Live Music Dates at the Good Ship

Hi to all.  The Good Ship has a huge range of bands this month and the tips were very hard to choose so rude is the health of the unsigned and recently signed scene at the moment.. 
 
If you would like any industry guest list tickets for any event then please get in touch.  Full contact details are at the bottom. 
 
My main tips for the month are…
Kids Love Lies on the 4th Frantic female lyrics upon post punk fayre from new band about to take over London.
Looker on the 10th The Waitresses turn up in New York pop punk band on rare UK visit.
You Love Her Coz Shes Dead on the 16th Taking thrashy, frenetic, headspin electro bleepery to the next level. 
Miss Davina Lee on the 17th Astonishingly versatile and talented Davina has at last got many industry people listening.  Haunting when solo like a cross between Harriet Wheeler and an electropop goddess tonight.
Stagecoach on the 19th Perfect Ben Folds Five style pop from these impossibly cheery gentlemen on a 3 month residency at The Good Ship. 
Shine on the 22nd Yet more great stuff from France.  Morcheeba/Zero 7 alike downtempo lusciousness. 
 
The Good Ship is also available for private functions, single or video launches (we have a cinema size screen) and whatever other excuse people need.  We are always interested in speaking with promoters who want to put on interesting acts and we open til 2am during the week and 4am during the weekend.  Please ask sooner rather than later though as dates go quickly.
 
23 nights of music, 4 of comedy.  Full live list for the month…
 
Tuesday 1st April
A benefit gig for the Leonard Cheshire Disability Fund with live band playing their own tunes plus classic indie and rock covers.
Evil Monkey www.myspace.com/curseoftheevilmonkey
Doors 730pm.  £5 entry.

Wednesday 2nd April
Semiconductor Archives present a mixed bag of musical treats.
Waylaid www.myspace.com/waylaidband Beatsy, atmospheric indie from aA great live band
The London Fractures www.myspace.com/thelondonfractures 4-to-the-floor indie-punk-dance anthems
Immune www.myspace.com/immunemusic Schizophrenic, disturbing, dark atmospheric music
Harripaul www.myspace.com/harripaulband an effortless blend of rock, reggae & old school soul
Kieran Mckenna www.myspace.com/kieranmckenna Bluesy? Folky? Rocky? You decide
Doors 730pm.  £5 entry/£4 with flyer.
 
Thursday 3rd April
Music Tourist Board presents North P.O.L.E. a night of alternative rock “x factor +” bands
The Stilts www.myspace.com/thestilts A modern sound with diverse influences that has quickly developed a following.
The Tupolev Ghost www.myspace.com/thetupolevghost UK rock’s new darlings. “Aggressive, spiky, and really quite wonderful Shellac-meets-Fugazi.” NME
VOiD www.myspace.com/voidwales Celebrating their debut UK single, Turn Away, produced by Steve Brown and Greg Haver (Manics, Cult, Lost Prophets…) it’s a manifesto of melody over contrived cool and substance over fashion: A special London show for the hotly tipped trio
MUNROE EFFECT www.myspace.com/munroeeffect “Superbly catchy and thunderous tracks….- Amped
DJing after with UNEMPLOYABLE WELSH SCUM (Totally Tidy Tours) www.myspace.com/dastonk and The Heartbreakers www.myspace.com/theheartbreakersmusic
Doors 8pm. Entry £3.
 
Friday 4th April
Peace In The City presents a night of outstanding postpunk, indie and garage rock noise.
Kids Love Lies www.myspace.com/kidslovelies Fast punchy guitar riffs combined with fierce female vox.
The Bibelots www.myspace.com/thebibelots Rock n Roll band with Britpop tendencies and sing-a-long tunes
The Berettas www.myspace.com/theberettasuk All female funkpunk 4 piece.
iLL’a’NOIZE www.myspace.com/illanoize07 Super lively garage rock punk band.
After Sid Trotter playing a mix of electronica, leftfield beats, indie/dance crossover and forgotten pop classics until 4am.
Doors 730pm.  £5 entry.
 
 
Saturday 5th April
Peace In The City presents a night of indie rock and pop.  Live music from
The Scapegoats www.myspace.com/thescapegoatz Harrow indie pop rock outfit.
Gregoryz Girl www.myspace.com/gregoryzgirl ‘Eva Cassidy meets Led Zep ‘Gregoryz Girl, a three piece electro/acoustic/popband, did themselves proud. Leah has one of the best rock chick voices I have heard…great control and a wide range.”
The Long Run www.myspace.com/thelongrun1 The band plays a strong mix of heavy rock, pop and progressive/experimental music that has its own sound and feel.
Depot www.myspace.com/depotlondon Young upstarts peddling Nine Black Alps and The Clash tinged rock.
After DJ Maurice + Princesses Des Pommes DJs from 1130 til 4am playing a mix of latest and classic indie, Motown, ska, funk, disco and forgotten pop classics.
Doors 730pm.  £5 entry.

Sunday 6th April
Hawkfest.  Paul Hawkins & Thee Awkward Silences celebrate Paul’s birthday with a fantastic FREE indoor festival of some of the most exciting and unusual bands from London and beyond featuring
Paul Hawkins & Thee Awkward Silences www.myspace.com/theeawkwardsilences Paul celebrates his birthday with another Awkward Silences set of catchy songs, a charismatic stageshow and darkly witty lyrics.  Expect props, bad dancing and a lot of fun…
Tim Ten Yen www.myspace.com/timtenyen “From the start you’re hooked, and Yen is armed with five of the greatest out-and-out POP songs in years - the type he could sell to X-Factor winners (but on whom they’d be wasted). He’s a star without a doubt - he just needs the stage. Given time opportunity will knock…” - The Fly
Extradition Order’s Wife www.myspace.com/extraditionorder www.myspace.com/davidcronenbergswife In a unique one-off collaboration, charismatic Edwardian-dressed Blues-Punk Urchins will be fronted by Tom Mayne, the be-suited and equally charismatic frontman of Fall-Esque cult London underground sensations David Cronenberg’s Wife.
Filthy Pedro & The Carthaginians www.myspace.com/thefilthypedro “Like a scuzzy lo-fi Hefner” - Morning Star
Will Horsebox www.myspace.com/horsebox Acoustic set by the lead singer of purveyors of exquisite Summery pop Horsebox. 
The Other Dances www.myspace.com/theotherdances Soulful troubadour Ben Anstis’ new band, featuring Ten Benson drummer Karl Hussey and prodigious guitarist Uni Spica.  Catchy, danceable funk merged with sweet balladry that tugs at the heartstrings without resorting to cliché.  Well-worth watching.
JJ Crash www.myspace.com/jjthecrash Veteran folk-punk singer-songwriter JJ Crash is a legend of the Uk antifolk scene and offers another set of soulful politicised East End Blues.
The Stage Sages no website Awkward Silences’ bassist Alex Templeton-Ward’s collaboration with performance poet & Musician James P Honey offers soulful, catchy and frantic psychedelic sea shanty-esque folk songs.
The Hawker Brothers www.myspace.com/therealalbino Paul Hawkins’ new collaboration with Ben Tucker of brilliant folk misanthropes Albino sees the two of them performing a series of witty, warm and heartbreaking duets.
Doors 5pm.  £free entry.
Plus compere and poetry from Niall Spooner-Harvey www.myspace.com/spoonpoetry
Plus DJing from Will Horsebox (Horsebox) and Ian Button (Death in Vegas)
Plus CD raffle with Jezus Factory Records.
Doors 5pm. £free entry

Monday 7th April
Porthole Comedy Club bringing the cream of the comedy circuit to Kilburn every Monday for much cheapness price. Our headliner tonight is the absolute king of the ranters…

Ian Cognito www.comedycv.co.uk/iancognito/index.htm
“Cognito puts them all in the shade. If you want to know what’s wrong with New Britain, Ian Cognito’s going to tell you. And if you don’t, you’d better keep your mouth shut. Just stunning.” - Phil Daoust, The Guardian
“Ian Cognito is up there with the greats. He rants - but not without thought.” - Evening Standard
Plus…
Holly Walsh www.comedycv.co.uk/hollywalsh/index.htm Finalist – So you Think You’re Funny 2006,
Finalist – Funny Women 2006,  Finalist – Amused Moose 2006 (runner up).
Chris Mayo www.comedycv.co.uk/chrismayo/index.htm Very big, very theatrical - Jimmy Carr,
Very Funny - Stephen K Amos
Richard Coughlan www.comedycv.co.uk/richardcoughlan/index.htm ‘a ball of manic energy’ – Chortle
plus your superstar resident compere James Everett www.comedycv.co.uk/jameseverett/index.htm
Doors 730pm. £4 entry/£3 with flyer or membership.

Tuesday 8th April
No event

Wednesday 9th April
No event

Live Function Bands Musicians and the UK Recession

Last week I wrote about the UK recession and how it could affect the  Live Bands and Musicians. Suprisingly I received the email below. This seems to be the answer. Marketing, Marketing, Marketing and  Marketing on Google.

Hi
 
I am the manager of the function band, xxxxx.
 
You may have noticed that my band’s website www.xxxxxxxco.uk now appears in the top 10 (first page) of organic results on Google for most relevant search terms:
 
Search TermApprox. Google position
weddings band1
wedding bands3
soul band8
Soul bands wedding5
bands to hire3
live wedding bands9
motown bands4
bands for hire6
function bands8
 

We also appear in the first page of results for most searches with geographical qualifiers (e.g. “wedding bands in London” (4th), “function bands in Essex (4th)”) etc.  Our ranking with Google is increasing every month and we expect to be in the No.1 position for most of these terms within the next 6 months.

As I am sure you will appreciate, being in such a strong position in Google’s organic (not paid) listings results in a considerable number of quality booking enquiries from all over the UK. As a result of our strong Google ranking and word-of-mouth recommendations, we are now fully booked for 2008 and for many dates in 2009.

Although a fabulous problem to have, this is generating far more business than we can personally handle as one band. As a result, we are not looking to take on any more work via agencies, nor are we (at this stage) considering forming our own agency.
 
When told that we are not available, many of these clients are asking us if we can recommend another band or agency. These are serious leads, ready to book and eager to be recommended by us to a reputable agency.
 
We are generating approximately 25-150 leads per week (according to season) over and above those required for our own bookings. I am writing to see if you would be interested in having these leads recommended to your agency in return for a small fee for each referral.

I have contacted you as an established and reputable agency to whom we would be happy to refer our clients and trust that you are able to recognise the potential of this offer. If you are currently paying to advertise with Google, this opportunity would give you access to quality leads from one of the top ranking sites in this market. All of these leads have already demonstrated that they are ready and eager to make a firm booking.
 
If you would like to discuss this offer with me in more detail, please do not hesitate to email me or telephone xxxxxxxx 
Kind regards
 
 xxxxx

The sender of the letter implies its a new site. Its very obvious that their SEO has found new ways of  ranking it up very quickly using various black hat SEO systems. The only problem with this is, there is a high potential the site will be dropped completely from the slurps at some point when Google catches a wind of it. However good luck to them, since we have all tried some form of black hat SEO on out sites at some point.

There does not seem to be an affect on the number of enquiries at the moment. However at Music For London we have found  that clients are taking longer or not making the final commitment to book the bands.

Thus we are seeing almost a 50% drop in actual bookings in March. I beleive its the fear of recession that is making people hold back the bookings and those who want to book are looking ar cheaper options. Hopefully there will be more bookings soon. This trend basically means we are only going to see Saturday bookings for the popular acts.

I spoke to a friend who works at a hedge fund today. He said business is down 10%. This is certainly a worrying trend. Lets hope spending becomes normal after summer and we can look ahead towards a busy corporate booking seasson

Touring Gig Available for Violinist

Female violist, violinist or cellist wanted to accompany all female Aussie/North American folk pop group for shows in Europe in late March into late April including Germany, Italy, Switzerland, London, Prague, Scandinavia and more.

Must be an intermediate to advanced player able to learn at least 8 songs on own, record and send back very quickly via email to confirm on the right track as we are based in North America and unable to meet until actual shows. For initial audition, we will send you two tracks to learn, record and send back before sending on the extra songs to make sure it will be a good fit.

We can guarantee you 400 pounds for the tour, with 5% of CD sales and whatever is left over after costs and door deals shared among all band members. All travel, accommodation and meals will be covered so all you need to do is bring your instrument and bag. If you have your own CD, you would also be more than welcome to sell it at shows as well as play one of your own songs during the set to promote yourself. If it works out, there will be more better paying part time work in the future in Europe, North America and Australia.

Please drop us a quick email with more information about you as well as some soundfiles of classical and/or jazz playing or links where we can hear you. We will also send you links, music and sheet music.

We hope to find a hard working, fun and great player to join us as part of our European adventure.

Thanks for your interest.
www.myspace.com/emalinedelapaix
www.myspace.com/emalinesguitarsongs - harder string parts on these songs
 candlestonemusic@gmail.com

dance director job available

Below is an advertisement for Director of Dance4.  Please pass on to anyone you think may be interested, or if you have any newsletters or e-lists that can hep us circulate the information, please include it.  Thanks for your help and apologies for any cross postings.

*************

Dance4, internationally recognised, experimental dance organisation and producer of nottdance festival of are looking to recruit a:

DIRECTOR

Salary in the region of £36,614 - £45,229 depending on experience.

Following a successful 3 years in post, current director Nicky Molloy will be stepping down from the role in April08.  Dance4 is now looking to identify an exceptional individual who can continue and further develop the vital work Nicky has been doing, through strong artistic vision and entrepreneurial flair.

The successful candidate will be:
 * An exceptional individual who combines a commitment to supporting artistic invention with entrepreneurial flair.
 * A high achiever with excellent communication skills and the ability to build robust relationships with a diverse group of stakeholders.
* A confident and powerful advocate who is skilled at operating within the public sector and the cultural industries.  
 * A team player who is clear, generous, resourceful, empowering and dynamic in their leadership.
 * A respected professional within the cultural industries who has experience of the international dance, performance and live arts sector.
 * An experienced manager with a track record in realising artistic ideas, raising funds and implementing progressive change.
 
Their key responsibilities will be to:
 * Devising the artistic programme: including curating nottdance, selecting artists for commissions and co-productions, researching and developing new initiatives that maintain the organisation at the forefront of international dance development.
 * Keeping informed of and engaged with developments within the national and international dance, live and performance art sectors.
 ·     Lead Dance4 through its existing phase of organisational development, which includes ambitions for building a new workspace, stakeholder relationship enhancement, planning for a regional Centre for Advanced Training and initiatives for work with young people.
* Plan and implement future strategies for the organisation based around its artistic ethos.

Closing date for applications17 April
Interview date at our office in Nottingham for shortlisted candidates 25 April

For an information pack email jobs@dance4.co.uk or call Rachel at Dance4 on +44 (0)115 9410773.  For details about Dance4 visit
http://www.dance4.co.uk
 <http://www.dance4.co.uk/>

–
Rachel Emmett
General Manager, Dance4
tel: 0115 9410773
email: rachel@dance4.co.uk

Music Equipment Manufacturers in China

I am not endorsing this music company but I found the email to be interesting. I checked out their website. I realised you can pretty much create your own brand of music instruments by ordering it from these guys. Of course the big question is the quality of the equipment. Last year I bought a box guitar which I thought was brilliant for approx £120.00 in Malaysia calle Pearl River. Its made in China. I am a pianist, but the guitar does look high quality and did sound very good. So how does one find out if this company is going to ship good quality equipment to you, short of making a trip to China?

Is China going to take over the Japanese instrument makers who have dominated the supply after the Europeans gradually became less competitive in terms of price when serving the masses where music equipment is concerned.

Five years ago, I would have thought that would be impossible. I have always owned Japanese keyboards namely Technics and Kawai and owned European Pianos like Danemann form Germany and Petrof from Chekolosvakia. I love my Petrof till today and I think nothing beats it. Technics of course have closed which is very sad as I think the created the best semi pro keyboards that often had better sound quality than the pro keyboards.

 Today, I think that is changing, certainly for the brass and wood based instruments. Where I stand now, I still can’t see them making a high end keyboard but then again you would never know. I have played on a Pearl River Piano, it was ok.

Coming back to the email below, if anyone has used this company and can tell me if the music equipment is of high quality that would be great.

 Dear Sir

We have your name and address from a Music website. We are GuangHe Group, specializing in manufacture and export musical instruments in world factory China.

              

Our group has four product lines. I am in charge of mucial instrument line include Clarinet, Saxphone, Flute, Piccolo, Drum, Horn,Guitar,Violin and other musical instruments. If you can place big order I can quote you most competitive price with good quality.

Even you are a manufacture also should think about our business because can save you many cost to product goods in China.

If you are interested in our instruments you can find them from our website.

www.china-musical.net

 Our price term is FOB Tianjin. Payment is T/T or L/C. But we can change these terms according customer’s different situation or requirements during we are discussing our business.

Our deliver time is 20-30 days depend on different quantity.

If you want any further information please don’t hesitate to tell me. I will be at your service for establish good business relationship.

Hope you have a nice day and thank you for your time to read my letter.

Best Regards

Sophia

Guanghe Group

Tel: +86-10-5900 0024

Fax: +86-10-5869 0387

Emai: sophia@ghhj.net

Web site:  www.china-musical.net

  

Celebrity Bookings Ed Hardy and Christian Audigier

To whom it may concern,

New World Entertainment specializes in celebrity/talent bookings, as well as, concert/event production and consultation. In the last six (6) months we have worked with artists, such as, The Pussycat Dolls, Tommy Lee, Fergie,
Hilary Duff, Brody Jenner, Carmen Electra and Jeremy Jackson to name a few. We have also produced events for companies, such as, Urban Male Magazine, (Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Canada Cares Foundation, eTalk, Calvin Klein 25th Anniversary Parties, Ed Hardy Fashion Shows, Dom Rebel Fashion Shows, CFL Grey Cup Concert Series, etc.

We are looking for a booking agent that can arrange a club tour for the Ed Hardy and Christian Audigier Fashion shows in Europe.  We require 7500 USD per show + expenses and hospitality for 4 people. 

Please view the attached proposal for all details on the show and a video of a past show we did in Montreal.

Thank You
–
Nickolas Vachon
Chairman & CFO
New World Entertainment
+1 613-795-5812
nick@newworldentertainment.com
www.newworldentertainment.com

Kids Music

Kids Music Today I decided to google ‘Kids Music’ and of course www.kidsmusic.co.uk was the first in rank. I naturally clicked the 1^st in rank on the natural listings. So should I advertise on add words at all? Well that’s debatable till the cows come home.Today I want to research kids music courses as I have a little one, well two except the 1^st little one is 7 going on 13. She does not speak like a little kid any more.  She enjoys singing along the tumble tots CDs for her brothers benefit but really enjoys Katie Melua more, her favourite being ‘London Town’I want to get Nehemiah who just turned one more CDs so my shopping begun. I know he enjoys the Tumble Tots CDs, so I googled that and there it was ‘only five left in stock’ Looks like kids music is recession proof as gullible parents will go through any length to satisfy their little ones.This got me thinking, should Music for London  look into kids entertainment closer….after a few seconds my answer was no.  Entertaining kids needed a person with a fantastic amount of patience, bountiful amounts of energy and great expertise. There was no alcohol to get the audience excited or drugs. The person who entertains kids  needed to be trained in understanding kids,  CRB checked of course and someone I felt I would need to know personally before allowing them into someone’s home to attend to kids who would be most likely be at a spot where their parents were putting it away at the BBQ.Anyway coming back to shopping for kids !  On the amazon page, I realised there were no samples of music or reviews compared to buying adults music. Basically if you have a kids CD to sell, if it looks like a kids CD, has names that sound like a kids CD, then you just click ‘add to basket’.  People selling kids CDs and music basically know we are busy parents and will probably not have the time to click play anyway. However I think that is rather unfair. I went on and added to the basket any CD that contained music names that I was not familiar with. There it was a music sale with very little effort on the music merchant.Next it was musical instruments packaged very nicely for a one year old.  Added to the cart and that was the quick kids music shopping session for today.

Is the live function music industry recession proof?

 Credit Crunch, UK recession, Negative Equity…whatever they really mean, they seem to have definitely affected the number of bookings we are receiving and the number of bookings musicians are receiving. I received 20 calls this week from musicians hunting for gigs. I have received an email from very high profile function bands looking for more gigs.The work has not dried up completely but there is certainly a lot less of it. So will this last forever, the law of nature says it wont as everything it will improve at some point, but a which point?I once attended a conference about 10 years ago and I remember the record sales had actually gone up during the recession. What about live music bookings for semi professional musicians? Let’s leave the big names out, they are recession proof…Other than the big wedding Saturdays in summer (May, June, July & August), it looks pretty quiet for many bands and ensembles. Established bands who had decided last year not to go out of town anymore are now saying they don’t mind.I should be busy dealing with new enquiries but am posting a blog post!That’s how it is this Friday morning, a bit of gloom in London.  Then again London has never really been as busy as presumed by everyone with live music.  Luckily for a handful of jazz singers, they are finding their way to Asia www.musicforasia.com where they are decently paid, loved an revered. They are enjoying their gigs. 6 nights a week and being pampered in five star hotels.The bit that really makes it difficult to get more artistes to perform is the cost of flights and local taxes in these countries; otherwise there would be more performance opportunities.

Salsa Classes with Live Salsa Band in London

POLLERA COLORA

                4-6 London Bridge Street

                      London SE1 9SG

 

Have a pleasure to invite you and your friends

To learn how to dance Salsa

 

Every Thursday

Commencing Thursday 6th March 2008

 

Beginners Salsa Class at 7:00-8:00    Improvers 8:00 to 9:00

 £4 per hour, £ 8 per two hours

Dj Alex El Peludo  Teacher Hania

 

Salsa Classes Contact  0781295305

General Enquiries  info@latintintouch.com

  

LIVE SALSA LATIN BAND

 

SON REAL ORCHESTRA

Salsa - Merengue - Cumbia

 

Time Performance: 9:30 Pm Until Late

Fee Entrance £ 3.00 Per Person & £ 5.00 Per Couple

For more details on the band performing live please visit  http://www.musicforlondon.co.uk/son_latin_american_dance_band.htm 

 

Carribean Steel Bands

It must not just sound authentic, it has to look authentic…… Every year we get way more demand than its possible to supply expecially for the wedding dates on Saturdays in summmer and lots of other parties including Birthdays, Childrens Parties, BBQs and Company Parties especially for the Carribe Steel Band led by Mr John Thomas.  This authentic Carribean Steel Band brings the sound of summer, coconut trees, white sandy beaches to any party. However when we have to tell most clients that this band is already booked, we first get a sigh, we naturally offer them another band. The band we often offer is this technically superior steel band led by Paul Dowie. However the polite clients will say ‘we will get back to you’ some would just say ‘they don’t look the part’.  This year we certainly hope that booking parties will exercise a more open mind to the sounds of summer and book Steel Pan Bands that are not primarily made of musicians who come from the Carribean

 John recently appeared (29th Feb 08) on ITV  this morning a small badge playing the arrival of Queen of Sheeba. He enjoyed the morning and received numerous phone calls from past clients who recognised and friends who recognised him on telly. Your can carry watching this video for an insight in the life of John Thomas the Steel Pan Man.

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