The best five gigs I’ve promoted

So in the interests of balance, after yesterday’s list of blunders, dickheads and lost cash, here’s today’s list of heroes, packed nights and amazing bands. I hope tonight’s show knocks one of them out of the top five.
The top five OxfordBands.com gigs I promoted
5. The Edmund Fitzgerald + Geisha + Hunting Lodge, The Wheatsheaf
Just for [...]

The five worst gigs I’ve ever promoted

So tomorrow night is the last ever OxfordBands.com monthly gig night. I’ve been promoting gigs under that banner for five years, and it was pretty sad for me to decide that I had to stop them, especially when the basic reason is not having the time to do it any more.
I think if there had [...]

Most favoured body part in pop?

Wired report on an interesting survey about the most sung-about body part in music. Interesting in concept but prosaic in terms of results – eyes come out on top overall (couldn’t see that one coming, hoho), except for hip hop, which firmly favours the ass. Had internal body parts been in the mix, however, I [...]

Monday morning links

Tech-savvy Obama outmaneuvering the media

Facebook v. MySpace In The U.S. Market: The Music Factor
The digital war on poverty
Nearly 500,000 people in developing nations earn a wage making virtual goods in online games
Idiot Daily Mail gets its knickers in a twist over a Klingon knife.
Interactive map of US military presence, 1950-2007. Scary.
And finally, excellent news from [...]

How to record your band’s demo

So, back to the series of articles, originally written for OxfordBands.com by me, on advice for bands just starting out. This episode is on recording a demo. Opinions vary about how good a demo has to be, and recording techniques vary depending on how much cash you have, how much of a perfectionist you are, [...]