I saw Tawiah at the Gilles Peterson Worldwide Awards last week at Cargo in London. She completely blew me away. She has everything. A great band, well crafted songs, an amazing presence on stage, confidence unlimited (for a second performance no less!) and a voice that drifts from Carmun Lundy to reggae, back to Jill Scott and then to dubstep with Radiohead thrown in. This girl is London Town, but deserves to go global.

The music journalist Lloyd Bradley interviewed Jazzie B at In The City this year. Great conversation (see recent post).

I had to have a chat with Lloyd about how it was his fault I nearly went broke, thanks to him writing Bass Culture.

What a book. The definitive guide to reggae. You read it and spend your time writing down tunes you ‘need’ to have.

Near the end of his conversation with Jazzie B, he encouraged the audience to join him and Jazzie B in the DIY panel that Nick and I were running straight after theirs.

So two things to thank him for. The book and the promotion for our panel. Thanks Lloyd.

So many young bands were looking for their first break at In the City. Many paid their own way there to showcase their art, in the hope that some music industry person will spot the talent and sign them up. I have heard at recent panels on the future of the music industry, where someone who has been in the industry some time inevitably state that ‘well, it’s easier now to get your music out there…in my day…’. To get the music out is one thing, to get heard is another, to get a fair hearing is yet another. Yet at the A&R panel at In The City, a number of the panellists rightly suggested that sending in a CD and hoping is not enough for a band to get noticed. There is a responsibility for the artist to put the effort in too. And there was no artist more committed to making people aware of their music and name than the wonderfully named Red Star Rebels. If ever a name summed up the music it is this one. Pure unadulterated rock. Loud, fast, and tight…very tight. These guys performed on the last night at In The City to a packed audience mixed with hardcore fans who had travelled to see them along with music industry folk and quite frankly some who were trying to work out what they were witnessing! No band at In The City worked the stage like these guys. Complete entertainment, not just strong music. And this is from someone who is not known to be a fan of such music! For three days solid, you could not go anywhere in Manchester without seeing the Red Star Rebel flyers. The band were out morning afternon and night putting up their flyers. If not doing this, they were chatting to everyone they could at the event, sneaking into the hotel lobby and mingling non-stop. Plus some business contacts of mine received e-mail promotions from the band, quoting that I was a big fan - the cheek of the Rebels! The guys were non-stop. Whether it is a record company, a brand or a VC looking to invest in talent, you can’t ask for any more from a band than this. An immense live performance backed up with a 100% commitment to what they do. I salute the hardest working band in the business - the Red Star Rebels

Saw these guys at In The City. Beautiful sounds floated around the venue, almost cinematic. And they used an ironing board on stage too - great music and practical…what a mix!

On top of that a name that defies logic: Tim and Sam’s Tim and The Sam Band with Tim and Sam

Been reading a lot of music books recently.

This one is for any fan of reggae music of the 70s. Bass Culture is brilliantly researched and packed full of insights by Lloyd Bradley

So well written in fact that, as I read it I noted the tunes I had to buy.

Thanks to Selectors Music Emporium, 100b Brixton Hill also for helping to me to part with my money. What a shop!! (more on them later…)

Now that this one has had time to settle, has it actually worked for all?

Well, Starbucks seem to be on a roll with their label, signing James Taylor and Joni Mitchell.

Not hearing much about the financial success of this, but given they are full steam ahead on the artist sign-up front Starbucks clearly mean business. Plus, anyone who gets Joni Mitchell to record new music will always have my thumbs up.

Talking of raised thumbs, I just couldn't get why Paul McCartney signed up with Starbucks.  The kind of people who pass through a Starbuck’s might well be the impulse purchaser of music, but not the core fanbase for McCartney’s NEW music. Surely only his core fanbase would spend money on what is packed with niceness. At the citizensound session in Venice earlier this year, Peter Jenner suggested Saga Holidays would have been a better bet for McCartney.

Yet with reputed global sales of more than a million (half of which from the US), things seem to have turned out well for Macca.

In early August I found myself in a Starbucks in Le Marais Paris. After a few songs from his new album, out came some classic Wings and solo songs from an earlier time. A lot of people, young and old, were singing along, tapping feet, nodding heads to the older songs. So there is a potential added bonus for Mr McCartney here, with an opportunity for a  ‘Best of Macca’ follow up next year perhaps?

Here I have to own up to an interest in the subject matter. He was my mum’s favourite in the Fab Four, hence my first name (me along with few 100,000 others no doubt).

And the music fans?

Well, clearly the impulse purchasers of Starbucks must be happy enough to have paid top $/£/€ for the CD. This is no cut price CD on offer here.

So far so good for everyone…

Tony Wilson made things happen. He tried things out. He believed in things/attitudes/ideas, but crucially followed through and brought those beliefs and passions to life.

Having only met him twice, I can only comment from afar. Yet from this perspective, I see someone who just went out and did things, rather than just theorise…

A Master of Praxis one could say…

Be it the music industry or the marketing community in other sectors, there is a lot of navel gazing and contemplating the meaning of the new consumer/fan realities…

It is as if we are all standing by the edge of the pool at a pool party…looking to each other to see who will jump in…not wanting to make the first move…meanwhile the fans and some smart purveyors of Praxis are splashing about in the water…

People like Tony Wilson do not come along very often. However, we can all learn from those who both dream and do.

I like innocent and so does Paul (see his blog posts on citizenbay) Yes, their fruit smoothies are tasty treats but beyond that I like the brand and how they’ve positioned themselves in the music space: effortlessly, playfully, hip and down-to-earth. Take the now defunct Fruitstock music festival. With its eclectic talent line-up, central London location, free entry and best of all, quirky on-brand experiences — ranging from a knitting corner to flower arranging workshops to a farmer’s market — innocent proved it understands its relationship to music. The brand didn’t force an unnatural association between itself and music, or try to establish itself in an area where it has no credibility (like music downloads or talent searches). Instead it offered a great summer music experience, which nicely underpinned innocent’s brand values: fun, natural, light, simple, easy and friendly.

In fact, the festival proved so popular last year that it actually lost some of its innocence (excuse the pun), and will be replaced this summer by the equally charming and folksy-sounding the innocent village fete, proving that a big, loud, look-at-me presence in music isn’t always better. Particularly when trying to establish authenticity in the music space. Described as being a “proper fete” with food stalls, games, and unplugged live music it sounds like innocent have got it right again.

Joy

There has been an enormous amount of coverage on the Starbucks/McCartney tie-up. At the Venice Festival of Media, Pete Jenner suggested that Paul McCartney would have been better tying up with Saga Holidays than Starbucks. This may be a fair comment if McCartney wanted to target his new release to what some might feel is his existing and ageing core audience. However, he might have felt that the Starbucks environment offers him a chance to take his light music to a younger audience. We will find out in the near future whether his bet has paid off, but we can't help but take our hats off to him for trying a new avenue. What has he got to lose? As for Starbucks, they are not holding back on this release. When they officially released the latest Paul McCartney album a couple fo weeks ago, the first project on its Hear Music label, the coffee retail giant played the album nonstop, all day long, at its 10,000 shops worldwide. With hundreds of thousands of consumers purchasing their daily java from the chain each day, Starbucks is certainly betting that the audio blitz will drive consumer interest and album sales. But not because they’ve been pummeled into purchasing submission by the heavy rotation in-stores. No, what this strategy demonstrates is a good piece of music PR. The amusing media angle (i.e. playing the album non-stop), the tongue-in-cheek play on the album’s title, Memory Almost Full: the story has managed to generate a significant amount of press coverage this week. However, at a time where most brands are grappling with a move away from the PUSH model of marketing towards a more experiential model, one questions whether the audio blitz has been the right way to encourage the latte drinkers to consider new music from the old master. A little of the ingenuity that goes into creating their coffees flavours would have been welcomed in their communications strategy… All in all, a missed opportunity to do a little more for the HEAR Music label we think.

Kids at the back of the bus. One plays a beat that he made the night before to his friends. They decide whether it lives or dies before the bus comes to a stop…

There is the obvious outcome of high irritation levels of fellow passengers. Plus the future of the music industry could look more precarious if creation, distribution and consumption takes place beyond the number 137 bus.

Furthermore, with such a public display of your music tastes, the protagonists know they will irritate some people but get approval from your group at the same time. This is not new though, this trend reminds me of the boombox generation.

What is worse…people cutting themselves off from the community with little white ear plugs or people making a statement with their mobile music? Give me the second one any day…