John Blake's Blog - London In Music in Life

Skunk Anansie Reunion live at Water Rats

johnblakemusic — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 08:14:18 +0000

Wow! Skunk Anansie first reunion gig really kicked some ass! Skin was incredible, her voice soaring above all else and the crowd went absolutely mental. Water Rats, a small capacity venue (200 people) in London was rammed and it was really hard to move.

Skunk started their set with an amazing Charlie Big Potato and Skin wrapped in a feathery fur thing, then went on to produce all of the greatest hits!

Set list was (thanks to Audrey on the Skinmusic forums)

charlie big potato
selling jesus
I can dream
we don’t need who yo think you are
brazen
cheap honesty
100 ways to be agood girl
easy to pretend (new song)
twisted
hotel TV
weak
charity
milk is my sugar
little baby swastikkka

encore:
hedonism
you know ( new song)
skankheads

Take That miming – No One Reporting?

johnblakemusic — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:30:28 +0000

It might me that my eyesight is not what it once was or that I need a better prescription for my glasses. But were Take That miming at the Brits on Wednesday night?

No-one seems to have reported on this and I wonder if it’s because I made it up or because mainstream press is too afraid to be subjected to the wrath of the public to go after Britain’s most loved band.
This is especially embarassing after Take That themselves slammed Britney Spears a while ago for miming on the X Factor.

Considering that everyone made an effort to actually sing at the Brits – though not brilliantly (see Girls Aloud bless them) – it seems strange that Take That – who were standing still on their spaceship did not sing anything.
Again – is it just my imagination? I could have dreamt it.

Another possibility is that someone actually turned up the backing/guide track too loud to the point that you could not hear them sing (it was pretty loud in the Pet Shop Boys’ set) – but that there was no mention in the press is pretty strange.
Please let me know if you have seen/heard any different – I’m not “hating” I just want to know if I’m going mad!

Faded on Pirate Bookshop

johnblakemusic — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:25:37 +0000

Click on this this link http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=269705246 to get redirected on the Pirate Bookshop – my iTunes podcast, and listen to my latest track Faded.

When I see myself,

crossing every line.

When the truth is far from home,

and the home is light

like a bundle of thoughts,

wrapped in a bin bag

and left out in the streets of Camden Town.

Wondering in an ecstatic denial,

counterfeiting my experiences to

build a story through which to sell myself.

No rest in peace but struggle and delirious understanding,

whenever something’s in reach.

No calm desire but hasty confrontation with my calling,

which I let hastily slip.

Exclude me from my love

and stray me from my art

a trait,

of my own perception of my face and my lies.

I struggle with the notion,

of wondrous delights,

I struggle with the notion of trust,

with some relief,

I am fading,

with you.

when I fall asleep

in the dead of night,

when my eyes are closing in,

while my hands are tied,

to a monochrome key

where I can rest pretending that there’s nothing left to see

fighting with my sleep in frantic denial,

tear myself with doubts then blame everything.

That’s the best I know to seclude one’s self.

No rest no peace no struggle but delirious understanding,

whenever something’s in reach

A necessary action makes me bitterly demanding,

delivering what I missed.

Exclude me from my love

and stray me from my art

a trait,

of my own perception of my face and my lies.

I struggle with the notion,

of wondrous delights,

I struggle with the notion of trust,

with some relief,

I am fading,

with you.

Intrigued by the lights I am vulnerable to set my priorities aside,

security, certainty paired up with compromise and disguise.

Impatient and blind and impossible

I let my demons repeatedly crashing on glass when I regain the power to control the actions that caused me to slide.

Exclude me from my love

and stray me from my art

a trait,

of my own perception of my face and my lies.

I struggle with the notion,

of wondrous delights,

I struggle with the notion of trust,

with some relief,

I am fading, with you

Popkomm is almost upon us

johnblakemusic — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:39:06 +0000

So Popkomm is almost upon us, I will try to balance my interest in getting some good contacts for my material esp in terms of publishing and management with the interst i have in digital development on the industry side.

This will be pretty hard, alredy I am completely immersed in trying to know everything about everything that is going on at the moment and that is proving quite hard, not that i believed the contrary…

These three days of meetings, deals and gigs will hopefully on my part signal a music industry that is distancing itself from the defensive tactics that it has upheld so far, prosecuting the end used, attempting deals with ISPs and other not so nice strategies that alienated it from the consumers. Sure, there will still be attempts at this but the main focus now has to be on how to sell and how to provide the added value that DVDs and game seem to pull off pretty well but music is struggling to realize.

The new mobile deals – and this is probably a comment subject to a great deal of criticism – are not going to work out anywhere near as well as the music industry hopes. I think that the only platform where a subsription service like comes with music would work would be Itunes.

1) It is already a well known piece of software by – well - everyone

2) It does not FEEL restricted although it’d DRM’d to death – because of the integrration with the hardware

3) Apple would never allow there to be so many clauses and restrictions in a deal of this kind – if it’s not straighforward it does not happen

I think that the end user, having to use a special software, DRM’d tracks that are bound to behave erratically as all DRM has done up to now, having to stick to a usage policy that seems to vary from article to article and be very complicated (how many tracks can I download? do i have to pay? when? why? what happens when my subscription ends?) these are all legitimate questions that are not answered clearly in the articles I’ve read.

Again, i think Sony’s choice to give 200 of the most played tracks to the user at the end of the contract for free is a very good one and would make you feel less ripped off for having a phone that comes with music but a music that does not come with you after the phone’s life span has expired (and we know that is not very long at all generally).

Not to stick solely to digital music I want to see how the distributors and the labels have taken on the experiments made by Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead in terms of self-pricing of music and putting the focus on premium content.

Added value product are at the forefront of Universal’s Line up for the winter, will it prove a lasting success?

Music industry news – likely to be on top of everyone’s mind a next week’s popkomm.

johnblakemusic — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:54:56 +0000

Here are the questions and news likely to be on top of everyone’s mind at next week’s popkomm

- Will the credit crunch cast a shadow on the music industry’s high hopes for a super strong fourth quarter?

- Woolworth’s distributor EUK was refused credit from the music and DVD suppliers – meaning that it could only get stock if paying upfront. Since EUK distributes music products to Zavvi, Asda and Sainsbury’s as well this decision could have a significant impact on Physical sales in the next quarterwhich was supposed to be a perspective goldmine for the industry with a silly number of superstars scheduled for release in the run up to Christmas.

- Is the dominant position of Itunes likely to be undremined by new services? If so, which?

- Guitar Hero: does the music industry need it or does it need the music industry? Ok, it did re-vitalize the interest in some genre-specific artists but if these artists had not been famous, legendary even and had benefitted from record company’s promotion throughout the years the games maker would not be making the ton of money they are making at the moment.

- Creation of UKMUSIC, a collective lobby that represents the UK music industry in Brussels, something that had been in the works for years. – I really like Sony’s take on Comes With Music – their service deemed to go live next year will allow users to download as many tracks as they want and then will allow them to keep the top 150 or 200 most played at the end of the contract. A much better proposition than being limited to 200-250 downloads as comes with music is expected to and that’s that…

- Myspace has pissed off all the indies except the aggregator Merlin by starting its music store focusing on the majors. Word is that the indies would not subscribe to lesser conditions than those proposed to the majors and that’s more than fair enough.

Stevie wonder at the O2 arena

johnblakemusic — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:08:37 +0000

stevie wonder at the O2 arena

Tonight saw one of the USA’s brightest musical stars return to London after a long absence from European stages. Stevie came back with all his talent to give us the best possible greatest hits show – considering the breadth of his back catalogue. The show started with a Mr Wonder beatboxing in complete darkness – which evolved in an explosive jam, most of the tracks in the first half of the show had extended, elaborate endings. Wonder mesmerized with his acrovatic voice which is still in perfect form – bordering bit never falling into overusing it. After a bit of a comedown with a frankly hard to understand vocoder-led piece – the second part was all about audience partecipation. Stevie explained that his comeback is linked to the death of his mother – who told him to get of his backside and tour in a dream – then shook off the melancholy to launch in a massive puzzle of some of his most loved hits. At one point he tried to create a musical questio-reply pattern between the guys and the gals in the audience and urged us to sing lines of the songs throughout. The climax of the show had to be Superstition for me by I’m sure die hard fans will find it hard to decide. He also mentioned the victims of 9/11 and managed to achieve a moment of almost perfect silence in a sold out arena. It all ended after a very professional introduction to the 13 piece band (if I counted right) and an encore.

Stevie wonder performs an awesome set at the O2 backed by a 13 piece backing band

Pre stevie wonder round up!

johnblakemusic — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:46:36 +0000

At the o2 arena, tonight, roll of drums…. Stevie on stage! Put aside the cheesiness of the recent years the three hours spectaular will feature one of the best popular musicians ever in splendid form! Just about a year since I saw prince at the o2 and I’m ready to see someone equally if not more brilliant. I saw Mr Wonder in Modena several years ago during Pavarotti and Friends and he was amazing though I was too young to unserstand it fully, still it was a privilege to see him sing with big Luciano. Fingers crossed it will be a fantastic evening, photos and review to follow naturally, say at midnight tonight!

Gig tonight cancelled!!

johnblakemusic — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:07:08 +0000

Not the greatest start to the gigging season with a very strange cold having brought me down completely….

Had a massive fever on sunday which dragged on and is now being replaced by a terrible sore throat,

hope you can all make the next one and please if you want a night out go and support the acts that were playing with me anyway!!

Music industry dilemmas: how to get the ball rolling

johnblakemusic — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:37:54 +0000

How then to get the ball rolling? Between digital distribution press relations gig organization and label contacts it’s no wonder that a lot of signings – and here I get controversial- come from a wealthy background. Even sleeping four hours per night and trailing about town gigging does not get you very far – payback is usually a never ending sore throat. Only advice that I can give is when time is short and money tight is to be as blunt as possible and as sharp a possible. In a period of knife crimes I think you have to think aggressively about your musical instrument – whichever it may be – as a sharp weapon and deploy it at any available convenience. We are not in a “nice” city so don’t try and behave that way!

Prague, Krakow and the joy of european rail travel.

johnblakemusic — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 05:21:29 +0000

And so after a relatively painless transfer from Berlin to prague our eastern European adventure began. Prague is really beautiful; we stayed at the hotel Claris which I totally recommend for price, quality of sleep and an amazing breakfast! Prague’s a divided city. East, across the river ok a fairly steep hill is stately Prague. The castle and all major embassies are there. Strange then that this was the most authentic and unspoiled part of the city. Sure there were some guided tours and some ignorant tourists but all in all they were absorbed by the beauty of the buildings and their magic. Churches , cloisters, palaces, the castle with the cathedral contained all tell a great story and the official links with the presidential offices probably managed to keep the visual litter created by a moltitude of kiosks and tacky shops to a minimum.