Hello,

Another bank holiday snuck up on me which I was totally unprepared for. Which was good as it forced me to relax for once. I even did stuff in the garden (mainly bash the crap oot me heavy bag and scare the neighbours).

Friday was excellent. A mate of mine is driving a motorised rickshaw from the top to the bottom of India for charity n that. To raise the profile (an excuse for a pissup I think) she organised a gig at the world famous Troubadour. Well.... I don't know if it's world famous but it is where Dylan had his first UK gig (I think).

Goldheart Assembly

There were some excellent acts there. One of which I've tried booking previously called Goldheart Assembly. If this band were about in the 70's, Eric Clapton would have played in the band at least twice shortly followed by Jimmy Page I think.

If you've ever watched The Last Waltz and enjoyed it then you should see this band. A lot. I was half expecting Neil Young to shuffle out with a 12 string at one point. Now don't get me wrong. This is no 'music was sooo much better 40 years ago' faux tribute act. There's a lot of contemporary influences in there. But overall the music, image and performance gave the warm anologue fuzzy feeling of bearded folk rock. It done in such a way that everyone in that room could be left nothing but a feeling of being impressed, and wondering if they had just witnessed one of 'those' gigs that you incessently irritate your mates years later about how you were there.

A bit like pretty much any Smashing Pumpkins UK gig.

Apart from that it was a quiet weekend as I'm economising and recovering from my first allergic reaction to anything in my life. Ugh. Minging. Wont go into too much detail.

Apologies to those who have been trying to get hold of me for over a week now. I will get there eventually. I have 400 emails to get through and vast amounts of Vox messages too. Plus video editing, gig organising, gig attendance, management meetings, artist meetings, 2 months laundry, online meetings, seminar attending, n stuff. Though I will catch up I promise.

Hope all is non-allergic with you.

IB

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Was the response to my chosen gig buddy of last night after I explained why I was an hour late for the Grammatics gig.

Grammatics

Missed the last tube so went to the chill bar thing around the corner for a while and watched some jazz/triphop thing. Then went for a wander and bought some cider (classy). Eventually went cab hunting which was unsuccessful. But managed to get into an Ibis hotel foyer for half an hour whilst we waited for one. Luckly a nice scottish bloke let us borrow his pass to get through the door. I had to spend half an hour looking like I was sort of queueing to get a room/sort of playing with my phone. My mate drank cider and took advantage of the free internet I think.

I'm off to see Goldheart Assembly at the Troubadour tomorrow as I came across them a while back and have been meaning to see them for a while. What gigs have you got coming up at the mo? I've had a shortage of 'We're playing here' emails. I'm out again tonight and on Satuday too I think. I should start cycling to venues maybe? That could be disasterous though I guess.

I've got a Columbia A&R meeting today where I'm going to really push an act I've mentioned before (but can't mention now ;-) in advance of meeting our Chairman. Got some really good stuff to present, most of which has come through here so I'm hoping to get a second blog signing some time soon. But that may take a bit of time I guess.

The reason I was so late for the gig was I got my new bike yesterday. The sales bloke looks exactly like Eric Idle and sounded like him too. Anyhoo, I got changed into my completly non-waterproof cycyling gear (monkey magic t-shirt and canvas shorts).

CHopper

It's the first time I've had proper gears, the whole shimano thing is at least 10 years old but I'm a bit behind. I was used to gear changes on the cross bar like on my chopper (it was my brother's actually)

I sort of had an idea where to go, so headed over putney bridge for barnes, came through Barnes, got lost and didn't know where I was until I re-appeared pretty much outside my ex's house. Would have been difficult to explain why I was there so I managed to pedal a bit harder and get to the Thames in record time.

Again, I got lost and it was embarrasing as to how many other cyclists zipped past me at high speed. Probably with a snooty expression on their face but I only got to see their lycra-clad arses disappear into the distance. Hmm, I wonder if I should go for the lycra look? :-)

Eventually I had the "Ahh, I'm here" moment, shortly followed by the "Oh f**k, I'm here!!" moment. I'd overshot by a few miles and had a long trek home. 2 hours later I made it. According to tfl's website it should have taken 35 mins. Shite.

Hope all is tranquil and easy to find with you.

IB

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Jujitsu was excellent last night. Did more excapes from garotting, though now I have rope burns on my wrist and a couple of scratches on my back. Hmmm. Sounds dodgy but was all in the name of getting my blue belt. Bit battered and stiff today though. Decided to join a gym as I'm eating too many pies.

Although we have sent the message out that we don't accept physical submissions, they keep coming in. I asked the postroom to forward them onto me so I can send them a message getting them on here. However, I've not had time for a couple of weeks and now they've mounted up. I've got loads to get through. It's going to take me ages. I'm going to have to do a pile a day or something as there's too much to sort out.

Ok. The media player, the first and easiest idea to start on. The spec I'm working to so far is:

1. Sidebar embeddable
2. 30 Track Playlist (20 Playlisted 10 Wildcards - changed weekly - best of get added to playlist)
3. Can Be embedded on other sites
4. Each track has link to artist's Vox homepage
5. Artwork window at top
6. Play/Pause/Skip/Random Play Buttons

That's the spec. I'm going to approach our digital creative dept to start work on it unless there's anything screaming out at you that needs adding?

Artist services - Well the gigs thing could work. After all I've already started working on my own thing. So if that works out maybe it could be taken larger scale? We'll have to see how that works. The distribution thing is a whole other matter which will need a lot of talking about.

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Gigs 31/10/2007

Busy one tonight for Hallowe'en, you doing it in fancy dress?

Worldview is doing an acoustic set @ The Purple Turtle (Oxford) from 6pm

Our friend Susie Wilkins is returning to the Troubadour tonight, though the actual stage time has been sketchy. I'd say get there for 7 and you'll be fine.

Angular Electro Pop outfit Molloy are celebrating Hallowe'en at 93 Feet East which should be a good laugh. 8pm.  Be sure stop by Beyond Retro. It's one of my favourite bits of London around there.

Right, I'm going for a quick sit in the carpark whilst it's sunny then onto the mountain of demos, emails, letters etc.

Hope all is well with you.

IB

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