Chris Skoyles

30-Day Song Challenge 2: Day 5 - My favourite song for driving around with the top down: Saliva - Click Click Boom

2012-02-03T00:35:00.000-08:00

Look, I might be in the United States as I write this but I'm actually from England.

You've heard of England, right? A place where we don't so much have weather as we do a constant blanket of grey skies broken by the odd miserable patter of lifeless rain.

As such, I don't tend to spend a great deal of time driving around anywhere with the top down.

If I did, you can bet the proverbial farm I'd be blasting this bad boy out as loud as possible.

It's the kind of song that seems designed for the pure purpose of making people bounce, lifting them up and making them feel good.

At least, that's what it does to me.

Please enjoy!

30-Day Song Challenge 2: Day 4 - A song for a sunny day: Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Californication

2012-02-02T00:34:00.000-08:00

It was the summer of 2000, I'd just broken up with my first proper girlfriend and was feeling rather glum about it. Taking a bit of cash into town in an effort to cheer myself up, and came home with Red Hot Chilli Pepper's 1999 album, Californication.

It did the trick too, and after several repeated listens, Anthony Keidis & co. had put the smile back on my face and suddenly the summer seems a lot brighter.

Fast forward over a decade later, and I'm still reminded of bright summers whenever I listen to this.

Please enjoy.

30-Day Song Challenge 2: Day 3 - A song for a rainy day: Counting Crows - Washington Square

2012-02-01T08:33:00.000-08:00

Though I'll never entirely know why, I always think of winter as Counting Crows season.

I'll make no bones about the fact that Adam Duritz and his wonderful ensemble are up there in my Top Three Bands of All Time, and they make for damn good listening at any time of year, but for whatever reason, as the sunny days of summer gradually fade into the grey drizzle of a cold winter, I tend to binge on a musical diet consisting of little other than Counting Crows albums.

Maybe I find myself in a more reflective mood as one year ends and another begins, and since Duritz's lyrics tend to relate to my life more than any other artist, I just need them more than ever.

Honestly, I've no idea.

All I know is that much of my wet, weary winters are spent indoors, the rain lashing against my window as beautiful songs like Washington Square slide from my speakers and wrap me in their warmth.

This song, about leaving familiar territory behind and moving to pastures new, I find particularly apt this year.

Please, enjoy.

Writing (last updated Jan 31st 2012)

2012-01-31T13:02:00.000-08:00

An archive of my published writing. I have a lot to get through, so I'll be updating this with more samples periodically.

Productivity, lifestyle, management and communication

Lifehack.org

Music

Lost at Sea

The LINC Online (2011)

Young people's issues

The LINC

Local news and views

Blog Preston

Creative writing

Video Games

The LINC

Sport

The LINC

Professional wrestling

411mania

30-Day Song Challenge 2: Day 2 - A song I hate from a band I love: Everybody Hurts by R.E.M

2012-01-31T08:32:00.000-08:00

I remember the first time I heard R.E.M.

Driving along in the dead of night en route to a family holiday in Newquay, Dad slips an album on the stereo and a deep, almost menacing acoustic guitar purred through the speakers as an equally as-threatening voice sang 'Hey, kids, where are you? / Nobody tells you what to do'

From that moment on, I became a big fan of Michael Stipe et al, and Automatic For the People still ranks up there in my unwitten Top Five Albums of All Time List.

Which is odd, because there's one song on there that I absolutely can not stand.

I don't know why I have such an intolerance to Everybody Hurts, maybe it's because it's one of the most overplayed songs of all time, maybe it's because, on an album which is otherwise powerful and full of a certain dark atmosphere, this song stands as just being a little weak and drab.

Either way, here's that God awful song.

Please enjoy, if you can.

30-Day Song Challenge 2: Day 1 - A song from a band I don't like: Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO

2012-01-30T08:30:00.000-08:00

Going through last year's blog posts recently, I remembered how much fun I had doing the 30-Day Song Challenge and wondered if there was anything similar floating around on the Internet that I could get involved in.

Wouldn't you know it? There's a 30-Day Song Challenge - The Sequel and so, yes, I'm at it again.

Day 1 is A song from a band I don't like.

Honestly, if there's a band I don't like, I'm not partial to learning many of their songs, so I'm going to have to start this one with an injoke between Stace and I and show you a video of Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO, a song she loves and I really can't stand.

Lionsgate Films starring role in social media suicide

2012-01-19T22:52:00.000-08:00

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.

2012-01-17T12:15:00.000-08:00

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 Junction2 3, 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

2012-01-14T00:49:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-12T22:02:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-10T13:56:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-05T14:56:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-03T14:10:00.000-08:00

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.

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T07:55:00.001-08:00

All the best for 2012.

The First Annual Chris Skoyles Year End Awards: PART 2

2011-12-26T06:51:00.001-08:00

Yes, as promised, I'm back with the second part of my Year End Awards. In Part One, we looked at my favourite albums, artists and gigs of 2011, in this installment we'll look at my favourite blogs, websites and other stuff from the past 12 months.

The 'Must have in your RSS Reader' Award for Blog of the year

WINNER:

Chris Guillebeau - The Art of Non-Conformity
World-traveler, entrepreneur and author of the excellent book The Art of Non-Conformity, a great piece of writing about how to live an awsome life on your own terms, expands upon the ideas in that book with posts about life, work and travel in this blog of the same name.

I read The Art of Non-conformity book in the space of a day when I first picked it up earlier this year, and I don't think I've missed a single post from Chris all year, always finding something to motivate and inspire me whether it's in regards to my writing, long-term goals or generally kicking arse at life. Always a great read and definitely worth checking out.

RUNNERS UP:

Hypebot.com
The Problem with Young People Today

The 'Where would I be without you?' Award for Most Useful Tool of the Year

WINNER:

Springpad

After the rumours in late 2010 that Yahoo were killing off the Delicious social booking service, I set about looking for a viable alternative.

A couple of options were tested, but Springpad was the clear winner; not only did it allow me to easily import all my bookmarks over from Delicious (which, as it turned out, was actually just sold, not shut down), but it also took over from most of the tasks Evernote used to handle for me, and did them much better and with a much slicker interface than Evernote.

Since then I've used Springpad to do everything from managing my Haigh Fest short list to keeping track of which poems I've had published to planning for meetings and more.

Overall it's an awesome tool and I'd be lost without it.

RUNNERS UP:

Duotrope submissions tracker
Hootsuite

The 'Time for a break' Film of the Year Award

WINNER:

Resurrect Dead
It was at least four years ago that I first heard about Toynbee Tiles, mysterious pieces of art planted into the asphalt of US streets with cryptic messages about bringing dead folk back to life on planet Jupiter and making references to the work of historian Arnold Toynbee and filmmaker Stanley Kubrick.

After originally reading about them in an edition of The Metro newspaper, my curiosity and hunger to learn more about the tiles led me to writing an article of my own, featuring interviews with Justin Duerr, Colin Smith and Steve Weinik, three men from Philadelphia who were working on a film about the tiles.

I quickly lost touch with them after the article, but kept up-to-date on the film's progress via the Resurrect Dead website and was delighted earlier this year when I saw that not only had the film been released, but it had done pretty well too.

That background aside, this is a really great documentary, full of mystery and intrigue, beautiful shot and well worth anybody's time.

RUNNERS UP:

Rise of Planet of the Apes
127 Hours

The 'I'm Going to Hit You with a Big Stick' Award for Most Annoying Thing of the Year

WINNER:

Sitekit
I've been working with content management system Sitekit for the best part of the last twelve months at the day job and, funnily enough, whenever I've been faced with a web-based project at that same day job in the last twelve months, I've experienced nothing but frustration.

Chances are that those frustrations are as much to do with the awful computer I'm provided with at work, but even as terrible as that machine is, I doubt it's solely responsible for the amount of times Sitekit slowly grinds to a withering halt before crashing altogether.

Then again, maybe it is.

Looking around the 'net, I've read a lot of good things about Sitekit, so it can't be all that bad, but I could honestly write a 1000 word post about ll the headaches and frustrations I've suffered because of this particular CMS in the past year. I won't, but I could.

RUNNERS UP:

People who readily share every detail of their lives on Facebook then complain about privacy.
People who say "that awkward moment when..." and then go on to describe a situation that isn't really awkward at all.
Running out of categories for 'Year End Awards' blogs

The First Annual Chris Skoyles Year End Awards: PART 1

2011-12-24T06:54:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year when every institution and magazine on the planet looks back over the last twelve months in their chosen field and celebrates the achievements of others with their Year End Awards.

Of course, I'm neither an institution nor a magazine, but I am a man with a bit of time on my hands today; time I decided to spend concocting my own utterly random Chris Skoyles Year End Awards.

Part One of these awards looks at the year in music whilst Part Two, to be posted on Boxing Day, will deal with everything else that happened in the last year.

Please enjoy,

The 'Play on Repeat' Award for Album of the Year

WINNER:

William Fitzsimmons - Gold in the Shadow
I've been a big fan of Fitzsimmons for the past couple of years, and not just for that immensely cool beard of his. With only perhaps Adam Duritz (see below) coming anywhere close when it comes to pouring so much emotion into every word he sings, the Pittsburgh-born songwriter's last couple of albums, Sparrow and The Crow, Goodnight and Until When We Are Ghosts are truly beautiful, and I don't say that lightly.

Some critics expecting more of the aching melancholy and tender beauty displayed on older tracks such as Everything has Changed, Even Now and After All have been disappointed by Gold in the Shadow,with its more optimistic outlook and uplifting tone, but with such stunning tracks as The Tide Pulls from the Moon and Bird of Winter Prey, this is still better than anything else I've heard all year.

RUNNERS UP:

Adam Duritz - All My Bloody Valentines
Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Part 2

The 'Get this crap off my stereo' Award for Worst Album of the Year

WINNER:

Metallica & Lou Reed - Lulu

I tried so incredibly hard to like this album, I really did, and not just because everybody else has been slating 'Tallica since they stopped being cool after that whole Napster thing. No, I'm that guy who even thought St. Anger was pretty good, so if Metallica were involved, I really thought, believed, hoped beyond all hope, that there'd be something to enjoy somewhere on this record.

Oh how wrong I was.

Sounding for all the world like a drunken old man rambling incoherently over a bunch of riffs James Hetfield never intended for public consumption, Lulu easily takes the award for the worst thing I've heard all year.

It almost breaks my heart to class Metallica as the worst anything, but my word this is terrible.

RUNNERS UP:

LMFAO - Sorry for Party Rocking
Beady Eye - Different Gear, Still speeding

The 'Where have you been all my life!?!' Award for a band I only discovered in 2011.

WINNER:

Seven Mary Three

There are many things I'm grateful to Stace for of which things like unwavering love and support are certainly the most important, but one of the simplest, most wonderful things Stace ever did for me was look at me with a shocked glare in her beautiful green eyes and yell 'What do you mean you've never heard of Seven Mary Three!?!'

She was right to be surprised too, because this is a band somebody really should have told me about before.

Of course, 7M3's most popular tracks like Cumbersome and Water's Edge are popular for a reason -they're awesome- but it's the album tracks such as the brilliant Margaret, Devil Boy, What Angry Blue? and Chasing You that, with at least 1,300 plays in 2011 (Thanks Last.fm!), make them both my favourite band of the year, and my most listened to.

Thanks Stacy!

RUNNERS UP:

Hypnogaja
The Blackout

The 'Wish I wasn't too old to crowd surf' Award for Best Live Performance of the Year

WINNER:

Jeramiah Ferrari at Haigh Fest

I didn't get as many opportunities to go gigs where I wasn't working or directly involved with the band as I would have liked this year, but that doesn't mean I haven't seem some incredible live performances. In fact, I've seen so many good live bands this year that this was a tricky one to pick.

Alas, the award really has to go to Jeramiah who, after getting a slot at this year's Haigh Fest thanks to overwhelming support from their fans, really rewarded those fans with something very special. I've seen Jeramiah live four times this year and they never fail to blow me away, but they really excelled themselves at Haigh.

RUNNERS UP:

The Hicks at Bands for All
Mother's Country at Millstone Rocks

I'll be back on Boxing Day with Part 2 of my Year End Awards.

2011: The Year in Review

2011-12-23T04:22:00.000-08:00

I spent most of yesterday working on my goals for 2012

Broken down into the main categories of Writing, Music, Finance, Health, my goals give me a definite plan of action for the year ahead.

Today's post however, isn't really to talk about those goals at all. In fact, I only mention them due to the contrast between now and my life this time last year, when my only goal was not to have a goal at all.

Yes I know, this may seem counter-productive and goes against everything anybody will ever tell you about how to achieve more in your life, but as 2010 turned into 2011, the changes in my personal circumstances left me feeling free to head into the unknown.

Looking back, that's certainly a direction I'm glad I traveled.

In the early part of the year, it took me a freezing cold LSV Stadium. where I spent a good couple of Sundays trying my hand at sports journalism, covering Leigh Centurions home games.

OK, so reporting on rugby league wasn't to be my calling, but it was good fun whilst it lasted, and I believe the work I did during that brief period benefited my writing style in the long run.

As winter transitioned into spring, I spent most of my time taking The LINC Online and building it from scratch in a new CMS which, to put it bluntly, was quite the pain in the arse.

To be fair, I did learn some valuable new skills, got to work with a brand new system and starting from scratch on a site that had been growing into something of a beast over the last five years allowed us to scale down and really focus on a number of key areas.

Still, I won't deny that I was quite glad once that project was taken care of and I could move quite happily into my own Summer of Awesome Music.

It was a summer which, after selecting the line-up for this year's Haigh Fest and meeting most of the bands, began properly with my wonderful trip to Minnesota, which was mostly for the purposes of hanging out with Stace and meeting her family, but had the added bonus of a trip to the beautiful city of Hibbing and a sneak at Bob Dylan's childhood home.

I got back from America just in time for the Haigh Live concerts, followed by arguably the biggest and best Haigh Fest to date.

From there, we had the memorable trip to Samlesbury with Colour Me Blind and some awesome performances from bands like The Hicks, Jeramiah Ferrari and Rescue The Eskimo at Bands for all.

The musical summer finally wrapped up with a three-day slog managing Millstone Rocks.

That festival was undoubtedly one of the most rewarding things I've ever worked on, but it sure was hard work, so I was glad when August slipped into September and things began to quieten down somewhat.

Of course, the winter months weren't without their own memorable moments.

Between receiving a place to run the 2012 Virgin London Marathon, writing for Lifehack.org and getting my act together ready for the big charity gig in January, I've been busy the last couple of months working hard on a couple of projects, all of which I'm hoping to see flourish in 2012.

Over all then, 2011 wasn't without it's challenges, but by seizing those challenges and overcoming them, I find myself in a much better place than I was this time last year, with a much clearer direction and a whole bunch of exciting goals that I can't wait to get to work on in 2012.

Couldn't be bothered reading all that? You can check out some of the highlights of my year in the timeline below.

on Dipity.

Coming Soon: Gigging for Higgins

2011-12-13T00:24:00.000-08:00

Poster for an all-day charity concert I'm organising in January featuring some fantastic bands. You can view more about this gig on our Facebook event.

There's no 'I' in scene

2011-12-09T09:07:00.000-08:00

Moco Perform in Leigh, 2007

I was told a good joke last week.

Hunched over the bar in a nice little music venue in Leigh, the owner first told me that they were almost fully-booked for 2012, and then added that any remaining slots would only be given to bands prepared not to play any other gigs in town for the entire year.

As a heavy Friday night faded to the dull chill of a Saturday morning and this somewhat baffling booking policy was revealed to me, I hung on the owner’s every word, lips curling into the slightest of smiles in anticipation of the punchline.

It never came.

Instead, I was offered the simple justification that ‘it stops bands making a name for themselves here and then using that to get gigs at other clubs.’

I’ve tried to see it from this point of view, I really have, but the more I think about it, I really can’t see much justification for such a policy.

I’ve heard of these kind of agreements before of course, and in some of the larger cities they’re more or less common practice.

Colour Me Blind’s headline show at the Retro Bar in Manchester this Wednesday for example, has a ‘no-compete’ clause of sorts in which the band agrees not to play anywhere else in the city that month.

To me, this does make sense and does at least work in the band’s favour; Manchester is a huge part of the UK music scene with many venues of all shapes and sizes, and by not gigging there every week, this one show they are playing becomes all the more important.

It also gives us the chance to concentrate our marketing efforts and draw an audience to this one show rather than three or four.

That I like. That I can get behind.

Squeezing onto an already-full line-up at one venue on the condition that we don’t gig anywhere else in town for an entire year? That kind of agreement has so many flaws in it that it’s hard to know where to begin.

But begin I feel I must, and so here’s the first point:

A band plays in Leigh, 2006.

Leigh isn’t Manchester.
I mean no disrespect to Leigh whatsoever; it’s a perfectly lovely little town with a brilliant art gallery, a fancy new sports stadium and three-or-four small pubs hosting live music, all of which it should be proud of.

Especially the music venues.

I don’t know of many towns the size of Leigh that have a similar number of places for bands to ply their trade, and I know from working on Haigh Fest that there’s some really good bands coming out of the area, but it’s a push to compare it to the thriving reputation Manchester’s music scene has developed for itself over the years, and yet even the city’s most prestigious venues wouldn’t ask bands to stay away for a whole year in return for one gig.

Credit where cred it’s due
Those Manchester venues are unlikely to take as much credit for a band’s success as our friend in Leigh seems to be.

‘it stops bands making a name for themselves here and then using that to get gigs at other clubs.’

I don’t really mean to take anything away from this venue, it is a pretty good place for live music, but a band isn’t going to develop a reputation from playing at that, or any other venue, alone.

A band makes a name for itself by working hard on rehearsing, writing, promoting and getting really good then getting out there to as many people as possible and proving just how good they are, not by playing one show a year in a small town.

If anything, it’s the awesome bands who perform there that enable this venue to make a name for itself, not the other way round.

There’s no ‘I’ in scene
It just seems to me that, by adopting this attitude, the venue is taking more credit for the healthy music scene in Leigh than it really deserves. Not to say it doesn’t deserve any, but in this blogger’s mind a strong music scene depends on having a number of quality bands playing at a number of quality venues.

Forcing bands to limit themselves to one venue, especially if they’re only squeezing on to an already packed line-up and only likely to get one gig per year, is likely to do more harm to the music scene than good.

Lack of opportunities
Especially at a time when live shows generate more income for an artist than music sales, and especially for unsigned acts who rarely make much money either way, gigs are a valuable source of income,.

All this little ‘no shows in town all year’ policy succeeds in doing is robbing bands of opportunities to make some money (I could rant about how poor the payday is at this venue, but let’s focus on one thing at once, shall we? ), improve their performance and develop their fanbase, a fanbase who would ultimately follow a band to shows right across town.

More fans coming to more shows by more bands in more venues equals a thriving music scene.
Having bands give up all other opportunities to play in town throughout the year in return for one poorly-paid slot at a decent venue is at best shortsighted, at worst damaging to a local music scene in which bands and venues rely on each other for success.

And that’s really nothing to joke about.

Colour Me Blind: Coming to a town near you

2011-11-28T09:48:00.000-08:00

Well, if you live in Leigh, Golborne, Manchester or Oldham that is.

Yes, we've been busy booking a whole bunch of gigs for Colour Me Blind over the next couple of months. Here's a little flyer I put together earlier today to promote their shows in Decmeber and January.

Haigh Fest 2012: The Hype Begins

2011-11-20T04:06:00.000-08:00

The next Haigh Fest doesn't take place until June next year, yet already I'm finding that barely a week goes by without at least a couple of questions coming in about the big event.

Year on year we've seen the event go from strength to strength and I'm glad to see that not only are bands from all around the country getting in touch about Haigh Fest, but that the buzz locally about our little event is stronger than it's ever been.

I was even more pleased when the ever-excellent Natalie from the Wigan Evening Post got in touch about running a story about the festival.

That story went in yesterday's paper, and you can see it below.

Bands for All Video - Jeramiah Ferrari

2011-11-04T02:48:00.000-07:00

I've still got a big backlog of video footage from over the summer that I'm slowly working my way through, including this one, which is the raw footage of Jeramiah Ferrari's set from Bands for All this summer.

A few updates

2011-10-23T09:31:00.000-07:00

So yes, it's been a while since I updated this thing, but I've been keeping plenty busy in the meantime.

The biggest news I have recently is that I've accepted a place to run the 2012 Virgin London Marathon on behalf of Terrence Higgins Trust, who do a lot of great work campaigning on issues relating to HIV and AIDS.

I'm in the process of setting up a separate blog with details of my training, fundraising efforts and other marathon-related insights, but if you'd like to go ahead and offer to sponsor me now, you can do so at my Virgin Money Giving page.

On a related note, I'm in the process of organising an all-day charity rock concert at Golborne Catholic Club to raise further funds for Terrence Higgins Trust.

The event takes place on January 14th and acts confirmed so far include Smitten Kitten, Skive and Cautious Retreat.

Colour Me Blind will be there too, and as I've just agreed to be their band manager for a while, I expect I'll be talking about them a lot more too in the near future.

In other news, I've been doing a lot of writing lately.

I recently signed up as a contributor for the fantastic lifehack.org website. I've been a long-time reader of Lifehack, so it's great to be part of the team.

My most recent article for the site looked at why automating social media might not provide the best results, whilst my debut article, Use Public Transport to save your sanity and increase productivity was less than well-received by Americans suffering from a lack of decent public transportation.

I'll also have some new poetry published in an upcoming edition of Sparkbright. I love this scene and was very happy to be published in their December 2010 edition, so I'm looking forward to seeing my work published by them again this Winter.

And that's your lot for now, but here's the very excellent Smitten Kitten rocking this summer's Haigh Fest.

Enjoy!

LINC Online banner graphics

2011-09-20T23:48:00.000-07:00

The youth council graphics I posted yesterday were actually part of the second phase of LINC Online's redesign.

The first was a series of banner images for each individual section of the website.

The idea was a simple one; keep the LINC Online logo present on all pages, but with each section of the site eventually growing to be sites within themselves, give them precedent.

It was also important to ensure that the graphics were bright, attractive and appealing to our audience.

The images in this post are just a few examples of the new banners and are smaller versions of the full-sized ones which can be seen by browsing The LINC Online.

Youth council graphics

2011-09-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

Working on a redesign for LINC Online recently, we decided that one small thing that would really help is some nice, simple graphics.

I've been working on updating some of the information hosted on there about the different ways young people can get involved in their community and have their say on important decisions, mainly through various youth council groups.

And so it was that I put together these graphics; simple, appealing to our youth audience with bright colours and an interesting font, and quite small.

There's a lot more graphics made for the site, these are just a few of my favourites posted as an example.

Signal Aurora photo featured in 'Music Scene'

2011-09-03T13:33:00.000-07:00

I was both pleased and surprised this week to find this picture I took of the awesome Signal Aurora in the Wigan Evening Post's Music Scene column.

The shot was taken at Urban Sound Studios in Wigan as part of the promotion for Haigh Fest.

I may have taken better photos in my time, but I like this one all the same.

Anyway, here's a scan of the article. As usual, I'm useless with a scanner.

Millstone Rocks success

2011-09-03T02:15:00.000-07:00

By all accounts, the Bank Holiday weekend put quite a few challenges in the path of Millstone Rocks' success.

With the likes of Reading and Leeds and, albeit a slightly different target market, Creamfields taking place the same weekend, not to mention a number of high profile sporting events such as Wigan Warrior's Challenge Cup Final game at Wembley, a slew of football games on Saturday and what turned out to be an absolute drubbing of Arsenal by Man Utd on the Sunday, there were a lot of other events all competing for our potential customers' attention.

And that's before we even get into the fact that people just like to get away for a break over Bank Holiday weekends.

So it was absolutely imperative in the weeks and months leading up to the event that we had everything spot on.

A number of last-minute cancellations from several artists led to last-minute replacements being drafted in, we had emergency trips to Manchester to spend upwards of £200 on new speakers and a final briefing on the Thursday night (not long after our impressive 40ft stage arrived) ironed out any final problems.

Thursday and Friday's local press gave us some superb coverage, as did a series of online outlets and by the time we were ready to roll, the only thing that could possibly let us down was the weather.

Which it did, in a big way.

We were on site by 10am Saturday morning amidst some of the worst wind and rain I've seen all year. Undettered, we loaded amps, hung banners, set up the house drum kit and hooked up the mixing desk.

Then, we sat.

By the end of the festival, we were all in agreement that this was one of the most surreal elements of the entire weekend; there'd be a mad dash in a morning to get everything set up, followed by an odd moment of calm when we all took a breather, sat around the desk drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes then, before any of us had realised it, we were three bands in and Millstone Rocks was in full-swing.

As it happened, it was about the time when the third band of Saturday's opening day, Skive, took to the stage that we were fully settled and in control of the event.

'Team Awesome' have everything under control

Which isn't exactly as bad as it sounds.

After the hugely enjoyable duo of Dayve Dean got the event underway, we found ourselves faced with a two-hour gap thanks to a bit of last-minute rescheduling of the line-up. Thankfully, I'd ensured that Colour Me Blind (scheduled to perform on the Sunday) were all on hand should such problems arise, and did a more than satisfactory job of filling in.

From Skive onwards, we pretty much ran the entire weekend without much in the way of serious problems.

Our incomparable Sound Engineer Danny had everything sounding awesome, Stage Manager Stew did a fantastic job, and though I try not to let my ego get the better of me in these things, I'm confident in saying I handled my role as Event Manager well; troubleshooting, keeping everything running smoothly and to schedule, liaising with the technical team, artists, venue owners and volunteers to make sure everyone knew what they were supposed to be doing, and taking care of all those other little bits and pieces that usually fall to the Event Manager.

In between all that, I was also responsible for jumping on and off stage all day to introduce bands and warm up the crowd in another enjoyable gig as a compere.

After all that, 10pm arrived and we spent the next hour or two unloading the stage, packing everything away and sitting down for a quick debrief, going over the successes and challenges of the day and discussing how we could learn from the following day.

It was usually sometime around midnight when I finally arrived home, 1am by the time my head hit the pillow and 8am by the time I was up again to do the whole thing again.

Artist wise, I didn't see a bad band all weekend, and every single person who took to the stage over the weekend was a pleasure to work with.

Personally, I utterly enjoyed Saturday's headliners, Mother's Country, who's dirty blues and rock 'n' roll inspired set, complete with a very welcome cover of The Doors, was sadly their final gig ever, along with bands like Titors Insignia, The Sonic Revolvers and Monday's headline act, 5X5, who's frontwoman Jess epitomises charisma and stage presence, and who pleased this blogger greatly with a cover of his favourite Smashing Pumpkins tune, Bullet with Butterfly Wings.

Jess of 5X5

Elsewhere, I heard nothing but high praise for the likes of A41, a young Jack Savage from Junction 23 and my good buddy Mr. Olly Squires.

And of course, it probably goes without saying that the ever-awesome Jeramiah Ferrari were the talk of the festival.

Speaking of praise, we heard nothing but great feedback from bands, festival-goers and the Millstone's owners all weekend.

Not only that, but with around £700 raised for Help for Heroes purely through donations, I think we did pretty well.

The typical British weather stopped nobody from having a great time and everyone worked well together to ensure Millstone Rocks was such a success that our little team (from here on in dubbed Team Awesome) have been asked back to run Millstone Rocks II, complete with a second stage, on May Bank Holiday 2012.

Bring it on!

With Danny, Stu, Millstone landlord Anthony and Jeramiah Ferrari

Millstone Rocks featured in Leigh Journal

2011-08-25T13:24:00.000-07:00

A preview for Millstone Rocks was recently featured in the Leigh Journal. As we get closer to the event itself, this comes as some welcome publicity.

As usual, my attempts at scanning documents leave a lot to be desired, but you get the picture. This is based on the press release I posted yesterday.

Bands for All - Wigan Town Centre - August 20th 2011

2011-08-25T00:09:00.000-07:00

Had a great time hanging out at Bands for All, an outdoor music event hosted by Wigan Town Centre events, this past Saturday.

For me, it was part work/part fun, part catching up with some bands I haven't seen for ages. There's a cool little gallery with photos from Marc Taylor up on The LINC, or you can check out this nifty little video I made.

Press release: Heroes helped by local bands at Millstone Rocks

2011-08-23T13:29:00.000-07:00

Some of the North West’s brightest up and coming bands join forces this Bank Holiday weekend to raise money for Help for Heroes at the first Millstone Rocks Festival.

Hosted by The Millstone pub on Harvey Lane, Golborne, the event runs over three days from Saturday August 27th - Monday August 29th and features a wealth of live music and entertainment.

After stealing the show at Haigh Fest 2011, rising reggae stars Jeramiah Ferrari will get Saturday’s event underway when they take to the stage at 2.15pm. They’ll be joined by the likes of local punk rockers Skive and Stoke-based folk/funk crossover act Mother’s Country who, wrap up a successful career wowing crowds up and down the country, by playing their final show at Millstone Rocks.

Sunday sees Golborne’s own Colour Me Blind take to the stage fresh from a number of high-profile appearances at Manchester Academy, The Cavern in Liverpool and Wigan Town Centre’s annual Bands for All event.

They share the bill with acts such as acoustic singer/songwriter Olly Squires, local indie-rock veterans Urban Circus and St. Helens’ rockers Titors Insignia, who’s debut album Fair City Riots recently earned the band rave reviews and fan support in the process.

Monday’s bill features the likes of Wiganers Failure to Respond who are rapidly developing a large fanbase thanks to impressive performances at events such as Picnic in the Park in Hindley. They’ll be joined by the likes of acid rockers Future Jack and the ever-entertaining Owl and the Criminal.

Colour Me Blind frontman Danny Werner, 19 from Lowton said:

“We’re really excited to be playing the Millstone Rocks event alongside so many talented bands from across the North West.

“We’ve always believed that music can have the power to make a difference and with so many of us descending on Golborne to raise money for such a good cause, we’d like to urge everyone to come down over Bank Holiday weekend and show their support.”

The festival, which is free to attend and will be supported by donations, is the brainchild of Millstone landlord Anthony Bridge.

Anthony said:

“I’ve always been a big supporter of the great work done by Help for Heroes in supporting our troops, and of the impressive talent displayed by our bands across the region, so organising an event like Millstone Rocks seemed like the perfect opportunity to bring those worlds together to raise funds for a great cause.

“We’ve already had some fantastic support from both local bands and our loyal customers, and everyone has really chipped in to ensure we make this a successful event and raise as much as we can.”

Help for Heroes is a national charity set up to provide direct, practical support for those wounded, sick or injured in the line of duty since 9/11.

Bryn Parry, co-founder and CEO of Help for Heroes, said:

“H4H is all about ‘doing your bit’ and the Millstone Rocks Festival is a wonderful example of people having a good idea, rallying support and having a great deal of fun while they raise money for a wonderful cause.

"We have been able to use the millions raised, over £105m in just under four years, to provide practical and direct support to those wounded in the current conflicts. The money you raised is needed, it is being used and it is hugely appreciated; sadly, we need a great deal more. Everyone involved in Millstone Rocks is part of something that is very British and wonderful and I would like to say thank you to you for this and every other fund raising event that it inspires.”

The Millstone Rocks charity music festival runs each day from August 27th-August 29th between 1pm-9pm at The Millstone pub, Harvey Lane Golborne. For more information vist The Millstone on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/millygolborne .

-ends-

Colour Me Blind - King for a Day video

2011-08-18T22:49:00.000-07:00

Here's a little video we put together for Colour Me Blind's new song, King for a Day.

Warning: This video contains scenes of your otherwise handsome blogger lying comatose in his underpants which some viewers may find disturbing.

Coming Up: Millstone Rocks Festival (August Bank Holiday Weekend)

2011-08-18T00:41:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a lot of work lately helping pull together a big charity fundraiser for Help for Heroes, doing everything from booking some bands to handling PR and more besides. I'll blog about this more in due course. Until then, here's a nice little poster.

Revamped About.Me page

2011-08-15T10:14:00.000-07:00

After finishing up my brother's About.Me page on Friday, I'll admit a touch of jealousy set in as I realized his looked infinitely better than mine. So, I redesigned my own profile, and now it looks like this:

Finally, a good use for about.me

2011-08-12T00:08:00.000-07:00

I was smitten with about.me almost from the first moment I saw it. It provided a really simple way to quickly and effortlessly set up an attractive personal homepage with links to social media content, relevant websites and appealing designs.

The problem was, once I'd had a play around and set up my own about.me page, I couldn't really think of any reason to use it, especially given that I've spent a lot time promoting this blog as my primary online presence.

So I was more than thankful to my brother Stu, when we sat down to discuss how to promote his fledgling sideline business as a drum tutor. Quite quickly, we decided a simple website allowing him to peddle his wares and invite people to contact him was the way to go. 'Aha!' I thought, 'at last, a chance to do something useful with about.me!'

So I set something up for him, and I'm pretty pleased with the result:

Nice, eh?

So if you do need something quick, easy and attractive for your online presence, www.about.me comes highly recommended, and if you happen to be on the look out for a drum tutor, Stu comes highly recommended too. I know I'm biased and everything, but he really is rather good.

Finding Emo press coverage

2011-08-07T23:13:00.000-07:00

After talking to Finding Emo around the time of their spot at this year's Haigh Fest, I offered to help them with some press coverage for a new quarterly music event.

I put together the press release at the bottom of this post and generated the following coverage in the Wigan Evening Post.

Haigh Fest stars help promote Locally Sourced talent

Fresh from storming the stage at this year’s Haigh Fest, Wigan band Finding Emo are on a mission to keep the local music scene thriving by launching their own live music nights.

Launching this coming Friday August 19th and taking place once a quarter at St. Matthew’s Parish Hall in Highfield, Wigan, the ‘Locally Sourced’ nights take their name from the band’s desire to help promote the music scene in Wigan Borough.

24 year-old Finding Emo front man Scott Parry said:

“We're putting on the Locally Sourced shows to provide another opportunity to showcase the wealth of talent in the local music scene for local music fans to see that talent on display.

“We love our town and want to celebrate the good things that are happening here. It's way too easy to get negative about Wigan & Leigh, but there's a lot of good stuff going on too and we should catch onto that.”

The August 19th launch night sees the band, completed by guitarist Jonny Taylor and drummer Tom West, taking to the stage alongside fellow Haigh Fest stars The Lottery Winners and Wigan alt-rockers Wishpig, and Scott is urging local music fans to show their support.

“It’'s a Friday night, so it's the perfect start to your weekend! It's a safe, fun environment and all ages are welcome, with a wristband in system in place to ensure no underage drinking! It's your local scene, so we'd appreciate your support”

As well as fans, the Finding Emo boys are hoping other bands from across the borough will be keen to get involved, not only supporting those performing next Friday, but also coming forward to play at future Locally Sourced events.

“We're just trying to do our bit for the local scene, so it would be great if all the local bands could turn up on the night, show some support and definitely talk to us if you’re interested in playing future Locally Sourced nights.

“We're not promoters! We're just a band looking to do a band night so we see the gig from a band’s perspective.! We know you want a splendid venue, good receptive crowd and great sound.”

Finding Emo launch Locally Sourced, Friday August 19th at St. Matthew’s Parish Hall in Highfield, Wigan. For more information contact the band on Facebook at www.facebook.com/finding3mo

-ends-

Some thoughts on yesterday’s @Marketingb2b seminar in Manchester

2011-07-28T08:55:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, I go to seminars, conferences and other such events related to my line of work, and I come away with a bunch of knowledge, ideas and inspiration.

Sometimes I come away with precisely naff all, other than perhaps the slight satisfaction in knowing that I got a free cup of coffee and a few hours away from the computer.

And sometimes, I come away from those events taking comfort (for lack of a better term) in knowing that, basically, I’m on the right track.

That was the main thing I took from yesterday’s ‘Social Media: Taking it to the Next Level’ seminar delivered by B2B Marketing .

That’s not to say I didn’t learn anything or take away any new ideas, far from it.

Things like the little gem that was this fact are certainly worth paying attention to:

I’m not convinced that videos are always the best solution for everything (and I always refer to the time I first moved to Preston and had to sit through a long video before I could find out what day my bin would be emptied as an example of this), but by and large this did give me a swift kick up the backside to think about how I’m using video content in the different pieces of work I do.

Reinforcing ideas.

Whether directly on indirectly, Marc Keating’s opening presentation -including a case study on a successful social media campaign his marketing agency ran on behalf of a client- reinforced a couple of conversations I’ve been having with colleagues recently:

Don’t just do social media for the sake of doing it
But embrace all the different options and figure out what works
Social media, when used, should be integrated into the heart of marketing, and not just stuck on as an after-thought.

I had a similar experience with Teresa Richards of DNX who, after a quick discussion on things such as how social media is changing the way we work and even our job titles, focussed on emerging platforms in social media beyond the standard social networks.

I didn’t get much in the way of ‘wow, I’ve never heard of that before, must go try it!’, but I’ll admit I was pleased to see things such as Foursquare and Quora talked about.

With regards to location, Teresa did touch upon something I’d thought, but couldn’t confirm, to be true, that Facebook Places is superseding Foursquare in that space.

The Foursquare fanboy in me is somewhat loathe to admit that, but let’s face it; it’s Facebook, it’s going to be popular.

On the Q&A front, a comparison of the number of responses from various sites to a certain question (the exact wording escapes me now, but I’m sure was something along the lines of ‘what skills are needed to be good at social media marketing,’, forgive me if I’m wrong.) saw Quora wind up in dead last with 0 responses.

My surprise, and subsequent pondering as to whether the Quora community may not have been best placed to answer that wasn’t based on anything specific, other than the fact when I use the site I usually find there to be a particularly active community there when talking about things like Last Fm or Second Life.

I haven’t really delved much into marketing-based topics beyond music promotion, so I’d be wary to make any definite comment about that community.

Jon Silks too, in his presentation on automated social media, confirmed that I’m doing things reasonably OK in terms of linking social networks together, though I do question how effective this always is.

I may be in the minority here, but few things bug me more on Twitter than “I just posted a video to Youtube” automated stuff. Yeah? Well good for you.

There’s a lot of stuff happening on Twitter, stand out by not just telling me that you posted a video, but telling me why it’s worth watching.

The highlight of the night

Over all though, I enjoyed Jon’s presentation; chatty and informal yet also insightful and informative, though the highlight in terms of presentation style certainly belonged to the fantastic talk from Simon Banoub of Opta on the success of @OptaJoe and related Twitter accounts.

By far the most accessible and entertaining of all the presenters (no offence to anyone else, I just really enjoyed his approach), Banoub’s presentation was everything you could ask for at one of these things; it made you think, made you laugh and made you huddle in a corner with colleagues during the coffee break and say ‘hey, we could do this too’

Over all then a good afternoon that provided a lot of interesting things to think about, not to mention a free cup of coffee and a few hours away from the computer.

Colour Me Blind - Caveman Bash videos

2011-07-25T10:19:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday's trip to Samlesbury Aerodome -home of the annual Caveman Bash biker rally- was one of those experiences I'll always remember for a whole bunch of reasons, though namely for spending my Saturday night trapsing through the mud with a video camera in hand and waking up wet, sore and tired in a tent the following morning.

Yes folks, the weather was awful that weekend, but it was worth gutting out. My boys Colour Me Blind played a blinder, we recorded the audio of the entire set and shot some great footage throughout the night.

The plan, ultimately, will be to edit the two together to create a video for their song King for a Day, but until I can get round to spending some decent time doing that, here's the band performing their track Mojo.

In praise of @ReverbNation (and how I've been using the site)

2011-07-14T23:57:00.000-07:00

Though my oft-neglected fan profile may tell you otherwise, I have a lot of love for ReverbNation, a nifty little website which aims -and is thus far succeeding- to be a one-stop shop for artists, venues, promoters and labels alike.

I first came across the site some time in 2007 back when I was still involved with Social Icons, and then promptly forgot about for a couple of years whilst I mucked around doing things far less enjoyable than getting stuck in to the world of promoting music.

When I finally returned to that world I found a lot had changed, especially online.

Myspace, once the preeminent social network for musicians, had fallen by the way side in a move that media historians will no doubt one day write about as the first blow in the ultimate downfall of the Murdoch Empire, followed by the News International phone hacking scandal and probably some dodgy sexcapades going on between Rupert and that ginger woman.

In its place came a slew of other music-marketing type sites, from SoundCloud, We7 (which is somehow supposed to be cool because Peter Gabriel is -or was, I'm not sure- behind it) and a bunch of others, but ReverbNation clearly stood head and shoulders above the rest.

It's the amount of features that really impresses me, the site offers pretty much everything you could ask for if you're in any way involved in marketing music, from the unsigned band just starting out to, oh I don't know, say an annual rock festival with over 8,000 attendees each year perhaps.

Whether you're using every single feature and tool available to you, or just choosing select ones as part of a wider campaign, ReverbNation is pretty much an essential part of online any online music campaign.

Jazz Festival

When I got involved in helping the Wigan International Jazz Festival this year, I didn't really expect to find many jazz fans on the site. Not that I'm saying they're not there, I just didn't expect to find them. We were doing lots of other interesting things to market the festival, so attracting new fans on ReverbNation wasn't necessarily a priority, but establishing a presence on there was still important, especially so I could use their excellent Facebook App.

I love this app, especially if you set it as your default landing tab. For venues, which is how I defined the festival on ReverbNation, it gives people visiting your Facebook page for the first time every piece of info they could need; venue location and contact info, maps, and even a list of upcoming shows which updates automatically as one show ends and another takes its place.

Jazz Festival Facebook Venue Profile

The odd, well-placed reminder to Facebook fans to check out the tab keeps them well-informed of upcoming shows without the need to post a status update with every new show (which could get pretty time-consuming with several shows per day as there is with the Jazz Festival).

Besides, I've got show updates well-covered on Twitter.

Haigh Fest
I used a similar tactic with my pride and joy, the annual Haigh Fest. With 4,500+ fans on Facebook, a large number of whom are very active on there, adding new fans through ReverbNation didn't seem like a huge priority, but I still felt like any music project worth its salt should at least have a presence on the site and thus, so does Haigh Fest.

Again, I was really keen to use the Venue Profile Facebook App, even though my attempts to set it as a default landing tab came to naught. Whilst I'm at it, I should really thank the kind lady from ReverbNation who contacted me out of the blue to ask if I'd be up for setting the app as my default tab, then sharing my frustration and bewilderment through several e-mails over whatever the problem might have been. Sadly, I forget her name now, but thanks anyway!

Haigh Fest ReverbNation profile

Sadly, it was only after we'd already picked this year's line-up and were rattling on with the publicity that I learned the website were putting together some kind of beta-launch for a Festivals profile, which would allow bands to enter submissions for the festival online.

We're too late this year, but this is certainly something I'll be keeping in mind and bring up when all the work starts again for Haigh Fest 2012.

Colour Me Blind

It's the band profile which are the site's main attraction. If it isn't already, ReverbNation should certainly become every band's first port of call when it comes to think about attracting and engaging with audiences.

I've only just recently started working with Colour Me Blind on any kind of serious level, but as soon as I did, setting them up with a Colour Me Blind ReverbNation account was the very first thing I did.

Of course, I wanted to use the Band Profile Facebook App. I can't tell you how much I like these apps, I've seen some really cool things done with them that I certainly plan on looking into over the next few days.

Beyond that though, it's the whole range of tools that the site offers which makes it an invaluable tool for artists.

Of course, ReverbNation offers all the things you'd expect from a site like this; namely the opportunity to upload photos, music and a bio, but it does so much more besides.

Gigs
The way you add a list of upcoming shows for example is much more in-depth than I've seen on other sites, allowing you the opportunity to sync up with venue profiles and other artists playing at the same venue on the same night.

Putting in the required date for CMB's upcoming show at The Zanzibar in Liverpool for example, allowed us to link that show to the club's unofficial profile, whilst any bands also playing that show could add themselves to the line up.

If a venue doesn't have a profile, you can always ask ReverbNation to set one up (as it did with this Saturday's Caveman Bash in Preston), or class it as a 'Non-Traditional Venue' which tells the site not to try and match this against its venue database.

I like this very much.

I also like the ability to add attendance figures once a show is over, and to use a 'Gig finder' tool to search for venues nearby who might just be willing to give you a show.

Press Kits
Once you've found one, you can use the site's own EPKs (Electronic Press Kits), which you can generate yourself for free using all the content you've posted to your profile to send to venues. ReverbNation charges you a small fee for the ability to send out these EPKs, but at only $5.95 (about £3.70) per month, they're well worth it.

The press kits look sleek and professional, going beyond the usual bio/pic/press quote, to offer tidy looking graphs displaying info about fan demographics, show attendance and more. Once the EPK has gone out, a nifty tracker tool will let you keep track on what you've sent, where, and how successful they were.

We've just set the band up with their own press kit and already looking at seeing results.

Other paid features
For about $35 per year (roughly £20), ReverbNation offers a digital distribution service, sending your tunes out to notable places like Itunes and Spotify. I haven't used this yet, and I'm even sure that there are cheaper ways to do this, but it's a nice tool for bands to have at their disposal.

There's other paid stuff too, like creating a mobile app for your band and an upgraded ammount of storage space for tunes. Again, I'm yet to check these out, but I can see why they're useful.

For the band on a budget though, there's still plenty of free stuff to offer, like stats (like those we talked about under EPKs), a store to peddle merch and more.

No site is perfect though, and the 'blog' tool which comes with the site is so rubbish its hardly worth bothering with.

That small quibble aside though, I really can't rate ReverbNation high enough to any band, promoter or venue, and if you're so inclined, I'd recommend following their Twitter stream which is updated with links to useful articles providing both practical and inspirational advice.

There's still a lot I don't know about this site yet, it's so full of stuff that I'm stoically my way through it, but I do know that ReverbNation will pretty much always be a crucial part of any kind of music marketing I do in the future.

Adventures in Dylan Country - The pics

2011-07-05T13:04:00.000-07:00

I've already told my tale from my recent trip to America, now, here's some photos.

Bob Dylan's childhood home. The fact that it's purple surprised me greatly.

Zimmy's is the Dylan-themed bar & resteraunt in Hibbing, Minnesota. I love this place. The staff were friendly and helpful, the Dylan memorabilia which lined the walls was fascinating and the food was yummy too.

This is still Zimmy's, but I have this artwork on a T-shirt a kind lady called Tammy at the Minnesota Discovery Centre sold me for $5.

A war memorial in Keewatin, MN.

Here's me hanging out on a big train. I called it 'The Awesome Express'

This dude is called the Iron Man, a tribute to the Minnesota Iron Range. Tell me you don't have Black Sabbath's Iron Man going through your head right now, and I'll call you a liar.

I put a full gallery of pics from this trip on my Facebook profile.

Haigh Fest was awesome, and so much more besides..

2011-07-04T15:35:00.000-07:00

So, another Haigh Fest has been and gone, another 8,500 or so music fans rocked out to another twelve phenomenal bands, and you guys get another overly-sentimental blog from me about how awesome the whole thing was.

Yep, I mentioned last year how difficult it was not to attach too much emotion to Haigh Fest and this year was certainly no different.

There comes a point, usually as May turns into June and it's full steam ahead with the pre-festival hype, that I realise Haigh Fest has pretty much consumed my whole life, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Sure, I'm supposed to be professional, and it's still a job, but what a job it is.

Haigh Fest is the April days spent sorting through around 70 applications from all kinds of great bands, the long night at Haigh in mid-May to select just 12 to play at the festival, and the many evenings and weekends given up in June to go and meet those 12 and for interviews, such as this one with Faith in Fools, this one with The Lottery Winners, and all the others I did.

It's staying up until midnight answering questions on the Haigh Fest Facebook page , encouraging people to come down on the day and trying to provide diplomatic responses to a small number of criticisms, even when some of your friends urge you to just write Oh, f**k off!

It's building the Haigh Fest website and setting up the live blog and retweeting positive feedback on Twitter.

It's getting on the stage as compere to warm up those 8,500 or so people, bellowing into the microphone and introducing the bands. It's taking that mic and doing my best impression of DX from late-90s WWF/E wrestling ('Are you ready? No! I said, Are. You. Ready? Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, Haigh Fest 2011 proudly presents to you...' - yes, I'm a geek), then going for a walk amongst the crowd to check everyone's having fun.

Thom from The Lottery Winners works the crowd

Haigh Fest is so much more than even that though.

It's the colleagues you work with, the real team effort behind the whole event and the way, at a certain point when everything's in full flow, you'll turn to each other with a modest nod and mutter 'yeah, it's going alright.'

It's the photographers, filmmakers, musicians and other friends you make throughout the event, catching up with bands from last year and other folk you haven't seen in a while.

It's reassuring nervous performers that they'll kick ass on stage, then watching them walk off 25 minutes later, brimming with sweat and pride, huge smiles on their faces knowing that they did exactly that.

It's accepting genuine thanks from those bands for putting them on the bill, and thanking them genuinely for putting on one amazing performance after another.

Haigh Fest is watching Sam Millar from Smitten Kitten turn into a Rock God, leaning against the crowd barrier and making his guitar scream.

Smitten Kitten by Tess at Personal Portraiture

It's standing stage-left as The Lottery Winners do more to entertain their audience in 25 minutes than some bands do in an entire career, then being blown away as Jeramiah Ferrari tear the place apart. It's chatting to Finding Emo about suddenly becoming Teenage Hearthrobs and to the girls in the front row who were determined to marry them.

Haigh Fest is, in a word, awesome.

Why I had fun at pop concert, even if I wasn't supposed to.

2011-07-02T10:08:00.000-07:00

There's a lot of things in life that I'm not really supposed to do, yet still do anyway.

I'm not supposed to leave the office without drawing a little line next to my name on a signing-in sheet, but most days I forget to.

I'm not supposed to smoke cigarettes, they're bad for my health, but I'll be outside puffing away as soon as I'm done writing this.

I'm not supposed to admit a certain fondness for Irish pop personalities Jedward either, but after their appearance in Wigan last night, that's exactly what I'm about to do.

The past two nights saw the emergence of the first annual Haigh Live concerts, taking over from the Wigan Life Tuned-In concerts of last year which, if you recall, I enjoyed very much indeed.

I was there at Haigh Live in pretty much the same capacity as I was at Tuned-In; namely pottering around the arena running live blogs, interviewing folk and being surprised at just how short some of these famous pop stars are.

By the by, both events passed without incident; I worked hard, did a kick-ass job and cheekily used my AAA pass to avoid having to queue up for the loo out in the arena.

Yet one thing did happen which surprised me, which is this:

I actually had more fun at the Friday night Peter Andre/Jedward show, a show much derided by some people, than I did at the infinitely more cool and credible Thursday night performance by The Courteeners, The Coral and Cherry Ghost.

The fact that I struggle to tell one indie band from another and thus don't care much for their music is mostly irrelevant; I'm no big fan of pop music either, despite what my Vanilla Ice cassette may tell you.

Nor do I wish to take anything away from indie bands, who I'm sure are all very good at what they do and worked hard for their success, or their fans, who probably are very nice people really.

But, and I'll be perfectly blunt here, any bullshit posturing at the indie gig was notably absent at the celebrity pop show on Friday night, and thus it was the latter of the two gigs that was much more enjoyable.

Despite their surprisingly-large fanbase, acts like Jedward will always have their critics.

They may be a product of reality TV, packaged, processed and pushed out before the masses to pedal novelty singles that the music world at large will forget all about in due time, but boy do they have fun in doing so.

I challenge anyone not to stand where I was last night by the side of the stage and watch two crazy Irish dudes bound around the stage at 100mph in bright red jackets like two little balls of fire with big hair, and not at least crack a smile. They were having a whole bunch of genuine fun, and that kind of fun is almost always infectious.

I'm not about to rush out and join the Jedward fan club or anything (I'll sit here and be cool listening to my Corrosion of Conformity playlist, thank you very much), but I will say that I at least enjoyed watching them last night, even if I really wasn't supposed to.

Adventures in Dylan Country

2011-06-29T09:59:00.000-07:00

The story of my trip to America is one I'd very much like to tell.

It's a tale of tornadoes in Chicago and tears in Duluth, of luggage lost and friendships found, of late nights spent watching hour-long infomercials for Zumba in a half-crazy daze and disorientating early mornings spent chatting to mad folk outside a Shaumburg hotel about British History and why Jeramy Clarkson should (or should not) run for Prime Minister.

It's a tale set in the hometown of a hero, where a a legend was raised to bring inspiration to the masses, where the land was raped to bring iron to the industries and where some dude once invented a cartoon called Peanuts.

It's a tale in which the protagonist would frequently find himself accidentally locked in the hotel bathroom, emerging every now and again to lose heated debates on such crucial Anglo-American disputes as 'biscuits vs. cookies,' whilst his darling fiance would chase turtles from the roadside, throw out Jazz Hands mid-sleep and mock her 'Damn Brit' for pronouncing 'bottle' as 'bockle,' and 'little' as 'lickle.'

It's a tale I could tell whilst laughing, whilst crying and whilst occasionally cursing my homeland for not having such high-brow shows as Repo Games.

It's a tale I'd very much like to tell, but since I haven't slept for two days and desperately need to, it's a tale I'll tell another time.

Advice for interviewing bands Part 3: Ask something different

2011-06-18T04:50:00.000-07:00

Following on from yesterday's post about listening to the music, today's slice of interviewing wisdom also concentrates on doing a bit of research.

This is actually one of the first things I was taught when I got into this whole writing/journalism/pestering rock bands business, and it's one piece of advice that I've found highly invaluable over the years.

Check out other interviews your subject has done in the past.

Obviously, if you're subjects are a small, local band just starting out, then chances are they won't have done many, if any, interviews in the past, in which case most of what I'm about to say may be fairly redundant.

If, on the other hand, you find yourself faced with an act who've had at least a modicum of success, be it on a regional, national or even international scale, chances are that doing the whole interview process won't be anything new to them.

This is good for you - it gives you a wealth of stuff to help you with your research - but perhaps not so much for a band who've maybe spent years being asked the same tired, old questions.

We'll tackle both points here.

Getting the most out of your interviews
In my first post in this series, about confidence and enthusiasm, we talked about how going into an interview with these traits will

Put your subjects at ease
Make them more keen to open up to you
Result in you producing a better interview

Asking something different does pretty much the same thing. If your interviewees have done any amount of interviews before, chances are they'll have already been asked the same questions a bunch of times.

'When did you form?' 'Who are your influences?' 'You've been described as the best band since a loaf of sliced bread picked up a Fender, how do you feel about that?'

In and of themselves, they're not bad questions, but unless your subjects are brand new on the scene and haven't volunteered much of that information on their press materials or website, try and think of other stuff to ask.

Chances are they'll have answered things like that before, perhaps many times before, and be tired of giving similar responses. Not only does this result in a band growing all the more weary and disinterested as the conversation goes on, but it's also likely to result in a crappy interview that nobody's going to want to read.

After all, why read your interview when the band have already answered these questions in countless previous interviews?

Find an angle

A couple of years ago, I was given the opportunity to interview Brian Tatler, the guitarist from NWOBHM band Diamond Head, an awesome group in their own right, but probably known best to a lot of people as the band who's songs were covered by Metallica.

Before our chat, I scoured through previous interviews with Brian and the band, and though there were mentions of the Metallica-Diamond Head connection, I hadn't found anything where DH went into great detail about this.

Even though we'd scheduled the interview to talk about an upcoming gig and new album, the chance to quiz one of the founding members of Diamond Head about something they'd never talked a great deal about was something I couldn't pass up.

There and then, I had my angle for the interview: Do Diamond Head feel as though they're living in the shadow of the band they inspired?

The subsequent interview was a big success, and for all of five minutes my name was famous amongst the heavy metal Internet community as the guy who asked Brian Tatler about getting royalities from Metallica.

Finding more questions from past answers

Whilst all that was great, and even had old metalhead friends from school who I hadn't seen in years suddenly sending me messages along the lines of 'Dude, did I just see you mentioned on a Metallica website?,' that surprisingly wasn't my favourite part of the interview.

I'd read an old article which featured an interview with Brian during a period of time when Diamond Head were on hiatus and he was playing in (if I remember rightly) a folk band.

During this interview, Brian mentioned that he didn't really miss metal at all and wasn't all that interested in playing it again.

As someone preparing an interview with Brian now that he'd abandoned folk and was back in the metal scene , this was gold.

When I pulled him up on this, Brian laughed, very loudly.

'Fuck off!' he exclaimed with great delight. On a personal level, this made me very happy indeed. The guy who wrote Am I Evil? just told me to fuck off! On a professional level though, this gave me another exclusive that really helped make the interview.

Even now, four years and countless interviews on, the chat with Diamond Head remains amongst my favourite, not only because it was fun to do personally, but because it was one of my best, and most successful pieces of work.

Honestly though, it wouldn't have been if I hadn't read Brian's previous interviews, avoided stuff he'd talked to death about, and found new and interesting stuff to ask him.

To close then, here's Shoot out the Lights, an awesome Diamond Head song that should all hear.

Advice for interviewing bands Part 2: Listen to the music, know the tunes.

2011-06-16T13:20:00.000-07:00

Quite a few of the things I'll be talking about in this series of posts relate to most forms of interviews and journalism, not just relating to music.

Doing your research is certainly one of them, though there's a few things I've learned in particular about researching bands that I thought would be useful to share.

Listen to the music, know the tunes.
Sounds obvious right? How are you supposed to successfully interview a band if you don't know their songs? Well..yeah.

Just to prove that these posts aren't about me coming across as though every interview I ever did went perfectly and that you should all listen to me because I'm awesome (I am, but that's besides the point), let me tell you a little story....

It was 2006, I'd been working full-time for The LINC for roughly twelve months, everything was going well and I was very happy. As the next edition of the magazine approached, I was asked to go out to The Fuzzbox in Wigan and interview a young band for full-page feature.

Right from my very first interview back in 2004 I'd always made a point that, if nothing else, I would always listen to a band's music before I had to either interview them or just simply write about them.

Except this time, I didn't.

Things were incredibly busy, at the day job we were under-staffed and under pressure, I had what felt like a million side projects on the go and my now ex-wife was moving us into a new home every six months, taking us on holidays we couldn't afford and generally making me do a bunch of other crap I didn't really want to do. Somehow, among all that, I lost the ten minutes it would have taken to listen to this band's music.

That's not an excuse -at least not a very good one- I know, but that's what happened.

It worried me, but since the interview was supposed to be less about how these lads sounded and more about how it felt to be a young band rising to prominence in the middle of a flourishing local music scene, I hoped I might just get away with it.

For a while I did; we talked enthusiastically and at great length about the local scene and their place in it, and everything was going well. Then, as the conversation shifted towards the band's frustration at some people's attempts to pigeonhole them, the guitarist turned to me and asked:

'How would you describe what we sound like?'

Damn.

'Very good indeed,' I said. Or maybe I didn't, but whatever it was that I did say it was pretty rubbish and basically had the same effect as shrugging my shoulders and saying 'huh, I dunno.'

So yeah, lesson learned. Since then, I've made sure that even when the house has been burning down around me and chaos rules, I always find time to sit down and listen to every single band I interview, review or report on, no excuses.

The point, ultimately, is that even if you're not there to talk specifically about their music, at least know it what it sounds like for those awkward times when a pesky guitarist tries to catch you out!

Advice for interviewing bands Part 1: Be Enthusiastic (or at least confident)

2011-06-15T13:07:00.000-07:00

It was 2004 when I slapped my first rackety old Dictaphone down on a table in a Manchester bar (I think it was the Dry Bar, but my memory does have a bad habit of failing me) to interview a band.

Since then, I've lost count of the amount of bands, artists and other such folk who've I harassed and interrogated in order to entertain the kind of people who like to read music interviews.

I've interviewed the well-known bands and the not-so well known, the bands who would go on to great things and the bands who would split up seemingly immediately after our chat. I've done good interviews and I've done great interviews and I've done interviews that were just absolutely bloody awful, but I've learned from them all.

What I'm about to share isn't intended as a definitive 'here's how you should interview a band' guide. Variety is a good thing, and if everyone out there interviewing bands could develop their own style, then all the better for the music press if you ask me.

No, the following posts contain just a few things that I've learned over years that, if anybody about to interview a band did ever ask me for any advice, is probably what I'd tell them.

I was planning to pass on all this advice in one single blog post until I realised that it would take me forever to write and you even longer to read, so instead, I'll do this over a series of posts focusing on one main point per post.

Please enjoy.

Be enthusiastic and confident (or at least confident).
It's this point which prompted tonight's blog after my brother recently asked me if I'd seen an interview with a certain band. According to Little Skoyles, the band had come across as bored and uninteresting, resulting in a pretty crappy interview.

I was surprised by this since I'd interviewed the same band myself and found them to be keen, talkative and enthusiastic about their music and plans for the future.

So, curiosity getting the better of me, I checked out the interview myself and saw the problem; the interviewer himself looked bored, uncomfortable, and like he'd rather be anywhere else in the world talking to this band.

I'm not saying go bounding in like Timmy Mallett on crack (though to be fair to Timmy, he was pretty good at talking to bands), but if you act like you couldn't really give a shit about the band and/or your job as an interviewer, the band are hardly likely to open up and talk to you.

Smile and shake hands with everyone as you meet them, thank them for talking to you and even exchange a bit of banter before you switch on your recorder/camera/whatever and say 'so, tell us about your new album..'

The more you can show a group that you are interested in them and you do care about what they have to say, the better your interview will be.

Don't Fake It
I'd say it's important not just to act interested, but to be interested. For one thing, people can tell when you're faking it, though more importantly, to repeat an earlier point, if you don't care about what you're doing, you're going to end up with a pretty crappy interview.

And besides, if you really don't care about this band, why the hell are you there to interview them in the first place?

Make eye contact, nod, show that you're interested.

Listen
Pay attention to what people are saying and ask follow-up questions if a band mentions something interesting you hadn't planned to ask them.

Let's say you've just asked Band X about a recent gig, and were planning to follow that up with a question about their next gig.

If someone just mentioned that they had a near-death experience en route to that last gig, forget about your next question, follow that up!

Unless the near-death experience was that they were almost bored to death by a rubbish interviewer, the story is likely to be much more interesting than something along the lines of 'yeah, our next gig is gonna be awesome, we're very excited.'

Be confident
Even more than enthusiasm, I'd say confidence is the one thing you absolutely can't do without if you're off to interview a band.

Usually, you'll be a complete stranger going to penetrate a very tight-knit group of friends who care very deeply about what they do. What's more, no matter how much you know about this band, if you've never met them before, they'll be strangers to you too. Yet still, you have to go and penetrate this tight-knit group of strangers and ask them questions and you'll often need to do it on their territory.

You can see why that might require a little confidence, right?

To get the best out of any interview, not just with a band, it's crucial that you make sure your subjects are as comfortable as possible in talking and opening up to you. If you're shuffling about with your hands in your pockets, eyes either on the floor or constantly looking at your notes, you're going to come across as uncomfortable and nervous, hardly a great way to put this new group of strangers you've just met at their ease.

Committing the questions you want to ask, and any research you've done, to memory rather than going in with a sheet of paper and saying 'ok, question one,' always helps too. That way, it becomes less about conducting an interview and more about having a chat which again puts people at ease.

To sum up then; acting like you don't want to be there is only going to make your interview subjects less willing to talk to you, which means your interview is likely to suck.

I'll be back soon with another post about the importance of research.

Man-Flu, metal and mishaps.

2011-06-12T03:41:00.000-07:00

After my much-needed break back in May, I emerged feeling fresh, rejuvenated, and with a sprawling, ten-page To-Do list which, if completed, would have seen me finish off four different projects within a month.

I was very excited about this; most of the work would have been fun, interesting, challenging and, over all, worthwhile. Except, most of it didn't get done at all.

Through the fault of nobody in-particular, one technical mishap after another thwarted me at every turn and now, three weeks in and with just nine days to go before I'm due to fly to the United States, most of that To-Do list remains, well, to be done.

Still, I haven't exactly spent the last couple of weeks idly twiddling my thumbs waiting for servers to work, recording devices to stop malfunctioning and any number of other errors I've faced to sort themselves out, and I think I've actually been much busier than ever recently.

Mostly, I've been traversing the wonderful place known as Wigan Borough interviewing most of the bands who'll be playing Haigh Fest this year on July 3rd.

It's been a lot of fun getting to meet everyone and talking about the festival and the local music scene, though I won't deny it's also been a lot of hardwork getting in at 10pm each night after meeting bands during their rehearsal time, then spending another several hours using Audacity to edit the interviews.

This interview with The Lottery Winners is probably one of the best pieces of work I've done so far this year, and I'm quite proud of a lot of the other interviews we've done too, all of which reveal several common themes among local bands.

Wigan desperately needs more venues with decent gear for bands to ply their trade.
Everyone misses gigs at The Tavern
Haigh Fest is awesome.

Of course, I'm supposed to agree with that last point, though sadly not everybody does. Managing the Haigh Fest Facebook page has been particularly challenging this year, with the need to interrupt my work seemingly every five-minutes to respond to comments and the odd complaint, but even that has been worth doing just to see how truly passionate about the local scene most people are and how, a few criticisms from a small-yet-vocal minority aside, most people support the festival and the talent who'll be playing there.

Speaking of Haigh, 'the noisy f****rs from Haigh Fest 2010' (in their own words!) Element, launched their new album Corrupted Desires at The Boulevard this past Friday. It was an awesome gig. Sadly I arrived too late to catch Sacrament, but Element tore the venue apart and were quickly followed by Solitary, who's Big Four covers set was sublime and I awoke on Saturday morning with a seriously stiff neck, the result of much over-enthusastic headbanging on the night.

Corrupted Desires is a fantastic album, and I heartily recommend you all go buy a copy.

Also on the music front, kudos to Colour Me Blind who, after returning from University for the summer, have reassembled and are kicking ass all over the country. As I type, they're at The Shires Show and in a few weeks they'll be back kicking ass at the Caveman Bash in Preston.

And with that, I shall say farewell and retire back to bed to get over an epic bout of Man Flu and curse my good friend David for passing his germs on to me.

365 Project - This Week's Pics (June 6th-12th)

2011-06-12T02:41:00.000-07:00

There was more bands to interview this week, but, even though the bands I did meet were all awesome in their own right, it was some of the other stuff I got to photograph that made me smile the most this week.

Spitfire
As part of the celebrations marking the anniversary of the D-Day landings, Wigan town centre was awash with WWII memorabilia including this awesome Spitfire. The guys in charge let me sneak behind the crowd barriers to get up close and personal with it, and it's very impressive indeed. There's more pics from this on WLCT's Facebook page

Warrington Town Hall
Much like last week, I went out to interview a band who ultimately didn't make it. Still, it afforded me the opportunity to photograph the gates outside Warrington Town Hall, and that, much like the Spitfire, was very impressive.

Faith in Fools
And yes, there were some bands this week too. I really enjoyed interviewing Faith in Fools, great bunch of people and can't wait to see them on 'The Big Stage' at Haigh Fest on July 3rd. I love this picture simply because everybody looks so happy.

There's more pics on my 365 Profile at http://365project.org/chrisskoyles/

365 Project - This Week's Pics (May 29-June 5)

2011-06-05T08:32:00.000-07:00

This week was again mostly about bands and such, but I had a lot fo fun meeting a lot of new people, some of whom are featured in this weeks pics.

Finding Emo
Had a great time talking to this trio about Haigh Fest. A really nice story they had too, formed at the '09 event with the aim to play 'The Big Stage', narrowly missed out on Haigh '10, asked for feedback, acted on it, and got on this year's bill. Nice lads.

SecondSon
After a few technical difficulties, I finally got to talk to SecondSon, who had a lot to say about the local scene.

No Problems
One band didn't turn up, but I spotted this in the building where they practice, so I shot this instead :)

365 Project - This Week's Pics (May 22-28)

2011-05-28T11:36:00.000-07:00

I'd seen the #365project , or at least variations of it, doing the rounds on the Interwebs for a good while and always thought it was a pretty cool idea.

The idea is a simple one; take a photograph every day for 365 days and post it online, thus creating a record of a single year in one's life.

Though whilst I always enjoyed seeing everybody else's daily photographs, I never thought I'd actually join in myself since I either lacked time, interesting things to take photos of or often both.

Then something happened, and as my 27th birthday passed me by, it occured to me that the events leading up up to my next birthday are likely to be interesting, challenging and at least worth taking a few minutes out of each day to document.

OK, so not every shot I take is going to be the greatest piece of art ever. More likely than not, they'll be crappy little snaps shot on my phone. But still, should be fun.

You can check out all my pics here or, if you can't be bothered to do that, here's a few of my favourites from this week.

Smitten Kitten
Smitten Kitten are on the bill for Haigh Fest 2011. They were the first out of the 12 bands that I've interviewed, and we shot this pic after the interview.

Jeramiah Ferrari

The third of the twelve Haigh Fest bands I've interviewed so far. Technically not a great shot, but I love this photo.

My bass guitars

Well, OK, the acoustic one belongs to my brother, but they're still pretty cool.

A request to all teenagers: Please don't ever grow up.

2011-05-24T16:17:00.000-07:00

Like a number of people (and I'm guessing here, of course), I sometimes wake up in the morning and spend the subsequent hour in a fluster as I try to figure out what day it is.

Occasionally, I'll spray hairspray under my arms and half a can of deodorant in my hair before putting my underwear on back to front and inside out.

Then there's the rare moments when my brain tricks me into doing even more perplexing things, like withdrawing £20 from a cash machine then walking away before it dispenses the money, or the time I jumped on a train at Preston station intending to go to Wigan, but instead finding myself bound for Glasgow.

Despite such seeming stupidity, I like to think I have a pretty good grip on things. I usually know what I'm supposed to be doing, where, and when. I understand instructions, don't usually get myself lost, and can even understand one of the most complexed pieces of literature known to man; the Virgin Trains West Coast Mainline timetable.

All in all, most of my time is spent relatively free of confusion or bewilderment. There is however one notable exception, which is this:

Meetings.

Namely those meetings where, after years of having all manner of humanity wiped out of them by policies, procedures, corporate strategies and other such nonsense, a group of adults will say a bunch of words to me which I don't fully understand but which I assume loosely translate as 'We'd like it very much if you could go away and work on a project for us.'

Take the meeting I attended a few weeks ago, where the plan was to talk about a new web project that help young people find out all the different ways in which they could have their say about things that are important to them.

It sounded like a noble idea, but by the time everyone had finished bombarding me with questions, and talking about how we could have a pie (I think they meant a pie chart), or maybe a graphic of an open mouth or even (Seriously) an open mouth taking a bite out of a pie, I couldn't work out if I was being asked to build a website or a bakery.

After taking a week off, the confusion continued yesterday, starting with the following conversation:

"Hi Chris, I've been asked to call you."
OK, great. Is there something I can help you with?
"I don't know. I've just been asked to call you about a project."
OK, what project is that.
"I don't know."
Erm...right then.

It then followed when I was asked to attend a meeting tonight, without really being told what it was about.

Regardless, I went along earlier this evening to what turned out to be something of a revelation.

I met a group of teenagers, and the discussion was about the same web project I'd been asked about in that pie-eating, brain-destroying meeting a few weeks ago.

I spent a good hour taking to these young people, who came up with some awesome, sensible, practical ideas, and sent me away, not with a headache and an overbearing sense of confusion, but with a detailed plan of action for actually starting this project and seeing it through to the end.

Ultimately, all of this leads me to confirm something I'd long suspected; that young people are much easier to work with than adults.

So please, teenagers the world over, I'm begging you, please don't ever grow up.

I say this partly because I don't want you to succumb to corporate politics and policies, but mostly as a warning since, if you grow up to be anything like this adult, you're likely to find yourself on a train to Glasgow with your hair smelling like Lynx Phoenix and your undies all in a muddle.

Unsolved Mysteries: #Facebook Landing Pages

2011-05-21T04:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a little problem that's been bugging me all week; how to change the default landing tab on Facebook pages.

The basic idea of landing tabs is something I like very much. Pages (not profiles like you and me have, but pages set up by bands, brands and anyone else who wants to flaunt their wares and interact with you in a trendy, modern kind of way) can create their own custom pages no Facebook, either by employing some geek to knock one up using FBML (Facebook Markup Language) or using any number of pretty cool apps to achieve the same result.

Then, by setting that tab as the default landing page, new visitors will, in theory at least, see something much more interesting than the standard wall or info page.

Manchester Library's Facebook page is one of my favourite examples of this if you want to go and see what I'm talking about.

Setting one up should be pretty simple; after you've got your page, you go to Edit page - Manage Permissions and, just like in the picture below, you should see the option to change the default landing tab to anything you like.

I've used this option on numerous pages in the past, but when it came to setting this really cool ReverbNation app as the default page on the Haigh Fest Facebook page, it proved rather impossible.

Instead, when I go manage permissions on that page, the 'default landing tab' option is notably absent.

Having spent a good deal of time researching the problem this week, I've encountered numerous possible theories and suggestions as to why it may be and how I can fix it.

Sadly, in my own experiments, I've managed to disprove most of the possible explanations I've come across.

You need 10,000 fans or to have worked with an advertising account manager to be able to change the default page.

I'm certain this can't be the case. This page for WLCT (which I only gained access to last week, so don't blame me for lack of updates!) only has 42 fans and yet I can still change the default landing page there, and to my knowledge nobody involved in setting up that page has had anything to do with Facebook's advertising folk.

I even checked on what I call my 'test' page, which has 0 fans and which I usually use simply for sandboxing ides, and even that allows the page to be changed.

For the record, the Haigh Fest page has 4,000+ fans.

You can't set a default landing tab if your page is registered under the Business or Place category.

To test this, I created Chris Skoyles' Awesome House of Fun under Business or Place and, yes, I can set the default landing tab to anything, including the ReverbNation app. So hmm, can't be that either.

With regards to my own personal Facebook quandry though, this hardly matters, as Haigh Fest isn't registered as a business or place, and even when I change it to be such, it doesn't help.

Community Pages can't have default tabs

Yes they can, I've tested that theory too.

You can't change the default tab if you're not the person who originally set up the page.

This was my own theory, coming to me when I was at my wits end and figuring it was the only possible answer.

It isn't.

I didn't originally set up the Haigh Fest page, so I asked the guy who did to take a look. He encountered the same problem as me. Plus, like I say, I was only recently made an admin of the WLCT page, and yet I can still change the tab there.

And so the mystery continues.

I'm posting this partly in the hope that it might save somebody else all the hassle of doing all the research and experiments I've been doing this week, only to reach the same conclusion, but also feeling optimistic that some kind, social media savvy person somehwere out there in the ether might just drop by this post and offer me a solution that does work.

A little help anyone?

Got bored, took a photo.

2011-05-18T08:15:00.000-07:00

Every now and again, I force myself to take a week off, relax, recharge and do, well, not much of anything really.

The problem comes, as it always does, when i find myself growing all the more restless to the point where I have to admit that, well, I'm just not very good at doing nothing.

Which is really the only explanation I can give for going out into the garden this morning, taking these photographs and posting them here.

The calm before the storm

2011-05-08T23:15:00.000-07:00

It's around 6.45am on a Monday morning, I have a nice big cup of coffee and all is quiet. I like this very much.

The rest of the week is set to be a maelstrom of activity, and any moment of quiet I can get I shall relish with gusto.

The newly re-launched LINC website goes live next week, which means it's all hands (well, both of mine) to the pump in order to finish new content, tidy up the design, proof, edit and generally get the site to the point where it's as good as can be my home time Friday.

I'll have a bunch of meetings about the new site too, which I some how have to fit in around other stuff, like the little social media consultation/advice session/whatever-you-want-to-call it I'm delivering on Thursday afternoon for colleagues at WLCT.

We'll mostly be looking at Hootsuite and how to get the most of that particular tool, though there'll be other stuff thrown in there too, like custom Facebok pages and the like.

All that aside, this week is all about, yep, you guessed it, Haigh Fest.

Later tonight, I'll be off to interview the mighty Element, who provided a highlight for many at Haigh Fest 2010. We'll be talking a lot about that festival, plus their awesome new album, Corrupted Desires, which is released on May 30th through Casket Records and which, trust me, kicks a whole load of ass.

That interview should be available online next week released alongside the official line up for Haigh Fest 2011.

That lineup will be decided on Wednesday, when a small bunch of us head up to Haigh Hall, drink a bunch of coffee and argue the toss about the 60+ submissions we had for this year's event until some time around 10pm, when we the ten or eleven bands for Haigh '11 are agreed upon and we all go home, tired and weary.

And that pretty much sums up how I suspect I'll feel come Friday evening; tired, weary, but very accomplished, satisfied, and more than prepared for the week off I'm planning to take to celebrate the 27th anniversary of my birth.

Until then, I'm off to work!

Confessions of a cracked-up code monkey

2011-05-02T09:13:00.000-07:00

If I've been looking a bit haggard, buggered and harrassed lately, it's probably all down to the hours I've been toiling away at the office, working diligently away to move the entire LINC Online website from its current host and ad hoc WYSIWYG-edited set up into a new Content Management System.

It's hard work, not only because it mostly requires spending around eight hours a day following a constant routine of copying and pasting and occasionally tinkering with some code (a routine I'm sure could drive some men to the brink of insanity), but also because the CMS we're using, Sitekit is, well...It's a pain in the arse, basically.

Don't get me wrong, I mean no disrespect to colleagues who clearly saw it as a valuable investment, and yes, it does have some nifty little features but, on the whole, I find Sitekit to be incredibly cumbersome.

Alas, I must plod onwards.

The LINC Online as it stands at time of writing may be far from perfect, but for all it's flaws and quirks, it still attracts over 1 million page views every year and I'm pretty proud of that achievement, coming as it does on the back of six year's hard graft. Now though, I've been faced with taking that six year's of work and basically starting from scratch inside a month.

Of course, I've been told I don't have to have everything as good as it was on the old site within that month, but I want to, partly because I'm probably something of a masochist when it comes to work, but mostly because I don't want to spend all summer working on it when there's much cooler things to do be doing; like Haigh Fest.

Yep, it's that tiem of year again when our brilliant little music festival starts to occupy my ever Facebook status, tweet and blog post as I set to work cranking up the online publicity for this year's festival.

For all sorts of reasons, this year's event will probably be a lot different from previous festivals, and there'll be a few things going on which haven't before. For my part, that involves going back to interview some of the bands who played last year's festival, making better use of Youtube, getting stuck in with the awesome Storify and (if I can get this approved from the powers that be), announcing this year's line-up live via Twitter.

I'll have a bunch of weeks to do all that (plus more besides) before I fly out to the States for a week, getting home a few days before the festival on the same date that this year's Haigh Hall Live concerts, staring Peter Andre, The Courteeners and The Coral kick off.

Whether or not I'm working those shows yet I'm really not sure as it all depends on the fate the gods, or at the very least, organisers Cuffe & Taylor's awesome PR people, who've been nothing but lovely so far.

When all that's over, I'll probably remember that I haven't updated my blog for a while, and come back with another rambling post such as this one, where I'll probably talk a little bit about my decision to apply for a place in next year's London Marathon and to finally get my backside in gear and study for an English degree.

Until then, I shall leave you with this awesome song which inspired the title of today's post.

Enjoy!

Flickr sets - By the River, #Preston

2011-04-08T05:33:00.000-07:00

Few things in my life have made me happier than the times I would walk home from work in the middle of summer, Broadgate's tall, proud trees greeting me in the warm sunshine and a certain beauty emitting from the river beside me.

It was an experience that would fill me with delight and remind me that no matter where I go in this world, there'll always be a little piece of my heart left behind in that glorious part of Preston.

Anyway, here's some pics from one of my many walks home. Full Flickr set is here or there's a good ol' slideshow below.

Flickr sets - Sunrise over #Wigan

2011-04-03T02:55:00.000-07:00

Technically, I've probably taken better pics than this in my time, but I don't care, these remain some of my favourite pictures that I've ever taken.

I remember the morning I shot them pretty well. It was about 4.30 one autumn morning when I trudged, knackered and bleary-eyed, from my bed, towards the back door of our house in Hindley so that I could light the day's first cigarette and slowly come to terms with consciousness.

The sight that greeted me outside the back door that morning was honestly unlike anything I've ever seen before. the sky was ablaze with fiery reds, deep-set purples and dashing streaks of bright yellow that lashed out across the sky.

It was as though some mysterious god had created an inferno in the air, and it was awesome.

Naturally, I raced for my camera and quickly captured the following shots.

As always, slideshow is below, or the full Flickr set is here.

Flickr sets - Turkey 2008

2011-03-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

The two-weeks I spent in Turkey in the Spring of 2008 provided a great opportunity to get out with the camera and take some shots and I had a lot of fun with my camera that fortnight.

The waterfall pics especially remain some of my favourites, but really, I'm pleased with each of these.

The full Flickr set is here, or just check out the nifty little slideshow below.

Flickr sets - Wigan Pier

2011-03-28T21:58:00.000-07:00

Between 2006-2009,I worked from the second floor of a large office owned by the Keep Britain Tidy Group which looked out over the famous Wigan pier.

This was especially appealing during the summer.

Folks on their canal barges would pass by, sometimes mooring right outside our office before pushing merrily along the Leeds & Liverpool Canal to pastures new, the sun would gently set over the now sadly-defunct The Way We Were Museum (a place every school kid in Wigan was obliged to visit at least a dozen times during the course of their education) and fishermen, dog-walkers, joggers and folks with cameras would mingle on a daily basis.

I took a whole bunch of shots around the area during the three years I was based there, and these just a few of my favourites. You can check out the slideshow below, or view the full set on Flickr.

Flickr sets - Street Theatre

2011-03-27T01:47:00.000-07:00

For a couple of years, I s pent a lot of time hanging around at street festivals with my camera, snapping all the sights and delights that invaded town centres.

As I plod diligently on with trying to organise all my photos, here's a Flickr set with some of my favourite shots from that time.

Again, if you don't like the slideshow view below, you can check out the full set in Flickr itself.

Flickr sets - Live Bands

2011-03-26T03:18:00.000-07:00

I've accumulated a huge amount of photos over the past six years, and even though most of them are all backed up on countless discs, it's only now that I'm really getting round to organising most of them.

I figured I'd share some of my favourites on here, starting with this Flickr set featuring just some of the many live bands I've photographed over the years.

I'm not sure the slideshow below is the best way to display these pics, so if you want to check out the full set on Flickr itself, you can do so here.

Otherwise, enjoy.

Last.fm - Not quite dead as a disco just yet.

2011-03-24T02:39:00.000-07:00

Answering a question on Quora this morning on whether music service Last.fm is all but dead and done got me thinking a little more about how I use the service.

The crux of my argument was thus:

"I don't think Last.fm is necessarily fading out, more that people are finding new uses for it which may or may not be what the service initially set out to do."

That's especially true of my own recent experiences with the service, and I suspect it is with a lot of others as well.

I don't have any data to hand, but I doubt I'll be too far off the mark to suggest that the number of people using Last.fm to actually stream music has stalled, if not fallen by the wayside entirely over the last year or two.

With the changes they made late last year to their custom playlists, plus the rise of platforms like Spotify, Pandora and similar services, Last.fm has lost a lot of ground in being the place to listen to music.

It doesn't help either that the actual web-based Last.fm player is so crude and cumbersome.

Yet whilst there are much easier ways to have all your music at your disposal, I still think last.fm has a lot of uses that will continue to be valuable to both music fans and music makers for a long time.

"The whole 'scrobbling' feature is what makes Last.fm stand out from other services, combining all your music-listening data from a variety of sources and creating a unique profile of your tastes and listening habbits."

That's another quote from my Quora answer, and it sums up the one thing that I love perhaps more than anything about Last.fm; the listening stats are brilliant and, more's to the point, really accessible.

What's more, if you treat it as some kind of musical data-processing plant and combine it with awesome services like tweekly.fm, you get that data presented in nice little bite-sized chunks which allow you to share short snapshots of your musical tastes with friends on social networks like Twitter or Facebook.

There's more too, and -in my experience at least- one area where the service really triumphs over many of its rivals is in its recommendations.

As much as I love Spotify, its Related Artists feature is so redundant it may as well not exist, but Last.fm's recommendations are usually spot on, and in the several years I've been using it, I've found a tonne of great artists who I most likely wouldn't have heard of otherwise.

For artists themselves, with sites like ReverbNation and Soundcloud gaining ground in the wake of Myspace's rapid descent into redundancy, Last.fm is probably somewhat under-rated as a promotional tool, but I have seen it work pretty well.

I've seen bands distributed free downloads, promote shows and connect find artists of a similar ilk on the site, some to great effect, and if the site put a little thought into it, it could compete much more effectively with services whose sole purpose is to promote bands.

In fact, a little thought is all the service really needs to ensure that it does't fade away any time soon.

It sounds like such an obvious thing to say, but if Last.fm just focussed on the things it does really well (scrobbling, listening data etc) and maybe put some work into the things it could potentially do better (acting as platform for unsigned acts) rather than things like streaming music which it appears to have lost ground on, it could comfortably find its place in the evlving world of digital and streaming music.

And I really hope it does too, because even though I'll probably never use the site to listen to music again, I still think it's a pretty awesome, useful service.

30-Day Song Challenge – All the songs

2011-03-20T05:33:00.000-07:00

After the 30-Day Song Challenge did the rounds on the Internet for a long time, I finally jumped on the bandwagon myself in February 2011. It was interesting adventure, sharing a song that, for one reason or another, meant something special to me, every day for 30-Days.

Now that it's ended, I didn't really want all the fun I had in taking up the challenge to simple dissapear into the deepest archives of my blog, so here's all the links to each day's challenge.

Day 01 – Your favorite song

Day 02 – Your least favorite song

Day 03 – A song that makes you happy

Day 04 – A song that makes you sad

Day 05 – A song that reminds you of someone

Day 06 – A song that reminds of you of somewhere

Day 07 – A song that reminds you of a certain event

Day 08 – A song that you know all the words to

Day 09 – A song that you can dance to

Day 10 – A song that makes you fall asleep

Day 11 – A song from your favorite band

Day 12 – A song from a band you hate

Day 13 – A song that is a guilty pleasure

Day 14 – A song that no one would expect you to love

Day 15 – A song that describes you

Day 16 – A song that you used to love but now hate

Day 17 – A song that you hear often on the radio

Day 18 – A song that you wish you heard on the radio

Day 19 – A song from your favorite album

Day 20 – A song that you listen to when you’re angry

Day 21 – A song that you listen to when you’re happy

Day 22 – A song that you listen to when you’re sad

Day 23 – A song that you want to play at your wedding

Day 24 – A song that you want to play at your funeral

Day 25 – A song that makes you laugh

Day 26 – A song that you can play on an instrument

Day 27 – A song that you wish you could play

Day 28 – A song that makes you feel guilty

Day 29 – A song from your childhood

Day 30 – Your favorite song at this time last year

30-Day Song Challenge – Day 30: My Favourite Song At This Time Last Year: 30 Seconds to Mars - Kings and Queens

2011-03-18T08:06:00.000-07:00

And so it's over.

We've had fun, haven't we dear reader? We've laughed, we've cried, we've talked of life and death and of rock 'n' roll, but alas, like all good things, our 30 Day Song Challenge must come to an end.

Kings and Queens reminds me of the Wigan Cultural Partnership gig we did last year. I seem to remember this song being pretty popular around that time, and when we played it through the PA whilst the bands changed over, it went down a treat.

And so it is that we finish on an anthem; an epic, soaring anthem that raises the spirits and ends this little adventure of ours on a high.

Please, enjoy.

30-Day Song Challenge – Day 29: A Song From My Childhood: Queen - The Hitman

2011-03-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

I was nine years-old when I first heard it; that scorching guitar and an epic beat that demands some serious head-banging action.

I know I was nine years-old, because it was at that exact that age that I first started watching professional wrestling on the telly, and I genuinely believed that some band had written a song about Bret 'The Hitman' Hart.

Of course, now that I'm much older (though, some would argue, not necessarily wiser), I understand that this had nothing to do with the WWF wrestler, and also that Queen were more than just some band, but I can't help but think back to that age whenever I hear this song.

On an album drenched in sentiment and catchy pop songs, what stands about this song is that, for all intents and purposes, it's a heavy metal song. That's why The Hitman is so important to me; really, it's where it all began.

I remember hearing that hard guitar and heavy beat for the first time and thinking Ooft! This is what I need in my life!

Some time after, I'd find myself watching a Christian metal band called Crucifer at my local youth club, and I credit them, and this oft-forgotten gem of a song, with introducing me to the world of rock and roll.

30-Day Song Challenge – Day 28: A Song That Makes Me Feel Guilty: Apocalyptica - Fisheye

2011-03-16T09:51:00.000-07:00

Dear Mike,

I know you never read my blog, but I still have your Apocalyptica DVD. I shall return it next time I'm in town.

Many apologies,

Chris.

30-Day Song Challenge – Day 27: A Song I Wish I Could Play: Buggles - Video Killed the Radio Star -

2011-03-15T11:42:00.000-07:00

I'll be honest with you, this is just an excuse to tell you how much I really, really want to get my hands on a theremin.

I've been in love with this weird little instrument for a good few years now, probably since the first time I saw erstwhile sci-fi surf-rockers The V.Cs use one in their shows. Through sheer laziness and forgetfulness I've never actually managed to acquire one of my own, though if I did, I'd be all over this.

I'll include the second version of this video here for those of you who might want a little introduction as to what a theremin actually is.

Enjoy.

30-Day Song Challenge – Day 26: A Song That I Can Play On An Instrument: Alice in Chains - Would?

2011-03-14T13:31:00.000-07:00

I don't remember where I was when I first heard that bassline, rumbling like some filthy thunder from the fingers of the recently departed Mike Starr, but I know I fell in love with it instantly.

Would? Is a song that has everything going for it; Cantrell's ringing guitar, Staley's tortured vocal, Kinney slamming a harsh beat to keep the whole thing moving, but come on, the thing everybody remembers this song for is Starr's beast of a bassline.

I know I do, and I know it was one of the reasons I wanted a bass guitar in the first place. Somehow, I just had to be able to make that unholy sound for myself.

My own version will never live up to the way the song is supposed to sound. So, in memory in Mike, and Layne before him, here's Would? in all it's bass-heavy glory.

Enjoy.

30-Day Song Challenge – Day 25: A Song That Makes Me Laugh: Jonathan Coulton - re: Your Brains

2011-03-13T15:29:00.000-07:00

All we wanna do is eat your brains

I had planned to put the legend that is Stephen Lynch in here today but then Stace and I spent most of this afternoon laughing ourselves silly at Youtube videos, and after she played me this, this, there's no way I couldn't include it.

So yeah, Stephen Lynch is still a legend (go look him up), but this song is just too funny.

Enjoy.

30-Day Song Challenge – Day 24: A Song I Want To Play At My Funeral: Inspiral Carpets - Two Worlds Colide

2011-03-12T14:09:00.000-08:00

I don't really plan on dying any time soon; I'm too busy for that right now.

That doesn't mean I haven't spent a lot of time thinking about death and struggling to come to terms with my own mortality. I think it's in our nature to thinkin about things like that and, to be honest, I've already got most of my funeral sused out.

I won't go into all the morbid details here, but I will state that the golden rule about my funeral is that nobody is allowed to cry. If I'm not there to cheer you up, you'd better keep those bloody tears to yourself.

Anyway, we're supposed to be talking about funeral choonage, so, when I go please throw a huge party and play the following.

William Fitzsimmons - They'll Never Take the Good Years
Yeah, I know I already said that it makes me sad, but don't let it. Just have this on as everyone's arriving and remember the good times we had.

Bob Dylan - Forever Young
Look, I just like this song.

Pearl Jam - Alive
I have this pretty clear vision of my coffin going sliding into a ball of fire, me going down in a blaze of glory as Eddie Veder screams 'I'm still alive!' In my head, that vision looks awesome.

Metallica - That Was Just Your Life
Because it was. And because I can't have a funeral without Metallica.

Counting Crows - Hanging Tree
As with Metalllica, Counting Crows have to be there. You could pretty much play most of their back catalogue (CDs are under my bed if you need 'em!), but play this, becuase it wil have you bouncing and dancing and smiling and such.

Inspiral Carpets - Two Worlds Collide.
Listen to it, then have a think about your own life and vow to make the most of the time you've got left on earth.

God, that was probably the most depressing entry I've ever posted!

30-Day Song Challenge – Day 23: A Song I Want To Play At My Wedding: Extreme - More Than Words

2011-03-11T09:18:00.000-08:00

For Stace.

30-Day Song Challenge – Day 22: A Song That I Listen to when I'm sad: Bush - Glycerine

2011-03-10T15:01:00.000-08:00

I mentioned way back on Day 4 how embracing sadness can be good for the soul, helping you connect with your emotions and eventually move away from that sadness into a better frame of mind.

As I said back then, William fitzsimmons is always my go-to guy for that sort of thing, but even then I have to be in a certain frame of mind to want that whole embracing is therapeutic thing.

When I'm not in that frame of mind, and I just need a bit of a sulk, Glycerine is always the soundtrack an indulgence in self-pitty.

It's a beautiful song though, so please, enjoy.

30-Day Song Challenge – Day 21: A Song I Listen To When I’m Happy: Seven Mary Three - Water's Edge

2011-03-09T11:50:00.000-08:00

It's only been about two weeks since I was first introduced to this rather brilliant band, but in that time I've noticed one thing; they don't really do much in the way of happy music.

Not that I really mind. OK, their lyrics might be more on the downhearted side of things, but come on, 7M3 rock like a grunge-induced hurricane, and I just can't stop listening to them.

If I'm not already in a good mood, songs like Cumbersome, Devil Boy and, of course, Water's Edge will put me in one, and if I am in a good mood, they'll only make it better.

Please, enjoy.

30-Day Song Challenge – Day 20: Songs I Listen To When I’m Angry: Monster Magnet - Gods and Punks

2011-03-08T09:04:00.000-08:00

To be honest I'm not prone to too many outbursts of anger, and even when one does come upon me, I can't say it happens frequently enough that I've got any kind of go-to soundtrack planned.

That being said, I suppose stress comes fairly close to anger, even if only as a trigger, and I generally find that a stressful day at the office is relieved by coming home and blasting a bit of Monster Magnet.

So, here's gods and Punks - Enjoy.

30-Day Song Challenge – Day 19: A Song From My Favourite Album: Pearl Jam - Alive

2011-03-07T14:02:00.000-08:00

I could write a bunch of words here, but why waste time when there's this song and that solo to be enjoyed?

30-Day Song Challenge – Day 18: A Song That I Wish I Heard On The Radio: This Devastated Fan - Carnivore

2011-03-06T04:03:00.000-08:00

I've known This Devastated Fan (or TDF, if you prefer) for a long time now. Out of the scores of bands I've been fortunate enough to review, interview and get to know over the years, they're one of the few who really stand out as being ready for the big time, and have been for quite some time.

This past Friday, I was privileged to be invited down to their studio for an intimate show where the band played a stripped-down version of their forthcoming third album, Plot & Debauchery in its entirety.

If that gig was anything to go by, the new album is going to be something quite special, featuring as it does this gorgeous song as a double A-side single along with the heavier - yet equally as awesome - Bambi Woods.

To be fair, both songs deserve to be huge and could really make a big impression if given some decent airplay, but since I couldn't find a video for Bambi.. Here's Carnivore.

Please, enjoy.

No Smoking Day website

2011-03-05T07:50:00.000-08:00

National No Smoking Day takes place on March 9th. Here's a couple of screenshots from a website I put together on behalf of Public Health to raise awareness of the day amongst young people in Wigan.

Left to my own devices to come up with a suitable design was challenging but fun.

Most of the copy was supplied, though I did have to do a bit of research to come up with accurate descriptions of some of the diseases caused by smoking.

Images used were either custom designed or taken from the National No Smoking Day media centre.

30-Day Song Challenge – Day 17: A Song That I Hear Often On The Radio: Noah and the Whale - L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N

2011-03-05T07:01:00.000-08:00

It has its fans, it has its critics but, for better or worse, BBC Radio 1 is our station of choice at The LINC office.

Playing away in the background from the moment the first person arrives in the morning to the time the last person leaves in the evening means we tend to hear a lot of the same songs through the course of a week.

Some are terrible, some are just forgettable, but this little ditty always puts a smile on my face no matter how many times I hear it.

I don't really have much to say about L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N other than it's a nice song, and finds Noah and the Whale in a much better mood than they were on First Days of Spring.

Go on, enjoy.

30-Day Song Challenge – Day 16: A Song I Used To Love and Now Hate: OPM - Heaven is a Halfpipe

2011-03-04T09:58:00.000-08:00

Into the latter-half of the 30-Day Song Challenge and I must admit writing about songs I hate is growing a little weary.

It's taken me all day to think of this one, and I was almost ready to admit defeat, confessing that if there's any song I've ever liked, I probably still do.

Then it came to me; a flashback to a time back in college when I became far more incensed by this catchy little ode to tearing up skateparks than I ever really needed to.

There once was a time, when Heaven is a Halfpipe was first released on these shores, that I was quite the fan. Sure, it was effectively a pop song and pretty much went against the 'I'm an angry teenager, therefore there is only heavy metal, and all other music sucks' thing I had going for me at the time, but hey, it was fun.

And then they played it on the radio.

A few people liked it so they played it on the radio some more. Then more

Over...

and

over..

again.

Like a lot of songs, what was once enjoyable became overplayed to the point where it was barely tolerable.

So I did the only sensible thing I could do, avoided the song wherever possible, thinking that if I just stayed out of it's way, it couldn't bother me too much.

Then something bad happened, something that just about tipped me over the edge. Kerrang! magazine voted Heaven is a Halfpipe as its Single of the Year.

Yep, the same Kerrang! that I'd once held in high esteem as the sacred text of all things rock was suddenly voting pop songs in a year when there'd been an abundance of genuinly excellent rockers.

As I say, I was far more angry about this than I really should have been and now that I'm older and wiser, I now realise that it isn't really important at all.

Still, that being said, it's probably a good thing I stopped listening to this song for so many years. Having just heard it again for the sake of this entry, I have to admit, it is pretty bad.

Enjoy, if you must.

Youth Parliament website

2011-03-03T13:24:00.000-08:00

Here's a little site I put together last year. It's coming down in the next few weeks for reasons we won't go into here (it'll only make me angry if we do!), so here's a couple of screen shots for prosperity's sake.

The group of young people I put this together for asked me to base the design on a flyer they'd recently had printed. That include the 'splashed paint' background.

The idea behind the members' gallery was for each picture to link to a profile of each group member.

News items were kept short and to the point, with links to further reading where possible.

30-Day Song Challenge: Day 15 – A Song That Describes Me: Metallica - Shoot Me Again

2011-03-03T12:38:00.000-08:00

Shoot me again, I ain't dead yet.

Half way through the 30 Day Song Challenge and I finally get to talk about unquestionably one of the greatest bands of all time.

All the shots I take, I spit back at you.

OK, quite a few people weren't very kind to the St. Anger album when it was first released, but those people were wrong. Sounding like a rabid tiger clawing through flesh, gripping at a pulsating heart and tearing it to pulp with an unrelenting raw intensity, St. Anger is far better than people gave it credit for, though that's really beside the point.

I won't go away, with a bullet in my back.

The point, dear readers, is that this is the song I've long believed best sums up my life, big ugly warts and all.

Right here I stay, with a bullet in my back.

I won't go into that too much. Instead, I'll hand it over to James, Rob, Kirk and Lars to explain further as they tear it up in the studio like a militia of unholy gods.

Enjoy.

30-Day Song Challenge: Day 14 – A Song That No One Would Expect Me To Love: Johann Pachelbel - Canon in D major

2011-03-02T10:59:00.000-08:00

I know I'm trivialising this wonderful piece of music by mentioning it as a 'song' here but, seriously, it was an automatic choice for me when it came to picking today's entry.

I don't think many people know that I have huge soft spot for classical music. There's something about it that at once makes me feel both relaxed and empowered, tapping into what ever I may be feeling and replacing it with a certain sense of happiness.

Few pieces of music do that quite as well as Pachelbel's Canon, and I could quite happily sit here for days just revelling in all it's majesty and magnificence.

In a break from our normal routine however, I'm not going to give you a video of the music. No, instead I'm going to give you this hillarious video that's been doing the rounds on the Interwebs for years but still makes me laugh every time I watch it.

Yep, it's Rob Paravonian and his famous Pachelbel rant.

Remember kids, D A B F# G D G A

30-Day Song Challenge: Day 13 – A Song That Is a Guilty Pleasure: Katy Perry - Firework

2011-03-01T08:40:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I know I'm not supposed to like this song but, honestly, I can't help it.

Not exactly the sort of thing I'd usually just sit and listen to, but there's a certain energy and exuberance to it which appeals to the repressed pop fan in me and makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Yep, my weakness for this little track is so much so that my closest friends know that no matter how much I try to resist joining them on a night on the town, all they have to do is blast Firework and, as the saying goes, I'm all over it.

Enjoy.

30-Day Song Challenge: Day 12 – A Song From A Band I Hate: Crazy Town - Butterfly

2011-02-28T15:05:00.000-08:00

As I said way back on Day 2, I find it hard hard to conjure up an emotion as strong as hate, especially when it comes to music.

Anything I could possibly hate isn't a part of my life and thus isn't worth worrying about, which is why it's taken me pretty much the best part of the day trying to think back to a time when a band actually inspired some level of hatred in me.

Honestly, I couldn't come up with much, but I do remember feeling particularly loathsome towards this bunch of muppets.

Yeah, they still look for all the world like a bunch of doped-up lab monkeys with badly drawn tattoos, each one with a face like the proverbial slapped arse and all the musical ability of an especially out-of-tune brick.

Yeah, this song, even after several years, is still every different kind of awful.

And yeah, the video is still pretty naff too.

Hate though? Nah...not anymore....

....Well, OK, maybe just a little.

I'd say 'enjoy,' but if you have any sense, you probably won't.

30-Day Song Challenge: Day 11 – A Song From One of My Favourite Bands: Counting Crows - Angels of the Silences

2011-02-27T02:15:00.000-08:00

I was close to picking a Metallica song for today's entry, maybe something from the Death Magnetic album which I've been listening to quite a bit lately.

After all these years they still remain in my top three favourite bands, and it would've been nice to get them in here somewhere.

Yet as I sat down to write, the lure of my undisputed favourite band, the mighty Counting Crows, proved too much, and I just had to talk about them a little more.

There isn't a 'Crows song I dislike; at their softest, Adam Duritz & Co. are insightful and majestic, at their hardest, they're passionate and powerful.

Today, given that the Metallica vibe I had earlier has already put me in the mood for something hard and heavy, we're getting Counting Crows at their most enlivened and energetic with close to four minutes of blistering rock.

Go on, enjoy.

30-Day Song Challenge: Day 10 – A Song That Makes Me Fall Asleep: Angus & Julia Stone - Yellow Brick Road

2011-02-26T15:48:00.000-08:00

Angus & Julia Stone make the kind of beautiful, gentle music that seems purpose-made for the act of soothing souls.

They're my chill out group, the music I listen to when I want to calm down or let the stress of the day fade away.

It's also been known for me to play them as I'm going to bed at night, letting their soft, wonderful songs drift quietly through a darkened room as my eyes give up on me for the day.

This song in particular is one that always hits the spot and makes my dreams just that little bit sweeter.

Please, enjoy.

30-Day Song Challenge: Day 9 – A Song That I Can Dance To: Rob Zombie - Dragula

2011-02-25T10:52:00.000-08:00

I suppose this entry all depends on how you define the word can.

If, by can, you mean 'to be able to; have the ability, power, or skill to'; (thank you, Dictionary.com!), then we might as well move right along.

As pretty much anyone who's ever been in any kind of club with me will attest to, watching me dance is actually more akin to watching a fat walrus in the throes of an electric shock.

If, on the other hand, you mean 'is willing to,' then we could pick any number of tunes. After all, whilst I might not be any good at it, I have been known to enjoy cutting a rug on occasion.

That said, I'm only supposed to select one tune here so, because it just this second cropped up randomly on Spotify, and because it's a pretty funky tune to bust a move to, here's Rob Zombie.

Enjoy.

30-Day Song Challenge: Day 8 – A Song That I Know All The Words To: Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby

2011-02-24T10:47:00.000-08:00

Look, I know, OK? There's several million songs infinitely cooler and credible than Rob Van Winkle's ode to...well, whatever this song happens to be about I suppose.

But anyway, why bother with any of those songs when we can have a little bit of fun with some cheesy early-90s rap?

Honestly, I've never quite managed to work out exactly how every last line of this song has become so permanently embedded in my brain.

I mean sure, it might have something to do with a trip to a car boot sale I once took, way back in the days before Jedward forced their cover of the song upon an unsuspecting public.

It might have something to do with the mad impulse I had that day, the one that caused me to buy a copy of Vanilla's album, To The Extreme on cassette for the pricey sum of 10p.

It may even have something to with the way curiosity got the better of me and led to that cassette being my 'music to wash the dishes to' for the best part of two months.

I doubt it though. I think the real reason is that secretly, people sneak into my room when I'm asleep and play it on repeat, letting the words seek subliminally into my mind.

You don't believe me, do you?

OK then, how about I try to salvage what little credibility I may have had with you dear reader, and show you not the original video, but Vanilla's metal remake of the song from 1998. Much like pretty much everything Vanilla Ice did during his ill-fated turn as a nu-metal act, this is bloody terrible, but hey, at least it's got a loud guitar.

30-Day Song Challenge: Day 7 – A Song That Reminds Me Of A Certain Event: Social Icons - Can't Stop Me

2011-02-23T11:37:00.000-08:00

It's probably pretty apt, given that I've spent much of today fanning the first early flames of hype for Haigh Fest 2011, that today's song sums up last year's event for me.

I was really glad to have Social Icons on the line-up, and I thought they absolutely stormed it.

I used this song of theirs on the little Animoto video I put together for Haigh 2010 (I do so love Animto, but that's not what we're talking about here), and ever since then, whenever I hear it, it takes me back to that brilliant Sunday we had last July.

The video here it isn't the best quality (no offence intended to whoever shot it!) but check out the lads rocking the Haigh Stage, then head over to their Myspace to hear the song in all it's hard-rockin' glory.

Enjoy.

30-Day Song Challenge: Day 6 – A Song That Reminds Me Of Somewhere: Warning Incubus - Wish You Were Here

2011-02-22T08:30:00.000-08:00

Back in the summer of 2002, a few friends and I spent the week in Newquay, Cornwall, a place that had long held a special place in my heart and continues to do so.

Several months earlier, Incubus had released Morning View, a much gentler album than their previous offerings, but one which I nonetheless fell in love with, and which I happened to have with me on that holiday.

Though most of the memories from that time have faded, only brought into vivid colour when somebody else mentions them, I'll always remember taking myself off for a long, solitary walk along the beach on the final day of that holiday, grabbing a bit of 'me time' before heading back to the grind, with Morning View playing in my ears.

I could've picked any track from that album, but since Wish You Were Here is a highlight, in it goes.

Enjoy.

Children's Rights Service website

2011-02-21T10:58:00.000-08:00

A few screenshots from some a website I recently put together at the day job for The Children's Rights Service who look after children and young people in care.

Before starting work on this one, I was presented with a mass of unorganised information and random pages of copy. The challenge therefore, lay in sorting it all out, organising it, and presenting it in a way that would visitors would find easy to understand. Hence the eight basic sections in the top navigation menu, with a further drop-down menu listing each individual page in alphabetical order.

Graphics and image are a mix of custom designs, stock photos from The LINC's photo library, and a few pics used under a Creative Commons license.

30-Day Song Challenge: Day 5 – A Song That Reminds Me Of Someone: Muse - Super Massive Black Hole

2011-02-21T10:25:00.000-08:00

Truth be told, if you're a close friend of mine, I've attached a song to you; some piece of music that, whenever I hear it, reminds me of you. From Patience by Guns 'n' Roses to S&M by Rihanna and all kinds of songs of varying styles and genres in between, if I know you, you've probably got 'your song.'

It's because of this that picking today's entry was somewhat difficult at first; out of all the songs that remind me of people, how was I supposed to pick just one to put here?

Then it struck me that there was only song I could put down today, and that's this big, beastly chunk of grooviness that reminds me of someone I've become very close to lately.

Enjoy.

30-Day Song Challenge: Day 4 – A Song That Makes Me Sad: William Fitzsimmons - They'll Never Take the Good Years

2011-02-20T08:36:00.000-08:00

Until when we both are ghosts, I will miss you like a friend.

I think it's sometimes good to embrace sadness. Getting in touch with some remote emotion that would otherwise remain surpressed and letting yourself feel what you need to feel is good for the soul.

Don't let your love grow to deep, I don't think I'll be around.

It's probably fitting then, that the music of therapist-turned-outstanding-songwriter, William Fitzsimmons, is what I find most theraputic when I need to embrace those particular feelings.

But they'll never take the good years
There are some that never pass

I could have picked any one of William's beautiful, alluring songs for this entry, attached as most of them are to a particular time when I felt down, but this one just seems right.

No, they'll never take the good years
God, I wish I would've learned

Really, I think it's about the man's divorce, but when a good friend of mine passed away recently, it was this that helped me embrace the sadness and get through it.

Enjoy.

30-Day Song Challenge: Day 3 – A Song That Makes Me Happy: Counting Crows - Mrs. Potter's Lullaby

2011-02-19T07:39:00.000-08:00

Well, this one was easy.

I've spent plenty of time gushing about my love for Counting Crows on this blog, and though my song-of-the-moment tends to alternate on occasion (right now, I'm partial to a bit of Rain king), Mrs. Potter's Lullaby always brings joy to my heart.

Honestly, everything about this song makes me happy; the rolling bassline that takes pride of place in a beautiful soundscape full of trembling guitars and jolly drums, the whimsical piano that ambles merrily about the place and those lyrics...

Oh man those lyrics, so surreal and extraordinary and yet somehow making perfect sense.

Honestly, this song makes me so happy that if I could, I'd take it out on a date, make love to it then marry it and settle down happily with it.

Please, enjoy.

30-Day Song Challenge: Day 2 – My Least Favourite Song: Puddle of Mudd - Blurry

2011-02-18T02:51:00.000-08:00

I've always held the belief that anything I don't like really isn't worth my time. It applies to a lot of things in my life, including music; If I don't like a song, I just don't listen to it, don't think about it, don't talk about it.

So it was a struggle this morning to have to come up with my least favourite song. After some serious thought though, it struck me that I really, really can't stand this sappy drivel from an otherwise half-decent band.

It's hard to explain why I dislike it so much, but it probably has something to do with the awful lyrics and how every couple of the Nu-metal generation seemed to think it was their song.

Anyway, just in case you do like it, here it is:

30-Day Song Challenge: Day 1 – My Favourite Song: Pearl Jam - Alive

2011-02-17T09:46:00.000-08:00

I've a feeling I'm a little bit late to the party on this one, but after my old friend Rosie kicked off her own 30 Day Song Challenge on Facebook today, it seemed like a bandwagon that was just too cool not to jump on.

So yeah, up first, my favourite song. It has to be This monster of tune from the mighty Pearl Jam.

There's a million reasons why I love this song so much; Vedder's vocal sends excited shivers down my spine and the guitars grip the senses in a way that few songs can. Mostly though, it does what all truly great songs should do; takes you to some place where you find yourself completely lost in the music, oblivious to the world around you and absorbed completely by it's brilliance.

Seeing the band perform this live at Leeds Festival 2006 is a clear highlight of all my gig-going experiences.

Check out the video and enjoy.

Asleep in Sparkbright and other creative ramblings

2011-02-16T09:43:00.000-08:00

A few poems and such...

Asleep

I'm not sure how I forgot to mention this, but Asleep, a little piece I wrote about my never-ending struggle to balance my time between conquering the world and, well, sleeping, was published in Issue 5 of Sparkbright magazine.

Heading to the old Tumblr account...

Nonesense, Part 12
As uninspired a title as I've ever likely come up with, based on -of all things- a tweet from Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz. I took the line 'My head feels like the rest of my life' from that tweet, and ran with it.

When You Go
When You Go is perhaps one of my favourite pieces that I've created in recent months. Thoughts on family, the future, and death. Yep, happy times.

So that's where it went wrong...
Again, hardly the most imaginative title. Basically, this one is about my failed marriage.

And on that happy note, I shall see you next time!