A long time ago, in a city far, far away, I was in a band.
We were named after a pub, that was named after a famous drinking song, and that should be a clue as to how seriously we took ourselves.
But we were good live and, at our home venue, the crowd broke the bar record every time we played.
At one point were even bold enough to get about 2000 12” EPs pressed (pictured).
It might not sound much but try loading and unloading that much vinyl into a transit van.
We sold around 1600 through gigging but it was just at the time when CDs players were becoming a household item so no doubt most were thrown away.
In fact I once had the ignominy of a rival band’s roadie joyfully reporting that he’d seen our EP in a second hand shop for 10p.
Well, this week the turntables were turned after I logged into our Tunecore account: in the past four months we’ve made $22 through digital downloads – here’s the widget…
by Eamon Nancarrow
Admittedly its on the back of the singer’s autobiography (Holywood Star by Eamon Nancarrow) but our music is now available around the world and, thanks to this service, we’re selling again.
Tunecore charge a small fee for uploading each song, and there is yearly a charge for storage, but you don’t sign your songs away and we’ve made our money back.
It’s an ideal way of getting your songs downloaded but you still have to let people know you exist. Find out more at www.tunecore.com
This article was published in the Daily Echo on Friday 18th June 2010
With the first pressing of their debut EP almost sold out and a couple of great supports lined up things are looking good for the Southampton trio Broken Links.
And for front man Mark Lawrence it is even more bizarre as the band are quite new out of the box: “people can’t believe we’ve only been together since December”
Another aspect people might not believe is that their EP is a home recording which you’ll find suitably metal in an indie style.
“Based on the CD,” Mark told me, “people think we’re heavy, but we’re on the wavelength as Muse. We have a pop element but are also dark. Live you’ll find some songs that veer towards Joy Division.”
The four song collection can also be downloaded from iTunes and Amazon as the band use the site TuneCore.com.
Its a fee based service that gives you the opportunity sell your songs on these essential sites. All you have to do is create the buzz and Broken Links are putting every effort into that.
The next step is this Wednesday (29th April) supporting Scottish band ‘The Cinematics‘ at the Hamptons.
Then on May 22nd it’s possible Mark’s gig of the year as they support ‘My Vitriol‘ at The Joiners.
“This was the band of my teenage years, their music has so much depth. So when I heard they were playing The Joiners I really hassled the venue for the gig.”
