Guerilla Marketing Tactics

So, after watching Aston Villa beat Chelsea 1-1 this afternoon we decided to pick Executive Producer Robson's brains as to his ideas regarding the marketing strategy for the album.

The results were startling.

The Smiths on kids telly

Excuse the mild rant, but here's a thought:

The brilliance and simplicity of YouTube coupled with the exponential pace of digital content delivery means that YouTube will inevitably jump the shark at some point very shortly.

Discuss.

Mmmm?

Well..

...When it does (which it will), you'll miss it. Trust me.

In short, YouTube is free and brilliant telly for the time being...but time moves double-quick these days, as it has done for as long as we've been alive.

Referencing Andy Warhol's famous remark in his wonderful autobiography, 'Experience', the English novelist Martin Amis said;

"It's not the case that in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. In the future, everyone will be famous all the time - but only in their own minds"

Which is where the internet - and YouTube, Blogging and, of course, this post - comes in...

So...

Below is a video of The Smiths taken directly from the telly...from a time when if you wished to capture a culturally significant event you needed to be savvy with the workings of a VCR. The video is of poor quality, but that is because it was 'taped' direct from the TV in the midish 80s- a time when such technology was new and clunky.

In hindsight it must be said that VCRs were stubborn, brutal machines and they are not missed. BUT....nostalgia-tinted glasses remind us that the ability to capture 'live' telly onto a format which was then instantly portable was a revelation for all concerned at the time, and the world changed as a consequence.

These days you can capture anything you like, forever, immediately and utterly regardless of it's cultural worth, and maybe this is why these days you don't see uber-hip young bands taking children on day-trips to Kew Gardens and then bumping into Sandie Shaw.

We are living in strange times, kids.....please ensure you make good decisions as to where you lay your ears and eyeballs

xx

(PS: my favourite bit is when Johnny Marr tells a 7-year-old that calling your band The Rolling Stones is daft because it's a bit of a mouthful)

Enjoy

Just because

Meet Executive Producer Robson

He knows nothing about the music industry but was nevertheless chosen as our Executive Producer...so we grilled him at the time of his appoinment some several months back, trying to find out WHY....



.....

Look at all the Chefs and the Gardeners...

So anyway, there was this article in the newspaper the other day about how white people 'blacking up' is on the rise in contempary British culture. Since the article appeared in The Guardian I won't bother you with a precis as you can probably guess the tone of the piece and fill in the blanks all by yourself.

For what it's worth, and as often with opinons in The Guardian, I find myself simultaneously agreeing with the arguement in principle and yet being resolute in my belief that were the writer to personally appear at my front door in the guise of an acquiantance, I would hide behind the sofa and pretend not to be home.

BUT.... it got me thinking about Pitman, which is something I haven't done for a year or so.

Pitman is a miner and a rapper from the East Midlands town of Coleville. He enjoys digging, rapping and cups of tea. He doesn't suffer fools gladly and would probably think that you, yes, you! (and me, for that matter) are 'tossers'.

A couple of years back he released 3 singles on 7" inch vinyl that captured the imagination of Friends of the Stars and our mates. Dorian from Teatowel even ventured to That London in order to see him play live, and I once emailed him asking if he was planning to play in Birmingham. The reply I received said:

"I'm not doing no gigs in Birmingham. I've got coal to dig, mate"

Nuff said.

Pitman is white but Pitman's face is black. Pitman has black stuff on his face because he's been down the mines all day, digging coal. Make of that what you will.

Here's a Pitman video

Enjoy

Terrible 11th hour Seagal news

Whilst searching the internet for details of where we were meant to be heading in order to see Mr Seagal and his band Thunderbox this afternoon, I came across this just now.

STEVEN SEAGAL and THUNDERBOX RESCHEDULE WORLD TOUR

Due to overwhelming response throughout the world for Steven Seagal and his band Thunderbox to perform, we are rescheduling dates already booked to a time period which will allow us to add many more. The tour will begin in January of 2007 and run through the month of February. Below are the dates currently scheduled and many more will be added on a daily basis. Please go to www.stevenseagal.com for a complete and official list of all those dates. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. In the meantime, look for Mojo Priest in stores, listen for it on the radio and experience this great show live, when it comes to a city near you. See you then!

A call to the venue confirmed the news to be true.

Gutted. You have no idea how much we were looking forward to today.

To be honest I feel a little bit cheated, and a part of me fears this gig will never happen (unless someone kidnaps the bass player, thus forcing the star into some kind of Blues Rock-related revenge gig)

In the meantime, the countdown begins to January 17th, 2007.

Bonnie Prince Billy's 'The Letting Go' is out today

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, a big favourite of ours, has a new record out today. Click here to buy the album 'The Letting Go' direct from label Drag City.

Click below to see the short commercial published on You Tube last night. Additionally, if you browse You Tube for further Drag City videos you'll see all 3 parts of the longer trailers published over the last few months.

Enjoy x

"I can get 'What's Going On' by Marvin Gaye for £2.99"

The album is in the late, late stages of completion, the artwork is in the bag, we've got digital distribution sorted out, we know which firm will be pressing the CDs and we've even decided on a publisher and are about to sign with them. All that remains is for us to figure out a way to start selling some bleeding records......

Anyway, when I was having a few beers with Executive Producer Robson at the weekend we bumped into our mate Neville. Our conversation with him was very enlightening.

Neville is in his late 30s, a proud citizen of Birmingham and a self-employed tailor (I actually have one of his shirts....and in it I'm told I look very dapper). Neville enjoys life, likes a few beers at the weekend and, crucially, is a big music fan with a broad spectrum of tastes. He is, therefore, very much in our ..ahem..'target demographic'.

After chatting around a variety of subjects, he asked me how the album was going. I told him it was going great and that it would hopefully be available shortly. I asked him if he'd buy a copy when it came out. Sure thing, he said. Then he told us a story....

Neville: I knew this bloke once, right. He was in a band and he had an album out, so I said 'Ok, I'll support you. I'll buy a copy'.

Executive Producer Robson: So, you bought a copy...

Neville: Well, not quite. Ok, listen. I said to him 'How much?' Do you know how much he wanted?

Executive Producer Robson: I dunno. A tenner?

Neville: Yeah. A fucking tenner! A TENNER!!! Do you know what I said to him?

Executuve Producer Robson: Go on...

Neville: I said, 'Listen mate', I said, 'I can go down the shops and I can get What's Going On by Marvin Gaye for £2.99, and you want a tenner for yours. Why would I pay £10 when I can get Marvin for £2.99?'

Executive Producer Robson: What did he say?

Neville: He said that he had to sell them for a tenner and he wouldn't drop his price

Executive Producer Robson: What did you say?

Neville: I told him 'Bollocks'

Executive Producer Robson: I see. No sale, then.

Neville: [Incredulous at the memory] A tenner, man.

At this point, Neville said his farewells, left us to it and wandered off to another part of the bar....

Anyway, this may or may not be a good time to announce that 'Lighting and Electrical' by Friends of the Stars will go on sale with the price tag of £10.

I'll have Executive Producer Robson continue to work on Neville in the meantime.

Album Artwork....

Our good friend Olivia has delivered the artwork for the album.

Here's what the fold out of the CD will look like, the front cover is the van picture in the middle...

You can now listen to our music here

We've added a little music doohickey over there >>>>

This doohickey allows you to listen to our songs as you read the site.

If you like what you hear and if you wish, you can also add this player to your own site or blog post or myspace thingum, or email a link to friends. Please feel free to share this music. We'd like as many people to hear it as possible.

We'll continue to add more tunes over the coming weeks and months in the run up to the release of the album.

The first song we've added is a remix of Feelin' Blue by our good friends Teatowel.

Hope you enjoy the song, and continue to enjoy as we add more

xx

Tags: "remix"

Photos from the festival.....

I've made a scrapblog of photos we took at the Moseley Folk Festival. It will hopefully lead you to discovering some interesting stuff that's happening in our lovely city.

You can view it here

I'd love to imbed it here so you could view it without having to go elsewhere, but quite frankly I'm not smart enough. If anyone knows how to then please tell me. Your reward will be hugs and kisses.

xx

Tags : Moseley Folk Festival

Festival Hangover

Urgh!

We are struggling today.

The Moseley Folk Festival was fantastic and there are many tales to tell and photographs to show.

Once the monumental hangover subsides we'll do just that. For the moment, it's a case of sleeping it off.

In a bit
x