I gave a seminar for the Musicians Union in Bath today. Wave to the nice NMS readers, South West musicians…
I’d never been to Bath before, though I’d visited Bristol, just 20 minutes up the road. Nice town. Great houses. I was there for a seminar that the Musicians Union had organised, called Strategies for Success. It was organised by former Eddie & The Hot Rods / The Damned bass player and all-round nice guy Paul Gray.
We stayed at Dorian House, which turned out to be owned by LSO cellist Tim Hugh. My room was the Grieg suite.
Not sure how much actual help I was in terms of securing success for the people pictured above, but I hope I was at least entertaining enough to keep them on their seats and facing forward for two hours.
Feedback was polite and warmly encouraging.
I was joined later by representatives of We7, 7Digital Indiestore and Last.fm. I’m sure the attendees left with their heads swimming and plenty to think about.
Clive from We7 was aware of my work. I told him I was cautiously enthusiastic about his. Christian from Last.fm has been featured here before — and I’m a fan of what they do. The Indiestore thing, as great as it sounded, left me a bit cold. It seems to use new technologies to understand music business in old ways.
Best of all, it was good to connect and re-connect with some great musicians and music business types. I was given a bunch of CDs to listen to and promote (I’ll give them a listen soon – honest) and I had a good chat with Rhiannon from Ridinghood, who I’d met in Cardiff. Their album is nearly done, and if you like straight ahead Roxette-ish pop music, you’re not going to go too far wrong here.
[audio:SMS.mp3]In fact, the first cellphone company or mobile service to snap up their SMS song will have gold on their hands. It’s made for commercial success in every sense of the word.
With any luck, a few of them will read the 20 Things book they were handed as part of their delegates pack, and will find it a good enough reason to keep coming back and spread the word.