Okay, so one hasn't done so well on the updates as of late; but that's okay as I'm back and off we go...
In the last 5 weeks (Is it really that long...?) I've been in Prague, done in the city in Manchester, watched my bands do nice supports in Nottingham and spent a weekend in Brighton, or Bright Town, as i think it's a great place..
Edgar Prais played in the city, it's a festival/industry showcase in manchester that runs from Sunday to Tuesday in manchester and happens annually. The band played The Aftershow night at Moho Live ran by danny McNamara of Embrace fame and did a good job. The room was full of the usual array of industry from press to a+r folks and the general concensus was that the band were amazing, which is the usual junk they say. However, Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens came down and loved the band and as a result played them on radio 1 that week on his show; so it's nice to have a foot in the door there now.
Flood of Red have been on tour with Enter Shikari - playing a set of 80% new songs we were a bit worried as to how the band would go down but it was a blast - myspace has been averaging out at 4000+ plays a day and the boys have been playing to over 2000 people a night which sets us up nicely to move forward.
Astro Firs have been out with The Automatic, and as their little babies (see aspiring rock stars) it was their first tour - so a good one to get them wet behind the ears. Although, with the state of the business and the continous mess labels are making of campaigns, a band that have sold over 250'000 records and had 4 top 20 singles, for some reason, are selling less than 200 tickets per show apart from London, which was sold out at 800.
I went to nottingham and as my luck enduced, Astro's and Flood were playing 15 minutes apart in adjacent venues, so I just about managed to watch both bands.
I also work alongside fellow manager type, Malcolm McKenzie, on Flood of Red and with one of his bands, Sylosis, i act as his partner in the background, just bouncing ideas off each other and such. So, we went to Prague for Sylosis. Sylosis are proper metal, and they're going to very well in that world.
Malcolm and I work very well together as he's an old fart and I'm a young upstart apparantly. Therefore, he plays golf with Headhoncho's at promoters and labels, and i'm down with all the kids that act as tastemakers in the rock world. For any oldschool rockers - he also used to manage Thunder and ran MTV in mainland Europe.
Prague was beautiful, although being there for about 30 hours didn't give us too much time to explore. I did get to see where the final scene from that Vin Diesel movie Triple X was filmed, so that was relatively exciting.
One thing I noticed, and became more apparant to me after watching Dave Goremans' 'Unchained' on tv the other night (which I'll go more into in a sec), is just how capitalism and corporatism effects us in everyday life. For instance, the difference in a pint of beer (not that I had many, honest mam) between the surburbs of the city and the town centre was £3.50; which is utterly ridiculous. Same with Coffee, Sandwiches and general meals. Oh how the cash cow moo's.
The Dave Goreman programme was a brilliant watch. Goreman is a comic/documentarian (Is that a word?) who sets off over America with the goal in mind to be able to do so without staying in/eating in/filling his car up with fuel in any major chain outlet, and it just highlights how much the world is becoming dominated by a few huge corporations. I found it quite depressing really, that in several cities he went to, they had no distinguishing features i.e. You could have been anywhere. It was so cultureless with no real sense of identification or being. This is the world we live in.
Some of my memories of being really young revolve around Peterhead and the town centre. Going to The Fisherman's mission on a Saturday morning for a pie and beans, or getting a pancake and a cup of coke in the Copper Kettle. How long till these places become defunct and you have a choice of Subway, McDonald's, Starbucks or Burger King - with the only alternatives being higher priced restaurants? The most disturbing thing is that these companies will willingly (bad grammar, I know) operate at a loss, because they are so cash rich that the opportunity of total brand marketing makes the loss worthwhile - which obviously gives them the advantageover independant family run local business. And the food's rubbish.
I also had my laptop die the other day, but now I have a new one - minus some key files I'm hoping to retrieve asap. I've also joined the gym and am attending regularily, as well as, now playing football in a Sunday league down here. Played one game for Aberdeen, and scored in a 4-1 victory over Exeter. Would've had a hat trick but I need to learn my strike partner to pass.
Also, I have a new cousin courtesy of Kev and Joanna. Congrats, and welcome to the Bruce Clan little Abbie. Hopefully I'll get a chance to get up the road soon and hang out. Whilst I'm in this mode - Michael, get yerself back in the starting 11 - Dad, nice one on London Marathon; Now book your hotel cause you're nae sleeping on my couch and Alistair/Cathy/Thomas - I promise I'll be over next year.
That's about it for now, won't be so long until the next update.
JA x
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