tactics simply forces the terrorists to make a minor modification in their plans. There are too many targets — stadiums, schools, theaters, churches, the long line of densely packed people before airport security — and too many ways to kill people.

Security measures that require us to guess correctly don’t work, because invariably we will guess wrong. It’s not security, it’s security theater: measures designed to make us feel safer but not actually safer.

And meanwhile, thousands of travellers the world over are having their livelihoods screwed up by the legislation. I’m all for getting people to stop taking short-haul flights, but not just by fucking up their travel plans. That’s hardly an integrated transport policy!

But, it looks likely that I’ll be getting the train to Italy in October – with this inter-rail ticket it looks like I’ll be able to get a 22 day ticket for £295, which’ll get me all over France, Italy, Belgium and Holland, so I’ll need to get a ticket from London to Paris, and a ticket from Holland to Viersen just over the border in Germany (if I end up playing at the European Bass Day in Germany). Which will work out OK, financially, be better for the enviroment, give me plenty of time for reading books, transcribing tunes and relaxing, and will mean I can take two basses with me, without the fear that some loser at an airport is going to try to see if my basses bounce…

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Fringe Friday.

Second last day, time to ratchet up the promo.

Miles walked – 174
Flyers handed out – 234,000, approx.
posters stuck up – 7,001
legs no longer functioning – 2 (rounded down to nearest whole number of legs).

Meeting lots of people around who had seen us play, either had come to the gig or seen us on one of the cabaret shows, which is nice – it’s always the case that if you do a one week show, you’re just picking up momentum when you leave. Next year, I’m doing three weeks, for sure.

So most of the day spent flyering. Went to meet the most lovely J for dinner, and bumped into Howard Jones’ marvellous guitarist Robin Boult on the way – Robin’s a fantastic musician and really lovely bloke, so I was delighted to get the chance to catch up and have a chat.

Dinner with J was equally delightful. She and Rev. G are two of my favouritest peoples, and part of what makes coming up to Scotland such fun. Everyone’s favourite sweary priest was off running a kids camp, no doubt teaching small children the art of ecclesiastical swearing, and TSP was back in London. So J and I headed to Henderson’s for much needed veggie marvellousness and chat.

From there, I hobbled on my by-now-completely-rubbish legs up to the famousSpiegeltent (famous?? Is that an official designation? Could I just start randomly referring to myself as ‘the famous steve lawson’? hmmm) to see Mich En Scene – a Belgian duo of accordianist/pianist Frederik Caelen, and singer Micheline Van Hautem. The show was the songs of Edith Piaf, Sarah Vaughn, Peggy Lee, Bjork, a few others and some originals, and was chock full of theatrical energy, humour and a strong sexual intrigue (which seems to be the defining characteristic of most cabaret, no? What made this ‘cabaret’ and not just ‘a gig?’ – methinks that sexy theatricality is the key…) – most of cabaret stuff I’ve seen here, and before, really didn’t do it for me. It seems like cabaret is where musicians go who can’t play well enough and comedians go who can’t tell good enough jokes to just do stand up. There are exceptions (The Midnight Carousel compere Dusty Limits has a big voice and did a gorgeous arrangement of Love For Sale, though the piano part was more conventional cabaret than it would have been in an ‘art’ gig.) But Mich En Scene were amazing. Definitely highly recommended.

it’s great, I haven’t seen a less than fab show this year – from Stephen Daltry before our run even started (who just got a fabulous review in Three Weeks, that really described his show to a t – go and see it!) through to Mich and Freddie, via Sue Perkins, The Allotment and Amy Lame. All great stuff.

If you’re around tonight, it’s big finale time – come to the show, bring your friends, and we’ll party like it’s 1985. :o)

thenewstandard.co.uk

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Fringe underway.. :o)

We’ve arrived in Edinburgh… well, right now I’m in Berwick on Tweed, but I’ve been up in Edinburgh for the last three days, putting up posters, arranging extra gigs, and saw my first show last night – Stephen Daltry in Ludwig’s Van – a one man light comedy show about classical music. Like Gerard Hoffnung, which is no bad thing in my book, always loved Hoffnung’s stuff. Anyway, much fun, worth going to see, particularly if you know a little about classical music.

Other than that, Julie and I have tramped all over Edinburgh putting up posters in windows, shop doorways, loos, restaurant walls – anywhere with a space and the permission to put them up! Today, flyering starts with a vengeance – out of the Royal Mile convincing people that ours is the show they just can’t afford to miss (which shouldn’t be too hard, as, let’s face it, it’s true).

Gig in Glasgow on Thursday was a tough one – at such short notice, it was a sparsely populated affair. The bar itself wasn’t, just the bit where we were playing, but the people who watched seemed to really enjoy it, and a few said they were coming to Edinburgh to see it again, which was nice.

So tomorrow, Sunday, we’ve got a tech rehearsal in the afternoon, the Fringe opening party early evening, and then gig #1 at 11pm. It’s two for one on tickets tomorrow night, so if you’re in Edinburgh, come down, bring a friend, and enjoy!

click here to buy tickets!
and here to hear the MP3s and read about the show!

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MOBO ditches Jazz

Just got this message from the lovely people at Dune records – apparently the organisers of the MOBO awards claim they can’t find four names to nominate for a Jazz category!!! are they mental?? Jazz in the UK is currently stronger creatively than it’s ever been – we’ve had UK independent jazz artists like Zoe Rahman and Polar Bear getting national recognition via the Mercury Music Prize, and some outstanding music coming from the Dune/Tomorrow’s Warriors stable. Musicians like Jason Yarde, Denis Baptiste, Dennis Rollins, Cleveland Watkiss, Soweto Kinch, Byron Wallen, Gary Crosby, Jazz Jamaica… there are LOADS of great black british jazz artists. Loads and Loads. And given that the MOBOs are about music of black origin, not even just black artists, there are even more to choose from.

I have no idea what the MOBOs are about these days – maybe it’s just about getting corporate sponsorship, and no-one was willing to sponsor the Jazz award.

Anyway, here’s the message from the people at Dune Records – have a read, and send an email…
_____________________________________________
The people behind the MOBO (Music Of Black Origin) Awards have scrapped the award for Best Jazz Act.

Their excuse? They cannot find 4 names to put up for nomination! This is an outrage and serves to support the widespread view in the jazz community that the MOBO organisation – an organisation purporting to promote black music – is actively marginalising jazz and jazz artists. We have a hard enough job as it is reminding people that jazz IS black music so MOBO’s action is incredibly unhelpful to the jazz sector, and to the industry as a whole.

There are few enough opportunities for jazz artists to attract the limelight so we can well do without MOBO dropping this award.

Also, in light of new education initiatives to bring jazz into the national curriculum, their action is particularly counterproductive. Not sure why MOBO feel that our young people shouldn’t be exposed/have access to jazz – it is black music after all and an incredibly creative form of black music. They tried the same thing with the Gospel prize (last year?), leading many of us to believe that MOBO is seeking to disenfranchise the very people who created black music.

According to the MOBO Organisation Mission Statement, MOBO:

– identifies, showcases and celebrates music derived from black heritage
– is RnB, Reggae, Hip-Hop, Jazz….
– seeks to promote the history of music of black origin

MOBO’s action would suggest that it’s high time their Board of Directors were reminded of their remit and take remedial action to avoid a great deal of negative publicity surrounding this decision.

Everyone interested in getting jazz and jazz artists due recognition should complain bitterly to MOBO about this utterly nonsensical move.

Tel: +44 (0)20 7419 1800 or info@mobo.com

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Douglas Coupland interview

Douglas Coupland is without doubt my favourite fiction writer. He’s the only one I can think of right now that writes in my language, where I don’t have to step out into someone else’s world to read it. Reading his books is like talking to friends you’ve known for years, with whom you have endless shared jokes and a whole private vocabulary.

I’ve just finished his book-before-last, Eleanor Rigby, which is wonderful – full of the usual Coupland-style reliance on huge coincidence and wrestling with the most enormous questions of modern life, without positing any particular answers, just challenging all of us to live for something bigger, better, more noble than the world as it’s presented to us.

There’s a wonderful interview in the back of the book, which I was trying to find a link to online, but all I found was this one which accompanied his latest book JPod. JPod’s another fine book, though it’s more impressive than deep, in the way that Eleanor Rigby is deep, or Girlfriend In A Coma… it’s back to the zeitgeist defining magic of Generation X, Life After God and Microserfs, rather than the more traditional novel narrative of Miss Wyoming or All Families Are Psychotic.

Anyway, if you haven’t read Eleanor Rigby yet, but the version got the interview in the back – the interview is worth the price of the book itself. Great stuff.

I just wish he’d keep a blog, but I guess after a day writing, the last thing you want to do is write more. It’d be like me putting tonnes of free music online daily. Great idea, but really, if I’m going to be recording music, it’s going to be working towards a bigger project, not just throw-away MusiBlog stuff…

And now that book’s finished, I’m reading ‘God Has A Dream’ by Desmond Tutu – more about this when I’ve finished it. Suffice to say, he’s one of the most profound and inspiring human beings I’ve ever come across.

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Favourite cover versions

Inspired by all the practicing for my edinburgh show with Julie, I thought I’d compile a top 5 cover versions list for y’all, in no particular order –

Boys Of Summer – The Ataris (originally Don Henley)
This Must Be the Place – Shawn Colvin (originally Talking Heads)
Like A Virgin – Teenage Fanclub (originally Madonna)
Smooth Criminal – Alien Ant Farm (originally Michael Jackson)
Little Red Corvette – Seth Horan (originally Prince – I don’t think Seth has released this, but I’ve heard him do it live a number of times, and it’s magic)

As you can maybe guess from the Ataris/Teenage Fanclub/Alien Ant Farm inclusions, I have a penchant for rocked up noisy versions of 80s classics – have always wanted to form a band doing that. Maybe I will one day, but right now, the duo with Julie is just as much fun, and a lot quieter which is preferable for a man of my advanced years and tender constitution.

And as those of you that ever look at my last.fm page will know, I can’t stop listening to our version of ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’. It’s another rehearsal demo, with the occasional duff note, unintended squeak and whatnot, but I’m loving it. :o)

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Vortex fund-raiser next week

I’ll be away, but some of you might want to go to this –

Internationally known and loved, the Vortex Jazz Club is holding its first benefit gig at the Hackney Empire on 12 July 2006 in aid of its education and community programme in Dalston, its new home.
It will be a night of stunning jazz, funk and fusion with the James Taylor Quintet and Julia Biel plus a special guest (to be announced).

Now the important bit- you need to actually book tickets!

There’s a few ways you can do this:
Call the vortex- 020 7254 4097
Call the Hackney Empire – 020 8985 2424
Or for the people who dislike talking to anyone- www.spicefestival.com

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