Like a List-errr in the Sun: Yet Another Rambling News Post

Bloody hell, there's a lot been going on lately, since the last rambling news post there have been a shit load of announcements. Some of them good and some of them down right shite. I guess it's best to get the bad news out of the way first, as it's better to end on a high, right?!

As I am sure of many of you will already be aware, the BBC have decided to call time on BBC Introducing in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales and lump them all into one big UK-wide programme. To say it's a kick in the nuts for the Scottish music scene is a bit of an understatement. In recent years we have seen taken some pretty massive steps forward in the way that view folk the Scottish music scene, so I am pretty damn gutted to see it go. You can read more about what happened over on The Pop Cop.

On a more positive note for the Scottish music scene, the SAY Award shortlist was announced earlier this morning. The award which is being touted as Scotland's answer to the Mercuries, have managed to whittle down what are deemed to be the top 10 Scottish albums to be released in 2010. Admittedly I am still a bit bitter that Adam Stafford didn't even make the long list, but hey there's still loads of great stuff in there. I was pretty damn chuffed to see Happy Particles make the final list, for a band who didn't have a label and released their album on Christmas fucking Day, it's great to see them up there with the more established artists. Personally I think they might well be in with a shout, but that could be my heart leading my head.

The artists that will compete to win the inaugural SAY Award on June 19 with added bonus of a first prize of £20k will be one of the following:

Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat – Everything’s Getting Older
Conquering Animal Sound – Kammerspiel
Happy Particles – Under Sleeping Waves
King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine
Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
Mungo’s Hi Fi – Forward Ever
Remember Remember – The Quickening
Rustie – Glass Swords
Tommy Smith – Karma
Twin Atlantic – Free (who made the list thanks to being the winners of the public vote).

With each of the shortlisted artists are already guaranteed £1k, I guess this is the Ying to BBC Introducing's Yang. It's about time that us Scots got out there and started shouting about just how great the music our country is producing really is, I think the SAY Awards is a great way to start.

Talking about showcasing Scottish talent, King Tut's have announced the line up for this years Summer Nights Festival. The festival which runs for a fortnight in July aims to showcase some of the most exciting up and coming bands that Scotland has to offer. If you haven't already seen the line up, then it looks something like this:

Thursday 12th  – Pronto Mama, Brazil Exists, The Little Kicks and Lost City Soul 
Friday 13th  – Hector Bizerk, Madhat McGore, Bigg Taj feat. Spee SixNine & Becci Wallace and BilL Breaks 
Saturday 14th  – John Wean, The NK Jays, Seed and Minor Delilah 
Sunday 15th  – Xavia, Lost in Audio, Atlas : Empire and Seams 
Monday 16th  – Daniel Docherty, Craig Fagan, Chloe Latimer and Anna Shields 
Tuesday 17th  – Beerjacket & Friends play 'The White Feather Trail' and other favourites, Quickbeam and Mike Nisbet 
Wednesday 18th – Brown Bear And The Bandits, The Sea Kings, Aaron Wright and Lovers Turn To Monsters 
Thursday 19th – Midnight Lion, Galleries and Aames
Friday 20th – Holy Esque, Queen Jane, The Mirror Trap and The 10:04s 
Saturday 21st – Jack Butler, Selective Service, Mickey 9′s and Kobi 
Sunday 22nd – The Recovery!, Hunt / Gather, Fat Janitor and No Island
Monday 23rd – The Unwinding Hours, Olympic Swimmers and Dead Electric 
Tuesday 24th – Fires Attract, Scarlet Shift, The Darien Venture and Crusades 
Wednesday 25th – Randolph's Leap, Jonny Jack,  Blue Sky Archives and Bronagh Monahan 
Thursday 26th – DARC, The Mouse That Ate The Cat, Johnny And The Giros and TeKlo

Tickets for all of the gigs are on sale now (just click on the link above), there will be a limited number of Golden Tickets going on sale shortly which will allow you to get entry to ever single night of the festival at a much reduced rate. For further details just check out the King Tut's homepage.

We Were Promised Jetpacks will be out on the road shortly promoting their last album, 'In The Pit Of The Stomach'. Calling all over Scotland the band have a number of dates booked up, including an appearance at the Tweedlove Festival in Peebles on Saturday the 2nd of June. The event which is being held at Peebles Burgh Hall, also features some special guests (I have no idea who this) and a DJ Set from the Frightened Rabbit boys. Tickets for the gig are £15 in advance and they're available here. The rest of the tour looks something like this:

May 23rd - Doghouse, Dundee
May 24th - Lemontree, Aberdeen
May 25th - Ironworks, Inverness
May 26th - PJ Molloy's, Dunfermline
May 31st - Tolbooth, Stirling
2nd June - Tweedlove Festival, Peebles
3rd June - The Dirty Weekender, Kilmarnock

24th June - Oran Mor, Glasgow (alongside Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells, R M Hubbert, Remember Remember,Withered Hand, Monoganon and loads more)



Edinburgh outfit, Matt Norris And The Moon, release their new EP, 'This Kingdom' EP on the 23rd of May through 17 Seconds Records. To celebrate they're having a wee release shindig at the Voodoo Rooms the same day. Support on the evening comes from Donna Maciocia, Randolph's Leap, Nicky Carder and there will also be a DJ Set from Ed '17 Seconds). To get you in the mood you can watch the video for the single, Roots Below errrr below....

Those fabulous Born To Be Wide boys are back with another excellent seminar evenings, this month event is entitled 'Beyond The Regular Gig', and it will be focusing on playing live in unusual locations, private homes, club nights and corporate events. Panelists will include Douglas Robertson, who has hosted dozens of concerts in his Edinburgh home, Andy Richardson whose Trouble club nights include live acts,  Ally McCrae, who combines his BBC activity with co-running Detour events and Nick Herd who has hosted concerts in churches, recording studios and galleries apparently. Tickets for the event are on sale now.


Right, I think that's enough ramblings for one evening, to finish up with I have Adam Stafford's new video of him performing Shot-down You Summer Wannabes live. The song which is taken from last years Build a Harbour Immediately album, is a personal favourite of mine, so I am pretty chuffed that it's going to be coming out on blue 7" via Kingfisher Bluez in August. If you're heading out to Stag & Dagger this Saturday, then you catch him playing live at Sleazy's at 4.30pm.

Massive News Thread (warning contains lots of rambling)

It's been a wee while since I did a news round up, so I guess just now is as good a time as any to give you a heads up on a few wee bits and bobs in the Scottish music scene...

To kick this all off we have some good news, Mitchell Museum have ended their hiatus and have now been busy working away on new tunes.There's also been a wee bit of a line up change, with Dougie leaving the band, being replace Gavin Thomson, he of Findo Gask, grnr, Zoey Van Goey fame. The band have already started to recording demos for their 2nd album, as a wee teaser you can stream a new song called ‘Glasshouse’ over on their SoundCloud page. Nice to have you back boys, the world feels like a better place now that Mitchell Museum exist once more.

Secondly we have a wee bit more news regarding the Brew at the Bog Festival which takes place for the first time on Saturday 5 May 2012 at Bogbain Farm on the outskirts of Inverness.  The big announcement is that goNORTH are going to be host the second stage at the the event which sees some of the most exciting emerging talent in Scotland relocating to the Highland capital for the weekend.

The second stage which is going to be compered by our friends at Net Sounds Unsigned, will feature an array of talent from the Highlands and Islands including KOBI, Megan Blyth, He Slept on 57, Mike Nisbet and Open Day Rotation. This is of course on top of the line up which had previously been announced which includes Three Blind Wolves, Washington Irving, Endor, The Seventeenth Century, Stanley Odd, Over The Wall, Beerjacket, Kitty The Lion and Fatherson among others.

Tickets for the day long extravaganza of new music and new beer are priced at just £45 and are available here. Limited camping is also available.

Scotland’s annual music conference and showcase event, Wide Days have just announced that the first seminars for this year’s daytime programme. Taking place on Wednesday the 11th and Thursday the12th of April, the seminars will once again be held in Edinburgh’s Teviot House, with the showcase gigs being held in various venues across the city (provided that there's any venues left by April). Having attended this last year, I only have good things to say about it, much like goNorth it's a great way for you to learn and more importantly to give you the opportunity to go and speak to people within the industry that you might not normally have the chance to speak to. That and in the evenings they put on some pretty amazing bands, last year they had Rachel Sermanni, Withered Hand and PAWS to name just a few. If you're quick off the mark then you can pick up tickets at the special early bird rate of £29 until March 12, after which they'll go up to the full price of £45. If you want further information on the event or you fancy picking up some tickets then just head here.

Talking of festivals, Doune The Rabbit Hole have announced the line up for this years event, which will take place at Duncarron Fort, near Kilsyth, on the weekend of August 24-26th. So far they've announced a whole host of local talent including The Phantom Band and Withered Hand. Weekend camping tickets are available now priced £78 if purchased before April 1st, £88 there after, day tickets are also available. For further information on the event check out their website.

I guess that most of you are already fully aware that submissions for this years T Break opened on Monday there. If you fancy applying to be one of 16 bands that are hand-picked from over a thousand entries by a panel made up of industry experts to play T in the Park, then you can do so here.

Local promoters, Pelmet Nites have just announced that they plan to thrown Glasgow's Biggest St Paddy's Day Party. On Saturday the 17th March they'll be taking over the QMU for a night of debauchery featuring am array of Scottish talent, including live performances from Aerials Up, Discopolis, Kobi Onyame, PartWindPartWolf and A Plastic Rose, plus DJ sets from Detour and MILK. Early tickets are on sale now for only £5 for non students via TicketScotland. Check out their Facebook for further details.

Wur pals, Kid Canaveral have just announced a series of dates, which includes a couple of Scottish shows. on Sunday the 15th of April they'll be playing Fence's Eye O' The Dug of the festival in St Andrews. Then on the 3rd of May they'll be through in sunny Glasgow at the CCA supporting the Pictish Trail, after which they'll be heading down south for a series of dates. I've heard a couple of new tunes which see the band retaining that distinctive Kid C vibe, whilst sounding that bit more mature. Excited?! You should be!




If  you don't follow Aidan Moffat on twitter, then you're really missing a trick. If you don't believe me then check out this compilation of some of his most amusing tweets that the Pop Cop turned into a whole post. His tweets are now the thing of legend, I often find myself trawling through a whole host of his semi-inebriated reviews of what he's been watching on MTV in the middle of the night. Funny as fuck they are too. After a few too many shandies one night, Aidan mentioned how much he loved all three 80’s megahits entitled 'The Power of Love'. Upon hearing this confession, none other than the deputy editor of MOJO, a Mr Andrew Male, then posed the following innocuous question: "Has anyone ever managed a medley of all three?" Not being one to turn down a challenge, Aidan roped in his current co-hort, Bill Wells to take this challenge on. Not only did they manage to craft all three songs into one, but they were also able to squeeze in Peter Cetera's 'Glory of Love' for the sheer thrill of it, soliciting some backing vocals from, amongst others, Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake. You can have a listen to the results below, which will also be available on limited 7" vinyl just in time for Bill and Aidan's UK tour which kicks off at the end of this month.

  The Powers And The Glory Of Love by Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat by Aidan John Moffat

 Mini music festival promoters, A Quiet Night In have announced a couple of shows in Stereo this March. On the 20th they have Finding Albert appearing alongside It Girl, Kill The Waves, One Last Secret and Colour-Coded. Then on the 28th they're putting on the recent winners of  the Best Acoustic act at this years Scottish Alternative Music Awards, Brown Bear & The Bandits, which is also their debut headline show. Alongside them there will be our very own Randolph's Leap, one of my favourite singer songwriters, Michael Cassidy, plus Fole Music and Every Genius Delivers. Tickets for both nights are only £5, you can find out more information here.  


Mind I mentioned that I saw Fatherson a few weeks back  supporting Frightened Rabbit, if I didn't say it on here then I must have said on Twitter. My shitty memory fails me once again, anyway, they've just released a new video featuring a boy and his adventures with a goldfish. It's pretty fucking ace and well worthy of three and a bit minutes of your time...

Last but not least, our friends over at Audio Antihero have just released a new charity compilation which features a whopping 36 tracks. The album which is entitled “Some.Alternate.Universe” is being released in order to raise money for The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths and it features exclusive tracks from the entire Audio Antihero roster, plus appearances from rather special guests including the likes of Jeffrey Lewis, and Johnny Foreigner. Plus most excitingly for me it includes a wealth of Scottish talent, including      Jesus H. Foxx, PAWS, The Scottish Enlightenment and Debutant. You can buy it now from the Audio Antihero Bandcamp. Like their previous compilation, it only costs a tiny £3.99 with the option and encouragement to dig deeper if you can afford to. 36 tracks for less than 4 quid and you get to do your bit for charity, it's a no brainer really...

Born To Be Wide: Festivals Seminar

Those nice folk at Born To Wide, Scotland’s only regular music-business seminar night, have announced that their first seminar of the year will take place next month and it is going to be devoted to music festivals and the opportunities that they can offer to emerging acts. Taking place at their regular haunt, Edinburgh’s Electric Circus, the event will be held on Thursday 2 February, it will detail the selection procedure, fees, what artists are offered in terms of promotion and how they can make the best use of the opportunity.

To date they've confirmed that they will have folk along from  DF Concerts (who put on T In The Park/The Edge Festival), Knockengorroch Festival, The Insider Festival and Go Events (who put on goNorth and also showcase at events such as Wickerman, Belladrum, Loopallu and Wizard.

“Festivals offer a great platform for emerging acts to reach new audiences,” says Born To Be Wide co-organiser, Olaf Furniss. “This event will provide a unique insight into what festivals offer, and will also give musicians the opportunity to meet the bookers. We recommend people bring their CDs!“

After the panel, the seminar guests will stay at the venue to DJ with records they have selected from Edinburgh’s Oxfam music shop. Everything played will be for sale with all proceeds going to the charity.

Buy tickets in advance and save money, click below or visit: www.borntobewide.bigcartel.com

Summer Break

I have been promising myself a beak for ages now, but there's always been something that's sprung up that's made me keep going. However, seeing as it's the summer time and things are a wee bit quieter I have decided to cut back on my posts for a few weeks. I will still be posting the odd session here and there, plus I will have a few Fresh Monday posts and perhaps a sporadic ramble or two. However, there will be no Friday Freebies posts for the a few weeks and I'll also be taking a break from my Scots Way-Hay posts so I can recharge my batteries a wee bit.


But before I bugger off here's some news for y'all...




Peenko favourites, Mitchell Museum return with a new single which comes out on Monday, it's called 'What They Built' and it's the bands first new track in the lead up to their second album release which is due out in early 2012. The single will be out digitally, plus there is also going to be a super exclusive run of children's keyboards with the single download code hidden somewhere inside. Apparently you have two options to reclaim the code: A: Systematically remove the screws from the underside of the keyboard to gain access or B: Smash it to pieces.

What They Built - Single by mitchellmuseum

The band celebrate the singles release with a show tonight with a gig at Stereo in Glasgow, support comes from their friends Fur Hood and Andrea Marini (last I head one of these two had pulled out, not sure which one though), it all kicks off. If any of you kind souls have extra pennies to spare and you're going to this gig I'd love you forever if you could pick me up up one of them pretty keyboards. Yeah I know the chances of anyone doing this are pretty fucking slim, but I can only ask...

Mitchell Museum - What They Built (Marc Riley Session)


If you're out about in Edinburgh tonight then you might want to get yourself along to a fundraising event for The SSC (A Club for the Youth of Scotland) at the Cabaret Voltaire.
Doing their bit for charity are none other than Washington Irving (who I caught for the first time last Sunday and were ace), Bwani Juntion, Matt Norris & the Moon, and recent Scots Way-Hay starlet, Mike Nisbet. The gig kicks off at 7pm, you can pre-order tickets in advance here. Further information on the gig can be found on Facebook.

Washington Irving - Babble (MFR Session)

If Mitchell Museum aren't your thing, but you're still looking for something to do in Glasgow tonight, then Nice N Sleazy's might be for you, as Aberdeen's finest sons Indian Red Lopez are in town to promote their cracking debut album 'Empty Your Lungs and Breathe'. The boys were on top form when they played the bloggers showcase night at goNorth, so I can vouch that they're great to see live. Support tonight comes from local starlets Blue Sky Archives and The Brazen Cars, it's only £5 to get in and it all kicks off at 8pm. Further details can be found here.

IndianRedLopez - My Eyes


On Tuesday night BBC Scotland will be airing their documentary on the Scottish bands that played at this years SXSW Festival. This will include Peenko favourites such as Kid Canaveral, Admiral Fallow, The Twilight Sad, Bronto Skylift, Withered Hand and King Creosote among other. The show will be on at 9pm on BBC2, however, you can watch a wee taster video below:

The Electric Frog Summer Weekender returns on the 30th-31st of July. The festival which is held at SWG3 (street & warehouse) in Glasgow, this years feature performances from bands such as The Fall, Nitzer Ebb, Chrome Hoof, Errors and a lot more. Early bird tickets are available now, with day tickets setting you back £22.50 (+ booking fees) and weekend tickets at £40 (+ booking fees). Further details can be found on the festivals website.

Errors - A Rumour in Africa


On Thursday Born To Be Wide are hosting a seminar explaining how to get music synched in ads, TV, film and computer games. The event takes place from 1930-2130 at Edinburgh’s Electric Circus and will be followed by Buy What You Hear DJ sets in partnership with the Oxfam Record Shop. Confirmed speakers include Gerry Farrell, creative director of the Leith Agency and David Harron, Executive producer at BBC Scotland. They will be joined by one of Scotland’s leading music supervisors, Caroline Gorman from Rage Music and David McGinnis, A&R and head of licensing at Mute Song. An additional guest is expected to be confirmed in the coming days. “Getting music synced can be a valuable source of extra income for musicians, and can also generate useful exposure,” says Born To Be Wide co-organiser, Olaf Furniss. “Each of the panellists is an invaluable source of information and will be able to shed light on this aspect of the business.” The seminar will cover how the music choices are made, how much money is paid and will provide tips on the best way of getting music used. Following the panel, the participants will DJ with tunes they have selected from the Oxfam Record Shop and everything played will be available to buy. Further details on how to book tickets and the like can be found here.



Right I guess that's enough from me for one post, I'm going to finish up with this cracking wee video this years Homegame Festival. The video is sound tracked by Kid Canaveral and their cover of King Creosote's 'Missionary' which they originally covered as part of a session that they did for Vic Galloway last year. This studio recording even features King C on backing vocals and accordion and it sounds ace if I do say so myself. If you pre-order their album 'Shouting At Wildlife' on vinyl, they'll send you on old school cassette tape which features my favourite song on the album ʻAnd Another Thing!!ʼ and the studio recording of 'Missionary' (the tape also includes a download code). You can pre-order the album on vinyl through Fence Records, the band will also be playing on the BBC Introducing Stage next Saturday at T in the Park.

Superstar DJ?

Yes that is my cheesy mug up there, and yes I am ever so slightly tipsy. The photo was taken at last years Bloggers Delight night at the Flying Duck for Pin Up Nights. It wasn't my first foray into 'spinning tunes', however, it was the first time that I did it as Peenko. From what I can remember of the night it was really good fun, I don't recall making too many mistakes aside from dropping my pint. It was just after the first ever Ayetunes vs Peenko gig, so I had already had a few sherbets to calm my nerves/celebrate.

Since that night I have done a couple of other stints behind the decks at both the Kid Canaveral and Come on Gang! album launches. Now it appears that folk reckon I might actually be no bad at this putting a record on and pressing play, malarkey. In the next couple of months I will be inflicting my musical tastes on the general public.



On Thursday of this week I will be taking part in this months latest Born To Be Wide at the Electric Circus in Edinburgh for a seminar on blogging, alongside Jason from The Pop Cop, Matthew from Song By Toad and Scott Hutchison from Frightened Rabbit.
The aim is to provide an insight into how to go about setting up your own music blog, to discuss the importance of blogs in helping emerging acts and basically anything else that happens in the blogosphere. It should be a really interesting evening as we're all quite opinionated people.
Following the seminar, we are all going to turn our hand at spinning some records that we will have selected from Edinburgh’s Oxfam record shop that day, with everything that gets played being available to buy, with the proceeds going to the charity.
The evening all kicks off at 19:30, with the seminar running through until 2:130, you'll be pleased to learn that there's an interval half way through, oh and there's also a bar. Tickets are just £4.50, £3 to Musicians Union members and £2.50 for under 18s, you can buy them in advance here.



After Born To Be Wide, I will also be doing a couple more sets in May. Starting off with Miaoux Miaoux's single launch at Mono on the 17th, details for this one are still being finalised so I will let you know more about it nearer to the time. After this me and my fellow bloggers, The Pop Cop, Radar, Glasgow Podcart and Ayetunes, will be returning to play at the second Bloggers Delight evening being put on by the awesome folk at Pin Up Nights at the Flying Duck. There will also be live music on the evening from Endor, Mondegreen and Tokamak. Sadly my choice, Michael Cassidy has had to pull out of the evening.





My last stint behind the decks will be at the final Barmellodie night at Bar Bloc on Friday the 17th of June. The music for the evening comes from Cuddly Shark, Galoshins, Something Beginning With L and Lady North. Talk about going out with a bang, the first band will on about 11pm through until the wee hours of the morning. Entry is free until 11pm, then £2 thereafter.
Fuck knows what state I am going to get myself into, I guess it will be fun to find out!

Scott Hutchison-The Modern Leper

Miaoux Miaoux - Snow

Cuddly Shark - Bowl Of Cherries

Mondegreen - Casting Error

Endor - Without the Help of Sparks

Wide Days 2011 - The Peenko Review

It's taken me a few days, but I am now just starting to get back to normality after attending last weeks Wide Days event in Edinburgh. For those of you who are in the dark as to what Wide Days is, it's a music industry event featuring seminars and workshops during the day, then showcase gigs in the evening. It's put on by the innovative Born To Be Wide folk, who you might remember me talking about after last years goNorth event.

Meeting a very bleary eyed Pop Cop at an ungodly hour of the morning at Queen Street Station in Glasgow, it almost felt like we were on holiday for the day as we made the trip east through to the Capital for my first ever experience of Wide Days. Despite our inability to read a map, we manage to locate the venue with relative ease.

photo by Dom Holt

The event, held at Teviot House which is part of Edinburgh University, was introduced by Wide Days main man Olaf Furniss who announced that the last time he was on that stage he was naked. Not exactly the kind of image you want in your head first thing in the morning (and the rest of the day). The first seminar of the day was titled 'Making Touring Pay'. Having never been in a band or been on tour for that matter, I was surprised by how much I took away from it. The seminar had focused on the importance of the need for bands to do their homework before they even think about setting off on tour, as when you add up all of the various factors it is really expensive to tour. The general consensus from the panel was that artists should look to their contemporaries and what they're doing, but that the best way to learn is to simply do it yourself. Bands needs to make sure they budget their costs, making sure that the route of the tour makes financial sense. Plus they should always over budget and have a contingency plan in case things go wrong as they often do. When you are budgeting for a tour also make sure you only base your figures on guaranteed fees.
In economic terms, for any Scottish bands thinking of touring south of the border for the first time, it makes more sense for them to go down to London and play numerous shows across the city as opposed to a more financially crippling UK tour.
Also, if it's your first ever tour then you are highly unlikely to make any money, so as you are going to be on such a tight budget make sure you agree terms with promoters well in advance, for things such as technical requirements and the possibility of getting food before a show. If you can, scrap asking for drinks on a rider and ask for things like food or accommodation instead.
In terms of doing your research it makes more sense to think about where an audience might be for your music, using social media tools such as Facebook stats and the like.
In terms of merchandise, this is something that can make touring financially viable. You can often make more money from selling t-shirts and CDs after the gig than you do from the fee for the gig itself. It's important though that you make merchandise affordable.

In terms of royalties I was genuinely surprised as to how important this was, for example bands who have played on the lower stages of festivals (on things like the BBC Introducing stage at Reading) can make thousands of pounds from MCPS or PRS. The best way to find out about these kind of things is to speak MCPS or PRS directly, as they are approachable and willing to help you out.
Also, make sure that any money that you do make is saved and make sure you plan for the future (this almost sounds like the kind of lecture my mum used to give me).

The best way for you to sell records is still by touring. If you have people working for you such as a press agency, booking agent or manager then it's vital that all of these people talk to each other to make sure that everyone is working towards the same goals.

Lastly, even once you have finished touring the job isn't done, you need to continue to work on the relationship with your fans through social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, etc.

I know I have talked a lot about this seminar, but I genuinely found this to be the most informative seminar of the day and the most important one to share with you all.


Following on from this seminar there was workshop with the journalist Neil Cooper, on how to Write A Killer Bio. Seeing as we have our own label I was looking forward to getting a good few tips. In all honesty though I don't think I learned all that much, it was more a case of reinforcing what I already knew. The important points that you need to think about are things like ensuring your press release contains all of the facts, that you have a background story in order to make it interesting and that what you are saying is factually correct. Make sure you include any press quotes about the band and that you note who does what in the band.
If you've got something interesting that the writer can use, then give them something that they can grab hold of. Make sure that your bio is no longer than one page, don't ramble and most importantly don't miss out any practical information like contact details.

photo by Dom Holt

The seminar, Not Just SXSW, was pretty interesting, it was aimed to provide an insight into the numerous showcase events that are held across the UK and Continental Europe, discussing the opportunities that they provide. Outside of things of the Great Escape, Liverpool Sound City and In The City, I must admit that I was pretty clueless about what else is out there for bands. The general consensus seemed to be that Eurosonic in Holland, is a great showcase event, with it's size and also the fact that by playing at it they guarantee you slots on various European festivals. This is similar to what goNorth is doing this year with guaranteed slots at Wickerman, Belladrum, etc. Other events that were of note included Brighton Live, which takes place in October and Belam Festival in Oslo, although this festival is particularly aimed at Scandinavian bands.
One point that was stressed was the importance of being 'export ready', as in you need to have built yourself up back home before you should be thinking about going to any of these kinds of events. You also need to think about what the event can offer you afterwards, how you're going to stay in peoples minds. There is a need to remember that you are dealing with a business audience, so it's important to network and that your job isn't done once you've finished playing, you need to get out there and catch them while they're hot.

When it comes to applying for events like this it was stressed how important it is to complete all of the fields of the application form. That might sound pretty obvious, but from the sound of it you'd be amazed at the number of bands who don't seem to bother to do this.

If you are looking to find out more about the events that are out there then the best places to check are the AIM calendar for music events and the Finish Music Export site.


Some of you will be pleased to learn that around this time we decided to take a break for lunch and more importantly that I stopped taking such detailed notes about all of the seminars and workshops. In the afternoon session we were treated to a seminar that turned into more of a debate on the subject of Digital DIY vs Record Labels. Although I didn't learn too much it was probably my favourite seminar of the day, with the debate getting a bit tasty. It was interesting to hear Stewart Henderson from Chemikal Underground talking about running a label. It was strange to hear how they still haven't really embraced new platforms such as Bandcamp and the like. The main thing that I took away from it was that we are all still learning. Which was quite a comforting thought for someone in my position.

The Music In Films seminar was interesting in that it gave more of an insight into how much money there is to be made from having your music in films and documentaries. The figures varied quite a bit, but it was still well in the thousands. So definitely an avenue that should be worth pursuing. They also emphasised how important it was to have instrumental versions of your songs and that you should try and make sure the BBC know who you are.

Other workshops on Online Promotion and Music Making Money filled out the afternoon, the latter was taken by a fella by the name of Scott Cohen (who manages the Raveonettes and also works for a company called The Orchard) and was particularly interesting as he argued that the idea that piracy was killing the music industry wasn't factually correct. He was able to demonstrate this with various graphs showing that in fact sales of recorded music had actually risen. He pointed out that all that has changed is the way that music is consumed. People are now buying individual tracks as opposed to albums and it seems as if the industry hasn't kept pace. He had a lot to say and to be perfectly honest I would happily have listened to him talk for a lot longer.

The afternoon finishes with a Keynote Q&A with Barry Wright of Regular Music in conversation with Olaf Furniss, in which he retold stories from his 4 decades of experience in the music industry. He recalled stories about how he started running his punk gigs, how he was one of the first people to put on stadium gigs in Scotland, right through to how he started putting on the world famous Hogmanay parties.

It was a fitting end to a fine afternoon, having been to numerous events like this south of the border, I must admit that Wide Days is a breath of fresh air as the compares didn't allow the panellists to go on an ego trip about what they've done. Instead, they asked the questions that are relevant to the audience, taking no bull shit as they go. With the perception that Scotland is continually ignored by the London based industry, events like this are vital in order to educate folk and also for us to show that we can stand on our own two feet and achieve something for ourselves. Hats off to you boys!




After all of the seminars and workshops had finished for the day we found ourselves kicking about afterwards for ages, which meant that we ended up getting to the showcase gigs pretty late. So late in fact that as we arrive at the first venue Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh band Letters are literally just finishing up for the evening. So I can't really comment on them, PAWS however, absolutely blew me away. This was the first time that I had seen them play a full on rock show, the only other time I had seen them they were playing their first (and last apparently), acoustic show. Anything following that had a lot to live up to. Rachel Sermanni who wowed the crowd at the Cabaret Voltaire was next. I must admit that as great as she is, I still haven't heard a song of hers yet that will perceivably break her through into the mainstream. I look forward to being proved wrong though.

Next up at the Cab Vol we have Withered Hand, or the 'visa guy' as he's now more commonly known. This was the first time that I had seen Dan play with a full band behind him. To say that it made a difference would be a massive fucking understatement, as with the help of his friends, his sound was much bolder, the added confidence of having a band behind you really shows, allowing Withered Hand to steal the show out of all the bands that played.

After this we head off down to the Electric Circus for the final showcases of the evening from Capitals and GoGoBot. Neither of whom really do much for me I am afraid, so I soon found myself in a corner discussing We Were Promised Jetpacks new side project, drinking JD & Cokes with my 'new best friends' from Gerry Loves Records and I think I even tried to sign a band at one point. From then on in the night descended into chaos, with me rambling pish to anyone who would listen, laughing at Olaf Furniss dancing on the dance floor, until I finally decided enough was enough and I headed for the warmth of my hotel.
Unfortunately for me, the night didn't finish there as I drunkenly found myself locked out of my hotel room at 4am in just my pants and socks, lets just say reception weren't exactly pleased to witness that site. Wide Days you educated me, you got me drunk, you destroyed what little dignity I had left, butit's safe to say I will be back next year for more of the same if you'll have me.

Wide Days

PAWS - Winners Don't Bleed

Withered Hand - Cornflake

Rachel Sermanni - Eggshells

Letters - Grand National Master

For a more informative round up on Wide Days you should check out the reviews on the Pop Cop, Is This Music and over on Jenny Soep's blog.

thanks to Jenny Soep for letting me use this cracking wee picture