Hold on to those band snaps! In 50 years you could be sitting on a gold mine.

Don't you point that thing at me, pal... Number 6: Jim Simpson

You can cover an awful lot of ground in the music biz if you stick at it. Now probably best known for running Birmingham International Jazz Festival, as a young sixties groover Jim Simpson was eking out a living as a semi-pro trumpet player, a band manager (Locomotive, Black Sabbath, and others)... and, significantly, as a part time snapper, selling photos wherever he could.

All this was long before the advent of digital. Jim worked with a lovely professional twin-lens reflex camera, very similar to the one here. I had a very cheap version of Jim's pro kit back in the day, and I absolutely loved it. Twin lens machines used conventional film, in the now very rare format: 120. This usually means square negatives, 56 millimetres along each edge: vastly larger that the smaller and faster 35 millimetre format. 

The downside? A larger, heavier, much more unwieldy camera, into which you normally squinted downwards, rather than at the subject, to compose and focus. More often that not, you had to work with a degree of formality. These weren't machines that let you grab images on the fly. And as we've already seen with Pogus Caesar, you could only fire off 12 shots before you had to change the film.So you took more care over your precious limited set of images. The upside was super image quality, which then meant terrific enlargements.

Jim shot a lot of stuff, half a century back. Some of his best images are now on show at Havill and Travis, a new gallery in Harborne, South Birmingham. The gallery is a joint venture between Gerv Havill of Moseley Folk fame, and Dave Travis, also a photographer and onetime promoter. 

At the preview, Jim was happily running though old memories.

I had no idea until I knew of the exhibition that you ware also a pro photographer. 

Yes it kept me alive. I went seriously into it at a rather stupid point when I should have been paying more attention to Black Sabbath, who I was managing then. 

You mean you didn't take any shots of the band in their extreme youth? 

Only about six shots in all the years I was with them. A bit of an omission. 

Here's the Move in 1965... fresh-faced boys.

Trevor Burton, Roy Wood, Bev Bevan, Carl Wayne and Ace Kefford. In a field. In the cold. 

I thought Roy Wood's fringe was a hat, actually. A hat made of hair. That was the first publicity session they had. It was very early in the morning, and it was very cold. They're all wearing college scarves. I don't think they went anywhere near a college. Bev (Bevan)used to drive past a college on his way to work. 

Let's move on to the Moodies...

Ah. That was at the Carlton Club in Erdington. It eventually became Mother's, of course. 

Named after the brewery, weren't they? The Mitchells and Butler 5, or the M&B 5, I understand.

Yes. 

This really was the band that became the Moody Blues. This really was the club that became Mothers. 

I was in London then, and the first thing I heard from them was their cover single of Bessie Banks' Go Now...

Well, they were an R&B outfit. This line-up, they all came from major bands in Brum at the time, except for the drummer, who managed them. The guys who owned the Carlton Club got behind them, so they could be put before the Friday night crowds there. They were a major local draw, very early on. The sad thing is that the bass player in the picture, Clint Warwick – that was a stage name – after a couple of years, he thought 'I don't Like This', and he left the band, went back home to Aston and became a carpenter.

So here's a piece of history... the young Spencer Davis Group looking very chipper and cheerful, on the central divider of Smallbrook Queensway.

And the magazine they're holding, Midlands Beat. I used to take photographs for it. And write a news column, for twelve pounds a month. Look at the cars – very vintage. And look how few of them there are in the picture. 

Steve and Muff Winwood, Pete York and Spencer Davis. Just down the road from their Golden Eagle residency

You sat them in the middle of Smallbrook Queensway for a photoshoot?

We weren't exactly taking a risk, were we? Look at the traffic - it was a bit different. Steve (Winwood) was sixteen, I think.

So that's the local boys. Of the rest – shots of Mick Jagger, Nina Simone, Little Richard – what are you proudest of?

Howling Wolf. 

He was a very interesting man. On stage, he could rock a room into bad health without any effort, At the same time, he scared audiences. He was a terrifying presence. Six foot four, 350 pounds. But talk to him, and he was so gentle and mild. He told me a lot about himself and his life. He told me he couldn't read and write until his forties. The he went back to school and college. He was also very proud to tell me that when he first went to Chicago, he was recording – I think – for Sam Phillips in Memphis. Chess called him and he went up, but as he said, all the old blues guys went up to Chicago with the insides of their pockets hanging out. He went up in his own car, with 4000 bucks. In those days, a massive sum. 

Jim, these shots from your twin lens reflex have come up beautifully. Have you had to do any kind of retouching work?

Very little. We tried in most cases to print from the negative. There's a couple we've had to adjust slightly. No much burning in or dodging. I'm digitised now, and I don't really like it. I love the flexibility - 20 or 25 shots without even thinking about it. In those days, with 12 shots a roll, and the fuss of changing the rolls over, you made sure each negative counted. 

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Froggy went a-songwriting

Froggy and H - fifty years in the biz. And the rest...

I'm sitting with Raymond Froggatt and long-term collaborator Hartley Cain - or H, as he is universally known - in H's Shropshire studio. The place is packed with H's guitars... and dulcimers, banjos, mandolins, even an 18-string monster hybrid. And we're talking about change. 

Froggy and H go back half a century. This studio is where they record Raymond's new albums, although the next album will be live and on video – they're filming Raymond's December 4^th gig at Birmingham Town Hall. H will mix and produce, and they will sync it to video shot on the night. All of that, under their control, using their own kit, and released on their own label.

And here's a demo preview of a new Froggy song - Kentucky Sue - that they graciously let me have for this blog post:

For all that Froggy is a child of the fifties and sixties with long associations with some of the biggest rock and roll monsters in the business, for all that he has generated umpteen millions in royalties and record sales, from which he may well not have had his fair share down the years, he's absolutely not one to complain about bad deals, dodgy managers and stingy publishers 

Froggy: "Roy Wood recommended me to Don Arden, and a lot of what we did was because of Don's company. Money was no no object... We went all over the world. Supporting tours with Wizzard and ELO when they first started. Lots of things that we did in those days wouldn't have happened without that. And I got on well with Don.

But he had a fearsome reputation

"I think a lot of people like to play on that. But Don, really, was a proper mogul. He didn't want a friend – he wasn't interested in friendships, or going down the pub and having a drink. If you could make money out of it, he was interested. He wouldn't know what a great song was. He wanted second opinions. But because of him, a lot of doors opened for people, not only me.

"Everybody went to see him skint, and they went back after five years, in a Rolls Royce, to sue him. And he probably wasn't that honest with all of them, but he opened some doors. He made money, but he made you a star."

The contacts Froggy made over fifty years are astonishing. As a sixties kid, he bumped up against some of the names who created Rock and Roll. A publisher contact in the US was EH Morris, who eventually sold out to Warner Chappell. I, like hundreds of radio types who worked in the days before computerised libraries, only know that name from the days of endlessly hand-writing music returns, and, later, building those digital libraries. Names like EH Morris, Screen Gems, Jobete, Carlin and dozens more are landmarks in the history of rock music, if you care to look and explore. The people behind these names were every bit as powerful as Sam Philips, Brian Epstein or Berry Gordy: all links to times now long gone.  

But Froggy actually met EH himself, and most of Nashville's music royalty from those days. People like the Jordanaires, who recorded harmonies round one mic, bluegrass style. Drinking buddies like Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins. And most of the big beasts from the UK music biz.

"Another publisher was Micky Most. He wanted to sign me up for songwriting with RAK records. I didn't want to sign with him. So he asked me for one song. I gave him one – Running Water – and I haven't seen one penny from that song from that day to now!"

"But we're thinking of re-recording that song now for ourselves. But, as I say, there's value in people like Don Arden and Micky Most for people like us."

"I did a thing for Richard Branson because of Don Arden, When he opened the Manor studios - big studio complex in Oxfordshire - he was struggling. He only had the one shop in London. He was struggling, mortgaged up to the hilt. Don hired the Manor for a month, for us. And the deal was that our downtime could be used for Mike Oldfield, because he hadn't got the money to pay for it to be made."

Let me get this right. You finish for the day, and Mike Oldfield comes in, and does Tubular Bells?

"Yeah. Mike was always there. We'd finish pretty late, and he would go straight in. He worked on his own."

So what you are saying is: the Virgin Empire was built off the back of your downtime, which allowed Branson's record label to have that huge global hit, which then started it all for Virgin?

"Absolutely! I remember one day, we were recording down there. Remember Viv Stanshall, lovely Viv? Of the Bonzo Dog Doodah band, for younger readers? Hew came and spent a couple of days with us. He was a bit of a drinker, and so was I, mind. We popped down the pub for a few drinks, while the lads were recording. We were walking up the towpath. I had to go back and do some vocals, and he said he'd be up in about an hour. With his dog, Bootleg, a big Irish Wolfhound."

After an hour, Viv came in, soaking wet. He's fallen in the canalL he had to jump in to save Bootleg. So then the dog comes in, dry as a bone. And then Viv stood by the open fire – and fell into it. No damage done, sparks everywhere. But he dried off... and that was the last time I saw him. But that was the sort of place the Manor was. And that's the way I got there."

Were you a bit of a hellraiser?

"We all were, in those days. But I'd rather sit down and watch telly than throw it out the hotel window."

Sit with Froggy for a spell, and the stories come rolling out. When you've worked for such a long time, and sold songs all around the world, you get to meet interesting people. 80s kids might remember, with a shudder, a slew of Hooked on Classics recordings, which jammed much loved classical tunes together over a robot drum track. It was remarkably, if tastelessly, successful. One of the people responsible for all that was Louis Clark, who worked with Froggy for a long time

"Louis was our bass player for eleven years. He did the orchestral arrangements for us too. We were the first band to use an orchestra live, at the Belfry in Sutton Coldfield. Roy Wood came to see it, and all of a sudden we had ELO. Not that I'm complaining. Lovely man, Roy; a good friend."

It's a long long way from the sixties. There's a story on this blog about a contemporary  of  of Froggy's, Don Fardon, who finally got his just deserts after decades when an old song of his was picked up for TV adverts. Don signed a contract on the back of an envelope, with the Krays... and I'm pretty sure similar things happened to most musicians of that vintage. I'm also pretty sure it still goes on now. And...Froggy? He's diplomatic to a fault. He's not complaining.

He's not too worried about weird covers of his songs either. Dave Clark's signature tub-thumping version of Red Balloon may not have been to everyone's taste, but it did him no end of good.

Red Balloon: Dave Clark's version and Froggy's version (complete with, er, Dave Lee Travis speaking bad German)

"When I played Red Balloon to Polydor – we didn't like signing to them, by the way, we wanted Decca. We had no idea how big they really were. The other band they had was the Bee Gees – they said 'That is a world hit'. I had no idea. It was just a song I'd written – put a shilling the meter, sit down and hope you get it finished before the electric went. I wrote it in twenty minutes and it went to to sell 20 million. There's at least sixteen versions, not counting Dave Clark."

Do you mind that someone can take your song and turn it inside out?

"Never bothered me. There was a lot of criticism of Dave Clark at the time. I thought it was a really good thing. I had to write to the newspapers. But if it hadn't been for Dave, nobody would have heard the song. We were number one everywhere in Europe with it. But Dave – everything he did was was successful. All of a sudden you're a hit songwriter, everyone wants to know you, everyone wants to record your songs."

Best gig?

"Let's say memorable. We worked at the Icedrome in Tulsa. Huge place. Pretty memorable, but scary. I hired the London Palladium. We filled that – fantastic, a gig to remember. And also the Albert Hall, filled that too. The best? Probably the Belfry, when we did the orchestra gig. The love and affection I got for my band... we were only kids, we hadn't got any money. Our bass player conducting the orchestra. But we were good at it. We were only babbies, but we did that. We weren't the Beatles, we didn't have George Martin. We did it all on our own."

Links
Raymond Froggatt website

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Dan Whitehouse and Chris Tye: they've got shows for you. And a Christmas song. No, really.

Dan Whitehouse and Chris Tye talk of cabbages and kings, new albums, big shows, collaboration, creativity and Christmas songs.

Dan Whitehouse and Chris Tye are comfortably ensconced upstairs at the Wellington in Birmingham City Centre. Two extraordinary singer-songwriters, each with a new album, each with full band showcase gigs in the next few weeks at the same venue – the Glee Club; both albums share some personnel : Michael Clarke has several cowriting credits with both Dan and Chris; Simon Smith crops up on bass on both albums. In some quarters, that might lead to flouncing, flared nostrils and rivalry. Not with these boys. Why, they've even written a Christmas song together. Read on for an exclusive listen.

Dan's new album, his third long player, 'Raw State' is largely a revisiting of some of his long-standing songs, sometimes after years of live performances; the core of the material was recorded live with a full band at Reservoir Studios in North London production chores were handled by Danny George Wilson and Chris Clarke from 'Danny and The Champions Of The World'. Chris' album 'Paper Grenade' was recorded this year, and produced by Michael Clarke in Kings Heath in Birmingham.

With the launch of albums and headline tours, talk turns to progression and development. 

Dan: Artistically, it's happening. 

Chris: Yeah, but it can be difficult to fish out the gigs where it doesn't cost you money. Saying that, to fund 'Paper Grenade', I did a Pledge campaign; which I was really sceptical about doing. It worked really well, and in the end it gave me the opportunity to work with Michael (Clarke), and to get it mastered properly..

So what that really means is a vote of confidence, surely – you've got enough people to put the money up for you to deliver a work the way you wanted to? 

Chris: Definitely a confidence boost.

I wonder whether Pledge and all the others have still got the same impact. There's been a lot of appeals, not all of them successful.

Chris: Seems like an honest way of doing it. 

Full bands? That's another big commitment

Dan: It's a big band. I've got BJ Cole on Pedal Steel, Paul (?) on lead guitar; the drummer from Danny and the Champions of the world.... I've thrown everything I have at it. Rehearsing tomorrow.

Chris: So are we. Same bass player, Simon Smith.

Dan: Simon is the glue that holds everything together.

So – shared bass player, shared producer. Tell me about your shared song?

Dan: Ah! A Christmas song, called....'This Christmas'. We wrote it in April.

Chris: We nearly did it a couple of years ago. A little trust exercise. One mix session away from finishing it - there's another mix session next Sunday. We sent each other four really primitive ideas. I didn't really know Dan at the time. He didn't send me any abuse.

Will you wind up on each other's stages, performing the song? 

Chris: Is the 23rd of November too early? 

No... by the time of your shows, you'll be wall to wall with Christmas. 

Dan: I'll play it in my show on the 7th. 

Well, how about collaboration and ideas? You exchanged...

Dan: … bits of songs. Sketchy ideas. You know what it's like, trying to get together. We've made it work with this song. And one other one that's quite close. 

Chris: I enjoy co-writing with the right people. It either works or it doesn't. You know within twenty minutes. 

When ideas come up – Dan, you run Songwriters Circles, so you get ideas coming at you all the time – how do you step away from that and move into a collaborative framework? Can you move from teacher and enabler to collaborator? 

Dan: I don't see myself as teacher in that environment, I've co-written a number of songs with members of the circle. I do my best... to apply the oil to the creative wheel, keep things spinning around all the time. 

OK – here's a question for you both. Which was the most difficult song to do?

Dan: 'Somebody Loves You' is a big song in my set. And it's a song that I've struggled to get a recording that I'm happy with. Because it's so much about the performance, rather than the components of it. You couldn't do Somebody Loves You to a click track.

Your first recording of that song placed your voice in the world, with the noise of the world all around you. And you slowly trace how the song's character recovers from a point of complete desolation. I loved that – you in a soundscape, climbing up and out.. 

Dan: We recorded that in a school playground. And when I did that recording, Robin, it was before I had four years of playing that song live, every night, in a number of different environments. I had some really emotional experiences playing this song. But I struggled for ages to be able to get into to the right environment to make a good studio recording of it. That was my mission – to get a complete recording of that song – that was partly the reason to make this record. It reflects my knowledge of the song. I learned about the song through playing it. It's a two-way song – I'm not sure the song works on record. It's a conversation.

And Chris – what's your hardest song?

Chris: I suppose 'Vicious Words'. I played it live for about a year. It became one of those songs – unexpectedly. It's a song about divorce, a little bit downbeat. Bit I can really get into it live. I feel like it connects. It's a good song, I'm able to communicate it to people. 

I played it to Ben Niblett, a producer who worked on about three songs on this album. He set up a mic – 'Gotta get a recording of this' – about three feet away. No spot mic on my voice and the guitar. I played it and we got it, one take. I know everybody says 'One Take', and it's usually comp'd. 

Note: For a definition of comping, see here. In effect, it's anything but one take.

Chris: I loved this take. The first reverb we put on sounded ace. Do we change anything? We then did about six versions to try to recreate the magic. It didn't work, it almost never does when you do that. But I just thought the song could take a different treatment – electric guitar, double bass - so that's why there are the two versions.

Vicious Words: acoustic version

Vicious Words: full version

I think the acoustic cut hits harder. It's a tough listen.

Chris: A lot of people said that! 

Note: Chris and Dan are very interested in hearing from video producers with a view to getting something up for a December release - please get in touch with Dan at dan@dan-whitehouse.com. All proceeds go to charity, here.

Links 
Chris Tye
Dan Whitehouse

Albums
Buy Dan's album here; buy Chris' album here.

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Happy Birthday to you, Catapult Club!

Twenty Five Years of promoting. Arthur Tapp's still remarkably sane, still  a romantic at heart.

I like the ins and outs of the music business: the nuts and bolts of how people and things come together, and what you have to do to make it all work. I like that there is a surprising spread of often very fine people who rotate around the processes of music creation and performance. There's a deep range of skills and talents, all essential to the local music economy. Naturally, this is overlooked by the powers that be. It's immensely interesting.

All that Ruby Turner Is

Straighten up and fly right! Ruby's still in the game, and that makes me happy.

 Photo: Caroline Harriott at PurpleOrange

It's a nice afternoon – sunny and bright. King's Heath is managing to look quite pretty, which is no mean feat. I've fixed to have a catchup with Ruby Turner. Normally it would be at her place, but the builders are in. So the excellent Adam Regan has kindly given us the back bar of the Hare and Hounds to chat in. That makes six blog interviews so far at the Hare – Katherine Priddy, Goodnight Lenin, Miles Hunt and Erica Nockalls upstairs in the dressing rooms, Brian Travers and Terry and Gerry downstairs – and now, Ruby. There's a new album. Out on her own label again, 'All That I Am' packs a very wide range of punches.

Ruby and I go back a loooong way. When she was a wee slip of a girl, just starting out, she was surrounded by some of Birmingham's best musicians. We did sessions at the old BRMB, she gigged at the 70s Lark in The Park at Cannon Hill. It was grand. Ruby wound up representing commercial radio at the European Broadcasting Union Rock Festival, with me elected as tour manager. It was testing - half the band disappeared into a bar at Frankfurt station the moment we got in from the airport. They eventually showed up in Nuremberg, 140 miles down the road, slightly the worse for wear. Ruby went on to to tear the place up and down and sideways. Gratifyingly, Ruby and band completely blew Radio 1's entry away. We were on a tight budget; the BBC mob was definitely not. Score one for the indies. 

Decades down the line, Ruby is still at the top of her game. Now, when not touring with Jools Holland, she runs her own band. She picks the musicians, rehearses them, and keeps them in line. And with the possible exception of the great Steve Gibbons, she's had the longest recording and gigging career of any Birmingham musician that I've been lucky enough to work with.

These days, it's not a question of begging for pathetic airplay scraps at risk-averse local radio. Ruby takes it to the top, scoring a huge chunk of time on the top show on the UK's biggest station, guesting on Chris Evans' breakfast show on Radio 2. 

So... the new album. Lots of nice things being said about it. Lots of airplay on BIG shows on the big station – Chris Evans on Radio 2 is a cracking way to tell the world... But it's taken a while since your last. Why?

It took a very long time. There was so much going on. As you know, a lot of tours with Jools... then I had to find a new producer to work with. Cos you know I used to work with Bob Lamb – the last album, Moving On, was amazing. But Bob decided to quit and leave. That left me in limbo. He was a great friend and a wonderful producer. We had a great connection musically. But I understood why he had to call it a day – he just wasn't happy.

But look, Ruby, you now have vast professional experience and a brilliant reputation – you could have your pick of great people.

I guess I can. But I keep to a small circle of friends that I know. The truth is I work well with these people, and I always go back to them, where I always feel comfortable and I can be myself. I'm not saying I wouldn't venture out and work with new exciting producers. But unless you're a huge name and you've got a huge record company behind you, then nobody's really interested. So I work with what I've got,. That's the story of life – work with what you got.

You've got some killer musicians to work with, though

I am blessed, yes.

You're writing a lot more these days.

I guess it's confidence and life experiences. With any album, the process is – you get writing. Obviously you have a producer in mind, but in Bob's absence, I kept writing anyway. I'm learning. Learning to be myself and to trust myself. We all have our stories. I've gathered a few myself. I feel quite liberated and, dare I say it, quite grown up!

You kick off with a gospel track that nails it from the first lick.

I cut that as a prayer. 

Then there's an older track – your duet with Passenger. 

This is a much more ambitious album technically. You've even got show tunes. That's a bit of a mix.

Well, that's me. It's what I am. Way back I did a wonderful night of Gerschwin. It was like a moment of time. Great days. When I was putting the album together, that was my thinking. I was going to put Embraceable You on there. Then Time It Was came up.

Even though your faith pumps thought every bone in your body,you've still got a cheatin' and lyin' song there. Dark End Of The Street: the classic country song of adultery and deception

Humans. Human failing, It's all that we are. There's a track on there called Ask Me. There's a line that goes

I'll Tell You I Ain't No Saint

I Got My Faults And I'll Take Some Blame.

I wanted to do our failings, our spirituality, our longings...all those things that makes us human.

So what kind of reaction have you had?

Oh, great. I've had feedback from America, where I don't have a deal at the moment. Everything is happening so quickly. But because I'm working so hard with Jools Holland, I don't have quite enough time to look after all that. But - lots of airplay – Radio 2 have been very good to me. It means an awful lot.

Tell me about being a working muso. You've done this for over thirty years.

It's a battle. You have to be match-fit. I've got some down time before the next tour. So I'm doing badminton, and walking and swimming. Make sure you've got the lung power and the stamina. A fitness level that will take you through the day to day stuff – sitting in cars for hours, lugging your cases into hotel rooms.

Eating right?

Oh yes. You got to start the tour in a good place. You got to hit the stage running, at your peak, every gig. Some people use Jack Daniels. I don't. It's about taking care of yourself. Dairy can present problems. You got to keep yourself hydrated. And plenty of sleep. And walks, plenty of fresh air. I'm hanging in there.

And where's that kid who plays piano with you?

Reuben James? I got a text saying 'I've just landed in DC' ...that's Washington. So he's off and flying. He's had to put college on hold. I can say to Reuben: Well done, and good luck, mate'. Spoke to him mum a couple of days back. Bless her, she's so concerned. He came to me when he was eighteen. So talented. So I said - the first rule is to get a roof over your head. Invest that as soon as you can. Instead of renting and sleeping on other people's bean bags – get yourself a roof.

That's what you do at that age

If I look back on myself, it was the same. No holds barred Yeah, I'm having this. But as we get older, those walls get harder to climb.

Ruby and her band of desperadoes, Nuremberg, 1984. Spot the faces...

Know what? I'm so pleased that we can have talk like this after over thirty years. It's life-affirming.

I'll never forget Nuremberg! Have you seen that photo floating around on Facebook? With you looking terrified in the background, and me looking like Ma Rainey...

Know why I was scared? Stopping the renegades in your band sparking up on the train back to Frankfurt.... with German police walking up and down the corridors...

Ha!

Links
Ruby Turner website. Ruby would just love it if you bought her album here.

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John Paul White, Victories at Sea, Oxjam, This is Tmrw. When bands promote....

14 bands, lots of local action, starts in the afternoon, runs till late.
Get there early, or you'll miss two days of good stuff and up and comers.

Poster from the great Lewes Heriot. Don't nick it. 

We're closing on this year's All Years Leaving two-day indie-alt festival at the Hare and Hounds. The team behind it, This Is Tmrw, have significantly expanded activities of late. They have a brand. They have an image. They have lovely posters which are regularly nicked before they can do their job - take a look at them and you'll see why. This is Tmrw aren't exactly making money, but the hope is that their operation can wash its face. 

John-Paul White has been with the team for five out of their seven years. He plays in Victories at Sea, who are featured in this year's All Years Leaving. Victories At Sea are growing steadily. It looks like they're going to sidle into the next West Midlands video top 50 come February. Decent video numbers apart – and getting these is a considerable achievement – the songs Victories At Sea deliver are pleasingly reminiscent of classic New Romantic post punk pop – without the dreadful mannered vocals. Reminiscent, but not too close. And that puts the band in a good place, in their own field.

JP is very clear about This is Tmrw's founder, Matt Beck. He stepped in because a lot of bands were bypassing Birmingham in favour of, say, Wolverhampton, where Wolves Civic was doing splendid business. Through Matt, Foals came to Brum to do their first local gig at the tiny Sunflower Lounge.

“A couple of years later, we were booked – my band at the time – were booked, to support The Rascals (at the time serious indie contenders). I was impressed. How did they get a band like that to play the Sunflower Lounge? And the next night they were off to support Arctic Monkeys at Alexandra Place or somewhere like that. How does that work?”

One thing led to another, and JP started going to more and more gigs, including indie-alt DJ gigs with Matt.

“Preceding that, the only promoters I knew of in Birmingham had been Rob and Jack at Zoot, who were becoming more and more successful with Editors, and didn't have time to promote, and Arthur Tapp at the Jug of Ale. As a musician, I was wondering who's going to take the city forward?

"In 2009, I was running Oxjam with Nicola Toms, and booking all the bands.As Matt had been running This is Tmrw for two years, I asked him to help out. Matt did that, and he brought a pal, Tom Hopkins, along. So I came on board after that. And last year John Fell of Goodnight Lenin came on board as well. And that's where the festival idea came from.

As promoters, you've developed a very distinctive style. Lovely posters.

"Lewes Herriott – he also plays, in Johnny Foreigner... Matt's known him for years. He never used to be in a band.

Ah but there's a long and honourable tradition of graphic artists who also play in bands – people like Hunt Emerson. Do those posters get nicked a lot?

"Yeah – it's expensive. We've encouraged Lewes to exhibit his work. People really like to collect them.

Pity they do that before the gig. You could have a sideline – downloadable images, print to order reproductions... There is an established market for classic posters, especially if you've got prestige names who then go on to be monsters. Look at those classic posters for the Fillmore West from the 60s, with Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Steve Miller, Grateful Dead, Santana – they were all local bands on the Bay area at the time. And those posters still sell.


Let's talk about Victories at Sea. Your videos are really nice – but the band aren't in them. You're not featured. Why?

"Budget! Those are all made using Creative Commons footage. We do appear on one, but it's very stylised. We thought that was better than shooting something ropey on a smartphone. Not that there aren't some very decent videos made that way.

I gather that the goal is not to make money. The goal is to break even.

"If we do well at a show, it goes into the pot. So we can put together a bigger offer to get a bigger band.

But there's a point beyond which you can't be idealistic. If you want to grow This Is Tmrw as an organisation, you can't go on doing this part time, just like you can't go on doing a band part-time past a certain point.

"I still generally regard myself as more of a musician than a promoter. So that's a question I would leave more to Matt. Ultimately, if I wasn't a musician, I'd like to do this full-time. And we do know people in other cities who do do this full time. It's still difficult to break even. We do a lot of good, but it's still difficult. We have some very fiercely regular people who come to our gigs.

"They come to the whole gig. A lot of people don't realise that as promoters, we like to work with theme, so every band has its place; they're there to be seen. It's like a club thing.

You miss an awful lot if you come in late. Like those acts that might have opened last year... and then bingo! Look what they've done now.

"But people still say, oh, they played a festival this time last year, and they can't have been any good if they were so far down the bill. They don't understand how it works!"   

Links
This is Tmrw 
All Years Leaving Facebook page
Lewes Heriot
Victories At Sea

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Erica Nockalls - she's going to melt your iPhone

"Music isn't free, it takes time, effort and energy, training and all the rest of it. I want to see something for it."

In the September sunshine, backstage at Moseley Folk, Erica Nockalls was all smiles. She'd just played a breezy set as half of Miles Hunt and Erica Nockalls – see this earlier blog post. Sunday was her birthday; the MoFo boys had given her a cake, which she cheerily shared around. 

But now we're already, suddenly, deep into Autumn. Things are getting more intense, with a new solo album coming up in October: EN2. Erica is selling the album directly from her site.

It's a world away from her work with Miles Hunt, The Wonder Stuff or the Proclaimers: self-financed, self-produced, self-distributed and self-marketed. And it's punchy as hell. 

It's a move on from her first, Imminent Room.

Erica explains: "The music is more progressive, more quirky, still maintaining melody and pop sensibilities. My first record came out on a record label, and I was very happy with how it went. But I'm not a fan of doing things twice. I wanted to self release to have complete control over my rights. It's not going to be on iTunes for now. It shan't be available on Amazon."

That's very precise. 

"Once you realise that every aspect of the music industry is seemingly totally sewn up, it's liberating to not have to ask for permission, validation or approval from anybody to make my own music. Why should I? Once you stop trying to please or impress people, then that's when the good stuff happens. 

"I started writing EN2 on January 1st this year. I wanted to create a record and release it within the year. I get bored of my own ideas quickly. I wanted a more urgent sounding record. I also wanted to make as much of this album by myself, so it's a true representation of what I'm capable of. It's entirely self produced, though I called in a huge favour from guitarist Mark Gemini Thwaite on five tracks. I also sought the opinion and assistance of a record producer/sound engineer friend, Simon Efemey. He works with Napalm Death and produces heavy metal bands. It's completely undiluted, which is what I wanted." 

What about distribution and sales?

"I'm pressing up 1000 CD copies of EN2 and for now, these will only be available to pre-order through my site. That's to generate income to pay for mastering, manufacturing and distribution. Once those copies are sold, I may consider the usual bullshit iTunes route. If a label shows any interest after that, then I'll consider my options. I'm doing it my way first. A basic version of crowd funding! It feels like right, and most importantly, it's fair to everyone involved. 

You said specifically it shan't be on Amazon. 

"You just get ripped off left right and centre. Everyone takes their little percentage and before you know, you've just spent seven or eight months toiling over something for very little in the way of reward. And I'm not being greedy. I'm not being a bread-head about any of this - it's just music isn't free, it takes time, effort and energy, training and all the rest of it. I want to see something for it. If I do break even, the extra money can help fund my live band, which costs an absolute fortune. Everybody's band does. 

You present a very precise image. I think that reinforces the online loyalty you've generated: you have an unusually passionate following. 

"We do have some very nice fans. Mainly Wonder Stuff fans! I don't think I've particularly got my own audience yet for the Erica Nockalls Band, but this may change. 

It's very nice that The Wonder Stuff audience has taken to you.

"It's incredibly nice. I'm overwhelmed that they've taken to me, and I really appreciate their support.

When you're running your own band, do you have to be a bastard?

"Absolutely not. You have to be fair, you have to be kind and you have to give praise where praise is due. And surround yourself with musicians who are smart, intelligent, kind, fun and who like your music.

That's an ideal. How do you achieve that?

"It's not easy. I'm on my second line up already, and the band haven't been playing live for much more than a year. It's hard keeping a relationship going with four other people. It's hard enough with one other person. If we had to spend a lot of time on the road together, it would be more difficult. It's not yet an issue. We're all getting on.

From the first Erica Nockalls album, Imminent Room                          

Tell me about the extras: the bundles and packages. Your marketing strategy.

"So. The videos made for Imminent Room: there are nice things used in these that I have no further use for. Take Serpentine City: I have some ex-Soviet gas masks that we used in the video. If anybody wants them, they can buy them along with a record from my website. I'm going to have a nice menu: interesting, quirky prizes that you can buy.

That's almost crowd funding.

This fetching hat could be yours.   

"It's my own version of Pledge but I don't have to pay 15% to someone who's not doing anything. I don't think Pledge are ripping people off. I'm not saying Pledge is a bad thing, it's not for me. And to give percentages away before you've even sold your first copy just seems counter-productive. 

Ok. Apart from the gas masks, your hats...

"...necklaces, clothing, paintings, yes. 

I have an album art exhibition coming up in October. It's a new gallery - Havill and Travis - that's opening in Harborne in Birmingham. The launch night is Friday 17th October - invites only - and it then runs for 10 days.

I'm going to paint a piece for every track on my new record . These oil paintings will come in album order as you walk around the art gallery; there'll be listening booths where you can listen to a piece of music, with a pair of headphones, and view a piece of art that's directly inspired by a track. It's not an easy thing to do.

Closing Of Day: a  painting by Erica Nockalls, available in print form from her site    

"And it's invitation only, with a limited amount of guest passes available from my website. So when you pre-order an EN2 copy of the physical record you can also get tickets to the exhibition."

Some of your online stuff is sweetly candid. You put personal stuff up: it's charming... but here, there's a slight aloofness - red carpets and such... is there a conflict there?

"I don't think so. It's important for people to see you as approachable if you want them to buy the music. I don't have any issue there – I'm not that personal. You have to be careful of negativity. If you've got nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all.

"I do try to be engaging, and I enjoy watching people discuss their points of view. I share my personal interests publicly, mainly for my own amusement. I talk a lot about food, booze and art."

Smartphones in the crowd: I really dislike audience videos. You have a technique for that...

"Yes. My band are quite heavy. Simon Efemy does our sound. He knows what I want. If it feels like you're being hoofed in the stomach by a raging horse, and your head feels like it's going to crack open cause it's so loud - then that's what I'm going for. It's quality loudness. I have it so incredibly loud that poor little camera phones can't deal with it."

Ha! Melt those microphones! But there is volume and volume.

"Yes there is, it has to be quality and it has to cover all the different frequencies. My band doesn't sound like me playing the violin with backing. Everybody is as important as everybody else."

Links
Erica Nockalls website

The Album
EN2 is available directly from Erica's website, initially in a limited edition CD run. 

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