For me, last Friday has become ‘unsigned Friday’.

In the morning we held meetings about a compilation CD full of unsigned artists, the evening’s task was judging five unsigned bands in the ‘Southampton Takedown’ at the Talking Heads and between those events I was invited to present a radio show on a national DAB station that only plays unsigned music.

The winners of ‘Southampton Takedown’ were ‘Plastic Toys‘ and they’ll now be supporting ‘YouMeAtSix’ when they play The Salisbury Takedown on July 26^th.

‘Plastic Toys’ narrowly beat deep grunge rockers ‘Burn The Fleet‘ who win the unofficial runners-up prize of an acoustic set at ‘Showcase UK’ in the Soul Cellar on Monday 20^th.

Meanwhile the CD is a collaboration between ‘Showcase UK‘ and ‘Angry Badger Records‘ and titled “Showcase Sett“.

Julian Aplin’s label is fast becoming a feature in the South’s music scene and this album will give 16 acts from Southampton and Portsmouth a great boost.

We’re also using Southampton artists for the cover and sleeve design and with one glimpse you’ll understand why the first collection is called ‘Propeller‘.

It’s released on Saturday 1^st August with a four band show at the Soul Cellar featuring ‘Dlugokecki‘, ‘The Queue‘, ‘Moody Tuesday‘ & ‘Thinking For Tuesday‘.

And finally the radio station is ‘Amazing Radio‘ which I believe is going to shake up both the radio and music industries.

It’s a great thrill and honour to be asked to join them and I’ll only be playing music from the South coast.

First published in the Daily Echo, Friday 10th July www.dailyecho.co.uk/leisure/music/news/4486773./

Jassica

Jazica love their synths, guitars, drums and best of all they love writing great pop songs. The people love Jazica too and have so far voted them into the final six of the “Road To V”.

If they win they will not only open the V Festival, in front of thousands of music lovers, but they will also be the second Southampton act in a row to win the competition. Last year ‘The Rebs‘ triumphed; will 2009 be Jazica’s year?

This podcast was recorded at The Joiners in Southampton before Jazica headlined a shortly arranged gig at the end of June. You’ll hear from all of the band: (above L2R) Chris on guitar and sythns, Kev on drums, Frankie on vocals and guitar & Nick on bass.

Jazica live at The Joiners

The conversation is interspersed with a smattering of music from their excellent mini-album ‘Illusions’ which veers from tracks that could grace TV commercials to songs that should fill the darkest of clubs.

They were great live. Slick and energetic. A real treat and hopefully the act that wins. If you haven’t voted yet place your ‘X’ here:

http://roadtov.com/artists/jazica/

http://www.myspace.com/jazicamusic

Possibly the bravest radio launch in recent times this station will be playing music that has been uploaded and recommended at www.amazingtunes.com.

This hand-in-hand approach will definitely benefit both bands and their fans but, as I have been finding at the Soul Cellar, keeping people interested is the hard part.

However the concept is fantastic and hopefully the enthusiasm of the presenters will encourage people to stick with the station.

The mix of music for the current test transmissions is great and we look forward to the opening day.

Facebook Group: We Need A GNU

Having a GNU is not a new idea and was recently proposed as a piece of fantasy politics at the last Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth (2008).

During a debate about the financial crisis the chairman Michael White put the question to Dr Vince Cable and Charles Clark. You can read about it in his Guardian blog posting “Financial crisis may lead to government of national unity”

He also writes: “It is no longer impossible to imagine that a wider reconstruction of government might be needed if the Wall Street and world storm gets much worse. We had a wartime coalition in 1915-18, another after the financial crash of 1931, a third from May 1940 to July 1945. ”

However no one thought that the storm would unearth greed so close to home and cause such anger in the country.

Although judging by today’s events involving the Speaker in Parliament (BBC: Speaker announces he is to quit) , this article by Peter Oborne in the Daily Mail could be almost prophetic: “Ditch Speaker Martin, make Vince Cable Chancellor and freeze out the Tories… is this Brown’s masterplan for 2009?”

But no one’s plan had MPs in disgrace. Through their own making these elected members have brought shame upon their profession and seem incapable of delivering a cohesive solution.

Around the country faith has been lost in their ability to act for the people.

The UK needs politicians to work together without trying to gain points off each other; it needs the parties to stop spinning their way out of trouble by telling the truth, and the country needs to be shown that this elected group of men and women, can solve problems through collaboration and the sharing ideas.

During this crisis of confidence the UK needs a Government of National Unity (GNU): all parties facing the same problems in the same direction.

The aims of the GNU could be this:

1.Return the Houses of Parliament to a reputable state.
2.Allow time for MPs to prove to their constituents they are suitable to continue.
3.When those two objectives are reached a General Election should be called to let the electorate decide who they want in Parliament.

If you think “We need a GNU!” then join the Facebook group. If you are not a member of Facebook please add your comments below.

Singing and Winning

These two are responsible for Saints Aid, a musical extravaganza which is raising money to help Southampton’s football team.

It started as a one day event but has now spread around the city, rapidly turning into a weekend of gigs and entertainment.

As Lee told me: “The idea started when David Reid from Olympian offered to play a gig to raise a few pounds for the club. Glynn Root from Fingermen also said his band would like to play. I spoke to to Nick Illingsworth about moving the event to St Mary’s and making it an all day affair. After this myself and Nick joked about being Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in red and white stripes, so Saints Aid was born!”

Headlining at St Mary’s on Saturday 23rd will be The Rebs and Dlugokecki. On Bank Holiday Monday The Artful Dodger will be back home at Oceana on the 25th May in a unique performance specially for Saints Aid.

On Friday 22nd Melodee Rockmore will be ending eight hours of music at the King Alfred in Northam Road. And on the same day a heavy rock night at Louisiana Nightclub, Leisure World.

Showcase UK is also taking part and tonight Monday 18th we’re having a preview night at the Soul Cellar, playing tracks by all of the artists taking part in Saints Aid, call it pre-match training if you like but we’ll be raising money for the team and building the anticipation for the weekend to come.

Musicians from around the city, and even beyond, are trying to save the Southampton FC, according to Lee: “It’s part of the feeling in the city of people wanting to do something to help the club but do not quite know what they can. As we have asked for local musicians, the bands have approached us in their droves. ”

“The response has been both overwhelming and quite inspiring. The support for Saints-aid has been fantastic and it has snowballed into something quite enormous, which is why we have had to use over venues and take it all over the city. It just goes to show how much the football club means to the city of Southampton.”

For more details and ticket information visit www.saints-aid.co.uk

Houses of Parliament

The justified anger about MP’s expenses has led many people to demand that something must be done about the government.

But have you noticed that in times of stress and frustration with politicians we blame ‘the’ government? It’s almost seen a foreign entity that prods and pokes us in a most irritating manner. It’s blamed for almost everything yet we forget it is ‘our’ government.

We vote them into the House of Commons to spend ‘our’ money and so we are not only responsible for who takes charge of this country, but we also give them the funds to keep it going.

It is time to reclaim ‘our’ government and demand that ‘it’ work for ‘us’.

But we should not go down the route suggested by Lord Tebbit. (Boycott big parties, says Tebbit) He’s calling for people to demonstrate their anger by voting for minority parties at the forthcoming European elections and thereby give the main parties a “right kicking” (my words not his).

It’s difficult to see how this childish idea will help those in the real world and, when you remember that Lord Tebbit is unelected and can not be voted out, you wonder if a serious political, if not physical, revolution is required to get ‘our’ government back into ‘our’ hands.

However we, the voters, have to undergo our own mental revolution. We have to remember that pressure can be easily put on MPs by writing letters, sending emails, going to meetings and speaking out: telling the elected exactly how the electorate feel.

We also have to remember that voting is a privilege which was won by many brave and determined people in our past. As they say: “If you don’t vote, you can’t complain.”

National apathy about politics has put us in this position and voting for minority parties, parties who are mainly concerned with single issues, will not make the situation any better.

We need the party system to disappear and a solution to this awful mess found without Labour or the Conservatives receiving beneficial spin from their actions or proposals.

A possible option could be a Government of National Unity.

It was suggested as a fantasy idea by Michael White when the financial crisis took hold in 2008. (Financial crisis may lead to government of national unity) and would mean that MPs work together for a common cause.

Seeing as Members of Parliament are so discredited, it could be the stop-gap that gives us an opportunity to reclaim “our government”.

Connect with fans (cwf) and then offer them a reason to buy (rtb).

cwf + rtb = $$$$

This video is one 15 minutes that could change your band’s direction.

Original article seen at Shane Richmond’s blog

Singing and Winning

A musical extravaganza is now taking place at the St Mary’s stadium on Saturday 23rd May.

Saints Aid starts at 2pm and continues right up to 11pm featuring a wide variety of musicians from X-factor hopefuls Afrodisiac, through rock and metal bands like Big Num and Raging Silence to co-headlining songwriters like Dlugokecki and The Rebs.

As a preview to the weekend’s entertainment Showcase UK will be hosting a
Saints Aid preview night at the Soul Cellar in Southampton on Monday 18th May starting at 7pm. The night will feature the bands below and more.

Full details about
Web site: Saints Aid can be found here:

Web site: Saints Aid

Saints Aid on Facebook

Showcase Uk on Facebook

Showcase UK at the Soul Cellar
78 W Marlands Rd
Southampton, SO14 7FW
023 8071 0648
www.soulcellar.com

The Saints Aid line up so far:

The Rebs
Dlugokecki
The Radics
Blackcouch
Jesserit
Big Num
Moral Soul
Tench
The Docks
Catalinas
Hours Till Autumn
The Skore
Coast
Raging Silence
Olympian
Fingermen
Prong horn
Blind Vision
Matt Britton
Rayguns Look Real Enough

They have been happy to place our flyers in prominent positions and started spreading the word about this new night at the Soul Cellar.

Below are the places where the flyers can be found and we recommend a visit to one and all as you never know what musical bargain you might walk out with!

The photos link to the shop’s web site.

The Guitar Store

Drumzone

Becketts Music Ltd