M Magazine Issue 45

NORTHERN ECHOES

Mining for new music

FAN FUNDING

Getting a slice of the pie

Members Music Magazine Issue 45 September 2012

sly & robbie Jamaica’s other golden duo

Are you getting all the royalties due to you?

Use our online services to: register/amend your music information quickly l search for unclaimed royalties l report your live performances easily l receive your royalty statements by email l update your personal details directly online l

Log in at prsformusic.com Follow us on Facebook and Twitter Visit www.m-magazine.co.uk for the latest music news, interviews and offers

contents

FEATURES 14

18

14 nonclassical Breaking the sound barrier

MEMO Welcome to the latest issue of M. Now the festival season has come to a close and the Olympics opening and closing ceremonies are behind us, we can reflect on another great summer for our members.

While the headlines were littered with stories of the record-breaking Jamaican sporting duo Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake, we take a look at the record-making pair Sly and Robbie for our cover story. Having worked with everyone from Grace Jones and Bob Marley to Bob Dylan and Joe Cocker, they’ve spent their whole career raising the musical bar across almost every genre.

We also examine the North East music scene, and find a new generation of innovative songwriters, promoters and record labels leading the charge. Among others, we catch up with Sunderland supergroup B>E>A>K and hear from The Sage Gateshead’s Ros Rigby.

Then, as Kickstarter prepares for its UK launch, we look at the fan-funding model to find out what it can do for you.

We explore the brave new

NORTHERN ECHOES

Mining for new music

FAN FUNDING

Getting a slice of the pie

Members Music Magazine Issue 45 September 2012

Meanwhile Maggie Rodford, BAFTA committee member and Managing Director of Air-Edel, comments on the strong relationship between the British music, film and TV industries in the wake of Danny Boyle’s spectacular Olympics opening ceremony.

We finish with a Marc Bolan Picture This Special, commemorating both a great songwriter and the PRS for Music Benevolent Fund’s tribute concert and fundraiser that took place at the O2 in Shepherd's Bush earlier this month.

We hope you enjoy your issue of M. Remember to check out www.mmagazine.co.uk for extras.

cover: sly and robbie

28 fan funding 22

28

How it can work for you

REGULARS 4

4 members and music

8

8 money and business 11 comment and debate 27 i wrote that 34 picture this 34

CONTRIBUTORS

Editor Paul Nichols

Production & Design Carl English

Rosie Blanchard, KaKei Cheng, Jon Duncan, Laura Driffield, Alex Dorobantu, Pip Ellwood, Jules Parker, Sarah Thirtle, Kim Williams

Business Editor Barney Hooper 30/08/2012 17:05:27

Meet the future heads

PRODUCTION

Jim Ottewill

Jamaica’s other golden duo

22 true north

EDITORIAL

Contributor

M45 cover fluro.indd 1

The legendary duo talk drums and bass

27

Tell us what you think: magazine@prsformusic. com

Associate Editor Anita Awbi

sly & robbie

18 sly and robbie

world of modern classical music, and discover some of the leading lights at the vanguard of this dynamic genre. We meet some of Britain's most exciting new composers daring to combine dance music sensibilities with a classical composition ethos.

Membership Adviser Myles Keller

Art Director Cai Taylor

PRS for Music, 29-33 Berners Street, London W1T 3AB T 020 7580 5544 E magazine@prsformusic.com W www.prsformusic.com The printing of M Magazine is managed on behalf of PRS for Music

by Cyan Group Ltd, Twickenham. www.cyan-group.com Advertising 020 3225 5200 ISSN 0309-0019© PRS for Music 2012. All rights reserved. The views expressed in M are not necessarily those of PRS for Music, nor of the editorial team. PRS for Music accepts no responsibility for the views expressed by contributors to M, nor for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or illustrations, nor for errors in contributed articles or advertisements.

Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited.

M is printed on paper manufactured using chlorine-free pulps and the raw materials are from fully managed and sustainable forests.

m45_september 2012_3

just joined

sign up for information about becoming a member visit prsformusic.com/joinus

1

3

2

7

DREW COX

5

6

members

m online

keep up to date at m-magazine.co.uk and follow us on twitter @M_magazinePRS

4

new members 1. man like me

6. max cooper

Published by Barbera Music Led by 23-year-old Camden pin-up Johnny Langer, Man Like Me combine indie, rave, grime, ska and hip-hop with matter-of-fact lyrics to create an unquestionably youthful British sound.

The band released their debut album in May, supported Madness at Madstock, and became the second unsigned act to play Channel 4’s Transmission show. www.manlikeme.net

Unpublished Raised in Belfast, Max Cooper is a London-based electronica and techno producer. His best known release is the Serie Trilogy, three dancefloor tracks with related videos by animator Whiskas Fx. Cooper has built a reputation for one-off originals, killer remixes and challenging DJ and live sets, having released more than 50 original tracks and remixes. www.maxcooper.net

2. citizens!

Unpublished Citizens! are a five-piece guitar band from London who are set to put the soul back into pop. Freshly signed to French electronic indie label Kitsuné, their debut album Here We Are was produced

by Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos. www.citizenscitizens.com

3. niranjan iyengar 8

9

10

Unpublished Niranjan Iyengar is an Indian screenwriter and lyricist particularly known for his work with director Karan Johar. Author of the book The Making of Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, the notable works he has written are My Name is Khan with Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Kurbaan with Salim Sulaiman and RA-One with Vishal Shekhar.

7. juan zelada Published by Warner/Chappell Folk-rock singer-songwriter Juan Zelada is an accomplished piano and guitar player whose music ranges from jazz to pop. His debut single Breakfast in Spitalfields was A-listed on BBC Radio 2. He is currently preparing for his first UK tour in November. www.juanzelada.com

8. arun kumar Unpublished Arun Kumar is a screenwriter and lyricist working in the Mumbai film and music industry. He has penned the lyrics to Jaanu na Jaanu from the hit movie Utt Patnag in 2011. He recently wrote all the songs for an independent album Utthaan by Saregama.

4. rudimental

9. pins

Published by Sony/ATV This Hackney quartet is signed to Asylum Records and independent label Black Butter. The songwriter/production group rose to fame earlier this year with the single Feel the Love, featuring singer John Newman, which topped the UK Singles Chart. www.rudimental.co.uk

Unpublished Upcoming Manchester band Pins have released a string of sold-out cassette EPs, opened for US indie darlings Best Coast, nu-funk troubadour Willis Earl Beal and indie band Savages, bagging themselves a string of festival dates this summer. Their take on the C86 sound has also won them plaudits at BBC 6 Music and influential British blog The Line of Best Fit. www.wearepins.co.uk

5. toy Unpublished Toy released their debut album earlier this month, which will be followed by a UK headline tour in October. No strangers to songwriting, the five-piece is made up of three former members of Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong. The band recently supported Primal Scream and played the Field Day, Standon Calling, Green Man, Reading and Leeds festivals. www.toy-band.com

10. vuvuvultures Unpublished Vuvuvultures are a futuristic Londonbased guitar band producing a pitch perfect mix of electronica and indie-pop.

Headed by Australian model Harmony Boucher, the foursome launched their debut EP VVV late in 2011 and recently released their new single I’ll Cut You. www.vuvuvultures.com

m45_september 2012_5

members & music heritage award double bill Supergrass, one of the UK’s best loved indie bands, will receive a PRS for Music Heritage Award on 3 October at the site of their breakthrough gigs, the vital Jericho Tavern venue in Oxford. The pub is renowned for its support of local live music and Supergrass feel an affinity with the place, having performed there regularly during their early years.

The 17th MOBO Awards is taking place in Liverpool on 3 November at the city’s Echo Arena. PRS for Music is sponsoring the Best Song Award as a joint celebration of the diversity of its membership and the songwriting talent of Britain’s homegrown artists.

The band formed in 1993 and their first single, the era-defining Caught by the Fuzz was released in 1994. They went on to carve out an idiosyncratic niche in British rock music over six studio albums, spawning a string of hit singles including Alright, Going Out and Moving. The three piece of Gaz Coombes, Mick Quinn and Danny Goffey, joined later by Gaz’s brother Robbie, announced their split in 2010.

Quinn said of the Jericho Tavern: ‘Everyone aspired to play the venue back in the day and I remember seeing my brother’s band This Way Up play there as early as 1983.

We received our first positive review as Theodore Supergrass from there in 1994, when the promoter Maccy burst into the dressing room after our first gig telling us, “You’ve got it!” Scenes from the infamous dressing room also feature in our Caught by the Fuzz video.

‘Later, a feeding frenzy of record company A&R men turned up to our shows there, and

Last year, Jessie J was one of the event’s biggest winners, claiming prizes for Best UK Act, Best Newcomer and the PRS for Music Best Song with Do It Like a Dude.

Other winners included Rihanna, Tinie Tempah and Boyz II Men.

Pictured: Supergrass

I remember us dedicating a song to Kurt Cobain from the stage the night he died,’ Quinn added.

Last month, seminal British electronica act Faithless were awarded PRS for Music’s tenth Heritage Award at the site of their first gig, the Jazz Café in Camden Town.

The trio performed a short live set at the unveiling of their plaque on 19 September, celebrating the stage they first graced in 1996.

Faithless’ Sister Bliss said: ‘We had some unforgettable nights in Camden, the local scene was always edgy and groundbreaking and we loved it. Electronic music was finally getting some broader recognition too and it was an exciting time for us. The Jazz Café is really important to our story and where our live career took off. We’re so honoured to get this Heritage Award with them and celebrate where it all started. Can’t believe it’s been 15 years!’ Read I Wrote That with Sister Bliss on page 27.

PRS for Music established the Heritage Award scheme in 2009 to recognise important live music venues where iconic bands and artists played their first gigs.

Previous awardees include Blur, Elton John, Soul II Soul, UB40, Snow Patrol, James and Jethro Tull.

For related features, video interviews and performances, visit www.m-magazine.co.uk

Pictured: Faithless

6_september 2012_m45

awards season begins

Performances are a major part of the event, with previous live highlights coming from some of the music industry’s biggest names, including Jay-Z, the late Amy Winehouse and Destiny’s Child.

Earlier this year, Kanya King, founder of the awards, said that the event is an important platform for highlighting emerging and established British acts.

‘When we started, 80 percent of the acts performing were from the US - now it’s the other way around. Our UK acts are the global superstars,’ she said.

The MOBO Awards were established in 1996 to recognise the achievements of artists performing music from a wide range of genres, including gospel, hip-hop, jazz, R&B, soul and grime. Visit www.mobo.com for more information on this year’s event and nominees.

This autumn will also bring the 39th Gold Badge Awards, an annual celebration of the outstanding individuals who have made a special contribution in support of songwriters and composers. The ceremony will take place at The Savoy, London, on 17 October.

Lastly, the British Composer Awards will take place on 3 December, marking the achievements of luminaries from the jazz and contemporary classical worlds. For more information, see www.basca.org.uk

news

m online

visit: www.m-magazine.co.uk want to get involved? email: magazine@prsformusic.com

marc bolan tribute concert The Marc Bolan 35th Anniversary Concert in aid of the PRS for Music Members Benevolent Fund took place at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire on 15 September. The line-up included T. Rex producer Tony Visconti, Andy Ellison, T. Rex saxophonist Howie Casey, glam-rock contemporaries Alvin Stardust and Steve Harley, Sex Pistol Glen Matlock, Sandy Shaw, friend Linda Lewis and T. Rex fan Boy George. All the performers were supported by the official Marc Bolan tribute band T. Rextasy with Danielz.

PRS for Music Members Benevolent Fund patron Rick Wakeman said: ‘This concert highlights so many positive things about the music community.

Making great music has been a consistent British success story but some artists and their families suffer extreme hardship later in life. It is vital we support those who have fallen on hard times.’

See our Picture This special on page 34.

prs for music foundation funding update The PRS for Music Foundation grants around 250 funding awards each year to new music creators, performers, promoters, producers and organisations. Its application process involves two stages, designed to assess compatibility with its three funding priorities; to support the creation and performance of outstanding new music in any genre, to develop artists to their full potential and to inspire audiences UK-wide.

Here’s a spotlight on two successful projects that have been funded this year: Pictured: Veronica Falls

SEXBEAT, the east London promoters and record label, applied for funding through the foundation’s Organisations and Groups scheme to support its new music festival RADFEST. The festival was a great success, taking place across three stages at Hackney Downs Studios on 19 August. The line-up included upcoming UK acts Veronica Falls, Halls and Eagulls.

‘We’re committed to keeping RADFEST at a reasonable price, to encourage people to come hang out for the day, discover great new bands and ensure that every one has a great time,’ said SEXBEAT’s Stephen Rose. ‘Having support from PRS for Music Foundation has helped us to do this while allowing us to keep the quality of the UK bands high.’

Meanwhile, Rough Fields, aka James Birchall, is an electro-acoustic composer and producer from Manchester who applied through the

foundation’s Individuals scheme for support to expand his ‘bedroom studio’ approach into a full touring live act. Although he had been rehearsing and performing, James needed financial support to take things further afield and perform in more unusual venues.

‘Making that transition to a more active live project would be extremely difficult without the funding… ,’ he said. ‘It’s great to be able to get into a half decent rehearsal studio and get a more realistic idea of how things are going to sound in a venue.’

benevolent fund receives irish bequest Maisie Tilsley, who sadly passed away on 2 July, bequeathed her house to the PRS for Music Members Benevolent Fund in gratitude for the support she had received from the charity. Maisie was a PRS successor member to late husband, the composer and orchestra leader Reg Tilsley.

The fund now plans to sell the house, following Maisie’s wishes, with all proceeds being used to help other members who need financial assistance. The house is in Thallabawn, Louisburgh, County Mayo, on Ireland’s beautiful West Coast. For more information about it, visit www.sherryfitz.ie

british music abroad at cmj and womex PRS for Music Foundation has announced that We Were Evergreen, Citizens!, The Midnight Beast and Matthew and the Atlas will receive support from funding programme British Music Abroad to attend the CMJ Music Marathon in New York next month (October). The programme, which is run in partnership with Arts Council England, British Underground and UK Trade & Investment, will also assist singer-songwriter Sam Lee to attend WOMEX, an international convention in Greece, also next month.

Both CMJ and WOMEX act as showcases for the international music industry, with the possibility of attracting business deals and opportunities with agents, promoters, publishers and labels in global territories.

Without the support from British Music Abroad and PRS for Music Foundation, those that have been supported would not be able to attend.

The next deadline for both the Organisations and Groups scheme and the Individuals scheme is 4 February 2013. For more information, visit www.prsformusicfoundation.com

m45_september 2012_7

money & business the business behind piracy

PRS for Music and internet giant Google have published research into websites that infringe copyright, identifying six main business models that underpin piracy. The study followed a call for better evidence and data by the government as it looks to introduce measures to reduce the problem of piracy for all creative industries.

Undertaken by business intelligence company BAE Systems Detica, the report analysed a range of sites that provide unlicensed content and grouped them together based on common trends and themes. Of the six models identified, TV content websites providing links to unlicensed programming such as live streams of free-to-air and pay-TV channels were seeing the fastest growth. Peer-to-peer communities that provide links to unlicensed TV, film and music content available via file-sharing networks were worryingly also gaining traction.

The report identified that across the board, advertising revenue provided significant income sources for copyright infringement websites, while a large number of sites also depended on credit card and online payment facilities. A small proportion of sites were hosted in the UK with money flowing mostly overseas to countries including Russia, Sweden, the US, and the Netherlands.

Google’s Theo Bertram said: ‘Our research shows there are many different business models for online infringement, which can be tackled if we work together. The evidence suggests that one of the most effective ways to do this is to follow the money, targeting the advertisers who choose to make money from these sites and working with payment providers to ensure they know where their services are being used.’

Robert Ashcroft, Chief Executive of PRS for Music, added: ‘This groundbreaking research tells us two things. Firstly sites involved in copyright infringement are businesses with real costs and revenue sources. They receive subscription or advertising revenue, pay their server or hosting costs but fail to pay the creators of content on which their businesses depend.

‘Secondly, not all of these business models are the same, and the government now has the evidence to understand which policy levers to apply to deal with these different businesses effectively.’

PRS for Music is briefing the report to policy makers in the UK government and in Europe to assist in the continued fight to combat piracy.

8_september 2012_m45

The report can be viewed in full at www.prsformusic.com/economics In related news, Google announced last month that it would start to include details of copyright removal notices in its search rankings.

The move will mean that sites offering pirate or unlicensed content and who have been served a notice to remove it, will move down the Google search rankings making it more difficult to find.

While many sites are accessed directly by typing in a web address, users do rely on search engines like Google in many circumstances to find unlicensed content on the web.

The announcement was widely praised by the music industry and other rightsholders as a much needed step by Google to protect creative content online.

In 2011, the search engine stopped its auto-complete service that helps fill in the blank when a person is typing a word Google recognises, filling in pirate-related phrases.

Terms relating to well known pirate sites including Mediafire, RapidShare and BitTorrent no longer display in the auto-complete function.

festival update 2012 has been a confusing year for the British music festival. Previously, the public’s romance with the event format had grown stronger every year but this summer its eye seems to have wandered. Naysayers may say it’s not surprising. With poor weather, an ongoing recession and a deluge of distractions including the Queen’s Jubilee, Euro 2012 and the Olympics, for some regular festival goers, there’s simply been no room in the diary (or bank account) to fit an event in.

Other factors have played their part in tainting what has been a seemingly blissful relationship.

With an over-crowded market place, countless free events and arguably cheaper, certainly hotter festivals overseas, so it isn’t surprising that some established names received a kick to the kerb.

The likes of Bloc, Shockwave, Under Age and Creamfields were among those to suffer a knock back in the form of cancellation. Others, such as Big Chill and the bid daddy of the festival circuit, Glastonbury, were hugely noticeable by their absence.

Despite this doom-mongering, the festival circuit remains at the heart of the UK’s music industry. Licensing revenue from festivals hit £3.1m in 2007 but had subsequently grown to £5.1m by 2011, PRS for Music figures show.

So if 2012 is a blip in this growth, 2013 could prove to be much brighter, particularly with Glastonbury back in the calendar and huge sporting events out.

government recommends copyright licensing hub One of the ideas mooted in last year’s Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property and Growth report was a Digital Copyright Exchange to improve licensing within the creative industries.

Richard Hooper, a former deputy-chair of communications regulator Ofcom, was appointed by Business Secretary Vince Cable MP to lead an independent feasibility study into the project. His final report, Copyright Works, was published in July.

In it, Hooper calls on all the creative industries to play a role in funding the Digital Copyright Exchange. The platform has been billed as a marketplace for rights,

streamlining copyright licensing and making transactions quicker for creators, rightsholders and users.

A steering group comprising of Dr. Ros Lynch, the report’s co-author, and senior executives from the creative industries, has been suggested to drive the project forward.

PRS for Music has been fully engaged with the feasibility study and has worked with Hooper and his team to explain the music licensing process and the work the society has already completed to make licensing easier for those that want to use music.

Read Richard Hooper’s comment piece in this edition of M magazine, page 13.

news

online royalties rise PRS for Music has announced a tripling in online royalty revenues for its songwriter and music publisher members over the last five years. The collecting society said that total online revenue rose from £11.2m in 2006 to £39.1m in 2011.

The online market has been described as exceptionally fluid. While previous core revenue streams, such as mobile phone ringtones, have dwindled over the past four years, the continued dominance of stores such as iTunes and Amazon, along with the rise in streaming services such as Spotify, has more than made up for it.

Meanwhile, growth in licensing of non-music on-demand content has delivered a new revenue stream, rising from nothing to £6m in five years, thanks to the success of film and TV downloads, rental services and catch-up TV. PRS for Music continues to be at the forefront of licensing new services despite continued regulatory and market pressures. Negotiating and administering pan-European licensing deals can be complex and PRS for Music has been influential in EU plans to simplify licensing across country borders within Europe. Similarly in the UK, PRS for Music is offering, where possible, additional rights in its licences to reduce the number of deals new services have to strike.

welsh member talks continue PRS for Music and the Welsh Music Publishers and Composers Alliance (WMPCA) met last month as part of ongoing discussions concerning the possible withdrawal by some Welsh-language songwriters and publishers of their radio broadcasting and television rights from PRS. The talks focused on the practical implications of forming a Welsh-language agency to directly collect royalties for these rights. PRS for Music’s policy is to distribute royalties based on the amount of music played by a station and its audience size, using information published

by RAJAR (the industry benchmark for radio broadcasting), and this means that rates can

vary year-to-year. To ensure fairness to all its members, PRS for Music specifically avoids attributing different values to different types of music, irrespective of genre, language or other distinctions. The policy was established by PRS for Music following a Monopolies and Mergers Commission Report in 1996.

The WMPCA continues to campaign for a higher value from broadcast usage for Welsh-language music. However, PRS for Music remains committed to its policy to distribute royalty payments on a fair, accurate and transparent basis to all its members.

olympic sales spike British music sales have rocketed thanks to the Olympics opening and closing ceremonies from Danny Boyle and David Arnold. The shows spanned several genres and periods of British music, and included nearly 100 iconic songs. As a result, songs featured have seen a significant sales spike, with some, such as the Chemical Brothers’ Galvanise and Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield, receiving a sales upturn of more than 1,000 percent in the weeks following the events.

Belgium, Spain and France, and reached number five in the US. This success was replicated by the closing ceremony, which was watched by 22.9 million people. Its commemorative album, A Symphony of British Music, has also enjoyed high chart positions after the event.

Meanwhile, the opening ceremony compilation album Isles of Wonder went straight to number one in the iTunes album chart in the UK, Pictured: Olympic Park, Stratford

The first online licence was issued in 2002 and PRS for Music has licensed a diverse range of services from YouTube and Spotify, to Rdio, 7digital and Amazon. Now over 1,500 online licences are administered.

In related news, the PRS for Music Distribution Committee has approved changes to the way UK royalties for online services are distributed, in recognition of the changing marketplace.

These changes will affect the way royalties are distributed, and will make the whole process more accurate and efficient as digital music usages continue to grow. For more information, see www.prsformusic.com/ORDupdate

Pictured: Spotify interface

prs for music and cuesongs ink licensing deal CueSongs, a one-stop music licensing centre for online and digital media, is the latest organisation to be licensed by PRS for Music.

CueSongs customers can now access licensed PRS for Music repertoire through CueSongs’ website, which provides creative content for corporate films, branded content for websites, social media and events.

The deal provides an additional channel in which businesses can obtain the rights they need and will ensure creators can earn when their music is used in this way. Commenting on the recent deal, William Booth, Director of Media Licensing at PRS for Music, said: ‘We are delighted to be working with CueSongs to provide an efficient licensing service to an important and growing area of content usage.

Through the streamlined CueSongs solution,

we are able to reduce the burden on small businesses further and ultimately, reduce the costs of administration for our members. We see this as another exciting step in supporting the digital sector to be more productive.’

Ed Averdieck, CEO of CueSongs, added: ‘This not only makes it easier for businesses but also ensures that songwriters and composers are paid for the usage of their work.’

CueSongs licenses music from a range of PRS for Music members, including MusicSales, Peer Music, Sony/ATV and Westbury Music amongst many others. The service launched in January 2012 and was co-founded by Ed Averdieck, formerly head of Nokia Music and OD2, and music pioneer Peter Gabriel. m45_september 2012_9

SESAC-06 Mmagazine_107mmx260mm_SESAC-06 Mmagazine_107mmx260mm 10/31/1

Recording Studio Property Sales & Lettings Specialists Since 1965

Looking to buy or rent a recording studio?

Do you need to find a buyer or tenant for your studio and/or business? mjQ is the best online resource for any studio real-estate.

.indd 1

Whether it's a dry-hire prog room in a studio complex, freehold private residence or nuclear bunkermjQ has been matching people with recording studios for over 40 years.

Visit our website www.mjq.co.uk where you can also check out our current catalogue of classic & vintage analogue gear, supported by a first-rate technical services department.

sales@mjq.co.uk

SESAC

The fastest-growing performing rights organization in the U.S. wants to represent your music.

+44 (0)7545 330637

Call us for a chat anytime We're looking forward to hearing from you!

Get latest property updates via Twitter @mjQLtd

We give our clients personal attention, whether they’re new artists or living legends.

We pay 25% faster than our U.S. competitors.

We offer expert advice on royalty collection networks around the world.

We pay for live performances - anytime, anywhere in the USA. London Contact John Sweeney at rights@sesac.co.uk Tel: 0207 616 9284 Fax: 0207 563 7029 67 Upper Berkeley Street London W1H 7QX

NASHVILLE • LOS ANGELES • NEW YORK • ATLANTA • MIAMI • LONDON

WWW.SESAC.COM

30/05/2012 14:39

11

money & business mutesong and westbury join impel

PRS for Music has announced that Westbury Music and Mutesong are the latest publishers to sign up to its Independent Music Publishers’ European Licensing (IMPEL) initiative. Repertoire from the two publishers was included in the society’s pan-European digital licences from 1 July onwards.

IMPEL directly licenses Anglo-American online and mobile mechanical rights to new and existing pan-European digital services on behalf of its publisher members along with the matching performing rights. Together with the repertoire licensed from its ‘Friends of IMPEL’ members, PRS for Music has now distributed royalties in excess of £5m to independent publishers since IMPEL’s inception in 2010.

Graham Edwards, Head of Pan-European Licensing Services at PRS for Music, said: ‘We are pleased to report a number of positives including a significantly improved processing speed for IMPEL distributions. In some cases it has taken just six months from music use in Europe to royalties hitting bank accounts and as a result we are seeing ever more interest from the independent publisher community.’

Andrew King, General Manager, Mutesong commented: ‘We have followed IMPEL from the start and having seen the successes to date we felt this was the right time to join.

We feel this is the way forward for digital licensing and are optimistic for the future of this venture.’

To date, PRS for Music has 20 pan-European licensing deals in place including Spotify, 7Digital, Amazon, Apple iTunes, Rdio, Research in Motion and Rara.com. IMPEL is supported by the Music Publishers Association.

your next paydays Performing (PRS):

Mechanicals (MCPS):

15 14 15 15

31 October 30 November 31 December 31 January

October December April July

news

news in brief MCPS Board update: Peter Cornish has been appointed MCPS chairman, while incumbent chairman Nigel Elderton is now deputy chairman. The following directors were reappointed to the MCPS board: publisher directors; Mark Anders; Antony Bebawi; Ben Newing; writer director; Steve Levine; external director; Paul Dolan.

record response for music makeover Earlier this year, PRS for Music launched its Music Makeover competition to encourage pubs to host live music. Publicans around the country were asked to enter before the 30 September deadline to be in with a chance of winning £5,000 to help them create the right space for music.

The society has registered a record response, and judges from the Musicians’ Union (MU), British Beer and Pubs Association and PRS for Music are lined up to assess the applications. Music Makeover entries will be whittled down to three finalists to be visited by the judges. They are looking for a venue with untapped potential for music and landlords who display the greatest desire to make live music a key feature of their pub. The overall winner will be announced by 31 December. For more information, visit www.prsformusic.com/musicmakeover Horace Trubridge from the MU, said: ‘Pubs play such a vital role in many musicians’ careers and provide an essential platform from which talent can grow. Demonstrating how music can really benefit pubs underlines how intertwined the two industries are. We need to protect and support the pub sector and the live music circuit as they are both an integral part of the UK cultural scene.’

Research by PRS for Music with pub-data specialists CGA Strategy identified a significant positive impact of live and recorded music on sales in pubs – an increase of £667 on Fridays and Saturdays and 36 more units each day during the week. In challenging economic times for the British pub, the research confirms that live music is a vital lifeline to many venues.

Universal/EMI bid update: Universal Music Group’s (UMG) bid to acquire EMI is to be approved by EU regulators, Reuters has reported, quoting multiple sources familiar with the deal. The £1.2bn purchase includes an offer to sell rights to EMI’s labels and catalogue. UMG’s French owner, Vivendi SA, is likely to sell EMI imprint Parlophone, the label behind Blur, Coldplay and Kylie Minogue, to overcome previous anti-competition concerns.

Global digital music sales to top £5bn: Global sales in digital music will increase by 17.8 percent to £5.5bn in 2012, new research shows. Online streaming revenues will grow almost five times faster than downloads, Strategy Analytics’ latest forecast reveals. The growth in digital music spending is compared to a 12.1 percent fall in physical sales in 2012. Digital music is to increase its share of the global music spend to 39 percent in 2012 and is predicted to overtake physical sales by 2015.

Spotify hits 15 million user mark: Online streaming platform Spotify now has 15 million global users, with four million paying for the service. Ken Parks, Chief Content Officer and Managing Director of Spotify North America, announced the latest user figures at London’s Global Business Summit on Creative Content in July. The figure is a five million increase on the 10 million active users reported in January 2012.

MCPS to stop issuing cheques: MCPS payments will no longer be distributed by cheque following an initiative to deliver a single system for membership and distribution data across the whole of PRS for Music. The move to BACS payments is expected to reduce costs and make payments faster and more secure. Members currently receiving payments by cheque should provide details of a nominated bank account by 1 November to guarantee payment in the next distribution.

m45_september 2010_11

comment & debate the big issues

Maggie Rodford, Managing Director, Air-Edel British musical talent has always been at the forefront of film and TV composition around the globe but over the last ten years territorial boundaries have really ceased to exist. The upside is that home grown talent can be working anywhere in the world, at any point, very successfully. But it also means our marketplace is open to other countries as well.

I think we’re very lucky in the UK as our composers have some of the finest film, TV and games projects to work on. Dramatically they are very well written, with fantastic directors, amazing acting and technical talent, stand-out producers and some of the best facilities in the world for both shooting, post-production, music recording and mixing.

If you make it in the home market you stand a very good chance of receiving attention from overseas because the British and TV film business is so important in the entertainment world: it is a major player.

For a long time, screen composers weren’t classed as ‘proper’ composers, which is complete and utter rubbish On the other hand, it’s worth noting that British composers are very successful in the UK TV and film industries because they are really good at what they do - it’s more than just a question of nationality or where you live.

12_september 2012_m45

We have some of the finest screen composers in the world living and working here so it is a relatively easy decision for someone to be looking for talent in Britain because we have got the best!

But, despite this strong reputation, it is extremely important that composers working in the film and TV business are very much at the top of their game. They have to be the most innovative, original, technically proficient and efficient in terms of time and budget and great communicators. All of these factors are crucial as the world becomes smaller and competition gets stiffer.

Against this backdrop, it is heartening to watch commissioned music rise in stature. Established music colleges are now acknowledging that it’s a serious, legitimate side to composition. For a long time, screen composers weren’t classed as ‘proper’ composers, which is complete and utter rubbish.

They are doing exactly what composers of the 17th century did; accepting a commission so they have a meal on their plate at the end of the week.

What’s more, some of the music being written now is stunningly beautiful and will be in the classical repertoire in the years to come. Another interesting development I’ve noticed is the number of concerts where the programme is devoted to film, TV and games repertoire. In a way that’s an acknowledgement of the importance of this work.

But we can’t let all this recognition and hard work go to waste. We need to ensure that the performing right in composers’ work is not undermined, because it is this income stream which enables composers to operate in a freelance world. We must join in the discussions taking

place right now, with focus on streaming, downloading and the international royalty structure.

The film and TV world is particularly vulnerable to changes in copyright policy and growth in piracy. Many composers work on a score for six months or more and rely on income from the programme or movie’s screening. The commission fee is so much lower these days, making royalties the lifeblood of the industry. Therefore, if we don’t meet the challenges copyright faces together, we face a major threat to all of our businesses. The next few months and years will be a crucial time for everyone in the creative industries.

Maggie Rodford is Managing Director of the Air-Edel Group, a London and LA-based music representation, production and publishing company, working with composers worldwide.

She is also a member of the BAFTA film committee.

Previously, Maggie has worked as music producer, co-ordinator and supervisor on many high profile film, TV and games scores. She also served as a PRS Director for many years and was an active member of the PRS Executive Committee.

forum

But, as we argue in Copyright Works: Streamlining Copyright Licensing for the Digital Age, there is no room for complacency. Streamlining copyright licensing further will be a constant for the future, as the creative industries respond to new consumer demands and changes in technology.

Our main recommendation is the creation of a not-for-profit, industry-led Copyright Hub based in the UK that links to the growing national and international network of private and public sector digital copyright exchanges, such as PRS for Music, rights registries and other copyrightrelated databases. The hub, which will be based on voluntary opt-in, non-exclusive and pro-competitive principles, should serve five main purposes.

copyright in the digital age Richard Hooper, Digital Copyright Exchange, feasability study lead We acknowledge that the music industry has responded proactively to the concerns raised in the Hargreaves Review on copyright, and is busy streamlining copyright licensing for the digital age.

Firstly, it should act as a signposting and navigating mechanism for everyone involved in the administration of copyright. Secondly, it should provide copyright education for both the creative industries and the wider public.

Thirdly, the hub should be the place where any copyright owner can register works, the associated rights to those works, permitted uses and licences granted. Fourthly, it should be the go-to place for easy-to-use, transparent, low transaction cost copyright licensing via digital copyright exchanges.

And finally, the Copyright Hub needs to be an authoritative database, where prospective users of orphan works can undertake a diligent search before digitising the musical works.

As I said when Richard Hooper’s copyright report was published back in July, we at PRS for Music both welcome and support his findings and will work with our partners in the industry to meet the challenges he identifies.

We have a clear objective to provide a better licensing environment for all.

I was pleased the report identified the positive steps the music industry has taken towards adapting and streamlining licensing for the online age, and agree that there is no room for complacency: there is always more to do.

response Robert Ashcroft, Chief Executive, PRS for Music

Our approach has always been to help consumers to access legal music on new platforms, while doing our best to ensure that songwriters, composers and music publishers receive fair value. Indeed, as the first collecting society to issue a licence for an online music service, PRS for Music has never relinquished its lead, being the first collecting society to license YouTube and, more recently, iTunes in the Cloud.

The proposed Copyright Hub, covering a diverse range of creative works, could bring further significant improvements to licensing, particularly where it concerns the ‘long tail’ of relatively low-value uses, where we can harness the power of the internet to bring together the users of entertainment content with its respective

We understand there is a lot of work to be done to make the hub operational, so we recommend that a Copyright Hub Launch Group is established to take this forward.

For the music industry, we welcome the efforts being made by PRS for Music and PPL to strengthen joint working arrangements, including the new joint licences that have been announced.

We believe that these will greatly benefit small businesses. We are also pleased with the efforts that PRS for Music and others are making to improve the quality of the data through the development of the Global Repertoire Database. Databases like this are crucial if licensing is to be further streamlined and creators are to be paid accurately and in a timely fashion.

Finally, we recognise the significant efforts underway by PRS for Music to pioneer easier ways of licensing across the single European market, thus helping to create a true single market across Europe. We recommend that PRS for Music and others in the music industry continue to work with the appropriate European organisations and we look forward to working with you as we enter into the next phase of the work.

Richard Hooper CBE was Deputy Chairman of Ofcom, Chairman of the Radio Authority and publishing group Informa. He is currently Senior Independent Director at YELL Group and VocaLink Holdings.

rightsholders in an efficient, easy-to-use and low-cost venue.

The copyright report also identified that joint licensing within the music industry needs to be extended and I am happy to report that an exercise to study how we might expand joint licensing between PRS for Music and PPL is well underway.

While we in the industry clearly understand the different rights represented by PRS for Music and PPL, the rationale behind the requirement to obtain two separate licences to use music - one from ourselves and one from PPL – is often not so clear to our customers who simply want access to music in one easy transaction.

Joint licensing could benefit all interested parties: users, artists and their labels, and our members alike.

We know the music we represent is essential to business and it is our duty, both to our members and our customers, to make legal access to it as easy as possible and so ensure that creators continue to earn the royalties they rightfully deserve.

m45_september 2012_13

non classical Guy Dammann makes sense of the genre-hopping world of contemporary classical music.

IN THE FIELD OF CLASSICAL MUSIC, it often seems as if conserving links with the past eclipses the sense of music-making in the present. Even the label itself – ‘classical’ music - not only suggests some kind of historical remoteness, but almost seems to demand it.

And if this reflects the reality that classical music concerts are still dominated by music composed by people who lived more than two centuries ago, what of the composers working today? Writers of ‘contemporary classical music’ seem automatically trapped in a paradox, between continuity with modes of listening, and with instruments and forms which have existed, in some cases, for centuries.

There is still room, of course, for music of great beauty and power here, but the fortress of high art music has for a long time seemed rather cramped and closed, and it is not surprising that in recent years composers and musicians have experienced the desire to shake it up, break out, or, in some cases, in.

‘Music has always been about communication,’ says Gabriel Prokofiev, one contemporary composer who has gone about breaking down the walls of the classical music institution in more direct ways than most. Being the grandson of the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev, one of the best loved figures in early 20th century music, he knows what living inside the institution feels like.

‘From as early as I can remember, I was frequently taken aback by the way in which young musicians and composers seemed primarily to be communicating to a different peer group. The natural thing to do, whatever your age, is to exist within your own time, and it seemed a bit false to me to find so many 20-year-olds writing music, in some

ways, tailored to the listening habits of 60-year-olds.’

Prokofiev sees the current situation as an offshoot of contemporary classical music’s having become increasingly enshrined in the academic world. Following the Second World War, as more and more composers sought to make a fresh start for their art, composition turned into a sphere of isolated experimentation, says Prokofiev, something which in his view has stifled and limited it dangerously.

Prokofiev’s answer has been two-pronged. First, in common with many who grew up during the 90s, he is a keen fan of dance music, and is eager to incorporate influences from this into his own music, a practice he sees as continuing the way 19th century composers incorporated popular and folk music into their work. As the composer of the world’s first concerto for turntables and orchestra, premiered at last year’s Proms, this is clearly a badge he wears proudly. Perhaps more controversial, however, is the way Prokofiev has sought to introduce classical and contemporary classical music into different environments, establishing a club night – provocatively called NONCLASSICAL – and, subsequently, a record label of the same name.

‘I do still love going to concerts in traditional venues, but I also know that many people would never think of going to such a place, so you immediately lose that whole group of people. That’s why I’ve sought to use alternative spaces where people are used to going anyway. What’s amazing is, although the environment is much more relaxed than in the concert hall, you really do get silence and focused listening. It’s just that it’s not forced onto them and they’re not so aware of the effort involved to do it. When you put highbrow

FUTURE

The desire to experiment is nothing new, if you think how excited Bach was at developments in keyboard instruments, or Beethoven was with new extra low notes on pianos of his day M45_SEPTEMBER 2012_15

What’s exciting about now is the scale of the opportunity for composers and artists

academic music in a club or something like that, it often connects.’

Kerry Andrew is another young composer who has been attracting notice for her ability to make music that crosses easily between boundaries that once seemed rigid. ‘Boundary-crossing has been there as long as people have been discovering music from other parts of the world. As genres have diversified crazily in the 21st century, cross-genre music has also flourished. Most of my favourite music, from all periods, doesn’t sit comfortably in any one genre.’

Andrew is part of the successful experimental jazz trio Juice. She also won a British Composer Award in 2010 and is currently composer-in-residence at Handel House museum in London.

But she hasn’t let this establishment turn affect her. Her latest piece is an ‘open source’ composition for an old fashioned recorder quintet. It is composed in elements which the listener can organise themselves to make their own piece.

Like Prokofiev, Andrew’s success comes off the back of traditional classical music, but the technological advances in music-making software means that many are trying their hand at composing before thinking of studying it. Tom Hodge graduated in political science before turning to music with a view of writing for the small and big screen. After a few years ‘learning on the job’, writing mostly for adverts, he completed the MA in Composition for Screen offered by the Royal College of Music.

Besides enjoying a successful career as a screen composer, Hodge is an active jazz musician, and is now keen to push the boundaries

both of jazz and electronic music, collaborating with the laptop artist Franz Kirmann. ‘When I met Franz I realised that although we came from different music backgrounds we shared lots of common ground,’ he says.

‘We made a studio album as an exploratory collaboration between piano and laptop and then spent a long time trying to work out how to play this quite intricate music live. I was very keen to adopt a certain jazz sensibility to the performance – leaving room for improvisation and for the pieces to evolve from one performance to another.’

For Hodge, the desire to experiment is less a conscious artistic choice, more a natural extension of today’s listening habits, fed by new technology and the constant availability of all different kinds of music. ‘Playlists on the internet, iPods on shuffle, following disparate YouTube links, podcasts, film soundtracks – whether we like it or not our listening is always being taken to new and surprising areas and is bound to be reflected in the choices of music-makers.’

David Toop, a well known writer on experimental music, hiphop and sound art, as well as a musician, has been working at the boundaries of music and art as long as he can remember. His latest project is an opera on the subject of the painter Dora Maar.

One of his main struggles has been with the word ‘opera’ itself.

‘If you call a work an “opera” then it sets off all sorts of triggers, both good and bad. My attitude was that I was extremely interested in the staging of voices and sound but my idea of what that might imply was more informed by Japanese Noh, Korean

Above: Claudia Molitor Opposite: Franz Kirmann with Tom Hodge (right). The two are working on their modern classical piece Piano Interrupted.

FUTURE

Pansori or the nocturnal ceremonies I recorded in Amazonas in the 70s than it was by Puccini.’

For Toop, though, the desire to experiment is nothing new, and part of the problem is that for many the heyday of experimentalism – such as in John Cage’s use of silence, everyday objects and randomly-generated sound patterns in his music – is part of a musical avant-garde which has itself become something of a historical category.

Cage’s music is particularly prominent this year because 2012 marks the centenary of the composer’s birth. However, the celebrations are only partly welcome, in Toop’s view, because they eclipse the genuinely contemporary work that has been done for a long time in these kinds of experimental fields, but which still goes unnoticed by non-specialists.

Toop’s opera received its premiere in Aldeburgh in Suffolk this September, as part of a cutting edge festival called Faster than Sound. Though allied to the more established Aldeburgh Festival, founded by Benjamin Britten after the war as a crucible for local musical culture, the organisers of Faster than Sound have sought to create a space in which developments in music, sound and the visual arts can find a mutually conducive environment and audience.

Among the works performed there this autumn is Richard Baker’s chamber composition Gaming. Unlike most of the figures encountered here, Baker is what many would think of as a traditional concert composer, whose work makes most sense in traditional concert hall environments. But like the others, experimentation and freeing up the hidden musical potential of instruments and other objects form a key part of his thinking.

For Gaming, Baker developed unusual preparations to modify the sounds made by the piano, marimba and cello (played pizzicato throughout) so that the instruments sound very similar – approximating to a kind of metallic, percussive sound redolent of an electronic thumb piano.

‘This was my way of making a connection between two apparently disparate things - Nijinsky’s choreography for Debussy’s Jeux and early 80s electronic games,’ he explains. ‘It’s a great sound in itself, but it also makes the instruments seem constrained, as though the full range of expressive possibilities are unavailable.

This echoes the very small, stylized gestures that Nijinsky developed for his three dancers, which barely registered on the large set.’

The aim is that the poetic idea behind the piece should coincide with the music’s sonic surface; itself a traditional motivation but one which conspires to further push our ideas about musical materials. Baker’s interest in connecting the tightly controlled environments of contemporary classical composition with forms of play, too, have interesting resonances nowadays, when games of one kind or another are assuming an increasingly dominant role in adult culture.

Claudia Molitor is another composer anchored in the contemporary classical tradition, but whose interest lies in less with breaking down borders between music and visual art. Her work, which often concentrates on modifying the sounds of traditional instruments, using sounds made by everyday objects, or incorporating senses beyond the eye and ear is performed both in galleries, experimental and virtual spaces, as well as in traditional concert hall settings.

Claim for performances at small venues: If you perform a composition, written by yourself, in a small venue, you could be due a payment.

This counts for any genre of music, so if you are playing a gig in your local pub, a jazz recital in a club or performing your classical piece at a music society, you should make a claim. PRS members can visit www. prsformusic.com for more information.

‘The desire to experiment is nothing new. If you think how excited Bach was at developments in keyboard instruments, or Beethoven was with the new extra low notes on the pianos of his day. The orchestral instruments that seem so conventional now, once they were new and composers always rushed to fill the creative vacuum created by their new potential. The same is true of electronics. It’s just the same desire to use current technology to cross the boundaries of what music currently is.’

‘It is true that it’s hard today because the idea of music as an art form is so dominated by the past. But what’s exciting about now is the scale of the opportunity for composers and artists.

Everything is much more accepted on its own terms than before.’

M45_SEPTEMBER 2012_17

DOUBLE Paul Sexton tracks down Jamaica’s biggest exports Sly and Robbie to learn more of pair’s trail-blazing history and life-long collaboration.

FROM MICK AND KEITH to Elton and Bernie, we’re pretty well versed at celebrating the durability of the great rock and pop partnerships. We can probably come up with a few in soul and blues too. But a duo forged in the reggae scene that have written and produced thousands of songs together in an alliance of more than 35 years? It’s high time the spotlight was trained on Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare.

Just like their more widely celebrated peers, Sly and Robbie fit that rare mould of the long-time collaborators; it’s impossible to imagine one without the other. As writers, producers and musicians, they’ve been Jamaica’s go-to tastemakers for so long that it’s a bit too easy to take them for granted.

But when you consider that their list of credits includes major names in almost every genre, from Grace Jones to Bob Dylan, Joe Cocker to Joan Armatrading, Peter Tosh to Sean Paul, you remember the extraordinary influence cast by these two unassuming friends.

‘I suppose a lot of people look up to us because I think we’re [among] the few musicians who break every barrier of music, y’know?’ says Sly. ‘Rock n’ roll, R&B, reggae, all of these, and make an ‘it record from them.

It’s unbelievable when you’re just having fun and enjoying what you do.’

PROFILE

BARREL

We’re chatting during a rare afternoon off for the in-demand pair, soon after they arrive in the little village of Saint Laurent des Arbres, near Provence. They’ve been hard at work on a European tour with fellow reggae figureheads Tyrone Downie, veteran of many Bob Marley sessions and countless others, and Studio One giant Ernest Ranglin, recently turned 80 and still going strong.

‘It’s great,’ says Sly, ‘because I’ve played with Ernest in the studio a lot of times, but the first time we did a concert was in Japan last November, and it was very good. He’s such a warm person. You can’t believe that, legend that he is, he’s so humble. He’s 80 and seems like 30.’

The tour went on to play at London’s O2 Arena in late July as part of the Jamaica 50 Festival, and such is Sly and Robbie’s contribution to their homeland’s heritage, they fully deserve their place among the nation’s great musical ambassadors. The island is so important to their make-up that, unlike so many artists who relocate at their first whiff of success, they both continue to call Jamaica their home.

‘It doesn’t matter where you go,’ says Sly. ‘You have to be true to yourself and where you’re coming from, and people will respect you even more.

A lot of people will give up the culture and try and hop onto something else.

‘If they do that and it works for them then fine, but I always want to look back to home because that’s where you started, everybody knew you when you were coming up as a kid and they put their trust in you and believe in you. If kids see you around they can come up and ask you a couple of questions but if you’re not around, there’s no one for them to turn to.’

Drummer Sly and bassist Robbie’s shared history goes all the way back to their teens. Says Robbie in his thick patois: ‘Sly has worked by himself, and me by myself, but most of it is all together, because people like a combination.

‘You have two sets of ears, you can hear more. Sometimes you hear things you question yourself, I wonder if... you might just say, “Go with it.” But when you work together, you can say, “What do you think about this?”

You have someone you can rely on. We just make good music each time, then we make the instruments do the talking.’

M45_SEPTEMBER 2012_19

Be true to yourself and where you’re coming from, and people will respect you even more Sly was part of an international success story almost from his earliest days. ‘The first song I was involved with,’ he says, ‘I was 15, I didn’t really write it, was The Night Doctor by the Upsetters, it was produced by Ansell Collins. The second song I was involved in totally, in creating the whole thing, was Double Barrel, when I was 16 years old. That was a big number one in England, I played drums on those sessions. Ansell and myself created the whole rhythm track and whole groove.’

Featuring the voice of Dave Barker and credited to Dave and Ansell Collins, the brilliantly infectious single on Techniques, part of the Trojan Records empire, sensationally removed T.Rex’s Hot Love from the top of the UK charts in April 1971.

Sly didn’t get to come to Europe to perform the song on Top of the Pops, losing out to a drummer who performed in a fetching bandana, bare chest and rope-skirt combination. But he was on his way, and the fateful meeting with Robbie was soon to follow. They were never on anything but the same wavelength.

‘First time I seen him play,’ says Robbie, ‘I said “Damn, that’s a good drummer”. By the next day I had him in a session, with the Aggrovators, because I went to Bunny Lee and said, “That drummer should do some recording!”’

They soon discovered that they were not just fellow Studio One disciples, but shared a love of Stax, Motown, Philadelphia International and other soul staples. ‘This is when we started coming together, sharing ideas, making music,’ says Sly. ‘We used to listen to people like Earth, Wind & Fire and all these grooves, admiring their work and saying, “Boy, if reggae could be something like this, we’d like to take it like that”.

We were looking at what the future could bring for the music and what we could bring, and started playing some things and hoped that people liked it.’

They did. After playing on the Mighty Diamonds’ 1976 album Right Time, Island supremo Chris Blackwell made the pair an integral part of the Compass Point house band in Nassau. The studio aggregation would become a massive ingredient in the success of albums by Grace Jones and Joe Cocker, and Sly & Robbie’s name was made.

1987 brought their own UK top 20 hit with the typically genre-crossing Boops (Here to Go), and by the early 90s they were spearheading new Jamaican pop-reggae sensations Chaka Demus & Pliers’ assault on the British charts. As Sly proudly points out, they scored six UK top 30 hits in 14 months, three of them top three singles, the number one Twist and Shout and the enduring Tease Me and She Don’t Let Nobody.

All this came from Sly and Robbie’s multiple roles as studio players, producers and songwriters, although sometimes the last attribute goes underrated. ‘I don’t mind that, because I’m never going upfront saying, “I’m a writer,”’ shrugs Sly. ‘Writing is a funny thing, you have to be in the mood sometimes [to write lyrics], but I could write a good hook in seconds. I was involved in the Grace Jones project with Pull Up to the Bumper, and [the single b-side] Nipple to the Bottle, which I co-wrote with her, Robbie and myself. People call, and sometimes we just write the music and let the person do the lyrical part of it.’

Years later, Robbie Williams would sample Boops for his hit single Rudebox. ‘Sampling is just a way of modern recording, I would say,’ observes Sly. ‘It works for a lot of people and there’s something good when someone takes a part of something, it becomes a hit and you say, “Oh, I know where that came from.” I’m for it. When Robbie Williams used Boops I thought, “Wow, that’s good!” I think we even got a certificate!’

But Robbie is not so sure. ‘I don’t mind people sampling but I hate sampling music myself,’ he says. ‘I prefer fresh ideas all the

Above: Sly Dunbar Opposite: Robbie Shakespeare

PROFILE

time. I like when the brain is in motion. Sampling is not creation.’

He feels that a certain momentum has gone out of Jamaican music.

‘With Chaka Demus & Pliers, we made the music first and gave it to them, we put it together and sent it to Island. It was the rhythm and the vocal performance that goes together. It can’t be one that’s better than the other, there has to be a togetherness, and this is what we’re missing today in Jamaican music.’

Combining their live commitments with completing a new album for English reggae artist and 90s hitmaker Bitty McLean, the friends have also been working on new material in their own name, with guests, for their Taxi Gang label.

Sly wastes no time in emailing me two examples, one a smooth and soulful track called If You Love Me, introducing vocalist Peter G, the other an upbeat piece again reflecting their Jamaican roots called Coronation Market, which simply oozes irresistible trumpets, accordion and sunshine.

‘One of the reasons reggae has probably suffered a bit is that we need to get together,’ says Sly. ‘I always believed two heads are better than one. Artists used to look at the global industry and get ideas from what was happening and write the songs, people like Jimmy Cliff, Bob Marley himself, Peter Tosh, Bob Andy. Young artists have to get together and ask themselves why these people were writing all these great songs, and take a page from them.’

I always believed two heads are better than one

Music to your ears...

Specialist Insurance for Musicians Adrian Flux Insurance Services can offer musicians and music industry professionals great car, home or motorbike insurance deals because we have unique schemes that can be tailored to your requirements.

Our specialist teams search hundreds of policies to make sure you get the best possible cover. Call us today for a free, no obligation quote.

Our an sc policiever: co

Standard Cars Motorbikes

d Any Vehicle Covere Homes & Contents

Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority

M45_SEPTEMBER 2012_21

true

north Anita Awbi takes a look at the North East of England, discovering a fiercely independent music scene that bristles with new songwriting talent.

FOCUS

‘IT’S COLD AND HARD where I come from, and you do what your dad did or you don’t quite belong. But forget all that as we’ll do as we please there is life in my city by the sea,’ sings Martin Longstaff on City by the Sea, an ode to his hometown of Sunderland.

Longstaff, aka The Lake Poets, speaks of an unforgotten past and an uncertain future, shaped by the changing fortunes of the region’s industry and commerce. Yet he emerges from a solid micro-music business that spans from Newcastle in the north, through Gateshead, Sunderland and Middlesbrough, down to Hartlepool in the south.

Not so long ago, places like the Ouseburn Valley, just one mile east from Newcastle city centre, stood like weathered monuments to an industrial heritage long since passed. Disused factories, red brick chimneys and crumbling mills quietly slipped into dereliction after the region’s heavy industry collapsed in the 80s.

But then, just over a decade later, an influx of funding and an impetus for change transformed these pockets into regional music hubs. Following years of post-industrial decline, regeneration was spurred on by community enterprise and local authority initiatives. Music venues, recording studios and independent cinemas began springing up, rejuvenating the area’s industrial architecture and inspiring the fragile local music industry.

The Sage Gateshead, a venue to rival Manchester’s Bridgewater Music Hall or Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, opened in 2004, shining a spotlight on local contemporary, classical, jazz and folk music. Meanwhile, bands like The Futureheads, Field Music, Maximo Park and, more recently, Frankie and the Heartstrings, began to seriously bother the charts. All of a sudden, Sunderland was the epicentre of angular guitar-pop, Gateshead the regional hub of high art, and Newcastle as vibrant a city as Glasgow or Manchester.

Every era comes to an end though, and the region faces another period of austerity, with funding cuts and venue closures beginning to bite. But this time round, it seems like the vibrant local scene is much more prepared.

Elsewhere around the country, the headlines make for grim reading: small venues are closing at an alarming rate, arts funding has been slashed, digital music sales are yet to beat the decline in record revenues. Can the North East, with its staunchly independent music industry, weather the storm?

Music development agency Generator is heavily involved in the region, and its expertise is now being tapped by other local agencies keen to emulate its success. The organisation’s Artist Development Manager Joe Frankland has a unique view on the North East, being involved with both the songwriters and business end. ‘I don’t think the North East has suffered as much as some regions in terms of venue closures,’ he says. ‘We’ve never had a flooded market M45_SEPTEMBER 2012_23

Youngsters from all backgrounds can be creative, given the right opportunities when it comes to venues so the likes of The Cluny in Newcastle are still the backbone of our scene.’

And, although the Independent venue in Sunderland is about to close, Frankland explains that the owners have found new premises with support from the council. ‘Personally, I think the bigger issue is that the economic climate means very few people are going to grass roots gigs,’ he says. This has had a knock on effect for independent promoters, venues and emerging artists, and the scene has suffered, particularly over the summer months when fewer tours take place.

‘Having said that, there have been some great packed gigs in the region of late – it’s just not looking great long-term if promoters can’t break even,’ Frankland adds.

However, The Sage’s Programme Director Ros Rigby OBE points to the region’s self-starting history for inspiration. She located to Peterlee in the late 70s and has been involved with the regional music and arts community ever since. ‘I’ve been here a long time,’ she says. ‘I think, obviously, the investment in major cultural initiatives and centres has made a huge difference regionally, nationally and internationally. When I first came there were a lot more independent community arts initiatives. Then, in the 80s, much of that got taken over by local authorities.’

The regional arts projects the authorities developed form the basis for much of the current scene, feeding into Arts Council funding programmes and regional initiatives. However Rigby is quick to point out that now local councils are financially restricted by government cutbacks, the region may revert back to the independently financed and organised projects of the 70s – which may not be such a bad thing.

MARK SAVAGE

Ask anyone involved in the local scene, from the promoters and record producers to the songwriters, and they will tell you that the region’s strength lies in its propensity for collaboration, its do-ityourself approach, and its sense of provincial identity. It is also there in the work ethic, like a hangover from an industrial age that rests with young musicians like Longstaff. Inspired by unique social backgrounds and the geographical limitations of their region, people have learned to do things on their own.

All these attributes are suited to an independent, devolved music scene. Generator’s Joe Frankland waxes lyrical about all the great new acts popping up across Tyne and Wear, citing Sunderland’s Lilliput and Natasha Haws, Newcastle’s Ajimal and Lulu James, and Crooked Hands as ones to watch.

Above Field Music Left The Sage in Gateshead

FOCUS

‘It’s certainly been a busy few years. I moved up to the area six or seven years ago and, despite the current economic climate, I think the music scene is the strongest it’s ever been since I’ve lived here,’ he enthuses. ‘Not just Newcastle - the other towns too, like Sunderland and Middlesbrough. They’re all producing a lot more bands now than they used to.’

The lingering effect of internationally acclaimed acts like Sunderland’s Futureheads and Newcastle’s Maximo Park, has certainly helped, with the latter’s Paul Smith and all members of Futureheads still heavily involved in the local scene, running rehearsal studios and supporting younger bands.

Kev Dosdale, guitarist and keyboardist with Field Music, is a case in point. He co-founded the local ‘super group’ B>E>A>K with members of This Ain’t Vegas, The Lake Poets, Field Music and Razmataz Lorry Excitement. They rehearse and record at Sunderland studio The Bunker, the venue itself supported by Field Music.

He explains that the connections across Teeside and Tyne and Wear are particularly strong at the moment. ‘It’s very encouraging and an extremely positive thing to see going on. There are lots of bands, venues, promoters and organisations working together throughout the North East - it’s beneficial for all involved.’

Music fans and the national press often tend to think of places like Manchester, or regions such as Central Scotland, as having the strongest local music scenes. But the same rings true for the North East - for many reasons – even though the eyes of the media have long since diverted their gaze.

The region is fairly isolated from the London-based national music industry and Dosdale thinks local songwriters feel less pressure to conform to latest musical trends as a result. Indeed, Ros Rigby from The Sage points to the local folk scene as an enduring standalone entity, which has remained unaffected by national trends.

‘Funnily enough, the region has always been very strong on American acts, going right back to the 50s and 60s, especially the blues. That music influenced the likes of [local bands] Lindisfarne and The Animals in the 60s, and has gone on to affect the whole region. Folk never died up here. There was no 60s folk revival in the North East really, it’s always been popular, and still today.

Northumbrian piping and fiddling, and the communities, kept it alive.’

It seems that the region has always been as self sufficient as it is resourceful, and this is backed up by anecdotal evidence from Generator, which says the number of new music-related businesses has grown over the past two years.

Top: Lulu James Above: B>E>A>K Right: Ajimal

It has injected resources into business and songwriter education sessions for local artists and entrepreneurs, while The Sage has teamed up with Newcastle University to offer folk, jazz and community music degree courses, producing talented musicians who often stay in the region to work and develop new initiatives.

She hopes her work at The Sage will continue to have a huge positive impact on Tyneside, confirming: ‘At one time, musicians would have moved away, but now they are finding they are getting work teaching, performing and taking part in community projects.’ She believes that in 20 years, people looking back will be able to see the impact all these dedicated musicians, organisations and businesses have had on the music ecology of the region.

For the extended interviews and more North East content, visit www.m-magazine.co.uk

M45_SEPTEMBER 2012_25

SongLink The leading tipsheet for songwriters and music publishers, established in 1993 and still going strong. Every month we publish great leads detailing artists, labels, managers and producers worldwide who need songs or co-writers. Covers all styles of music including pop, rock, dance, R&B, country, MOR, jazz crossover, folk, blues etc. Leads sent by e-mail every month with interim updates. “Easily the best service of its type in the world” - Ed Chalfin, Magic Fire Music, New York City.

Cuesheet Sister publication to SongLink which details upcoming Film & TV productions in need of music, songs, full scores, cues etc. Sent twice a month by e-mail, our listings include leads from some of the industry’s top music supervisors and commissioners based in the UK/Ireland and USA/Canada. Covers all types of productions including major & indie feature films, TV drama & documentaries, plus the occasional advert, video games, web tv, etc. Contact us for a free sample issue today.

Special combo-discounts available if you subscribe to both services. Please note that unpub lished writers need subscription approval - send 2 sample works by MP3, web Links or CD.

Contact: David Stark, Editor/Publisher SongLink International / Cuesheet 23 Belsize Crescent, London NW3 5QY Tel: 020 7794 2540, e-mail: info@songlink.com

www.songlink.com • www.cuesheet.net

song writing

i wrote that

I remember we absolutely loved clubbing and DJ culture in the early to mid-90s, but we became frustrated that a lot of dance music felt very cheesy, tired-sounding and lyrically mundane.

Though we enjoyed the more frivolous party side of dance music, we also felt there was so much more you could say within the genre and, when done right, it could be the most powerful space for expression – ‘caught between the hum of voice and drum’.

We were listening to pretty much everything at the time, but when bands like Underworld and Leftfield made amazing and uncompromising electronic albums, it was particularly inspirational to us. Suddenly, the album form had been validated within dance culture and you could take it anywhere you wanted.

I was suffering from insomnia because of my DJ schedule. One day Maxi came down to the studio and I told him the next track we’d make would be called Insomnia because I just couldn’t get any sleep! Maxi went off and wrote some lyrics around the subject, which he based on this experience of having a terrible abscess on his tooth.

We started work on the track in Rollo’s garden shed studio in Islington, and then we put the vocals down at Swanyard Studios, also in Islington, and mixed it there. I remember the bassline coming first, then the riff and basic backing track, and then Maxi’s lyrics, which we chopped up and also used as a rhythm on the original Moody Mix. We programmed the track on an Atari computer using Cubase – this was long before the days of the Mac and Logic Pro! And we used a JD 808 for the main riff, probably the JV1080 for some

of the atmospheric sounds and strings, a 909 for the drums, S1000 samplers for drums and other sonic touches and two Juno 106s that made great textural and acid sounds.

Insomnia was a real surprise, nobody could’ve predicted it would become a multi-million-selling record, and such a loved one at that. We only really made it to balance Salva Mea, which was the only other out-and-out club track on our debut album Reverence, as we conceived the album with both an A side and a B side. Salva Mea used a similar palate but was probably quite inaccessible and not very dance-friendly, being in three distinct sections, including a very slow hip-hop groove in the middle section.

The track wasn’t an instant hit; it wasn’t conceived as a three minute hit, as many dance records are now So, Insomnia was a far simpler piece of music in club terms, and provided that balance for the album. We were very lucky to have such a big hit with that record, as it provided us with a base from which to begin touring as a live band.

Up until that point, we had been a studio project, but as the single climbed the charts in Europe, our German record company began begging us to come and play some promotional shows. They’d heard we’d done a gig at the Jazz Café in London as a favour to our beleaguered UK pluggers.

Anyone who found themselves on a dance floor in 1996 will be familiar with Faithless – a British electronic act that spawned the eradefining club anthem Insomnia. Songwriter, producer and DJ Sister Bliss recalls the making of the multi-millionselling track.

It’s very hard to say why Insomnia resonated so much at the time, it’s difficult to pinpoint why certain music works, and continues to work to this day. I think the track has a widescreen sound, a real sense of drama and tension within the structure, and a beautiful, slightly glacial, sonic palette. Also, people seemed to absolutely connect with the lyrics, especially at 3am in the middle of a dancefloor. The tone of Maxi’s voice was unique to hear in house music of the time, so it stood out amongst all the more generic house tracks.

But the track wasn’t an instant hit; it wasn’t conceived as a three minute hit for radio, as many dance records are now. It really was much more of a slow burner, meant for DJs and clubbers.

But it grew into a juggernaut, and eventually commercial success followed, even though it wasn’t a commercial record. In fact, I remember being told by Radio 1 that it had no hook and no chorus when our plugger approached the station prior to its first UK release. It took a re-release nearly a year later, and a total change of personnel at Radio 1 before it became a hit.

Faithless is Sister Bliss, Maxi Jazz and Rollo.

Together, they have recorded six albums and sold more than 15 million records worldwide. Second single Insomnia, reached the number three in the UK, and topped the charts from Norway to the US. Earlier this month, they received the PRS for Music Heritage Award to commemorate their f irst gig at London’s Jazz Café in 1996.

Insomnia Written by: Maxi Jazz, Rollo Armstrong, Ayalah Bentovim UK Publishers: Champion Music, Warner/Chappell, Universal Music Publishing m45_september 2012_27

BETH HOMMEL

right on the money OVERSEAS FUNDING

As US website Kickstarter prepares for its UK launch, Eamonn Forde gets the low down on fan-funding platforms to find out what they can do for you.

Contestants on TV shows like American Idol are competing, we are boomingly told in the opening credits, for ‘a million dollar recording contract’. But earlier this year, Amanda Palmer created a new type of ‘million dollar contract’ by raising $1.2m on crowd-funding platform Kickstarter – 12 times what she initially hoped for.

Previously signed to Roadrunner as part of Dresden Dolls, she had a very public and even more acrimonious split from the ‘old’ record label system. Since going it alone, has become the poster girl for DIY artists by raising money in new ways and not relying on label or publisher advances to fund projects.

As a platform, Kickstarter (launched in 2008 under its original name of KickStartr) takes a cut of successful funding rounds. The owner of the project sets the deadline for funding targets and it only happens if that figure is raised. Until now, Kickstarter has been confined to the US but it is due to launch in the UK this autumn, meaning a new door is about to open up for British musicians.

‘You may pull other people in with the buzz around your project, but your goal on Kickstarter isn’t to pitch to total strangers,’ Palmer told the LA Times. ‘It’s to gather capital from your community - your pre-existing fans - with the hope that their enthusiasm might attract people to hop over the fence and take a look at what you’re doing.’ The money she raised is going to pay for an album, a tour and an art book.

Hungrily sniffing a new kind of revolution in the air, many hailed this as a watershed moment in fan-funding. But only seven projects have crossed the $1m mark on Kickstarter to date, with consumer technology projects proving more popular artist-centric ones.

Pictured: the ‘Amanda Palmer effect’

Kickstarter is not the first crowd- or fan-funding platform, but it is the one that has most captured the public’s attention and the artistic community’s imagination. Before it, there were SellaBand and Slicethepie, as well as artists doing it entirely on their own.

Arguably, Marillion were the first band to successfully do this

back in 1997 when, out of contract with EMI, they asked fans to help underwrite a US tour to the tune of $60,000. They subsequently built on this idea to have fans pre-order albums so they could pay the studio and manufacturing costs. And in 2007, Radiohead’s physical release of In Rainbows, charging £40 for pre-ordered limited edition box sets, was arguably a fan-funding move that got overlooked in the media hysteria about them letting fans choose what they wanted to pay for the mp3 version.

However, not all of these platforms, have been successful, but they helped pave the way for not just what Amanda Palmer achieved but also what is to follow.

The story of music on the internet has been marred by the perception of a slow chipping away at – or total annihilation of – all the old industry certainties and monopolies. Pricing, copyright, distribution, retail and marketing have been affected by both legal and illegal online music services, but one area the old industry (mainly labels, but also publishers) once dominated was access to finance. Through advances, they could get an act’s career off the ground.

But now, it seems, this last controlling element has slipped through their fingers. Fan-funding does not, of course, mean that labels (or publishers) are moribund, but it does mean that artists and songwriters now have a viable alternative and a choice. The Amanda Palmer story has pushed a trend that has been bubbling away in the background – with some successes, but arguably more failures – to the centre stage.

‘It was slightly tough at the start convincing people there was a new way of working in terms of bands at all different levels,’ says Malcolm Dunbar, Managing Director at PledgeMusic, which was founded in 2009. ‘The initial negatives were that bands didn’t want to ask their fans for money. My take was that they were not asking their fans for money – they were offering them better value for money at the early stages of that campaign.’

PledgeMusic has had notable success, with Ginger Wildheart recently raising £200,000 for his latest album and others like The M45_SEPTEMBER 2012_29

30_SEPTEMBER 2010_M37

FUNDING

Far Left: Emmy the Great Left: Bruce Foxton Below: Radiohead

In the future, direct-to-fan campaigns will be an important part of an artist’s career Subways, Emmy The Great, Funeral For A Friend, The Libertines and Ben Folds Five all using the platform. To date, more than 1,000 funding projects have been undertaken on PledgeMusic, with Dunbar saying those where PledgeMusic works in an A&R capacity have had a 90 percent success rate of hitting funding targets.

However, that is not to say that this approach is devoid of complications. This is most illustrated by the fact that SellaBand had to file for bankruptcy in the Dutch courts in February 2010, although it was quickly bought by German investors. The warning signs, perhaps, were there when Public Enemy, whose leader Chuck D was made a US ambassador for SellaBand in March 2009, had to dramatically cut their funding targets for a new album from $250,000 to $75,000 when fan support proved to be a mere trickle.

Hinting at the pressures inherent in a nascent but still crowded market, Slicethepie has partnered with Pledge with the latter taking over the management of the funding activities of the former’s artists.

Despite this, other services continue to launch, looking to stake a claim here. It could, however, be that Kickstarter has the most wind in its sails and does for fan-funding what iTunes did for downloads and Spotify did for streams. Neither iTunes nor Spotify were the first of their types but they were the ones that connected.

Even with the ‘Amanda Palmer effect’ building momentum and raising Kickstarter’s stocks, it is wise not to get carried away here and see it as the great, unbreakable panacea. As with every digital platform, one size will never fit all, so it is only the right platform for certain acts at certain points in their career.

While some acts can follow the totally autonomous Marillion route – McFly, for example, raised £500,000 in just two days in November 2010 from subscriptions to their online community – for many,

going with established platforms is still the safest route as they can provide extra support and guidance.

‘It’s certainly a unique way of getting an album put together,’ says Bruce Foxton, former bassist with The Jam, who is using PledgeMusic to fund his new album. ‘Initially it’s not a money-making exercise.

It’s just a means to get a record out there. If we break even, brilliant – I’ll be well happy.’

This is a crucial point. Such platforms are not intended or designed to offer a retirement strategy for artists. They are there to help complete one project and help set up the next. In that sense, they are exactly like advances, but the act makes all choices about where money is spent and what they do to raise that money.

Foxton says he met with two major labels about his album before discovering PledgeMusic, but the projected sales fell short of what the labels needed to make the numbers add up. ‘With the figures they [the labels] were talking about, they’d need to sell 100,000 albums to make it worthwhile,’ says Foxton.

‘I’m a realist. We have a good following and I wish we could sell 100,000 records. Who knows? Maybe we get lucky.’

Increasingly, acts are creating tiered offerings where fans can buy more than just an album or concert ticket – with signed merchandise, private gigs and other events involving the acts themselves commanding the highest prices. As more artists test these platforms, thinking creatively about what is on offer is essential to stand out.

‘It’s entirely up to the artist what they want to offer the fans,’ says Dunbar. ‘But it has to be tailored to their fans.’ Just as albums follow a creative process, the same level of creativity has to be applied to the fan-funding side of the project too.

For Foxton, the trick is to offer something fans will pay a premium for but not in a way that seems cheap

or crass, as that could undermine everything else they are trying to do. ‘I didn’t want to come across as selling my soul!’ he laughs. ‘There is a fine line and I don’t want it to come across as smacking of desperation.’

It puts a new onus on acts: they now have to be selfstarting and self-sufficient in order to take on the roles of marketers and accountants to ensure every pound raised and invested pays off in the long term.

‘We were thinking, “Christ – this is hard work!”’, admits Foxton. ‘There are only two of us and we are trying to spin all these plates. There is a lot to deal with. But it’s been a great experience.’

While bold claims are made on behalf of fan-funding platforms, they are often made by people not even associated with them. And, while Palmer had her woes with labels, fan-funding should not be seen as inherently anti-label or a ‘label killer’. Indeed, Palmer signed a deal with Cooking Vinyl for Europe and Foxton says part of his campaign involved a deal with Absolute. It is merely another option and one that, for now at least, best suits acts with an existing track record rather than box fresh ones.

The imminent arrival of Kickstarter in the UK will move things up a gear, but just being on one of these platforms is no guarantee of success. As with a label deal, there are huge risks and enormous amounts of hard work, luck and serendipity needed to make things fly.

This will be, for Dunbar, a new ingredient that will slowly change the entire business ecosystem. ‘In the future, a direct-to-fan campaign will be in its entirety or an important part of a new or an established artist’s career,’ he says. Ultimately, however, artists and songwriters will do well to understand how such platforms work. ‘There is a lot of pulling favours at this level… It’s not a big money-spinner,’ says Foxton. ‘We’re not jetting off to Barbados yet!’

M45_SEPTEMBER 2012_31

on my ipod London songsmith EUGENE MCGUINNESS learned his craft listening to the greats, from Sheffield crooner Richard Hawley to Canada’s finest, Neil Young. He released his eponymous debut album in 2008 on Domino imprint Double Six, showcasing his unique brand of lyrical fantasy and stylistic guitar pop. Last month he followed this up with sophomore set The Invitation to the Voyage, a more self-assured release rich with allegory and big pop hooks.

richard hawley - bang to rights This is an early song from him. I love everything he does, he’s a bit of a brutal romantic is Hawley; a Sheffield Teddy boy who sounds like Nat King Cole.

primal scream - shoot speed kill light I’m constantly blasting XTRMNTR out the headphones.

This song is one of the most relentless, euphoric wig outs in the universe.

mia - bad girls

john cale - dying on the vine I keep coming back to John Cale’s solo albums, especially Fear, but I have a live recording of this song.

It’s just a very simple and powerful tune.

sly and the family stone - i cannot make it Iggy Pop or Liam Gallagher should cover this, but I’ll probably end up doing it. The attitude is sneering with swag - if that’s possible.

the vines - ride The Vines are underrated. The harmonies are beautiful and the guitars are vicious. Also, get on a song called Homesick, Lennon would love it.

This tune is blinding, but the music video is out of this world.

david essex - rock on It’s unreal, I can’t really think of anything that sounds remotely like it. Mad. You need it.

neil young - don’t cry I don’t know much about his grunge thing, it’s not my thing really. But this has that heavy guitar but with a really stunning melody.

www.eugenemcguinness.net

Whether you are just receiving your first royalty cheque or you’ve been writing music for years, BASCA can support your career!

We are the UK’s independent association representing music writers in all genres, from songwriting, through to media, contemporary classical and jazz.

Our members include Sir Paul McCartney, Dizzee Rascal, Michael Nyman, Gary Barlow, David Arnold, Sir Elton John, Imogen Heap, Howard Goodall, John Powell, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Kate Bush, Chris Martin, and many more.

BASCA campaigns in the UK, Europe and throughout the world on behalf of all members.

BASCA member events offer access to industry professionals and an invaluable opportunity to network with contemporaries.

Held within the members’ section of the BASCA website, professional resources available include advice sheets, sample contracts and agreements.

The professional services BASCA offers include an online collaboration service, a legal service, tax helpline and a digital record label.

www.basca.org.uk

making music

sixty seconds How has your songwriting changed since the early days?

The lyrics have but musically I haven’t progressed much at all. I don’t want to. But I’m certainly a better lyricist. This is why I don’t get on the radio as much as I used to. Earlier songs like Think for a Minute or Happy Hour are lyrically easy. They have simple melodies and were easy to make catchy. My current work is more wordy and difficult. But I still write roughly at the same pace. I haven’t slowed down or had any of these blocks. As Dave Rotheray (Beautiful South guitarist) said: ‘What do plumbers do if they get “plumber’s block”?’ What if people with proper jobs get these blocks? My creative output is very regular.

Singer, songwriter, drinker, thinker - The Beautiful South’s Paul Heaton is behind many of the most lovelorn and politically prickly moments in contemporary pop. A Little Time, Song for Whoever and Rotterdam stand out in a career spanning over 30 years, as singer-songwriter in the Beautiful South, post-punk outfit the Housemartins (featuring Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim on bass) and as an acclaimed solo artist.

Earlier this year, Heaton celebrated his 50th birthday by travelling 2,500 miles by bike on a tour of the UK’s pubs. His latest album, The 8th, is based on the concept of the seven deadly sins and features seven guest vocalists.

He also owns Salford pub, the King’s Arms.

Where did you get the idea for the bike tour?

I live in Manchester, so when I want to relax I go cycling in the countryside. En route, I pass quite a few closing pubs, especially in the Macclesfield area. I wanted to play some gigs to help the ones which remain open.

I also wanted to do an ‘open day’ where people met and cycled with me. I’d play gigs at the pubs, then talk to as many people as possible before and after the show. I had the idea of extending this from Cheshire to the whole of England, then Ireland and Scotland.

Was it hard work cycling in certain areas?

I thought Scotland was going to be hard. It was the start of the tour, hilly and supposed to be wet.

In reality we had fantastic weather and cycling was easy because it was so beautiful. Aviemore and Ullapool were some of the best places we played as it felt like visiting the end of Britain. These gigs had a special atmosphere. They were full of really nice and genuine people.

You’ve taken over the King’s Arms in Salford.

How’s that going? And why did you decide take it on?

It’s not going great yet but we took it over because it was to be turned into a chain pub. We’ll have to see how it goes. It is expensive running a business like it. I’m not a business man and haven’t done anything like this before.

What do you think about the relationship between music and pubs?

I played my first gigs in pubs in Surrey when I was in a band with my brother called Tools Down. Back then in 1978 or 1979, the only place you could play would be a village hall or pub. To have a friendly landlord or landlady, who would let you set up and play, was like gold dust. Many wouldn’t even let you in if you had a funny hair cut, never mind let you play music!

Touring is important for smaller indie bands struggling to sell records. They have to survive on downloads. So selling t-shirts and CDs at gigs is crucial. A young band doing a pub tour like my own could make a bit of money. I don’t suppose anybody is taking leaves out of the book of the 50 year-old Paul Heaton – but I think this idea works.

What keeps you writing songs?

Songwriting keeps me going. It’s certainly not ego but the desire to write a new melody and new lyric.

I’m not currently signed so the recording side of it really is a hobby - it’s not paying me. I can’t stop writing. My room is full of scraps of paper and books which I put together. In a year, I’ll go away with those scraps and begin the process of writing an album. I’ll put them in a book, go to a bar, spread them out on the table and start again. I have to do it. It’s a bit OCD but a habit which I can’t help. It’s like tidying up my head. I couldn’t live knowing they’d come out and gone unused.

Many of your songs have a political edge to them.

Do you think the protest song is still relevant in this day and age?

The protest song has changed. These songs used to resemble enormous hot air balloons which would last for weeks. And now, although they are very important and have big messages, they’re seen to be as relevant as a Facebook update.

Why? It’s because many people are jack of all trades and master of none. Everyone is a little bit aware of everything. People can talk about Syria for 10 minutes, Afghanistan for 10 minutes and the UK for 10 minutes.

When it was the miners’ strike, I fully embraced it. I knew where every pit was, the history and who they were politically connected to in the community. It was important to me. Maybe I’ve got a mining background because I embraced it so much? Now people put up a link for a cause on a social media site and everybody will ‘like’ it - that’s the extent of their political protest for the day.

People aren’t as familiar with causes. So protest songs have become play things for people. They aren’t part of them anymore.

This is an excerpt of the full interview, available at www.m-magazine.co.uk Paul Heaton will be on tour across the UK in November.

33_september 2012_m45

picture this

making music

got a photo to share and a story to tell? magazine@prsformusic.com

Tony Visconti with Marc Bolan at Trident Studios, London, in 1968.

Tony Visconti (left) performed at the Marc Bolan 35th Anniversary Concert in aid of the PRS for Music Members Benevolent Fund on 15 September. The event included performances from Andy Ellison, T. Rex saxophonist Howie Casey, glam-rockers Alvin Stardust and Steve Harley, Sandy Shaw and Sex Pistol Glen Matlock.

In this photo, myself and Marc are listening to a playback of music we’d just made for his second album Prophets, Seers and Sages: The Angels of the Ages.

We were at the legendary Trident Studios in Soho, London, where we later recorded most of T. Rex’s sixth album Electric Warrior. But this was 1968 and all that was yet to come.

When this picture was taken, we already had the single Deborah and first album My People Were Fair… under our belts. But sonically, we were very dissatisfied with the album as it was made in just four days, including mixing. We wanted our second opus to be more powerful and were keen to experiment in the studio, just as The Beatles had done when they pioneered their audio magic.

Our engineer Malcolm Toft overheard us saying that we were still not happy with our sound and admitted that he honestly didn't understand what we were going for.

34_september 2012_m45

I had worked with him on previous productions and we had a solid relationship. So Malcolm took the initiative, saying he would bow out of the album recording process but would stick around long enough to help me understand the more complicated engineering protocol at Trident.

After that Marc, Steve Took and I were on our own. We had the luxury of two whole weeks recording this one. The result was the first definitive Tyrannosaurus Rex album. We were proud of this one. The album brought Marc's amazing songs to life and we started to sharpen our skills for producing hit singles and concept albums.

The album set the tone for the way Marc and I would work together for the next five years.

I started as his producer, then engineer and eventually adding the roles of session musician, backing singer and arranger to the list too.

I saw Marc through two band names and several different band line ups, but we as a team made

nine studio albums together. Of course he was my friend, too, and I loved him.

Producer Tony Visconti was born in Brooklyn, New York, but relocated to London in the late 60s to 'learn how the British do it.' Within six months he was involved in the recording careers of Marc Bolan and David Bowie. He produced several albums by Marc Bolan and T. Rex, including Electric Warrior and The Slider.

Over several decades he has produced many albums with David Bowie including The Man Who Sold the World, Heroes, Scary Monsters and Heathen. Other notable artists he has worked with include Morrissey, Thin Lizzy, Elaine Paige and Hazel O'Connor. Tony has since moved back to New York, where he has been working with Alejandro Escovedo, Kristeen Young and The Kin.

The Check’s in the Mail–Literally!

Jacqueline Van Bierk – TAXI Member

I love color, especially pink ;-)

I love writing music and performing with my band. I love to do the things people say are impossible, and I never take “No,” for an answer. I’m a dreamer, a believer and I am most definitely stubborn. I never really bought into the “struggling musician” mentality. I knew there had to be a way to turn my talent into a full-time career.

I've been writing music for a very long time, and had tons of songs sitting on my computer with no purpose; they just didn't fit my band’s style. A friend told me about TAXI and brought me to their free, members-only convention, the Road Rally. Like many musicians, I was skeptical but thought, “Well, I’ve been asking for a sign, so I’d better go.”

www.jacquelinevanbierk.com

I signed up with TAXI and started writing for specific music industry requests. All of the sudden I had a purpose, became very focused, and was finishing a lot more songs and tracks because I had targets and deadlines.

Getting Paid to Do What You Love

I've become a much better musician and songwriter, and I’ve made friends with talented and established collaborators I've met through TAXI. Now I’m signed to two major music libraries, and my music is on two huge daytime TV shows, and several more.

The wealth of information there just blew me away. Everything that previously seemed so "far out of reach," was now within my grasp.

There's nothing more gratifying and inspiring than getting checks in the mail for doing what you love.

Seriously, I never thought I would be writing for the TV shows I now write for. I’m so grateful my friend encouraged me to join TAXI. If I hadn’t, I’d probably still have a computer filled with “brilliant little orphans” that might have never been heard.

I Spent More on Coffee!

There are so many opportunities right in front of us that sometimes we don’t see them. I was spending more on coffee than what a TAXI membership costs. I used every excuse possible to delay joining.

Ironically, I wouldn't be where I am today if it weren’t for TAXI and all the great friends I’ve made on its Forum and at the Road Rally. And this is just the beginning.

If our purpose in life is to do what we truly love, then I’m living my dream. What’s stopping you?

Call TAXI now!

The Worldʼs Leading Independent A&R Company

800-917-0406 www. tax i . co m

Angel Recording studios

Adele • Cliff Masterson • Richard Hartley • David Arnold Biff Stannard • Debbie Wiseman • Labrinth • Steve Sidwell Craig Armstrong • Emeli Sandé • Simon Hale • Eric Clapton George Fenton • Anne Dudley • John Yapp • Nigel Wright Dominik Scherrer • Marius de Vries • Angelo Badalamenti Michael Nyman • Steve Power • Steve Lipson • Nick Ingman Nitin Sawhney • Chris Walden • Trevor Horn • Graham Stack Elbow • Guy Barker • Frazer T. Smith • Rachel Portman

Part of the de Wolfe Music group info@angelstudios.co.uk

www.angelstudios.co.uk