Night and Day

Im currently a little bit obsessed with Frank Turner. Check him out cos hes awesome!

I've plyaed a couple of gigs since I last updated, the first was at Oasisfest, which was in all honesty rubbish, in that the audience consisted mainly of the soundman and my girlfriend. Its really demoralising when no-one turns up to a gig, even if it was raining. It didnt help that 2 acts pulled out so it was left to me to go on first. Oh well.



The next gig I played was at the Lime Bar (see picture!) which was ok, but again it didnt seem like anyone was paying any attention. I think i offended the management by playing Jimym choos as well. Ha! But i think they might ask me to play again which would be nice. I've decided i need to start plugging my gigs a lot more, which leads me to this:

After much bullying my other half has started to book gigs for me, and has done splendidly well by getting me a gig at the Night and Day cafe on 29th December. I'm dead excited about it, but i have to get 15-20 people to attend, which means the promnotion machine is in full force. Ive put up several posters round the northern quarter, and am beginning a spamming campaign online. I'm really looking forward to it, apparently theyre expecting it to be pretty busy, and ive already got several people travelling up to come to the gig :) Im on at 8.20, door open at 7.30 if you want to come along. if you print out the flyer you'll get reduc ed entry, and ill get paid!
So yeah, i think this is the way forward from now on, each gig im going to really try and promote and try and get as many people to attend as i possibly can. id really like to start building up a local fan base!



Lastly, im working on a new demo of fallen leaves, which i hope to use to promnote myself around venues and festivals. I'll upload it to myspace when its done, its sounding really great at the moment though!

Thats all from me now, ill try and update more regularly next time! haha!

Nexus

Hi All! I've been taking a bit of a back seat from music this month. Havnt really played much or written many songs. This is mainly cos i went on holiday to the Costa Del Sol :D Before that I played the In the city gig which I thought went quite well, was a really nice venue and Im looking forward to playing there again at the Oasisfest gig. Speaking of which i think im going to play a set exclusivly of oasis tunes... hmmm.

Playing at nexus art cafe at 2pm this saturday then off to see the research at the roadhouse, try and make it to both gigs! :D

Thats all for now. I havnt got many gigs on the horizon at the moment.. need to get that sorted out! Stay tuned.

Headlining, Settle, ITC

Hey, time once again for the monthly update! I've spent quite a lot of the time recently playing online poker which hasnt helped at all with the laziness! Firstly I headlined acoustic eclectic (pictured) at the start of the month which was a lot of fun. Got some pretty cool pictures taken of me from that gig which you can find on the pictures segment of my myspace.




Oh, finally got my new guitar! What do you think?




The action needs adjusting though - the notes around the 12th fret are slightly sharp so Im going to take it into the guitar shop to get it sorted. Bit annoying as it should have been set up correctly in the first place!

I'll be playing at the Settle festival this Saturday in the marquee at 12.50, so try and make it along if you can. I've also sorted a gig in Milton Keynes in November playing at Hamfest. I've spoken to one of the organisers of the Bearded Theory festival and they promised I'll be able to play on the main stage next year so Im really looking forward to that. I'd quite like to play mor festivals next year so I think my focus is going to be on that.

Im still waiting on my new demos to be mastered before I upload them to myspace. Once theyre done I think im gonna bite the bullet and start sending them out to labels. Never have done before so cant see the harm in doing so. I was always taught it was a pretty pointless exercise but I might as well give it a shot anyway! It WOULD be nice to sell some music!



I'll be playing an In the City fringe event at M19 bar in Levenshulme on 5th october. Playing first at 7.10pm. Gonna try and promote that one as much as possible cos you never know who might attend! Please come along and support me!

Recording

Went into the studio a couple of weeks ago with Matt from This Machine to record some new demos. Sessions went well, recorded about 6/7 songs. Im waiting for the finished versions before i put them on myspace but heres a sneak preview:

Louise
The Soldier

Sorry for the lack of updates

Work has been really busy of late, and im a lazy git in my spare time! I've played a few gigs since the last time i posted the best one being on the leftfield stage at glastonbury as part of the open mic sessions. Also played a small cafe at glastonbury on Sunday afternoon near the park stage. Played another gig for livespace at Marshalls bar in Hebden Bridge (pictured) which went pretty well. There are more photos here. I'm going into the studio this weekend to record some songs so watch out for them on my myspace :) I'm also looking for gigs, I want to try and play as many as I can in the run up to Christmas so I might start playing cities other than Manchester.
Aside from that i've just been going to festivals and having fun :)

Thats all for now!

things to do

Lots on my mind this morning! The leftfield stage at glastonbury has a few open mic slots on Friday morning and Saturday monring and I really want to get a slot! I don't know the deal with trying to get one though. I think im just gonna go to the leftfield stage on Wednesday morning and see what the deal is and maybe sign up there and then.
I'd also really like to play on Worthy FM at some point over the weekend. I've emailed them to request a slot so here's hoping!
Also on my mind is recording new demos, fixing my laptop so i can finish mixing the demo of 'sunny side up' and In the City demo submission. I think i'm going to go record some demos in a proper studio in August sometime. I'd quite like to get a drummer in on the session, its been a while since i recorded anything with one!
Really looking forward to glasto, should be a cracking weekend and hopefully I'll get to play a few sets around the site!

Strawberry kisses at Strawberry Fair

Oops, I've been REALLY slack at updating this. I knew this would happen; it always does when I start a diary/blog. I eventually loose interest! Anyway - Played at both the Hide and Seek Festival and the Maps festival at the Castle hotel. Both were pretty good gigs, unfortunately I couldn’t stick around for the rest of the acts at Hide and Seek so I missed out on seeing what everyone else was like. Oh well. I'm not sure I'll be given a slot next year seeing as I didn’t attend any seminars. It was all a little bit too much like my uni course (it's not what you know its who you know - this industry is all about contacts darhling). Who cares?! Do it for the love of music or not at all! I'm not one for schmaltzing with contacts for the sake of making contacts even if it will benefit my 'career'. Hmm this may be why im not currently the superstar producer I set out to be!

Work - same old same old.



Also played at the bearded theory festival in the open mic tent run by my friend Spike. Was a good laugh although it descended into playing cover versions towards the end. Im thinking of including 'somebody kill me' from the wedding singer soundtrack in my set. Also tried to get on the blaggers stage at strawberry fair this weekend but got there far too late so ended up busking at the side of the stage to the bewilderment of many onlookers.

Plans for the next month or so: Play at the open mic tent at Peace in the Park in Sheffield this Saturday, goto Glasto, goto Roskilde & play the gig for Livespace in July, but hopefully I'll update before then. I'm thinking about recording a proper EP soon. Something to send off to the labels. (I've never send my music off to labels before, mainly because im a perfectionist and nothing ever seems good enough. I'll expect a barrage of rejection letters but hey at least I'll have tried right?

Long Time, No Update

Basically, Im a lazy get.

I knew it would come to a point where I would stop updating my blog regularly. I can never seem to follow these things through, especialy when not much has been happening. Whats the point in blogging if youve got nothing to write about anyway huh?

So what's been going on in the month since I last updated? Well i've been looking for band members - had a jam that went ok but not sure anything will come of it. Got another guitarists number who I keep meaning to ring, and I've lent my bass to a friend who if anything gets going Im going to rope into play bass.

I played a gig on Thursday afternoon for a new Mind shop in Ashton-under-lyne called Topaz. Went well, there were a few people from Acoustic Eclectic because the event was run by Jon who also run AE. Aside from that I've not really been playing, kinda waiting on getting my new guitar (which is out of stock everywhere!) but Ive bought a bottletop pickup for my acoustic so I can start playing live again for now.

I'm also donated 'Back in Love' to a CD which has been released in support of Topaz. You can buy it from Acoustic Eclectic on Wednesday nights at the Q bar in Stalybridge.

Does He Listen?

I've just uploaded the demo of 'Does He Listen' that I've been working on to myspace. Not too sure about it, something doesnt sound quite right, but ive put too much work into it to start from scratch. Ah well, its only a demo. I'll have another chance to record it again! Right now I think i want to get my other songs recorded, then once their all down I can start work on getting 2 or 3 songs sounding really great. Crox from This Machine said I could have some studio time sometime so that might be a start!

Had a few responses regarding band members but nothing solid has come about yet, its annoying having people waste my time - is there no one out there that actually wants to play with me?!

God

Wrote a pretty decent song on Monday called 'God' you can have a listen here

I need a new guitar! Have gigs coming up in May and nothing to play on! I tried re-stringing my electro acoustic and the machine head bust, coupled with the broken pickup and strap holder I think it's time i actually get round to trading it for a new model. Now i just need to find the cash from somewhere!

Played the open mic at Acoustic Eclectic last night which was great as always despite Hudu coming all the way to watch me play and missing me! I've been offered a headline slot there in Spetember and also been offered a matinee gig for a charity show sometime in early May.

Suprisingly work hasn't been too awful recently. I think I might sticfk it out a bit longer, depending on the pay grade I get.

Still waiting for photos from the gigs i played last month. Must chase them up.

Thinking about starting some sort of mailing list, and getting some flyers done up. Still on the lookout for band members!

I should blog more on caffene more often!

is it April already?

How did that happen?

Not been playing live much this month, have gotten a bit lazy. Still played at the Castle open mic last night which was great as always. Got to play a few songs that I havnt played in a while which was nice. Ollie offered me a slot at the Castle during the Maps festival which I'm looking forward too once the finer details have been sorted out.

I wrote a new song called 'Self Control' which I have recored and uploaded to my myspace.You can listen to it here

I'm still working on a demo of 'Does he listen' hoping to get it finished pretty soon! Meanwhile I may have found a guitarist (hoping to meet up for a jam this week) and I've been booked to play at Livespace on the 13th July :D

Videos

A boring weekend spent watching Star Wars, but I had time to record these videos

Jimmy Choos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcqLbeWFNBg

Louise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibAG8VY03kw

After watching the Louise video I think it'd sound realy cool with a violin. I'll have to try and find someone to play with me!

Damn the man

Im really sick of my fucking job. I complete most of my tasks my 10.30. In my boredom I go online, and now they've started blocking all my favourite websites which leaves me with wikipedia. I can't go on being that bored for much longer.

Anyway, so I played 3 gigs last weekend. The best was the gig at Jabez Clegg - it actually had people there! The Oxjam gig was the most badly organised event I think I've ever played at. The venue was massive but I ended up playing to just the soundman <_<

The third gig was at the Castle, again there was only 6 people in the room! I've really got to start getting some sort of fan base together that will actually turn up to my gigs - if only I knew how to build one up!

I've created a Jealous of Girls page on facebook, theres a video on there from Friday night.
Check it out - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jealous-of-Girls/8499539310?ref=nf

Oh, I bust a string on my guitar yesterday, which led me to start ripping all the stickers off. Now I have to start all over again!

The importance of being lazy

Havn't done anything productive in the last 2 weeks! Went to Estonia for a few days last week and came back with the plague so wasnt able to play an open mic this week. Still I've got 3 gigs coming up next week which im really excited about!

Right I'm off to record either 'Louise' or 'Does he listen'. Look out for it soon!

Estonia beckons

Am flying to Estonia in the morning! woo! My train to London is in a few hours :D

Anyhoo, been offered a gig playing at Jabez Clegg on March 6th at a friends exhibition so I'm really looking forward to that! That brings my gig list to:

6th March - Jabez Clegg
7th March - MMU Student Union
10th March - Castle Open Mic (Headlining)
May - Bearded Theory Festival (Open Mic stage)
31-May/1st June - Hide and Seek Festival (acoustic day)


Sunny Side Up

So I ended up buying a snowball microphone from ebay for £55 which means I finally got around to recording a demo of sunny side up!
You can listen on my myspace :D http://www.myspace.com/jealousofgirls

tell me what you think!

Blogspot test / Fuel / Video Demo

OK, I'm sick of doing my own coding for my blog so I've decided a blogspot would be easier! Plus now you can add comments too :)

For reference my previous blogs are here: http://www.jealousofgirls.co.uk/blog.html

I played at Fuel in Withington again last night. Tough crowd, they were all silent for the hip hop act before me but talked through my set. A little annoying, but at least the people at the front seemed like they were listening.

I bought a new 8megapixel webcam on Saturday for £22. It records great quality videos, I just need a decent microphone now! I wrote a song last night called 'hands on the trigger' You can watch it here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj9bZFTyA1A


Im sure there must be a way to embed youtube videos into my posts but im not sure how just yet!