Live Review

Jo Harman and Company – New Crawdaddy Club, Essex – Thursday 7th February 2013

Rising star Jo Harman and her ‘Company’, rolled into town tonight at Essex’s premier Blues Club, The New Crawdaddy. What was on evidence was a pool of outstanding talent that just wiped the floor.
Jo has a unique voice, very identifiable, very soulful, and verging on gospel at times, even she made reference to the influence. Then there’s her band . . . Guitar (Mike Davies)
, Keys (Steve Watts), Bass (Andy Tolman) and Drums (Martin Johnson). These guys deserve just as much credit as Jo herself, well nearly, even when its’ just guitar and voice, or full on, heads down, wipe out!
Each song, albeit original or subtle cover, has the ‘Harman Effect’, well crafted, full of emotion, plenty of light and shade and that added ‘Soul/Blues Funk’ that, from where I sit, essential
to keep 100% attention. From this musicians point of view there’s a lovely controlled emotion, Jo
and the band can de-clutter the notes, being frugal and economic with them, even with those that they don’t play!

We were treated with songs from past CD’s ‘Live at the Hideaway’ and the EP, but also with tasters from her forthcoming studio release ‘Dirt On My Tongue’. On tonight’s showing the Live ‘Hideaway’ CD is one aspect of Jo’s bow, but the studio album will, I’m sure, give another viewpoint. Live, Harman is a potent animal, balancing the song selection beautifully with just enough variety.

Tonight’s audience at Essex’s premier blues club The Crawdaddy, are not always open to such
diverse song selection, some songs very far from their comfort zone of the Blues, but tonight they were captivated, such is the appeal of Ms Harman and her band. Even a Bobby Bland song, made more famous by mane haired rocker David Coverdale – “Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City” was given the H & Co treatment. Even the normal, very staid Crawdaddions couldn’t resist this version.

The tide has certainly turned and Jo Harman is riding the crest of a wave. Very rare, nee never, does an artiste make two appearances at this venue in one year, but there’s a buzz doing the rounds that this might be the case, so if she does, fail not to catch her. If you missed her, then buy the audio formats, but . . .

Fail not to catch Jo Harman and her band, anywhere, for that matter!

Thanks to www.barebonesboogieband.com

Catch Jazz legend Courtney Pine at the Komedia

Just a quick one to say how excited we are to see the amazing Courtney Pine play at Brighton Komedia on the 7th of February. Debuting material from his 15th studio album, House of Legends sees the ground-breaking multi-instrumentalist returning to the instrument he is best known for - the sax.

A deeply personal project for Pine, this album is nonetheless a truly international affair, featuring musicians from Africa, the Caribbean and Europe and combining elements of Merengue, Mento, Calypso and Ska. Having just won the prestigious Jazzwise Album of the Year it has been dubbed "unquestionably one of the most joyous albums Pine has ever made." We can't wait!

Komedia Brighton, February 7th

Doors 8pm

Tickets £18

http://www.komedia.co.uk/brighton/music/

And here's some "Kingstonian Swing" to get you in the mood...

‘Hope I die before I get old…’ Copyright in classic rock recordings of the 60’s evade expiry in EU

Bob Dylan and the Beatles have both been in the Copyright news recently. This time it’s not about infringement wars but rather copyright expiry.

Under European Copyright law, the copyright period in a sound recording lasts 50 years which means at this point, i.e. sound recordings made prior to 1963, they then enter the public domain and can be reproduced without owing a stitch to the owner of the sound recording. For the year of 1962, this has
recently happened to the Beatle’s ‘Love me do’ (ok, they did get better) in which the copyright in the recorded track lapsed at the start of 2013. The same is true of Dylan’s 1962 first album, ingeniously titled ‘Dylan,’ but back to Bob later. This means that these recordings are now the public domain and
you can now freely re-issue them as a vinyl flexidisc taped to the side of a packet of cornflakes, if you so wish, without having to pay a stitch to the owner of the copyright of the recording (notably record companies).
Flexi-what? (look it up kids!)

The copyright in the actual written song however still, in the case of ‘Love me do’ belongs to Lennon and McCartney and lasts the life of the author + 70 years after the author’s death.

Yes you are reading correctly – 2 versions of copyright pertain: copyright in the written song and
copyright in the recorded or published (printed) version.

In the not too distant past, UK 1960s pop icon Sir Cliff Richard (look him up kids and watch ‘Summer Holiday’ whilst you’re at it!) helped champion the move to extend the duration of recorded copyright - arguing the fact that many artists and session musicians (which still happened to be alive and hadn’t overdosed/drowned in swimming pools/other) still made a living from the royalties (some probably needing it more so than others but we won’t go there!). The EU, in its infinite and wonderful wisdom, therefore decided at the end of 2012 to extend the period of recorded sound by 20 years to the
threshold of 70 years (this period is 95 years in the US) - meaning that most of us will probably ‘die before we get this old’ in any event). This whole EU extended copyright stuff, however, now needs to be ratified by the EU council (zzzz….) and is expected to be signed into being around November 2013.
So whilst recorded tracks prior to 1963 have already fallen into the public domain in the EU - year by year post this, recorded tracks will now get a stay of execution for another 20 years. So the 1976 classic ‘don’t fear the reaper’ can rest in peace until 2046.

Right, so what does this all mean? Well, pretty much that just some aging rock stars and record companies will still get some cash through their retirement from continued record sales. But actually, and probably most importantly, record companies will still be able to use a % of the proceeds of their back catalogue to fund new artists. For stuff which has already fallen into the public domain – this is now open to being freely released by any label.

Oh yes back to Dylan. There’s another twist to this copyright tale. If you have, say as a record company, a portfolio of recorded stuff which you own the copyright rights to but don’t release or publish it in the 50 year period, unless you do, the copyright reverts back to the original owner - so called ‘use it or lose it’. So to get around this Sony recently and very craftily released a limited addition of early Dylan demos so these will now also have also another 20 years in the EU.

Complicated? …….. If only Future Copyright had been around 50 years ago!

Future Copyright makes copyright super simple so you don’t even have to think about it. At the click of an upload it captures and evidences the copyright in your work as soon as you create it. You can build your own copyright portfolio of new creative ideas through to recorded master copies. It generates copyright certificates of who owns what, and you can choose to release stuff directly from FC in a controlled manner; having a full legal copyright audit trail or simply decide to things under lock and key.
Future Copyright works right out of the box. It’s Free - so feel free to step right up and use it.

Just don’t forget to invite us to your reunion gig in 2083 - by which time it will be all boobtubes and legwarmers again!

Copyright News – Worldwide Debate

You only need to type ‘copyright’ into your twitter search to find any number of copyright cases being discussed; there is a worldwide debate happening as you read this..

Instagram, Google and other big name companies have come up against copyright issues in the last week alone.  Copyright is important.  Copyright is essential.  Copyright is a must for the digital age that we live in.  Some internet companies are imposing new terms and conditions on their users as they seek new ways to make money from their content.

Future Copyright has a simple solution to this: securely post all thoughts, words, films, images, art and anything else you care about, onto futurecopyright.com before sharing it with the world via social media (this can be done via our site too).  It’s an easy 'click to copyright', then share (if you want to).

Is there a catch?  No, there’s no catch.   Future Copyright quite simply puts a usable system around your natural copyright to make it work - as plain and simple as that.  And it’s free to do.  

www.futurecopyright.com   

Incidentally, while you’re doing your search on Twitter, please follow us; we’re @futurecopyright, we retweet interesting finds on a daily basis, you can ask us copyright questions and more.  Thank you!  

BiGiAM's Guide2Brighton Column August 2012

Guide 2 Brighton Column - August

Well, we fast tracked it back into Brighton last night to catch the Charlotte Church gig at the Green Door Store so that we could report events directly to you, dear reader. Well I can report that the gig was great, featuring some ambitious, adventurous - experimental even - genre defying material. Charlotte sang, as you might imagine, like something out of this world. In a good way. She was also (shock, horror!) charming, complimentary about the venue and Brighton generally. Now, the important facts...she didn't bother to brush her hair, dye her roots nor over worry about dressing facilities, advising that 'she would change in the toilet'. Google the tabloids for pictures and fashion commentary! As someone reportedly worth £25m and, presumably, someone who could buy her way onto any TV show, venue and/or other publicity outlet possible, I couldn't help but warm to her down-to-earth, 'do it for real' indie attitude. Of course, cynics will say it's all an act, a cunning plan, but I don't see it that way. Maybe she is merely trying to normalise her life as a 26 year old Cardiff girl - as difficult as that may be - particularly after such an abnormal (in some ways, anyway) childhood? Either way more power to her and doubters beware. Anyway, in the words of The Terminator, she vill be back!

After the wettest summer of earth, I'm now ordering the man upstairs to provide unprecedented good weather for the whole of August and September. We demand some kind of summer, right? For one thing the festival experience has been something of a wash out this year so I for one am aiming for a big party at 'Blues On The Farm' Festival near Chichester on 7th-9th September. International acts such as Average White Bands Freddy V, and Paul Jones Blues Band line up alongside other top class acts from the world of blues, roots and more in a something-for-everyone family friendly celebration, established 21 years and with a cast iron reputation and awards a plenty. www.bluesonthefarm.co.uk; some day and weekend tickets still available.

Also on the BiGiAM radar:-

- Laura Vane and The Vipertones - a debut mini UK tour from this Anglo-Dutch outfit included a gig at Laura's home town venue of The Komedia. What a fine, fine show it was...a representative (if not actual) clip of said show is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCwt0yecp9c

- The demise of Rounder Records, a Brighton treasure and institution, after 46 years of business is a very sad sign of the times. In more ways than one indeed.

- on that point, check out the excellent editorial in this months Source magazine which puts further perspective on the situation and the plight of the independent (in this case, retailer)

- Yellowfish Director Ross McCracken (and friend Josie Dade) is really off on his charity bike ride, all 1500 miles of it, from London to Gibraltar this month so, please, last plea to you all to support the cause http://www.yfhfoundation.com

- Final word from (fine) guitar player with the Motives, Matt Taylor. 'I once gave a bass lesson to a guy who had just bought a bass so in the first leson I taught him how to play A, D and E. He never came back for the second lesson as he got a gig'. Matt claims it's a true story - i'll let you judge.

14 ways to promote your music online

If you want your music to reach the wider listening world, the internet can be your best friend. However, if you're going to have a presence online, you need to make sure that you do things right.

1. Join a social network
Social Networks act as a one-stop band advert where you can upload anything you want: photos, songs, video, text and more. Everyone seems to be on some kind of social media site these days, so you'd be mad not to!

2. Set up a website
As good as Soundcloud/Facebook/Twitter and the rest are, having your own website too looks more professional. Websites are cheap to host and easy to build so there are no excuses. Remember to update it as often as your social network profile though...

3. Keep your website/profile current
Make sure that you post regular updates and news stories. Add new photos frequently and generally keep your profile looking busy. That way you'll be seen as a serious, enthusiastic, up-and-coming act. Regular profile/website updates will also keep things interesting for returning fans.

4. Write a decent biography
An artist biog should be concise, informative and interesting. People (particularly venue staff) don't want to know that your band was formed "in the first year of uni by songwriter Joe Bloggs and producer John Smith" – cut out the background and write something that's a bit different.

5. Get some good photos
Top-notch imagery is crucial if you want to be noticed online. Try to present a uniform 'look' that fits with your music. There are plenty of aspiring photographers about who will be willing to take press or live photos of you and/ or your band for little or no money. Take advantage of them!

6. Offer your songs for free download
If you're an independent act, your goal is to get your music heard as much as possible. Be aware that people are much more inclined to listen if you offer the occasional track for free. If you do decide not to give away your music then at least offer streaming full-length versions of your tracks rather than short clips.

7. Interact with other artists
Networking with other artists and bands by keeping in regular contact and giving feedback on their music means you're likely to find gig partners and be asked to play support slots. Musicians are also generally more interested as fans when it comes to independent music like yours.

8. Dedicate some time to your fans
Replying to mails and friend requests can sometimes be a chore but try to avoid blanket "thanks for the add" messages. If you keep things personal you're far more likely to be remembered and if your audience likes you, they'll be predisposed to like your music.

9. Avoid spamming
While it's important to keep in touch with your fans, repeated spam is annoying, so reserve mass messaging for special events. It's far more effective to tailor your messages and gig invites to individuals or small groups of people – there's no point telling someone from Land's End that you're gigging in Dundee.

10. Make sure your social network friends are valuable
It can be tempting to add every person you come across, but make sure you add only valuable friends who you think will like your music and visit your profile.

11. Do something to stand out from the crowd
The sad truth is that the quality of your music won't always be enough to get you noticed. Try doing a blog, a quiz, a gimmick – anything that will make your website or profile a bit different and interesting.

12. Get a short, snappy URL
Your website and your social network profiles will need a short snappy URL (web address) that's easy to remember. Bear in mind that you might be shouting your URL through the PA at a noisy gig to apathetic, drunken punters – keep it fairly obvious and make sure the spelling is logical.

13. Get your songs on iTunes
Nothing says professionalism like having your songs available to buy on the world's largest online music store. Websites such as CD Baby can get your tracks online for a small charge – you can then link to your songs in the store from your website/profile.

14. Keep your social profile concise
There are all manner of widgets and plug-ins available for social networks, but while they may look flashy, having too many may obscure the important info on your profile. They can also make your profile slow to load – remember that people generally don't have much patience on the net.

Via Music Radar
http://www.musicradar.com/tuition/guitars/14-ways-to-promote-your-music-online-182713/2

Charlotte Church - The Green Door Store

BiGiAM are honoured to be working with the fantastic Charlotte Church in association with the lovely people at Shuga Buddha. On her comeback tour Charlotte Church looks set to reinvent the 'rock chick' genre and show the music industry what it's missing!

Be amongst the first to witness the latest & most exciting reincarnation of the former child star. Charlotte Church hits Green Door Store with her bold & unique new sound; creating vast musical landscapes with big drums, big guitars & a voice that has sold over 10 million records. 

Leave your preconceptions at the door!