Music News and Views

Freezing Heart Instrumental

2011-02-02T22:07:00.010Z

I've uploaded a new piece of music to my bandcamp site, its called Freezing Heart. The piece of music has existed for around 10 years, recorded in the Quecia studio by yours truly, originally titled "Don't Cry". It's taken a while to finish as it became a song for a while, but never saw the light of day.

The artwork is by my son Jamie Picton, I always liked this picture and he has very kindly given me permission to use it. Either that or I won't let him back in the house!

The track is under pinned by the original demo which you can hear at the start and end, also sections of the harp and synths are from that recording. I've programmed new drums using Toontrack's fantastic EZdrummer. I played Strings and Violins etc in Reason 4. The bass, electric and acoustic guitars are all played by me.

Anyway enough of the technicalities, you can Download the track for Free, or pay what you like, you decide, thanks for stopping by

Musical Thoughts For Nought

2011-01-08T16:11:00.005Z

I've decided to put all Quecia's Music on Youtube. Here's my first attempt at making a video with stills from the past and a few effects. The track is called Winter's Tale taken from our debut album "This Is Where We Are". Hope you like it, more to come...

Search queciamusic on Youtube for more videos

Musical Thoughts For Nought

Turkey Holiday

2010-08-30T11:29:00.006+01:00

I just got back from a holiday in Turkey with my wife and youngest son Lucas. My first time in Turkey and I took quite a lot of holiday pics, as you do, but I particularly liked this one. We went on a boat trip and I climbed to the top of a rock in the middle of the sea where we had docked and looked over the top and saw this view. Not the typical view I'm used to coming from Wigan.

While there I tried to take in a bit of the culture, as the Turks are a pretty friendly lot. I particularly liked the bartering system when you want to buy something. My general rule of thumb was to ask the price, offer half and see if we could meet in the middle somewhere. No idea if it worked but good fun. We went to a tented market in the town of Hisaronu, where we stayed and as you entered at one end, the way the tenting was constructed meant you couldn't get out until you had passed every stall. The system is employed by Ikea, but better things to look at in Turkey!

The funniest thing about the market was hearing the Turkish vendors imitating the Brits, coming out with northern phrases such as "Cheap as Chips " and "Haaw Mooch?" (that's How Much? in proper English).

I also got to listen to a bit of Turkish music thanks to the bar lads at the hotel. I think the scales and patterns they use in the music are alien to our pop culture and I found some of it mesmerizing with the rhythms and melodies taking you in some unusual directions. It made me want to absorb some more, I did try and look for a music store but couldn't find anything. I think I will take a listen to some more traditional Turkish music in the hope it will inspire me in some of my song writing. Its also made me want to investigate some more World Music and that can only be a good thing. I think...

Musical Thoughts For Nought

Awakenings

2010-06-25T09:24:00.012+01:00

The other morning for no apparent reason I woke extremely early, 4-30am I think it was. Normally I would just turn over and go back to sleep but I just happened to catch sight of the sky as the sunrise was taking place. I couldn't see much from where I was, so I thought I'll get up and take a better look. I'm so glad I did, as the sun was coming up it was kind of back lighting the clouds. I didn't have time to find my camera so I grabbed my phone and leaned out of the window and took the first picture. I thought that was ok, but decided it would be better to take some from outside in the street.

Quickly I threw some shorts on and dashed down stairs. I got into the street and took 3 other pics, stood there bare foot and boxers, not a pretty sight for the neighbors. Hopefully they were all sound asleep.
I went inside again and realized my camera was on a lower resolution, so I altered the settings, ran back outside but the effect had gone. The angle of the sun must have been perfect for a few minutes then changed and the effect was no more. Anyway hope you enjoy the resulting pics. One was chosen for photo of the day by the BBC and resides now in their Flickr site, which is very nice. Hopefully I can use them myself in my future projects.

Musical Thoughts For Nought

Home Studio pic

2010-05-06T20:58:00.002+01:00

A picture of my little home studio in the corner under the stairs. At least I'm not locked away in the attic. Its actually all I need and quite compact. The 3 guitars I use are a 6 string Ibanez btb Bass, a Fender stratocaster, and an Ozark electro acoustic. The piano is a Roland weighted keyboard midi'd to Reason in the PC and midi'd to a Korg TR-Rack. My audio interface is a Line 6 toneport into the PC via usb. The Digital Audio Workstation I use is Cubase SX3 which also runs Reason 4.0 software via Rewire. I have used other DAW's but I like Cubase and know it back to front and it does what it I ask it to so don't need to change. I have tons of plug-ins including a large Waves pack. I use Ezdrummer and Superior Drummer for programming drums and that's about it.
I'm happy with the set up and thought I'd share it with you.

The Fleece recording studio.

2010-04-16T18:23:00.004+01:00

Was passing The Fleece in Ashton-in-Makerfield last night, the upstairs of this pub is where we recorded Quecia's debut album "This Is Where We Are". The traffic stopped so I thought I'd take another random photograph, good memories and still a live venue for local bands, every Friday and Saturday night.

Musical Thoughts For Nought

Times they are a Changing

2010-04-01T13:41:00.017+01:00

I was just on Facebook and I saw a comment and video on "Classic Rock Presents Prog" page of Annie Haslam and the band Renaissance saying she was "one of our fave female vocalists" and how it takes you back to your childhood. This comment made me think back to my teenage years and to the wonderful Sonja Kristina, the lead singer with the 70's Prog band Curved Air. Someone who I thought was absolutely stunning and beautiful and a great vocalist, not just eye candy like so many today. In fact I was probably infatuated with her at the time (no I definitely was) as were many guys, now of a certain age.
Back to the story - I made a little comment on the page mentioning Sonja and the next thing I was messaged by another reader to become friends with her, which of course I did, then Sonja contacted me to become a fan of her new project "Mask" and of course I said "Yes".
This all happened within the space of a couple of hours and I am now virtual friends with a Prog goddess and a fan of her new music. This to me shows how much times have changed for the better in many respects. In the 70's or until very recently, all signed bands and artists like this were untouchable, unattainable and put on a pedestal, by the record companies and PR machine and you would never get chance to interact with them. The best you could hope for would be to read an interview in the N.M.E., Sounds or Melody Maker or maybe go and see them play live once in a blue moon, if they happened to be touring nearby.
Now I can look forward to following the progress of a very talented lady and re-new my interest in the great music she has produced over the years.
My advice - there's never been a better time to be a music fan, so search out the people you admire or have admired, and there's a good chance they'll still be making great music and you get the chance to be closer to that artist, like never before.

Musical Thoughts For Nought

Random Photographs

2010-03-28T02:09:00.004+01:00

Thought this was an interesting picture I found while scrolling thru my phone - I took it a couple of years ago on holiday in France. Its actually the view from a Carrefour supermarket car park. In case you didn't know its Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe. Don't you wish every supermarket had an interesting view as good as this. The locals seemed oblivious to it. I suppose when you've seen one mountain you've seen 'em all!

Micky Jones: 1946 - 2010

2010-03-23T15:57:00.017Z

I just heard the very sad news that one of my favorite guitarists, Micky Jones from Man passed away on the 10th of March. I knew he'd been ill for sometime, having to leave the band in 2005. Micky truly was an inspiration to me and so many others. I have seen him perform on numerous occasions and he always blew me away. He never seemed to play the same solo twice and his improvisational skills were amazing, along with his wonderful voice. To me he always sang differently to anyone else I heard and his phrasing was unique.

I first found Man as teenager at a house party, drinking cider and trying to be cool. It was the album "Rhinos, Winos and Lunatics" and I'd never heard anything like it at the time. Micky's amazing soulful voice, brilliant songs, soaring guitar solos and fabulous harmonies. I went straight out the next day and bought it. I loved that album and still do ,as it brings back so many memories - teenage lust, hot party's and even hotter summers and it was never off the turntable. I still play it now.

Unfortunately they split up before I got to see them play in the 70's but by chance one day I was driving passed a venue in Wigan (The Beer Engine) many years later and saw a poster "Man In Concert", I couldn't believe it could be the same band as I'd heard nothing about them for an age. Amazingly it was, I got my ticket and I went to see them play and they tore the place apart, the audience just wouldn't let them off the stage, - from then on I went to see them whenever I could, meeting them on a few occasions. I remember speaking to Micky about some of the albums from the past and he commented, "you don't look old enough to be a fan of us" - he truly was a lovely guy.

The biggest thing apart from the music he left me was something I'd read in Deke Leonard's book, also titled "Rhinos, Winos and Lunatics." Micky would always strive to be original at all costs and try to do something new and that concept has never left me. It kicks me in the backside every now and again and makes me sit down with a guitar and write some music. It's something I believe in as a musician.

I just found this slideshow of Man's Music on youtube that someone has put together so brilliantly. Please follow the link above and watch the video and listen to 50 Man songs in 10 minutes and you'll get a flavor of what he was all about.
R.I.P. Micky Jones, Many Are Called But Few Get Up

Musical Thoughts For Nought

CD Mastering For Your Band

2010-02-02T13:49:00.010Z

A trap a lot of Indie bands fall into when they record an album at home or in a small project studio is that they forget to finish off the process. They will record their tracks, mix them to the best of their ability and stick them up on myspace or any other music networking site and although this is fine, there is so much more than can be done to get a more professional sounding and finished product.

This is where the mastering process comes in. There are no set rules when it comes to mastering and the process can be complicated. After the process is completed the tracks can then be transferred to some kind of data storage, normally CD for reproduction or reformatted for distribution across the internet.

The process I use, is to firstly get to a final mix I'm happy with without using any compression, limiting or eq on the master channel and leaving enough headroom so that the mastering process can be more effective. If a mix is too loud with too many peaks the mastering process will be that much more difficult to obtain great results. An optimum level for a mix would be around -8db.

I've done quite a few mastering jobs over the years and I use mainly digital plugins. Here they are briefly and in the order I use them.
1. High Pass Filter: to get rid of unwanted low frequency noise and rumble
2. EQ : done to suit the track and bring out good or quash harsh frequencies
3. Compression - to tighten up the mix and gel the music together
4. Limiting - to bring up the overall volume levels of the track.
5. High Pass Filter: Again to take out any low rumble if left by the processes above.
6. Spectrum Analyser in real time (at the end of the chain) for a visual look at the track as it plays to see where any problems maybe occuring.

Other processes that may need to be done include, noise reduction, signal restoration, editing, levelling and fade ins/outs

As you can see it can be a difficult job and no doubt if we all had the money we could spend a couple of hundred quid per track sending them to a dedicated mastering engineer.

The bottom line is you should be driven by what sounds best, how you get there is irrelevant, but with a little knowledge and experience you can achieve industry standard results .With this in mind I hope to set up an affordable on-line mastering service in the near future.

Feel free to contact me on cpicton882@aol.com if you'd like to enquire about having your tracks mastered.

Musical Thoughts For Nought

A great recording website and RSS Feeds

2010-01-11T16:10:00.005Z

A while back I posted a blog about Recording and intended to follow it up with Mixing and Mastering posts but since then I found a great site which covers the whole process in far greater detail than I would ever have time for, so I thought I'd pass on the info here. The site has some fab articles, videos, tips and tricks for people with a home or project studio.

With advances in technology these days its now possible to get amazing results from the comfort of your own home.
Joe Gilder is an independent musician in his own right and is the author of Home Studio Corner and it really is a brilliant site, whether you are a pro musician or a complete novice you really should check it out. Its full of knowledge, completely free and you can sign up and download his ebook "Home Studio Production: A Roadmap to Finishing Your Album" which I found very useful. (By the way I don't know Joe and he's not paying me for this... lol)

Finally, a quick tip: You can follow many, many websites very easily, such as Home Studio Corner, if you subscribe to whats called an RSS Feed. You will see the logo at the top of the page on loads of websites and blogs and what it enables you to do is follow those sites without having to visit them individually. You download what's called a "Reader" and you can see all the updates of the sites/blogs and follow them inside the reader itself. The one I prefer is "Google Reader" and it really makes life much easier and simpler. Once downloaded you can search for the topics you are interested in and follow those websites very quickly. TTFN. Happy reading.

Musical Thoughts For Nought

Sunday Times Quote

2009-12-13T13:26:00.004Z

Thought I'd share this with you from today's Sunday Times 13th December.
Five things that reshaped pop.
At number 2 "Simon Cowell. In the 1960's, The Beatles, Bob Dylan and The Beach Boys et al transformed pop from a lowest-common-denominator business into an art form. It took only one man to reverse this process".
Don't forget to Buy Rage Against The Machine's "Killing In The Name" and join the facebook group to stop the X Factor being No 1 this Xmas...
Merry Xmas!!

Recording, Mixing and Mastering.

2009-10-12T18:48:00.009+01:00

I've been mastering a number of projects recently and decided I'd share a few thoughts on the various processes in getting to the finished product. It can take lots of effort, trial and error, but here's how I see things. There are 3 basic stages, firstly the recording stage, then mixing and mastering.

Part 1: Recording
With recording its important to take time and set things up right and if you can, experiment with different mics and different mic positions. If something sounds good in the room then providing you are recording it properly it will sound good in your project. A badly tuned drum is a badly tuned drum and all the eq' in the world won't fix it. An old drummer friend of mine used to say "you can't polish a turd" meaning if it sounds terrible in the first place then that's what you'll be stuck with as an end result. A cheap set of drums tuned properly will often sound far better than a badly tuned, more expensive kit.

Try your best to get the sound of each instrument (including vocals) the best you can in the first place and things will fall into place much easier when you come to mixing. A quick note on vocals, try and give the singer confidence, relax and encourage them as much as you can, rather than say things like "that wasn't very good". Build them up and they will deliver a much better performance. You can also try out different mics (if they are available) as certain types of mics will suit certain voices better.

For the bass I use 2 tracks if possible, one for a mic on the speaker cabinet, the other for DI straight into the desk or through a processor then into the desk, giving you options when you come to mix the 2 signals.

Again you can experiment when recording guitars. For acoustics I have used 2 mics to record the sound hole and to record the sound on the neck, or if the guitar has a pick up, record the di'd signal as well. Move the mics around to find the sweet spots and do some test recording to see what positions sound best. You can do the same when mic'ing up the electric guitar amps. Move the mic around and find out where it sounds best rather than just sticking the mic in front of a speaker cone. You'll be surprised at the difference in sounds.

I tend to use a click track with my own recordings so I can easily sequence keyboards as I'm not a great keyboard player and the quantize button is a great tool if your playing is not quite as precise as you'd like it to be. I love the soft synth "Reason" for keyboard sounds.

Its also great to record a band all playing live in the room as more often than not, if they are quite well rehearsed you can capture a great performance, once you have settled them into the environment. Again its important to help them relax and enjoy the experience especially if they are not used to a recording studio.

Anyway there's a few very brief points and I hope its of use to anyone reading. Just remember there are no rules and experimenting with different ideas will, with a bit of luck help you come up with something fresh and original. Good Luck. Parts 2 & 3 to follow...

Original Post at
http://musicalthoughtsfornought.blogspot.com/

Breathing Space's New Album - Below The Radar

2009-09-12T10:22:00.003+01:00

Breathing Space from York have just released the 3rd album and here's some news from Trevor Cotterell of the Official fan Club...

For anyone who hasn't seen it, Classic Rock mag (Geoff Barton) have nice things to say about the new album! Go out and get a copy... and order the next Prog edition whilst you're at it too!

"The handy pocket-sized dictionary of prog is dominated by words such as 'convolution' and 'pretension' - and we wouldn't have it any other way. But occasionally we hanker after a little light relief. Something that soothes rather than assaults the senses. Enter Breathing Space, who combine the worlds of prog, pop and AOR to fine effect.

Below The Radar, the space's third album, is their most accomplished to date characterised by the appropriately breathy voice of Olivia Sparnenn, whose singing is as beautiful as her hair (Get a grip -Ed) the title track sets the scene: a progged-up mix of John Waite, Loverboy and Moonlight Shadow. But mood-changes also abound. The Night Takes You Home is full of fragile melancholy; the piano-led Dusk is the ideal soundtrack to a bout of sombre late-nite reflection; Drowning is like a female-fronted Marillion. They save the best until last: Questioning Eyes begins sparsely then grows in stature, climaxing in an orgy of swirling guitar. Oh - and make sure you stay the course for the surprise ending."
Geoff Barton - Classic Rock magazine 7/10

And don't forget Breathing Space are in Birmingham on the 20th, at the Roadhouse, with Emerald Sky supporting. www.emerald-sky.com

The Social Muso

2009-08-15T14:59:00.007+01:00

Again I haven't written for a while and for that I apologize. I intend to put that right over the coming months, but I'm full of good intentions. Feel free to have a go at me, but many thanks to the people who've kept in touch, sent comments and viewed the site.

I've got various social networking sites on the go at the moment, including Twitter and it can be difficult to keep on top of all the stuff that's going on. Twitter did seem a little pointless to me at first but once you get into it, I think its one of the essentials for the today's musician. I've kept in contact with some of the musicians and bands I've worked with, found out about airplay and licensing opportunities, not to mention gigs etc... and now find myself with over 1000 followers - don't these people have anything better to do? I'm joking of course...

Facebook again is great for your band. I'd recommend starting a Group on there which will allow you to post much more content than the fan based sites. You can have discussions, add pictures and video, invite people to join, invite them to related events (gigs) and generally keep in contact far easier. Its important not to "spam" your members for obvious reasons and keep the content updated and interesting. We have a Big W jokes page on our site, feel free to join and tell us your best or worst music related joke. (The few we have on there are terrible, mostly mine!!)

Many bands have been using myspace for years and I think it still has its place, but its going through a transitional stage. It needs to change to survive and become more flexible with its layout and give us more options on how we get our music out there. It was the dominant force for years, but has failed to evolve quickly enough.

I use Bandcamp.com for my music which is much more flexible, advert free and you get a dedicated page for each song, you can also set the price of your songs, allow free downloads and they give you the option to download the tracks in various formats such as MP3, Wav etc..

There are many more networking options out there but you can only do so much. Its important to remember that people want to be entertained and informed with good content and then hopefully they will listen to your music download a song or two and turn up at your next gig, meet face to face and continue the relationship. Its all about socializing for today's musos.

Finally, just wanted to mention Big W again, (hence the picture) as I'm very much enjoying the gigs with the boys and feel like I'm settling in. Hopefully we can move to the next stage and get some of our own music out there.

Get Your Facebook Username Now!

2009-06-17T20:02:00.004+01:00

Just a quickie... (as the actress said to the bishop)

If you didn't get the .com domain of your artist/band name, you know what a pain it is. Same for Twitter and many others...

A few days ago, Facebook added the ability for you to have your own "username" which will take people to your profile. Visit http://www.facebook.com/username to get yours right now before someone nicks it!

Got mine at http://www.facebook.com/chrispicton

Live Music - How Much?

2009-06-16T14:38:00.013+01:00

I thought it was about time I got back to writing, as its been a month or so since my last post. There's been lots of stuff to write about but never enough time to do it in, or maybe I'm just a lazy so and so, probably the latter. One thing is, I've been busy settling into playing "Live" again with the band Big W, which I'm enjoying very much.

Something that did piss me off recently though, was how little value seems to be placed on Live Music by some people these days. A couple of weeks ago Big W were playing in a local venue and a pub manager I knew spotted me on stage and asked a friend to pass his number on to arrange a booking for us. I'd played the place quite often in the past with other bands and told the lads it was a good venue and decent money.

The next day I called him and he said he'd like to book us, but could only pay half as much as before, plus it was a Sunday night (bad news for working Monday mornings). Bear in mind this is a very busy club on Fri/Sat but he wanted to get Sundays moving. I thought about it the next day and spoke to the band - they were up for it in the main, but I just thought - bollocks, by the time we've paid petrol, had a couple of drinks and got home about 1pm, we'll be lucky to come out with minimum wage for the hours we'd worked. Plus, if we had brought in punters in their droves I'm damn sure he wouldn't have given us anymore money.

I understand there's a credit crunch, but band money in pubs/clubs hasn't gone up in 20 years - some of us have been playing for 30+ years, why shouldn't we get a decent wage for the time and effort we've put in, some pubs can do it. DJ's get paid 2 and 3 times what a band gets paid per man, don't they know they can teach monkeys to put records on, or should I say - click a mouse on a laptop, (sorry, showing my age).

Plumbers and Electricians are skilled individuals who get paid well, are musicians not the same? The trouble is we love what we do so much that its hard to say no, but sometimes it does you and your band good. Its about time there was a minimum fee that venues should pay before they engage a band. We have the Musicians Union, but its too much time and effort to get them involved, it could be incorporated when the venue applies for its music license which would make things a lot simpler.

I used to get paid very well for playing in a Rod Stewart Tribute Band, but when I was in Quecia, having written, recorded and produced our own music we'd be expected to play for nothing or expenses just to promote the band. This seems crazy to me as there are plenty of people out there willing to pay a fair price to see a good band (see my post on House Concerts).

The trouble is there is not enough pub and club owners with the business training or common sense to pay and put on a varied selection of whats out there, whether it be Original, Covers or Tribute Bands. Pubs are closing left, right and center these days and are turning to Live Music to save them, so come on - pay the bands what they deserve...

Rant over!

House Concerts

2009-05-16T11:58:00.007+01:00

I was recently reading an update from Francis Dunnery (ex - It Bites) I received about the upcoming series of House Concerts he's undertaking in the USA. It struck me, what a great way for musicians to make new friends and fans and put across their music in an intimate and interesting setting. Having done quite a few acoustic shows myself its quite a different experience having the audience up close and personal and within in touching distance, almost being part of the band, if a little nerve racking at first.

House concerts have been very popular in the USA for some time and seem to be growing a little here in the UK. A House Concert is a private party which requires an invite as opposed to a public music venue without all the hassles of setting up a tour.

The venue I have heard the most about is in York which has places for around 50 people with donations to the artist made prior to the event of no more than £10. Its a chance to see great artists who are often only over in the country for a very short time.
"The concept behind the concerts is that rather than making a fleeting connection with tens of thousands, the aim is to make a far greater impression on a select few". - York Post Sept '08

http://www.houseconcertsyork.co.uk/

I'd be interested to hear of any venues elsewhere in the UK, in particular the NW of England, may even set one up myself and ask Francis to come along, now there's a thought!!

http://www.francisdunnery.com/

Breathing Space get new guitarist

2009-04-28T11:53:00.001+01:00

A Note from Trevor Cotterell - At last I can reveal that Breathing Space have a new guitarist. If you want to know who it is, go to the Breathing Space web site www.breathingspaceband.info and all will be revealed!

Also, just in case there are any tickets left, don't forget that Breathing Space, Mostly Autumn and others will be playing at the Duchess in York this coming Sunday May 3rd in aid of the Andrea's Gift charity.

My New Track needs Lyrics!

2009-04-24T15:58:00.012+01:00

I've just uploaded a new tune on my Bandcamp site called "Fakin' It" First of many I hope. It's an instrumental - unlike the music I usually write. Its kind of jazzy for me and something different, not the usual Rock or Prog. It started from the drum loop and kind of grew from that. If anyone out there wants to write some lyrics or play some guitar or maybe sax on it, please feel free and let me hear the results, that would be great. Its free to download as a basic mp3 or you can set your own price and get the quality version.

For those of you who need to know stuff:-
I played everything on there except the drums. It starts with a drum loop from a program called Reason (probably a hip hop beat, OMG.) and the keyboard sounds are from the same soft synth. The main drums later in the song I programmed from EZdrummer in Cubase. There's probably 3 guitar tracks on there played with a fender strat and the bass line kind of follows the piano - ish, with a bit of twiddling at the end.

Hope you enjoy it - and like I say if you want to play about with it, remix it, solo over it, whatever you like, get in touch and we can have a little collaboration going on.
Cheers
Chris - http://chrispicton.bandcamp.com/

First Gig With Big W

2009-04-20T13:26:00.012+01:00

It was good to start playing "Live" again at the weekend after a few months off. It was my first gig with "Big W" and it went very well. The pub was the Standard Mower in Leigh and was an interesting venue. Just a small pub with a varied age range. Although a little rough around the edges it was a pretty friendly place and everyone seemed to enjoy the music we played. Big W is a Classic Rock covers band, the line up being Waz on Lead Guitar and Lead Vocals, Glyn - Lead Guitar & Vocals, Ian - Drums and Vocals and yours truly on Bass.

We played 2 sets and introduced 4 new songs to the Big W's set list - numbers by The Foo Fighters, Black Crows, Bowie and Cream. Although all the songs were new for me it was good for the guys to play something different as well. We plan to put more new songs in, as we progress and I look forward to that. It was nice to be appreciated by the younger elements in the audience too who were up rocking at the end, although a little too close for comfort a times.

The next gig is the 9th of May at the Market Tavern in Altrincham - hope to see you there. For more gigs and updates you can checkout the website at www.myspace.com/bigwuk

Cheers - Chris

Mark leaves Breathing Space

2009-04-12T08:35:00.006+01:00

Here's a copy of a post I received from Breathing Space.

I'm sure most of you will already know this, but Mark has left Breathing Space. Iain and the band are currently considering potential replacements. Recording of the new album should also still be going ahead after Easter, possibly with an interim guest guitarist. Here is an announcement from Livvy:"It is with regret that Breathing Space has to announce the departure of Mark Rowen from the band. We would all like take this opportunity to thank him for the wonderful contributions he made to Breathing Space, both in the studio recording ‘Coming Up for Air’ and during live performances. We sincerely wish him all the very best for his future endeavours.This is a new dawning for Breathing Space, and we are looking forward to entering the studio – initially in April, to start recording our next album."

Panic Room Update

2009-04-02T13:04:00.004+01:00

Here's a copy of the latest Panic Room update I just received...

So what does 2009 hold for Panic Room? Firstly, we have an album to record! We've been playing quite a few new songs live and have several more in the pipleline, so we'll be spending the next few months finishing off writing, and then recording, our second album for release later this year. More news, and maybe an exciting offer or two, coming soon!

The downside of this is that we probably won't be playing live too much until the album is done but are planning to hit the road in September and hope to get to as many places as we can. If anyone has any suggestions for venues that might be suitable, please get in touch.

In other news...we are featured in the new Classic Rock Presents Prog magazine which includes a live review as well as features on women in prog music ( including pics of Anne-Marie) and a review of the Icon gig in London ( also featuring Anne-Marie). If that's not enough, the magazine also includes a covermounted CD which opens with an exclusive edit of Elektra City from Visionary Position.

Also, did you know that as well as the official website (http://www.panicroom.org.uk - but you knew that, right?) and here(obviously!) , we also have pages on
Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/panicroomuk and Reverbnation , http://www.reverbnation.com/panicroom, so please pop in and say hi if you use these sites ( Anne-Marie and Alun also have music pages on all these sites).

There's also the forum over at http://panicroom.omgforum.net/forum.htm and both Anne-Marie (LilRedRockChick) and Alun (alunvaughan - not as creative!) can be found on Twitter, allowing you an insight into our adventures ( amongst other things).

Dream Theater "Progressive Nation" EuropeTour

2009-04-01T22:19:00.005+01:00

DREAM THEATER TO TAKE THEIR “PROGRESSIVE NATION 2009” TOUR TO EUROPE / UK IN THE FALL WITH SPECIAL GUESTS: OPETH, BIGELF AND UNEXPECT

New York progressive metal veterans DREAM THEATER will take their PROGRESSIVE NATION tour overseas for the first time with a run through Europe and the UK throughout Sept, Oct and Nov 2009.

PROGRESSIVE NATION founder and mastermind, DREAM THEATER drummer Mike Portnoy, once again hand-picked the bands based on musicianship, originality and diversity…not necessarily by popularity and marquee value. He comments: “After the excitement of putting together two very cool PROGRESSIVE NATION packages for North America, I knew it was time to bring the concept overseas and share some of these other great bands with our amazing fans throughout Europe and the UK”.

Joining the tour will be DT’s tourmates from PN08 (and Roadrunner Records labelmates), the legendary OPETH from Stockholm Sweden.

Los Angeles band BIGELF will bring their unique brand of psychedelic, progressive hard rock to PN09.

Opening the show each night will be Canada’s UNEXPECT who will surely blow people’s minds with their insane musicianship and avant garde style of extreme progressive metal.

A festival and headlining run of Europe in June, followed by the two PN09 tours will be the first treks across the globe for DREAM THEATER in support of their newest Roadrunner Records release “Black Clouds & Silver Linings” which is slated for a late June 2009 release.

For more information, including dates to be announced soon, visit:
www.progressivenation2009.

com (coming soon)
www.dreamtheater.net
www.myspace.com/dreamtheater

What is Spotify?

2009-03-31T13:21:00.007+01:00

Its been over a week since my last post, I've been reading lots of blogs and listening to some great music and learning songs for my up coming debut with Big W,which I'm looking forward to very much.
Anyway my point. Thanks to my eldest son Jamie, I've been reintroduced to a music site called Spotify. I don't know how long its been around, quite a while I would think because I'd registered as a user at some point in the past, but never downloaded it.

Quite simply its brilliant, it allows you to search for an artist or band and then stream their music immediately from the interface (no buffering involved and the songs aren't using up valuable space on your harddrive). Amazingly its free with the occasional advert, by my reckoning about every 20 minutes. There's also options for day and monthly passes for relatively small fees which allows you to stream ad free. Its all legal and artists are compensated for the use of their work

I would agree that this will probably be the way forward. Okay at the moment you need a PC to stream the music, but with the increases in technology (3G wireless and 4G coming) you will soon be able to stream music anywhere. If thats the case why would you want to own or even pay for a CD, when you can already hear it on the net. Everybody's album sales are in decline, even top artist like U2 can consider their album sales a flop for their latest release. Also why do you need to make an album anymore, songs can be released individually, instead of the same old format. Its more important to let people listen to your music and engage in what you do, hopefully then they will come and see you play live and buy your merchandise.

Music is now free and the new dilemma we face as independent artists is - how are we going to get people to listen to our music, because thats the way we'll be paid in the future, not by selling our CD's but by how many streams we have over the internet. I would rather have people listen to my music than not and if thats the case I will let it be streamed for free.

The good news is - our destiny is our own hands, its up to us how we address the problems we face, there are no constraints imposed by record companies and I can create what I want..

Some of my creations are at chrispicton.bandcamp.com/ with new ones coming soon.

Bandcamp - Great site for Musicians

2009-03-21T12:45:00.007Z

I'll keep this one brief, as I wanted to share with everyone a great site for all the muscians and bands out there I came across.

Its called Bandcamp its FREE and it allows you to create your own page and upload your songs in a lossless format, such as a WAV file and then it converts them for you, to a whole load of different formats such as mp3 etc.
I don't want to get too technical because the site is really simple to use. What it means is the tracks you listen to are as they were intended to be heard, but can be downloaded in whatever format the listener wants. It takes a little longer to upload your music, but well worth it I think you'll agree.
There are different pricing options, so you can give away for your music for free, set your own price or let the listener pay what he wants. Its also really easy to share your music on blogs and facebook etc.
And the best bit, no adverts all over the place, your site is your own, unlike myspace etc.
Anyway that's enough from me, head over there and check out the video that explains it much better than I can and maybe check out some of the songs I wrote while in Quecia....

"Live" is bigger than Record sales

2009-03-17T21:05:00.008Z

It's now official…the demise of physical music sales, as artists aren't making as much as they used to

According to the Performing Rights Society (PRS), the value of the 'live music scene' has officially overtaken record sales for the first time in the UK.

"We have all the data on live music at the PRS because we license all the live performances that go around the country, so we're actually able to put a number on how much live music is worth," the PRS's chief economist Will Page told BBC 6 Music.

"We now have a situation where live has officially taken over recorded."

How much? The 'number' in question was £904 million (including VAT and booking fees).

It's not all doom and gloom, there is good news for the music fan, if Bands have to tour, we get more gigs to go and see.

Happy Days...

New Dream Theater Album

2009-03-14T17:53:00.010Z

Dream Theater's new album "Black Clouds and Silver Linings" will be released on the 22nd of June and I for one look forward to owning it. The band have a world tour planned to promote the release, which includes 3 UK dates before they take on the North American leg of their Progressive Nation tour.

Roadrunner the band's label will release the album as a standard version CD, on vinyl LP and a three-disc Special Edition CD (the full album, a CD of instrumental mixes of the album and a CD of six cover songs).

A video for "A Rite Of Passage" should appear at the end of this month.
"Black Clouds & Silver Linings" track list is:

1 A Nightmare to Remember, 2. A Rite of Passage, 3. Wither, 4. The Shattered Fortress, 5. The Best of Times, 6. The Count of Tuscany.

Dream Theater Gigs in the UK are:
June 12th – Academy, Leeds
June 13th – Guildhall, Southampton
June 14th – Download Festival, Donington Park

New Prog Mag and Other News

2009-03-10T23:05:00.005Z

Great news for all Progressive Rock fans here in the UK. A new magazine from the Classic Rock camp entitled “Classic Rock Presents Prog”, hits the shops on the 25th of March. The whole genre will be covered from Mega bands from the past such as Pink Floyd, Genesis, ELP and Yes, to modern greats like Dream Theater, Rush and Marillion.

Up and coming bands will also be brought to the fore and I am more than pleased for The Reasoning who will feature in the first issue and will be on the cover mount CD as well, congratulations guys.

Other News, the original Asia are to headline the Sunday at the Cambridge Rock Festival which takes place on the weekend of the 6th-9th of Aug at Haggis Farm Polo Club, Cambridge Road, Barton, Cambridge, CB3 7AT. Other names confirmed are Barclay James Harvest, Focus, Mostly Autumn, Touchstone, Dead Like Harry, Breathing Space, Quireboys and others. Quecia my old band should have been playing on the same bill, so I am a little disappointed to say the least that I won’t be rubbing shoulders with John Wetton, Carl Palmer, Steve Howe and Geoff Downes – such is life!! For more info and tickets head over to the website.

http://cambridgerockfestival.co.uk/

Break The Rules

2009-03-07T21:24:00.003Z

I was quite surprised to read about the band “No Doubt” and their plan to give away all their back catalogue with each of their “top-tier” concert tickets sold. This includes 7 albums and all their singles. 80 tracks in total. Not only do you get a great seat at the gig, but all their music to download as well. With the top price on the US tour being just over $40 that’s incredible value for money.

This just goes to show the value of recorded music is falling all the time and shifting towards the Live Music event. I can see the studio album becoming the promotional tool for the concert as opposed to bands going out on tour to promote their new CD.

It is a great incentive for the fans to go and see Live Music and I can see this idea being adopted across the board by many bands. Musicians need to reinvent themselves and think “outside the box” and there’s no doubt that No Doubt have done this. Sorry about that I couldn’t help myself.

On a serious note there will always be musicians and musicians will survive, because the simple fact is, they love what they do. If they can learn to adapt and break the rules imposed by others in the past, namely record companies, they will find a way and continue to earn a living in this shifting music market.

Dream Theater at Download Festival

2009-03-03T16:25:00.008Z

There's a fantastic line-up this year at The Download Festival. Probably my favorite band over the last few years DREAM THEATER have been added to the Sunday. The whole weekend consists of bands such as WHITESNAKE, FAITH NO MORE, SLIPKNOT, DEF LEPPARD, ZZ TOP and many more and takes place on Fri 12th of June till Sun 14th of June.

I was seriously considering going to Download just to see DREAM THEATER, but they have just added 2 more UK dates which are:
Fri 12th June - Leeds 02 Academy
Sat 13th June - Southampton Guildhall
If you've never seen DREAM THEATER I would seriously urge you to check them out, particularly if you are a musician. They are THE most talented bunch of individuals I have ever seen in the same band, ever. Since my son Jamie is at Leeds College of Art & Design it looks like he'll be having his old man to stay for the Friday night. Not told him yet, but Happy Days. Hope to see you there.
Other News
U2 will announce their world tour dates next week.

Mostly Autumn, The Point. and Other News

2009-02-27T18:36:00.012Z

Mostly Autumn will record the show tomorrow night (28th of February) at The Shepherd's Bush Empire, for future Live release. Get down there if you can and see a fantastic show.

Sadly, The Point in Cardiff is closing down "due to the burden of debt" caused by the sound proofing refurbishment and the current economic climate. I was lucky enough to play there last year and the venue has been a focus for Live Music in the area for years, what a shame Cardiff is losing such a great venue.

German electropop veterans Kraftwerk will headline Bestival on the Isle Of Wight on Saturday, Sept. 12.

Francis Dunnery welcomes nineteen year old Luke Machin to the New Progressives Summer Project “I've seen Luke at my concerts for years and years “ explains Dunnery “ I've gotten to know him really well and his talent as a guitar player is immediately obvious to anyone who has witnessed his skills. He's also one of the coolest kids you could ever meet so he’ll fit right in with all the other cool people I have playing on the project” - check out his website to see who else is involved.

That's all for now, Cheers and have a great weekend....

Stereophonics for Isle of Wight

2009-02-25T09:44:00.007Z

One of my favorite bands The Stereophonics are confirmed for the bill of the Isle of Wight Festival 2009. It will be their only UK festival appearance this year, on Saturday June 13th.
Kelly Jones, Stereophonics frontman, commented: "The Isle of Wight Festival is gonna be a great weekend."It's gonna be rocking. Enough to make a bulldog wanna snap his chain!" which is an interesting way of putting it! He revealed that the group will spend most of the first half of the year in the recording studio, meaning they will appreciate the chance to play live when the bash arrives.

Razorlight have also been added to the festival. John Giddings, the event's organiser, said the festival is "proud" to reveal it will include performances from some of the "leading UK rock bands".Other bands to perform include Pendulum, Basement Jaxx, The Tings Tings and The Prodigy.

Last week, Download 2009 announced that shock-rocker Marilyn Manson, US metal band Killswitch Engage and blues rockers ZZ Top will play this year's event.

Magenta News and Me

2009-02-24T18:19:00.007Z

Another great band from South Wales everyone should check out from the Progressive Rock genre are Magenta. I had the pleasure of supporting them with Quecia a couple of times last year and really loved their concerts and really love the music. They have just announced 3 more shows over the weekend of 29th - 31st of May. The venues are The Point in Cardiff, The Peel in Kingston and Mr Kyps in Poole. Check out their website for a full list of dates this year. You should really make the effort to go and see these guys live they are superb, but if you can't make it to a gig, you could always buy the album "Live at The Point 2007" seen here in the picture.

Some personal news. I have just joined the rock band Big W who I jammed with a couple of weeks ago. They were looking for a replacement for Dave Halliwell the current bass player who is moving to France. I had heard them on their myspace site and really loved the raw sound of the band and thought Waz, (that's not a mis-spelling) the frontman had a great voice. I'm looking forward to playing some classic rock covers with the guys starting in April. Hopefully I can persuade them to join me in the studio in the future and we can work on some original material together. I've also been mixing the project I started over 12 months ago that I'd put on hold under the title Angel Easy. We are determined to finish that soon and I'll keep you informed of any news.

That's all for now guys
Cheers and take care...

IRON MAIDEN, THE SYN, PORTISHEAD NEWS

2009-02-20T17:35:00.008Z

Congratulations must go also to Iron Maiden on their success at this years Brit Awards for the Best Live Act - well done to the fans for voting them in and well justified. Great to get a real band into the Brit pop scene. Dare I say it, Coldplay didn't win a thing, but how could they compare with Iron Maiden as a Live Act, it Band vs Bland in my opinion. Well Done Eddie!!

Progressive rock band 'The Syn' will show off a new lineup featuring Francis Dunnery and a new vision with their latest CD Big Sky.
The band will also embark on an extensive North American tour that includes a performance at the world famous progressive rock festival in Philadelphia, RoSfest. Stops also include Baltimore's famed Orion Sound Studios, Chicago, Milwaukee, New York and much more. The group will also be doing two full evenings of fundraising performances in Virginia with all proceeds to be donated to music, education and the arts.

A few days ago Portishead asked their fans how they should release their music in the future. A mixed response to date with some saying they should go down the traditional route and some saying why not try the Radiohead/NIN approach, i.e. "pay what you want" model. For those of you interested in the future of music, its good to hear what the fans think. Check it out

Music For Free Or Pay What You Want?

2009-02-16T19:10:00.011Z

Should an Artist or Band give away their music? There seems to be more evidence to support the argument that if a band gives away its music over the internet, they will make more money in the long run via merchandise and physical CD sales at their live performances. Also a recent experiment carried out by Benjamin Taylor (son of James Taylor & Carly Simon) showed that, people are likely to pay more, if they can pay what they want at Live Gigs. They are more willing to support the artist, if they are caught up "in the moment" of the concert and will still want to own a physical CD, even if they have downloaded the tracks in the past. Of course you will always get someone wanting a free CD, but this will be outweighed by the fans who have loved the show and want to meet the band and continue the growth of their relationship with that artist.

Live Music is resurgent and is one of the few ways the songwriter or musician can start to earn a living in this file sharing climate. In that respect it makes sense for an artist to use the internet to distribute their music as far and wide as possible and to build a loyal fan base via the many outlets available over the web. Building a close relationship with true fans is seen as key to success in this modern music industry. Although physical CD's will still be available over the internet they are becoming less important.

My own opinion is that there is still a massive market for music which is evolving almost daily and at times is difficult to keep track of. There is still a place for musicians to sell their physical CD's over the internet, you only need to see the success of CDBaby which since its inception in 1998, has paid out $98million to independent artists through CD sales, with a growth of 2% in 2008. In contrast major labels suffered a fall in CD sales of 14% in the same period. Its horses for courses, I believe a balance can be struck between giving away mp3's for free and making CD's available to people who want to support and own the artists work in a physical format.

On a personal note I am happy to have joined the rock band Big W and look forward to working with them in the near future....

Gabriel won't perform at Academy Awards

2009-02-13T18:05:00.003Z

Peter Gabriel says he will not be performing at the Feb. 22 Academy Award telecast in support of his best song nominee "Down To Earth," from the film "Wall-E." Check out full story here

DREAM THEATER NEWS
New York progressive metal veterans DREAM THEATER will take their PROGRESSIVE NATION tour back on the road for its second incarnation with a run through America and Canada in July/Aug 2009.
In addition to a headlining set by DREAM THEATER, this year's package will feature the outstanding musicianship of ZAPPA PLAYS ZAPPA as well as two incredibly talented imports from Sweden: PAIN OF SALVATION and BEARDFISH.
PROGRESSIVE NATION was created by DREAM THEATER drummer Mike Portnoy and its successful inaugural run in 2008 also featured OPETH, BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME and THREE

'A Night For Heroes'

2009-02-11T19:51:00.004Z

Here's a post from Olivia Sparnenn lead singer of Breathing Space who will be performing alongside Mostly Autumn and several other bands on Sunday May 3rd at the Duchess in York. This Evening is called 'A Night For Heroes' and is in memory of her dad - Howard Sparnenn.
Tickets are priced £12 + booking fee in advance or £14 on the door, they can be purchased by calling ticketweb on 08700 600100 or by going to www.theduchessyork.co.uk
All proceeds are going to Andreas gift brain tumour charity.
As some members of Breathing Space are unfortunately unable to attend this gig there will be a slightly different line-up on the evening, we are honoured to have Bryan Josh and Andy Smith of Mostly Autumn performing with us and also Harry James from Thunder.
All details of times etc are also on the duchess website.
Hope to see you there
Livvy xx

Spinal Tap to record new album

2009-02-09T19:21:00.003Z

Great news for all musicians and fans who love the "Spinal Tap" Movie. Reports state the band are recording their first songs in over 20 years. For those people who may have missed this classic spoof, here's my favorite clip from the film.

Jam Nights - Better Than Karaoke?

2009-02-05T19:22:00.014Z

I had a great evening yesterday. I visited a pub that had a Jam night on. Basically a couple of local musicians had set their gear up, small PA, a drum kit, amps for the guitars and 3 mics. At 8-30 when I arrived there was no-one in the pub, but by 9-30 the place was packed with punters, several bands and their friends and family. This is a Wednesday evening by the way when Liverpool and Everton are playing in the cup and no sign of a big screen!

The proceedings began with the guys who owned the gear performing 3 songs and then inviting other bands to get up and do likewise. I was asked along because one of the bands is losing its bass player and looking for a replacement and at this present moment I am bandless!! It was good to get up, not having met the guys before and playing "Wish You Were Here"and "Comfortably Numb" by The Floyd and "Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi (sorry about the last one, but beggars can't be choosers and we'd had no rehearsal). The band are called Big W and are an excellent covers band from Leigh in Lancashire. I thoroughly enjoyed the songs we played, Cheers guys.

After Big W the other bands got up and did their stuff and a great night was had by all.

The whole point of me telling you this is that, in these times of the "credit crunch" people will still turn out, on a freezing cold mid-week evening, (when the footie's on), to be entertained by some excellent Live Music. In my view it was far better than the endless karaoke most pubs seem obligated to put on these days, plus the younger bands get to play and gain some valuable experience in front of a packed house. Everyone's happy - including the pub.

I know people love to sing on Karaoke, but why not sing with a Live Band, its far better. Get onto your local landlord and ask him to give it a go and support the local music scene and Live Music.

The Pub in question was The Plough in Hindley, Wigan.

Mostly Autumn Gigs

2009-02-04T09:28:00.003Z

Mostly Autumn are playing at the Shepherds Bush Empire in London on the 28th of this month (February.) They will be running a coach from York leaving at 8am in the morning and returning about 11.45. Price is £40 for the gig and the coach. If you fancy a great day out in London and coming to see the gig please call 01904 630424 or contact mostly.autumn@ntlworld.com. The band are also playing Manchester Academy Friday 27th of Feb. See website for more details. www.mostly-autumn.com

Breathing Space and other news

2009-02-02T16:17:00.009Z

After a fantastic return to the stage in Hartlepool at the weekend, Breathing Space's next gig this coming Saturday 7th of Feb at Lowdham (near Nottingham) is heading towards a sell-out. There are, at time of writing, only 29 tickets left we've been told by the promoters. So if you were thinking of going, get your order in now to the venue.

Sadly it has been agreed between the band and John Hart (sax and wind synth), who recorded on the "Coming Up For Air" album and has played with the band since the album's launch, will in future, only appear as an occasional special guest musician. Breathing Space wish John every success with any new ventures he embarks upon.
www.breathingspaceband.info

An artist I've been listening to and admire very much is Livia Palone a singer songwriter from Rome who is also an architect, photographer and painter! Livia's work has been selected as "portfolio of the week" on the website "www.minispace.com" . You can also check out her music at www.myspace.com/livsinger and Livia's facebook fan page

The four original members of Asia will be playing their first-ever concert in Russia on March 19 at the Rossia Concert Hall. This show brings the forthcoming March/April tour to a total of 19 dates, with more to be announced shortly. - here's the link to their website for a full list of dates, I'm sure I'll be attending one of the UK shows www.originalasia.com

Soccer News - Thank goodness the transfer window has closed and Wigan Athletic have not lost anymore players. We've made some great additions, to make up for the loss of Palacios, Taylor and Camera. Most recent being Charles N'zogbia from Newcastle. Next game is Saturday 7th of Feb at home to Fulham. 3pm kick off - see you there.....

My favorite video at the moment....

2009-02-01T18:41:00.005Z

I love it when bands and artists come up with something new and original and this is certainly that, well worth a watch. Its by Oren Lavie and the track's called "Her Morning Elegance" Check out his myspace site for more info... www.myspace.com/orenlavie

Quecia....the end

2009-01-31T09:53:00.007Z

I have to report the demise of the band I have worked with on and off for the past 8 years or so, Quecia. After 2 albums and a single, it seems we were unable to move to the next level and finish the 3rd album, for reasons beyond my control.

I was hoping to get that finished, to give the band a push and move us in the right direction and also to start to introduce more new material. We'd built up quite a lot of interest from the acoustic shows last year and had some excellent gigs lined up for 2009, but it was destined not to be.

Sadly, it was never going to work as people are not prepared to put the time in to realise the potential of the band and you can only take so much time being wasted.

The positives from a personal point of view are that I can now finish a project I'd put on hold for over 12 months for Quecia and continue writing and recording myself and maybe join another band. I will also release the songs I've written and helped write for Quecia and hope to keep on blogging and supporting the music I like and try and share a bit of the knowledge I've picked up along the way.

Thanks for all the support in the past and the emails I've received in the last few days.

Cheers
Chris

The Reasoning - Check out this great band

2009-01-30T16:12:00.008Z

One of my favorite bands at the moment are The Reasoning a Cardiff-based six-piece rock band, formed by Matthew Cohen in 2005. The band’s line-up of experienced musicians features the vocal talents of Dylan Thompson and Gareth Jones, alongside Rachel Cohen, who was voted Best Female Vocalist by the UK’s Classic Rock Society for an unprecedented four consecutive years.

Following the recruitment of drummer Vinden Wylde, the band’s accomplished debut album Awakening was released in 2006 and has garnered worldwide critical acclaim. Mixed by Dave Meegan (U2, Marillion), boasting eight well-crafted tracks and a guest appearance from Marillion’s Steve Rothery, the album is instantly appealing, highly accessible and musically invigorating, and has been enthusiastically received by fans and media alike.

Guitar virtuoso Owain Roberts was welcomed into the fold in early 2008…and The Reasoning’s highly anticipated second album – Dark Angel – has now been released. Demonstrating the band’s exceptional songwriting abilities and skilled musicianship to the full, each track takes the listener on an exciting and wholly unforgettable musical journey. Mixed by John Mitchell (of It Bites and Kino notoriety).

With widespread influences drawn from the rock, metal, folk and pop genres, The Reasoning’s music is a dynamic confluence of the classic and the contemporary. Combining dual guitars and three outstanding lead vocalists, their unique and exquisite sound embraces breathtakingly powerful rhythm, spine-tingling harmony and irresistibly captivating melody, transgressing many conventional musical boundaries.

Visit their website thereasoning.com for more info and download the track "Talk To Me"

Well done Latics - no aplologies for a little soccer on this site

2009-01-29T14:02:00.007Z

A great 2nd half performance last night gave Wigan Athletic a well earned point against Liverpool with a 1-1 draw. Making his debut, Mido slotted home the penalty after Jason Koumas had been brought down by Lucas, equalising Liverpool's opener scored by Yossi Benayoun.

Liverpool dominated the first half with some excellent passing, but without making Mike Pollitt work too hard on his return in goal for the injured Chris Kirkland. So many forced changes in the Latics team through transfers and injuries meant they weren't at the races first half, showing too much respect for the Liverpool team. After the break we got amongst them and showed how we can battle and play good football.

The big crowd got behind Wigan and Steve Bruce made some excellent attacking changes bringing on new boy Hugo Rodallega and Henri Camara. On the other had Torres and Gerrard were taken off by Benetez supposedly for being tired! The fact was, Scharner and Boyce were outstanding at the back and Lee Cattermole put in another fantastic performance, tackling everything that moved.

Mido and Rodallega made excellent debuts, with the latter almost nicking it at the end with a superb curling free kick, striking the woodwork.

A shame Rafa didn't give any credit to Wigan calling it "a crazy game" in the post match interview. Well done to Steve Bruce and the boys another well deserved point against a top side.

Panic Room Gigs this weekend

2009-01-27T17:01:00.005Z

Panic Room fresh from their success at the CRS Awards 2008 where they picked up Best New Band for their excellent debut album "Visionary Position" and Anne-Marie Helder coming 2nd in the Best Female Vocalist Category, play 2 gigs this weekend. This Friday 30th of Jan they are at The Garage in Swansea with special guest Liz Prendegast from The Blue Horses and Saturday 31st will perform at The Peel, Kingston-upon-Thames.
More details at www.panicroom.org.uk

iCon News - John Wetton, Geoffrey Downes

2009-01-25T13:11:00.001Z

John Wetton and Geoff Downes have been busy as they put the final touches on the iCon 3 album and prepare for the tour which culminates in the recording of their live DVD in London. That exclusive show -- 21 February -- had been sold out, but management has released a few tickets previously reserved for press -- you can find them at www.ticketweb.co.uk by searching “John Wetton”, “Geoff Downes” “iCon” or “Wetton-Downes iCon”. We hope you will join us and are very pleased that we’ve been able to give even just a few more people the chance to experience this wonderful evening. Dave Kilminster and Pete Riley will be joined by Anne-Marie Helder for this show.

The artwork for the iCon 3 album cover has been released. You can check it out at www.geoffdownes.com or www.johnwetton.com

Breathing Space Info...

2009-01-25T12:44:00.001Z

It's good to see the official Fan Club growing week by week - now it's nearly time for 2009 to begin for you all and for Breathing Space, with their first appearance of the year in Hartlepool next weekend. The gig is at The Studio on Saturday 31st January.

Those that went last year called it one of the best of the year, not only because the band turned in such a good performance but also because the acoustics were excellent and sound engineer was superb.

So hopefully as many of you as possible will be able to make it - and please bring a friend!
Thanks to Trevor Cotterell
Breathing Space official site www.breathingspaceband.info
Breathing Space Facebook Fan site

News - Anne-Marie Helder with Icon.

2009-01-25T00:54:00.001Z

In addition to all her solo work with Panic Room and Mostly Autumn, Anne's been recording with John Wetton and Geoff Downes on their iCon 3 album and will perform with them as special featured vocalist. It includes a special DVD recording on 21st of February. ...A few new tickets have been released for the London DVD recording of the iCon limited audience ... For More on 21st of Feb. go to www.ticketweb.co.uk. Cover art for the new studio album is available now and you can learn more about a screensaver contest that will allow you to win a pair of tickets, meet the band and get some great merchandise, too! Check it out at www.geoffdownes.com or www.johnwetton.com

Check out Annemariehelder.com official website
or
Anne-Marie's Facebook site

Thanks to Ellie Schwartz for the post

Music and the Internet

2009-01-24T14:15:00.002Z

By way of an Introduction

I've been thinking about this blog for some time and I'd like to open the debate with anyone interested in what seems to be a subject that is increasingly closer to my heart. To put into context and make it easier for me to get my point across I'll talk about something that I am more familiar with. The musical genre that is much ridiculed by many and loved by few, namely Progressive Rock. Although this is the genre I am a fan of, I love many areas of music and I would argue that this debate relates to many forms i.e. Jazz, Punk, Ambient, Metal, etc...

I've been a working musician all of my adult life, playing in many bands over the years. I grew up listening to Genesis, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Yes and many more. I aspired to be in a band like those guys. I recently read the book "Pigs Might Fly - The Inside Story Of Pink Floyd" by Mark Blake, which I would highly recommend, the detail is superb and the book is so well researched.
One of the many things I learned from that book was, how much time bands were given to develop their craft. By their own admission Pink Floyd were not the most accomplished musicians when they started, but they were given time to develop their craft, time to experiment with new ideas and sounds and more importantly they were able to take risks. Okay its may not be everyone's cup of tea and you might find some compositions difficult to listen to from the early days, but you would always find some piece of inspiration on one of those albums, something that would either make you think or make the hair on the back of you neck stand up. After that development they went on to produce 2 or 3 of the classic albums of all time with "Dark Side of The Moon", "Wish You Were Here" and "The Wall".

I may be biased, but particularly in the UK we are fed the kind of music that seems to be the same format repeated over and over. It may be tweaked for a particular artist or to fit the genre, but it is essentially the record companies and artists settling on a song formula they know has worked in the past and believe will make them money. Check out this video if you don't believe me. http://tinyurl.com/atuups In my opinion far too much emphasis is put on fame and celebrity. Also we have lost sight of what is most important, namely the music. Hence the idea of Pink Floyd building a Wall between themselves and the audience.

This is where the internet can be the saviour of music. No longer do bands need to get a record deal, or book expensive studio time. Now with a limited musical knowledge and skill and the right software, you can create a great, well produced song or piece of music. With the advent of the iPod and other mp3 players it can be distributed throughout the world in a matter of minutes. There are no production costs and the music is free to be reproduced, endlessly for the rest of time. The only thing missing to some extent, but a requirement for the working musician /songwriter is the changing hands of a little cash to enable that composer to carry on doing what he does best. How we solve that problem is still open to much debate and not for today!

I must say I do not blame the record companies, they are in the biggest music revolution ever, possibly since music recordings began. They have to adapt and develop to this new world order of file sharing or crash and burn. No longer can they give an artist such as Pink Floyd 3 or 4 albums to develop before they hit profit. I'm sure they will find a way to move forward and I am certainly not going to feel sorry for them.

What the internet allows, is that any true artist can now take time to develop and make the music he or she wants to. They can release as many pieces of work as their creativity will allow. They can digress into other genres, experiment with new ideas and sounds and hopefully find a niche, which will allow them to exist and continue their chosen art.
The negative side of course for the true music fan is that the internet abounds with an endless volume of music, some good, some bad and some indifferent. Whereas in the past the record labels would edit the wheat from the chaff, we are now forced to trawl through many, many sites to find the cream, but that is not such a bad thing. What is considered crap by one is a gem to another.

Finally I'd like to say, I hope that's given you something to think about. There is some fantastic music out there, being made by some very talented bands and individuals,.Music that you're never likely to hear on the radio or see on MTV or the like and as I remember from my school days, (many moons ago), there is nothing as good as finding a new band , no-one else as heard of and championing some great original music.

Cheers

Chris

www.quecia.co.uk