Lionsgate Films starring role in social media suicide

About six months ago, I was asked by a colleague to post news of a new fitness centre opening on the Facebook page for Haigh Fest, an unsigned music festival.

I refused.

I wasn’t trying to be difficult or in any way unhelpful, I was simply adhering to a golden rule that should apply to all forms of marketing, business or creative endeavours:

Know your audience

I like to think that I know my audience on the Haigh Fest page pretty well.

They hit that big ‘Like’ button at the top of the page so that they could find out what’s happening with the festival, occasionally tell us off when we don’t pick their favourite band (or the band they play in) and get the odd update about the local music scene in general.

Going out in front of all those people with whom I think we’ve built up a certain amount of trust over time and suddenly giving them a blatant advertisement for a gym would have been social media suicide; they didn’t sign up to the page to have their news feed spammed with gym advertisements, and I wouldn’t have blamed them if they’d quickly disowned us.

Unfortunately, Lionsgate Films don’t seem to share my Don’t advertise fitness stuff to people who didn’t ask for it, philosophy, and were quiet happy to do just that.

So I was surprised last week when, some months after hitting ‘Like’ on the page for House of 1,000 Corpses (hey, don’t judge me, I like horror films and Rob Zombie) and gradually getting used to the odd attempt to shill a special edition Blue-Ray, I logged on to Facebook to see House of 1,000 Corpses,  a bloody, low-budget horror in which an insane family hack innocent people to bits, suddenly telling me to go Youtube to watch some fitness videos and get in shape for 2012.

At time of writing, the post was still online, and you only need to trawl through a handful of comments along the lines of ‘WTF? I didn’t sign up for this, DISLIKE!’ comments to see it was a bad move on Lionsgate’s part. The image below shows only a very small handful of those comments.

Golden rule? Know your audience. Give them what they want or they’ll up and leave…or at least be very cross with you.

Giggin for Higgins - We Came, We Saw..well, some people did.

By all accounts, Saturday’s Giggin’ for Higgins charity event had a lot going against it.

With most folks’ wallets already weakened thanks to The Current Economic Climate (why nobody just flat out says 'we’re all broke' always amuses me) before taking a further battering during Christmas a few weeks ago, and with the event itself taking place in a little-known venue in a small, unsuspecting little town, it shouldn’t really have worked.

And in some respects, it didn’t.

Throughout the nine-hour event, we had approximately 150 people through the door donating between them just over £300 to the Terrence Higgins Trust, and although those aren’t exactly numbers to be laughed at, I don’t mind admitting that I was disappointed they’re not bigger.

We ticked all the boxes as far as publicity went; posters (designed by my buddy Scott Jones at Space Dye Designs) went up well in advance, social media was used as effectively as possible and we got some great coverage in the local paper.

As far as I could tell, employing the same marketing plan I’ve used for other events should have worked, and until somebody points a flaw in that plan (I’m more than willing to accept that there was one), I’m still going to blame the lower-than-expected numbers on my admittedly bad decision to run the event two weeks into the New Year in an out-of-the-way location.

Yet just because I wasn’t happy with the crowd size doesn’t mean that the event wasn’t a success.

Numbers aside, this was actually one of the best events I’ve managed to date.

Millstone Rocks’ Team Awesome reunited to handle stage and sound (along with new Colour Me Blind recruit, Sam Clarke) and did a fantastic job, mostly because they’re so good at what they do, but also partly because I took my own advice, and trusted them to make the right decisions.

With Danny as sound engineer working with some equipment kindly loaned to us from Angelica Fenney and the lads from Titors Insignia, the sound quality was top notch, the change overs smooth and the event ran incredibly smoothly from start to finish.

As for the bands themselves? All I can say is that those who did come down on Saturday were treated to something special.

I knew as soon as I’d finalised the line-up that I had one hell of a quality show on my hands and I certainly wasn’t disappointed on that front.

From Skive’s short acoustic set to the incredibly-talented Olly Squires proving why he’s one of the most creative songwriters on our local scene right now and right the way through to the incomparable Jeramiah Ferrari taking time out from being reggae’s fastest rising stars to wrap up the night with another impressive show, all eleven acts brought their A-game and were most impressive.

In Blue Skies and Rescue The Eskimo, two bands I’d love to get on the same bill again some time, gave us some wonderful acoustic pop that really lit up the audience as afternoon turned to evening, Smitten Kitten tore it up with their usual bombastic 80s-style rock and Little Sister gave it everything they had in their first gig together.

Elsewhere, Colour Me Blind were their usual funky selves and delivered their set with aplomb, the aforementioned Titors Insignia provided a welcome sonic assault on the senses, Cautious Retreat blasted their way through a short, but very entertaining set and Junction23, worked their backsides off to deliver a storming performance for which they deserve plenty of kudos.

And whilst I do wish more people had been around to see such an talented line-up, I can’t complain too much; 150 people through the door a few weeks after Christmas is hardly that bad, is it?

Giggin' for Higgins: An Interview

This past week, I did an e-mail interview with the very lovely Natalie from the Wigan Evening Post about our big charity gig Giggin' for Higgins that takes place later today at All Saints Social Centre in Golborne, Wigan.

With the focus being (quite rightly) mostly on the bands when the awesome double-page spread was published in yesterday's paper, there wasn't enough room to publish the full interview.

Alas, I'm quite an egotistical little so-and-so when I want to be, and I'd really like people to hear what I had to say. I'm not really sure if I'm supposed to, or even allowed to, publish the full transcript of  the interview, but I'm going to anyway and just hope I don't get into any trouble.

Below is a picture of the published piece, and below that, the full interview.

What are you organising? Where and when?
'Gigging for Higgins' (all credit to my little brother for coming up with that name!), an all-day charity gig which starts at 1pm this Saturday, January 14th at Golborne All Saints Social Centre (formerly known as Golborne Catholic Club). The event features a total of 11 bands and entry is just £2. It's an all-ages event so everyone is more than welcome!

What is it for?
The event is to raise money for Terrence Higgins Trust, an excellent charity working to reduce HIV in the UK, promote good sexual health, empower people living with HIV and combat the prejudices they face. The money from the gig will go towards a great fundraising effort I'm doing on behalf of the charity.

I'm running the London Marathon in April on behalf of THT and want to raise as much money as possible for them. It was actually music that gave me the idea to run a marathon; I was managing a band a few years ago who had a gig in London the same day as the marathon and seeing it up close really inspired to me to want to run myself. I figured since it was music that turned me onto the idea of doing a marathon, running a charity gig like this would be the perfect way to raise some extra money for the cause I'm running for.

What made you choose this charity?
Even after I had the idea to do a marathon, it still took some time to do anything about it. It was only after a friend of mine told me about the work they'd been doing to support people with HIV and I had the chance to talk to them myself that I realised what great challenges they face every day, not only dealing with the HIV itself, but with all the stigma and prejudice that comes along with it. I thought that if these people can keep facing these challenges and keep going then my own little challenge to run a marathon was nothing in comparison. Personally, Terrence Higgins Trust were really invaluable in helping me understand a lot more about HIV, and I really believe that they work they do is invaluable.

How much do you intend to raise?
THT have asked me to raise £1,500. It's a big ammount, so I'm really urging as many people as possible to come to the gig on Saturday and help me reach that target. I've already raised just under £200 thanks to some kind donations from friends and family members but there's still a long way to go. I know it's a cliche, but every penny really does count and if people can't make it on Saturday they can still donate online at http://virginmoneygiving.com/chrisskoyles

What will the money go towards?
The money from Saturday's gig will all go to my wider marathon fundraising effort and will be used by Terrence Higgins Trust on a variety of projects. In particular, THT do some great work with young people, promoting safe sex and providing advice, guidance and support to all young people concerned about sexual health issues, not just those whose lives are affected by HIV. THT also provide HIV and STI testing, sti treatment and lots of other services which the money raised will go to support. More info on the charity can be found at www.tht.org.uk

 Is it tickets or can people just turn up?
Just turn up on Saturday. Entry is £2 on the door though there'll be the chance for people to donate more if they want to.

Can you give me some comments on the bands that you have booked? There's a mix of Haigh Festers and some lesser known bands?
Really pleased with the line-up we've managed to get for this gig. Smitten Kitten and Jeramiah Ferrari practically stole the show at Haigh Fest 2011 and Jeramiah in particular are getting bigger and more well-known seemingly by the day, we're lucky to get them now, they'll probably be headlining the MEN this time next year!

Smitten Kitten always go the extra-mile on stage and fans of old-school '80s rock will certainly love them, I'm really looking forward to their set.

Elsewhere, we've got Golborne locals Skive, usually a three-piece punk band who'll be doing a special acoustic performance, and Little Sister, a young band just starting out but who do show plenty of promise.

Olly Squires is a very talented singer-songwriter who plays some stunning acoustic songs, Rescue the Eskimo have been making a pretty big name for themselves on the Manchester festival circuit and local people will probably recognise them from their set at the 2011 Christmas lights switch on, definitely a band to check out.

 In blue Skies have a similar sound to Rescue the Eskimo, playing acoustic pop that should really go down well. Junction 23 are one of the hardest working groups I know, and for such a young band they pack an almighty punch, definitely a band to keep an eye on in 2012!

Colour Me Blind are a three-piece funk rock band who've supported bands like The Levellers, headlined Shires Festival in Shropshire and have the unusual achievement of being the only rock band to have played Wigan Town Hall(!)

Titors Insignia are an awesome indie-rock band from St. Helens who just released their debut album Fair City Riots and have their eye on a spot at Leeds Festival this year, they hit hard and have some fantastic songs.

Cautious Retreat are a solid old-school rock band who'll be playing at this year's Surface Unsigned Festival and always entertain an audience.

 Marathon stuff:
This will be my first marathon so I'm excited and nervous at the same time. The training's been going pretty well so far, I've gone from struggling to run 10 minutes back when I first started training in October to almost hitting two hours. I'm seeing small improvements every time I train, which I normally up here at Haigh Hall where I work or around Golborne where I live and those small improvements are gradually making me stronger and faster every day. It's my first marathon so I'm not expecting to break any records, but if I can complete the 26 mile course in under five hours I'll be really happy. It's more important to me that I just finish the course without killing myself(!) but it's good to have a goal to work towards so under five hours is the one I'm going for right now. I was never the most sporty or athletic person before I started training so it's been a big challenge, but I'm really pleased with the progress so far.

Another new blog launch: One Small Step

The Wigan Music Archives wasn’t the only new blog I’ve launched this year, this past Sunday I also launched One Small Step, focussing on my challenge to run this year’s Virgin London Marathon.

I’ve mentioned the marathon a couple of times on this blog over the last couple of week, though ultimately I figured that most you who visit my little corner of the web probably don’t do so to read about running marathons and exercise and other such stuff (you’re far more interested in what I have to say about Reverbnation if Google Analytics is anything to go by).

Nor do I imagine that many of the people who’ve been following me on Twitter since 2008 really signed up so that they could hear about how many miles I’ve clocked pounding pavements or how much I love my new running shoes.

That said, there is a lot I want to say about this marathon experience.

This is by far the biggest personal challenge I’ve ever faced, necessitating a complete, if gradual, change in lifestyle, harder work than I’ve ever done before and the need to get used to looking like a bit of a div in my running shorts.

With just over three months to go to the big day, I’ve got a lot to talk about when it comes to my progress in training and changing my lifestyle to meet this challenge, but even more importantly, I’ve got a lot I want to say about Terrence Higgins Trust, the HIV charity I’m raising funds for as I take on this challenge.

Terrence Higgins Trust work tirelessly to reduce the spread of HIV in the UK, support and empower people living with HIV and eradicate the prejudice and stereotypes they face. This is really valuable work done by a really awesome charity that I’m incredibly proud to be supporting by running this marathon. 

Though I really feel strongly about what I’m doing with this marathon and why I’m doing it, I decided that it might be better if, for the most part, I kept posts about it separate from the usual ramblings about music and  all manner of other random things you’ll find here on this blog.

Which is why I launched One Small Step, a new blog that I’ll be updating every Wednesday and Friday with news about my progress in both training and fundraising, thoughts about running the marathon and why Terrence Higgins Trust is such an important cause to be running for.

Even if you only came here to read about Reverbnation, I’d be so incredibly grateful if you could at least take a look at http://onesmallstepmarathon.wordpress.com and, if you’re feeling generous, show your support at my fundraising page – http://virginmoneygiving.com/chrisskoyles

Introducing...The Wigan Music Reviews Archive

One of my biggest regrets of 2011 is that music coverage from The LINC pretty much died a slow and sorrowful death.

Not only was there very little new stuff produced last year; the result of my job changing to focus more on web development and social media which robbed me of valuable time I could have spent writing about music, but six years of archived content was practically wiped from the face of the Internet when we moved to our new Content Management System.

Though I was upset about not being able to write much last year, I was even more upset that all that coverage of the local music scene in Wigan would only ever be seen by the handful of people with access to my office computer and vowed that as soon as I could, I’d do something about it.

It was only after reading The Tower, a manifesto from Chris Guillebeau looking at legacy work  that I really got thinking about the legacy Wigan’s bands, and those who wrote about them, have left behind that people would no longer be able to read about. 

Though music reviews probably weren’t what Guillebeau had in mind when he talked about legacy work, I still nonetheless felt that preserving the recent history of Wigan’s music scene was an important enough project to take on.

So I did.

This New Year’s Day, I launched the Wigan Music Reviews archive, featuring reviews, interviews and articles focussing on the local music scene originally published in The LINC Magazine and on LINC Online.



With a wealth of great content from 2004 – 2010, I’ll be posting one new piece in chronological order each Sunday morning until every last piece has been published.

Though it’s early days yet I’m already really proud of this project; chronicling a it does a host of memorable gigs and exciting projects, the demo and albums bands worked so hard to get off the ground and much more besides.

And though I’m supposed to say there’s some great writing on there since most of it will ultimately be mine (and that’s fair enough if you ask me, some of my best writing will be eventually be published on the site), there really is some fantastic writing on the site from others who contributed to The LINC over the years.

Don’t believe me? Take a look for yourself at http://wiganmusicreviews.wordpress.com

Goals for 2012

With all the reflecting on 2011 out of the way, it’s time to start looking at my plans for 2012.

In all honesty, they’re quite simple plans, albeit ones requiring a lot of hard work.

Complete the 2012 Virgin London Marathon

Most people either laughed at me or passed confused glances my way when I told them early last year that I planned to run the London Marathon in 2012.

I couldn’t blame them really; I was never really the most physically active person in the world.

Alas, I applied anyway, and as 2011 began gradually winding to a close, I received a letter offering me a Golden Bond place to run the marathon on behalf of Terrence Higgins Trust.

I’ll be blogging a lot more on my training efforts very soon, but needless to say it’s been hard, yet ultimately very rewarding work so far, and I’m looking forward to pounding the streets of London come April.

If you do want to go ahead and sponsor me (and I'd love it if you did) you can do so at my Virgin Money Giving page.

Write 300,000 words
Until this year, the only writing-related goals I’ve set have been to complete specific, usually short-term, projects.

And that’s where I’ve been going wrong.

In not setting a clear goal like this, I’ve been letting my writing output slip over the last 18-24 months, concentrating instead on other projects which, whilst fun, were not what I’d always planned to do with my life.

Ever since I was a child the only career I had in mind was one involving sticking lots of words down on a page, and though I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunities I’ve had which have very little to do with writing, it’s time I got back to that.

I got the idea to write 300,000 words from an excellent post by Chris Guillebeau. At first, I was going to be really ambitious and aim for 500,000 words but hey, I’m a writer not a mathematician, and trying to divide 500,000 words by 12 months proved more challenging than it was worth!

Spend the summer in the USA
I don’t want to talk too much about this just yet as I have nothing confirmed yet, but one of my main goals is to spend at least the summer months over in my beloved Minnesota working on a couple of exciting things.

It’s early days yet, but I’ll have more news once I’m back from a short trip there in early February.

I also have a couple of smaller goals that you’ll probably see me talking about over the next twelve months, but these are my three main priorities for the year ahead.

Be sure to come back in December to see how I did!

5 Things I learned in 2011

Before I delve into my plans for 2012, I thought it might be a nice idea to reflect a bit further on the year that was 2011.

Here then, are five random things I learned over the past twelve months.

1) Today is just a stepping stone to better things
My partner Stacy told me this when I was going through a particularly stressful period early last Autumn and it’s undoubtedly the most important thing I learned last year.

I now recite this little mantra to myself every morning and again whenever I’m feeling particularly overwhelmed by something.

Whenever I do, I’m reminded to appreciate the small things I achieve each day, and to keep checking that those achievements are helping me work towards my bigger overall goals.

  

What this has also taught me is that when something bad happens in my day I just need to let it go; today is just a stepping stone to better things and tomorrow won’t be that bad.

A very worthwhile lesson if you ask me.

2) Nobody cares about my goals as much as I do.
I don’t mean this in some kind of 'poor me, nobody cares' kind of way, nor do I mean to imply that I’m so self-centred that I all I care about is myself and what I’m trying to achieve.

Rather, I mean to say that everybody has their own goals, their own ambitions, and even those who do care about what I’m doing don’t care as much about their own stuff.

I learned this after a couple of people let me down in a big way on a couple of projects last year.

In the past, I would have been absolutely furious: “How can you let me down!?! How?? Don’t you realise this is the most important thing EVER!?! You should be willing to give your right arm to work on this!!”

This year I learned not to get so worked up about these things. Most of these people had perfectly valid reasons why they couldn’t do whatever it is they said they’d do and of course they didn’t realise these projects were the most important thing ever, because they weren’t.

At least not to anyone who wasn’t me.

That’s not a bad thing; it’s only natural that I should care more about my goals than anyone else in much the same way that those people who let me down care about their stuff much more than I do.

Working together to achieve common goals is still important, but honestly, if  somebody can’t help you, it’s important to be grateful that they at least tried to help, and not angrily suggest they amputate a limb.

3) The journey isn’t so scary when your destination promises something amazing.

I’m not a particularly religious person but for years, whenever I boarded a flight anywhere, I would bow my head and pray to whatever almighty power might be up there that if He would just pretty pretty please let this plane land with me still alive, I’ll do whatever You want.

I don’t quite know where this fear of flying came from, nor did I have too much time to worry about it; I was too busy being scared half to death from the moment we took off til the moment we landed.

So you can imagine how terrified I might have been last summer when I had to fly on my own for the first time. Not only that, but I had three flights to catch to reach my destination.

Strangely however, almost as soon as that first flight left Manchester to soar across the ocean towards Newark Liberty Airport, I felt relaxed, happy, and far from being scared out of my mind, I found I was actually really enjoying the experience of being in the air.

Just as I didn’t know where my initial fear had come from, I wasn’t immediately sure why I’d suddenly overcome it.

Then I remembered where I was going; Minnesota, USA, to spend time with Stacy and her family, to do cool stuff, to visit Bob Dylan’s childhood home!

I couldn’t wait to get there, this was exciting!

Knowing I was about to have a wonderful experience once I landed; the actual flying part didn’t seem so bad at all.

4) When tired, take nap.
Most of the time I love what I do, so much so that for years I would never see any reason to stop doing it and would soldier on all through the day and well into the night.

Rest and relaxation was one of those things people did when they had nothing better to do and I certainly wasn’t one of those people; I had plenty to do.

What’s more, if it didn’t get done I would grow tired and stressed and generally quite irritated.

I didn’t need a doctor to tell me that this wasn’t a good thing. I could feel how bad it was, so I did the only thing I could:

I chilled out.

I learned to take regular breaks, to put work on the backburner for a while to watch a good film, visit friends or, when I really needed to; take a nap.

More importantly than that though, I learned not to feel guilty about taking a break.

I learned that relaxing was just as important to achieving things as working hard. Now I actually look forward to downing tools and doing something just because it’s fun, and woe betide anybody who gets in the way of that wonderful thing I have come to love and value so dearly; The Sunday Afternoon Nap.

5) I’m not a fan of The Rolling Stones (or Bob Marley)
Some time in mid-2011, I set myself a challenge to listen to 100 albums that were considered to be ‘classic’ ‘influential’ or in some way or another important to the history of popular music.

I did this partly because I figured it would just be a fun thing to do, but partly because there were some artists I really didn’t know as much about as I really should, like the ‘Stones for example.

I took a few weeks at a time to really get to know an album, which is why I’m currently only at Album 21 on my list (With The Beatles, by The Beatles, if you’re curious), but going through this list last year I learned, amongst other things, that:

• For all the praise and critical acclaim they get, The Rolling Stones really were not that great.
• Bob Marley’s Exodus album is, according to my notes, “Bland background music”
  
  
• Jarvis Cocker on Pulp’s A Different Class album sounds far more creepy than I ever imagined.
  
  
• Let Me In by R.E.M is one of the greatest songs I’ve ever heard. 

Thanks for reading and have a great 2012.