I havn’t laughed this much in ages, touch me and see what happens:

http://www.27bslash6.com/overdue.html

I’m watching Renaissance on filmfour it’s pretty good, not as good as Spirited Away or that new one, first time watching Spirited Away is like wow the Japanese know how to harness their imagination, instead of thinking of winning the lottery or having a big Primark voucher, well anyway it’s better than the usual shite films they pump out.

What a difference a couple of days can make. One day, everything’s pear shaped, I can’t book a band for shit, disillusionment with the business and 14 hour days sets in and I’m thinking of running off to some soulless little bar in the West End. One blinding weekend at the venue later, some slick Monday action in the booking department and everything’s back on track. So I’m doing my best to make this a positive blog rather than the usual rant about the state of the earth and potty mouthing the nation’s much loved mobile phone brands.

So what’s good this week?…..some fella called Barack did quite well in a recent survey carried out in the United States. Good news indeed but I think quite enough has been mentioned about that in the last seven days without me having my two pence on that topic.

The annual volleys of fireworks that start weeks before 5^th November and generally continue for a good week afterwards are just about coming to the final rounds. You can’t moan about fireworks, the kids seem to have a good time firing them at each other and they’ve certainly been keeping me entertained. Anything that mixes loud sounds and a decent light show is good with me.

Halloween passed us a couple of weeks ago, which I won’t go into in too much detail as it would simply turn into a rant about the ridiculous commercialism/Americanisation of what was actually a Pagan (and then later Christian) festival…….“Where are your decorations!?”…….the punters cried, as they came through the venue doors on October 31^st……I lose track of the amount of times I had to explain we’re running a rock n roll venue, not a cheesy high street bar. But, it gets the girls dressing up and people seem to enjoy making an effort and get in the mood to go out and have a good time so, again, I’m gonna let it go and call it what it is……a damn good party.

What else is making me happy this week? Well I seem to go through fazes musically and at the moment I’m going through a definite electronic phase, so despite the lack of a new show from 10Rapid for the last few weeks (a bit like this blog), I’ve been enjoying listening to the previous 10Rapid B-sides show for probably the 10^th or 11^th time and I’m still not bored of it, which has got to be a good thing. I believe the man himself has just got back to the UK after a sustained absence, hence the delay with the next instalment of …presents B-sides, but I’m sure looking forward to the next one.

Getting the phone number of a nice girl is a good feeling. Not in an egotistical way but who doesn’t feel good when you get some attention from the opposite sex – everyone likes to be complimented – so to the girl who shall remain nameless – thank you.

AND FINALLY! Killing the up-beat nature of this post, today is of course Armistice Day, marking the end of the First World War and giving us all time to reflect on the soldiers who have laid down their lives or have been wounded in conflicts over the years so we can enjoy the freedom we have today. And indeed the men and women to this day who are prepared to give their lives so that you and I can live in peace and prosperity in our Country. Regardless of your view on the various wars and political situations in the world, we owe these people everything, so please give just a moment of your time today, tomorrow, or any time you get a minute, to remember those who never got the chance to grow old and those who continue to serve us today.

Much love. Seb. x

After being handed The Erased Tapes Records Vol. 1 there were two songs that stood out like dancers nipples on a bitter morning, they were by The British Expeditionary Force and Canon Blue, but it was the Re mixer that really stole the limelight, those error prone beats and laser tangent sounds turned the Indie housemates heads.

So i got the E.P and played forth the tunes, most wonderfully The Decadent, available at www.myspace.com/rivalconsoles, stream the tunes and embrace the dark edge coming out of Leicester.

The live sets infuse illegal head twitching and bolshy lights, with hoots, wonder and bemusement from the crowd, totally well worth seeing, the longer he goes on the later he’ll play and that’s good for everyone.

After some time of praising the Independent world of Cinema, isn’t it about time you watched a film there? Yeah me too, just did.

There is something special about visiting these little worlds, maybe it’s the special prices they seem pleased to be charging for pop corn and fizzy water, that’s corn that is made to pop and water mixed with packaged gloop and fizzed up, not even proper coke, but many times the price, the film better be fucking good. That price based rant is a well trodden route, that’s because it’s not humanly right to charge these amounts, not even Zimbabwe knows these mark up figures.

If the cinema is Independent on the other hand, it’s all OK man, please welcome: The Rio Cinema in Dalston, (considerably cheaper) you don’t mind because you can guarantee the people that work within the establishment do it because they truly believe in the magic of cinema (excuse the cliche, but it’s there for a reason). The Cinema reminds me of The Duke of York in Brighton, in the fact that the building has charm, you can buy home made cake and samosas at the counter and the ushers don’t have the demina of a grubby teen with head lice as their best asset.

So visit and enjoy the cinema, Indie cinemas are few and far between, and they maintain the confidence we have in the arts, which is what it’s all about after all, it means that when you go to the cinema it will be an experience as opposed to a good film marred by a soulless shell and sticky floors.  But I’m afraid there isn’t any cup holders in the chairs, so if this is a serious problem for you I’m sure the Odeon still has tickets left for Big Mommas House……………..tosser.

http://www.riocinema.org.uk/

LT

Back in my early teens the nearest little big town was Colchester, yes it’s an army town and yes Mr Albarn slags it off in Indie biopic ‘Live forever’, but it was home to one of the best record shops i have ever embraced, ‘Rapture Records’, a guarantee of geezer fuelled action and UK Garage where the first thing to hit you, but under the surface the customer care was second to none. When your turn came at the counter you could describe the genre of vinyl you wanted to trial and no matter how niche, you would be given a slab of vinyl to sample, and if that wasn’t enough another was quickly sourced.

Since those heady days I’ve found many a record shop but NONE that offer this specialist service, as much as people say they like record shopping, i pretty much hate it, it’s not the vibe or staff, 90% of the time they are tip-top, it’s the time it takes to find a gem, then comes www.junorecords.co.uk.

It took some time to find them, but now i go on line, choose genre and a colossal list appears of different tracks, but what of the sound? Well click the headphones and a neat little box appears and a sample of the music, don’t like it? That’s fine click another and another, and yeah; why not another! This was an absolute God send to me, it saves me time and ear drum damage. This isn’t to say record shops are dead, you will never emulate the vibe and people in a record shop, but it’s an alternative and they deliver to your door, that’s is my fucking droid of a postman lets me know…………….but thats another story ( and not a good one).

Liam

——-11.10.2008—— 2nd post

Just listening to a bit of commercial radio.  They played The Wombats – Kill The Director.  What a pile of shite.  Seriously.  If anyone ever asks me why the world needs DCR I shall direct them to this post.  Thats it for now.

——-11.10.2008——

It seems that the financial climate gripping the world and its media has finally filtered down to the live scene in London as the news came through a couple of days ago that the Lark in the Park has closed its doors.  I’m also aware that a couple of big name venues in north London are also pretty much on their knees and now its just a case of guessing who will be next to shut up shop.

However, global finances can only be partly blamed for whats happening.  Most venues are run on the tightest of margins and it only takes a small amount of instability for a business that may be just about breaking even to start running at a loss and begin the downward spiral from which it is hard to recover.  The competition London venues and promoters face from each other is massive.  Last night I counted five premises showing live music within a half mile radius of my house, and I don’t even live in Camden or Shoreditch.  The last 18 months has seen a vast number of pubs jumping on the bandwagon, installing a PA and declaring themselves a ‘music venue’.  The Lark in the Park is one such pub and its not surprising that an establishment of this nature has been one of the first to go.

I don’t blame the landlords and promoters that run these places, if sticking a couple of bands on each night increases attendance and gets more punters drinking at the bar then fair play, but the quality is generally low and I personally think that they detract from the live scene as it makes it tougher for the real venues with a proper set up to prosper and therefore push bands and give them decent exposure.  I disagree that 10 people watching their mate’s band at the Dog & Partridge ‘music venue’ is actually a help to the scene or the artists.  Again, I don’t have a problem with the individuals that are doing this but the collective impact of these establishments is a real problem for the real promoters and venues who will increasingly prefer to invest in established bands that are a safe bet, rather than taking a chance on new blood and helping those artists onto the ladder.

It may look like I’m simply having a go at the competition but that really isn’t the case.  Competition is healthy and most small to mid sized venues couldn’t survive without feeding of one another anyway.  However, it would be a real shame to lose some of London’s best and most loved venues because of the cumulative impact of these pubs parading as music venues.

So the Lark in the Park is gone, admittedly I won’t be shedding too many tears, but watch out because some big names are going to fall.  If you have a favourite venue, or somewhere that is particularly close to your heart, get down there and watch some live music, because nothing lasts forever.

——-06.10.2008——

Its been ten whole days since the last post so I feel compelled to get something written.  Firstly, congrats to all those involved in the launch party and thanks for everyone that turned up.  It was a great night, some exceptional music was performed and you know you’ve nailed it when the owner of the club and the bouncers are raving alongside you on the stage at the end of the night.

Glastonbury tickets have gone on sale again this week.  Hats off to Eavis & co for once again experimenting and pushing the boundaries when it comes to ticket sales.  Sure, they’ve got it wrong in the past, but every year they keep coming back with something even more innovative than the previous year and I really think they’ve got it right this time around.  Of course some people will still miss out and it won’t please everybody but, at the end of the day, Eavis is doing his utmost to keep the festival going and cut out the touts who, lets not forget, are utter scumbags.  Kudos to you sir.

Keeping with Glasto, I’m glad that those who criticised the festival last year over the whole Jay-Z thing were shown up to be 100% wrong.  The festival tried something new, it was a brave choice and they knew it would piss people off yet they stuck with it.  Fair play.  No doubt the usual suspects will rear their ugly heads again this year, moaning that its gone all ‘commercial’ and that ‘its lost the old spirit’.  I’m sorry, but Glasto is still the world’s greatest festival and if you really don’t enjoy it any more then you’re past it and you can fuck off, simple as that.  Hope you enjoy keeping the ‘old spirit’ alive watching The Automatic at the Red Stripe Virgin Mobile Weekender.

The launch was better than expected, i think everybody got a good idea of what we’re about.

Thank you to everybody who leant a hand, played or just rolled up for a jig, photos will follow shortly in our new galley.

Bono & Geldof Reincarnated.

For my first blog, I’d like to pass comment on something that gets me going more than almost anything else I’ve come across in the industry.  Not labels, not promoters, not even arrogant front men convinced that they’re Bono & Geldof reincarnated (together).  No, my primary rage and scorn is reserved for a group of people to which I, and possibly many of you belong…industry ‘people’.

The music industry employs thousands of people up and down the country, many of whom are a pleasure to work with – like minded, creative and forward thinking (plug, plug, plug).  However, all too often I’m presented – usually very loudly – by the exception to the rule. The ones that are in the business not for the love, or even the money, but to enhance their own egos and stature over other mere mortals.  My encounters with these arrogant fucks generally belongs with their favourite line…”I’m on the guest list”.

The conversation usually thereafter follows the same well trodden path…

Me:    “Hi, nice to meet you, my name’s **** and I run the venue”

Them:    [blank look back]

Me:    Erm, ok, that’s four pounds please…

But I’m on the guest list. (it speaks)

That’s right, four pounds please.

But I’m on the list.

Yep, the list is four pounds tonight.

But I’m industry (the subject turns sterner now, concerned about the prospect of blowing the moths out of that dusty wallet)

Indeed you are. Its £10 on the door tonight, so we’re running an industry list of £4.

So I’ve got to pay? (aha! Catching on quick)

Yep, £4.  That’s still 6 quid cheaper than the door price, which I’m sure you’ll agree is more than reasonable.

Well…but…this is……I never get charged at [names pikey venue down the road]

That’s very nice of them. But tonight you’ve come to my venue, to watch a band that I’m paying.  And I’m charging you £4 for the pleasure.  Now, I’ve got a line of people waiting and I’ll have to ask you to pay £4 or leave the queue.

Ok, whatever….can I have a receipt please.

Of course.  Enjoy the show.

I give our hero the receipt and change (from a crisp 20 of course), wait 5 seconds and look back after them……wait for it……its coming…

So…is there a free bar for industry tonight?

…And I turn away, ready to serve the next punter, happy in the knowledge that I will never let this person in at a penny less than the full door price again.

These people have such genuine delusions of grandeur, are so wrapped up in their own self worth that they actually believe they are more important than anyone else at the show, so important that they should get in for free whilst everyone else pays a tenner.

Not that they actually end up paying of course.  Notice at the end of the conversation how, when finally conceding defeat, our hero abruptly asks for a receipt so they can claim the cash back from whichever piece of shit label they happen to be working for.  After all that fuss, the bank breaking sum of £4.00 will be claimed back on expenses the very next morning.

What upsets me most about this situation in particular, is that expenses or no expenses, these people reside in Primrose Hill and quiet crescents in Kentish Town and are well able to afford to pay ten pounds to watch a gig.

Yet the average fan on the street, the genuine music fan, the students, interns and sandwich shop workers…people living to the physical limits of their means, people to whom ten pounds is a lot of money, these people pass you their tenner with a smile, ask what time the bands start, tell you how excited they are about the show.  These are the people that make today’s music scene what it is, and these are the people who keep the arrogant fucks (like the person I just let in for 4 quid) in employment.

More soon.

Seb

Welcome to DCR and welcome to the 26th September 2008, enjoy the shows, thankyou to one and all!!!!