A late new year's resolution - less Facebook, more blogging. Am entering my fourth year with my company;the first three have been full of twists and turns. Working hard with my husband Phil Martin now to get his second solo album, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark finished and distributed, as well as organising a tour from May onwards around his solo work. We'll be starting off at the Station Inn Whitby in May - what better time and place? The launch date (and party!) to be announced early next week. Then there are my gigs and other events - what a long, hard but largely enjoyable slog this has been, for an assortment of reasons! I've been looking at collaborations with other promoters, and late last year teamed up with TwickFolk to plan a few events. Our first two are tomorrow, one has sold out and hopefully the evening gig with Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker will be suitably and comfortably stuffed too. I'm hoping this is first of many joint ventures with TwickFolk and others! I'm managing an exciting project with the rock group I Love Thunder - the group is largely made up of people with varying degrees and types of learning disability, who have bonded over a love of music - they've been awarded a grant by the BBC, and will be working very hard over the next 6 months with other musicians, towards a fantastic show at Watermans theatre. These are the things exercising my mind right now - Once Phil's album is mastered and out of our hands, he has promised to enter the digital age more fully and write a blog too! One of the bands he's in, The Bitter Springs has just released a double album, Everyone's Cup of Tea, which has had a very warm reception in the press including 4/5 stars in the Daily Mirror - you can read the reviews here All very exciting!

Thinking about the coming year

My first year consisted of quite a few high points with plenty of things to learn from!

I'm ready for 2012 with less emphasis for the time being on smaller gigs which sometimes require a great deal of work to organise and promote for little return in terms of audience numbers, which is soul destroying for all concerned!

So focussing on Phil's album launch for the time being, with an outdoor event in Marketplace Brentford on 18th February and the Battle of the Bands at Watermans coming on 3rd March!

Thinking about a short season of weekly smaller gigs at the Docking Station from April although haven't made up my mind completely yet.

Bank Holiday weekend: Friends, gigs, cider, wine and more

At a loose end on the Friday so I went to see Phil playing as the other half of Elaine Samuels' Kindred Spirit duo, at the Fox in Twickenham. I like the Kindred Spirit vibe although at times I'm a little sceptical, particularly regarding rock songs like Horse With No Name with an Irish jig or two stuck in the middle of it. However I'd been to see the duo at the Fox in Hanwell a few weeks earlier and it had been a very lively night with a diverse and 'up for it' crowd so we all had a wonderful night until Elaine's guitar amp was stolen, but that's another story. Well, we arrived at the pub and Elaine and Phil set up the PA, people were vaguely curious but being a Friday after work crowd not necessarily there for the music. Then the music started: It was a very rainy August day so a few sing along summertime songs were in order, people bopped about quite enthusiastically enough and then the strong stuff started - an early favourite being Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd, complete with wild fiddle! People were going bonkers - cheering the band - grown men hurling themselves at Phil in their enthusiasm (the fiddle does seem to catch people's imagination) and knocking into the mics and everything! Phil and Elaine have to literally barricade themselves into the performance space with guitar cases, chairs, anything else to hand!
The songs and the jigs got more extreme and Elaine said that Phil had gone into overdrive , to which Phil replied that overdrive was his default setting. A great night all round because as well as the set fee the pub was paying the duo, the bar staff went round to collect tips for the band and they got £60 in tips as well from an extremely enthusiastic audience!

End of Term

Over a year now since I left my day job - things are moving along nicely - bands big and small are booking to come back again and audience figures are for the most part creeping up!

I'm refining my website to reflect what I really want to do, and also to avoid getting myself embroiled in things I really don't want to do but was too naive or eager to prove myself to say no to straight away!

So, what I want to do is carry on putting on gigs with great musicians, and the occasional play, and I want you all to come along and have a good time - I'm also up for consultancy, leading seminars and other side projects related to being an event organiser and promoter!

To bands:

I've had great fun working with nearly all of you (no I'm not telling...)!

But....just as I remember that you're the expert and that's why I booked you - I am the boss of the event - turn up on time and don't take the p*** with the guest list and share the drinks rider between yourselves properly!

And.... if you want me to put on a show featuring YOU, you have to get on board with publicity. You have your own networks, myspaces social media - don't expect me to magic you an audience out of nowhere !!!!

To audiences: You've all been great, and thankyou for all the encouragement and positive feedback, it really spurs me on! but there's always one at every gig, and to answer a few of them:

To the man who didn't think the church was a good venue for a rock band (even though he'd come along to see the band at the church!) and asked me was I a rock....ummmm lady......Yes I think a church is a great place to hear live music of any sort, loud and exuberant or acoustic and melodious and everything in between, and yes I like to think of myself as a rock lady!

No, I'm not going to sell stella in cans.

No I'm not going to put on your brother's covers band.

Um yes, the gig should be in Time Out - don't you know how hard I'm trying?

Please bands and audiences - be nice to my music loving volunteer staff the Hel's Angels!

Also a reminder that although the next gig at St Paul's is some time away consider people living in the nearby streets when it's hometime.

A bit more time on my hands to update my website and get more gigs organised for 2012 so expect tweets, blogs and bombardments!

Catching Up

So many gigs, so little time. Today is the first full day I've had at home for a while so it's time to catch up with everything! The house is a tip - Phil or I have had gigs and every bit of floor space is covered with guitars, fiddles, amps, boxes of catering stuff like plastic cups and paper plates - the other surfaces are covered with piles of papers and forms I need at gigs, to do lists, running orders and the like.
Unfortunately things in the house are ceasing to work properly - how is this happening all at once? The disc drive in my iMac just spits out discs after a nanosecond; a connection in one set of speakers, an integral and irreplaceable one of course, has broken. The dishwasher has become erratic, the ignition on the gas hob has stopped working and various latches on doors and windows are faulty. All this happened this week!
But none of that matters because the gigs have been great! Just last Saturday we had Transmitters - the ones that went on to become Loop Guru and Transglobal Underground - let's say a select and discerning audience came along, but enough people that it felt really 'happening'. Everyone involved was a pleasure to deal with - we'd rebooked 100 Ways to open the show - they were tremendous, and we had Simon aka Rex Offender on the decks playing punk and reggae, and of course we had the Transmitters who were a revelation - I enjoyed listening to their cd a couple of months ago, but they sounded much more complete and interesting live!

This Saturday in a departure from my policy of original music only we've got a great tribute band, Letz Zep - as I write, the advance sales are identical to the advance sales for Bitter Springs/Band of Holy Joy (the best seller so far!) with three days to go - I'm so excited about this and I've got a great team of Angels on board for the evening! After that I'll have a few weeks to catch up with myself and get the house fixed before the July gigs featuring Circulus and Ian McNabb.

It's the Middle of February Already

Two gigs into the new year and it's already the middle of February. I realise as I type that this is the first time I've blogged in 2011. Phil has been to Spain with the fabulous Bitter Springs to play at the Tanned Tin festival which was a big success and I put on a gig with two local bands the Jetsonics and Hundred Ways at the same time as Phil was away. Hundred Ways impressed me so much I recommended them to Deep Fur who were looking for a punky support band for a gig in Brixton last week.
The second gig this year was the John Otway gig with Max Splodge - this was brilliant although I was surprised it didn't attract more people, particularly as we'd sold about 60 tickets in advance. A great crowd though made up of Max and John's loyal followers as well as random Brentford Belles and friends. Max and John were a complete pleasure to work with and I've pencilled in a gig for 3rd Feb next year! There's so much coming up and of course it's all in my newsletter as well. I'm tempted to put Roy Hill on with John Otway as two sides of a vaudevillian coin - I can't take credit for this idea but thank our fabulous angel of sound and light, Kevin Swain who's worked with Roy and John many times over the years. I'm still trying to figure out a sensible pricing structure for our afternoon and evening of Tudor and Elizabethan music on July 2nd. I'll be announcing it soon via the newsletter so keep your eyes peeled. There'll be music workshops in the afternoon suitable for all ages and then dancing in the evening. I can't wait!
This Friday sees the second ever Chapel of Love open mic at St Paul's Brentford, so do get in touch if you want to perform, and then the build up and general bombardment continues towards the two big acoustic gigs coming up at St Paul's - JC Carroll with Phil Martin on 4th March and Kindred Spirit on 26th March.

Continuing with the drive to get gigs back on in the Watermans Arts Centre, I'm putting on a teen battle of the Bands on 5th March - the entrants have been chosen and tickets are on sale from the Watermans box office 020 8232 1010. Watermans are working with me on two gigs in the theatre this year to see how much demand there really is for live music at the centre so please support these events! The second one will feature the wonderful acoustic musician Mark Dignam when he returns to England for a brief tour in the autumn. Watch this space!

Boxing Day

It's the end of my first six months in my new job! I'm loving it and learning fast - the first gigs have gone really well with lots of things to learn from! One is that it would be a good idea to have some sort of contract/information pack to send out to bands I book for gigs at St Paul's - the sticking points so far have been re: guest lists and soundchecks, so all that could be nipped in the bud at the point of booking! SO much excitement, nerves and feeling sick about whether tickets will sell, but I've come out of 2010 just fine with three great and completely different to each other gigs under my belt!
I've been interviewed by the local press and by the web fanzine Mudkiss who also wrote up one of my gigs - that was so exciting and I've had so many positive comments that I know this is very right for me!

So what's coming up? here are the next few things - a small fraction of the fun to come! contact me if you'd like to come to the kitchen gig - tickets are £10 and only available in advance from me directly - all other tickets are available at wegottickets!

9th Jan - Mark Dignam/Phil Martin kitchen gig
27th Jan Jetsonics
4th Feb John Otway