Monthly Archives: December 2008

Christmas numero uno.

There’s one thing about christmas that has certainly lost it’s magic…

With the annual predictability of the number one made complete by ITV talent shows there is no excitement in that once all important battle for the xmas top spot.

This year Alexandra Burke, winner of the 2008 X Factor has broken records and shot to number one with her cover of Lenoard Cohen’s Hallelujah (+ Gospel Choir arrangement.)

The issue with Hallelujah is that the X Factor version is just a big fat showboat for it’s performer. Alex has an incredibly powerful voice for her 20 years but clearly has little life experience with which to fuel the emotion of the song. Hallelujah is not the song of a joyful winner and this is why I believe her version doesn’t work.

The production of the track is far too clean and detached: Karaoke with better backing vocals. The backing was not rerecorded for each X Factor finalist which means that any hope of ‘style’ that the acts might have cultivated for themselves would be buried beneath a non negociable tempo.

The ITV talent show has taken away the necessity of Xmas TOTP. How long before it removes the necessity for the Xmas chart full stop?

Frank. x

P.s- as I have been talking charts…

Got to no. 16 on the most watched uk musician youtube chart (day)

P.P.S

So far am no.67 on the most watched uk muso chart (this week)

18th most watched uk youtube musician…

On 18th december I achieved the status in the title which was nice… now youtube just needs to feature me! I’m also the 100th most watched musician this week (UK).

Slow news day?

I guess some of you reading this will have noticed articles by the Daily Mail and others talking about an incident that occured during Burnfm’s autumn broadcast concerning commented about a member of Des O’ Connor’s family.

This is not an official statement but these are some facts about the articles that I feel need to be settled.

The DJ’s were not ‘on air’ but on the internet. We were not broadcasting on FM at the time and it was only our first or second week of broadcast.

The incident did not occur earlier this month. It was back in October (the same week as the Ross/Brand scandal) eliminating people’s claims that this was an incident influenced by the Radio 2 duo.

The Burnfm committee were not aware before the incident, that it would be containing the content that it ended up broadcasting.

This term, partly due to not marketing the station, Burnfm has had an average listenership of 6 and a maximum of 28 (during a Sunday afternoon chart show.)

Any other questions, feel free to contact me, frankiepromotes@googlemail.com. I do not want to explain further details as I fear being misquoted (which has stopped me bombarding newsdesks!)

Frank. x

Glasto new talent…

Today I got an email about Q magazine‘s annual Glastonbury New Talent Competition. The competition, in it’s fifth year, gives acts the chance to perform on the main stage at Glastonbury Festival. There is also the opportunity to still perform, even if you don’t become the overall winner.

The thing is…it costs £11.50 to enter. Apparently this covers the cost of the competition etc… but is it really that necessary? Q has its own TV and radio channels, a magazine and is part of the same publishing company as Empire magazine (I bloody love their website.) So why does it have to cost so much? I haven’t got the recordings to win so I doubt I’ll enter unless someone magical flings open their studio doors for me before January 26th! I also wouldn’t know which songs to enter to be honest!

Today, on the advice on fellow Youtubers I decided to buy a guitar strap and am experiencing playing my acoustic standing up. It’s actually not as hard as I was expecting! I noticed however, that there is a lack of tasteful guitar straps on offer- particularly for girls. Perhaps an illustrator might like to have a go?

oooh I’m the 50th most viewed UK musician on youtube again….oh crap Big Brother put up that silly audition video!

 

Frank x

BB…..

Youtube is currently featuring a video by Channel 4 on how to submit an online audition for Big Brother 2009.

C4 have got ex housemates to give advice on how to get onto the show…

The comments on the above video are mostly negative, which show that perhaps Youtube is not the best place for C4 to have attempted a BB partnership…Myspace would probably have been a better bet.

However this comment on the audition video made me laugh

Big Brother sucks a big fat one. George Orwell’s greatest work has been desacrated by this monstrous pile of shit.

To be honest, I don’t think that George Orwell’s work has been desecrated…if anything perhaps more people will have read 1984 because of the Big Brother concept and if they haven’t then they probably don’t associate the phrase Big Brother with literature.

So, why am I posting about this anyway…The thing is, I need somewhere to stay over summer!

Basically I’ve posted a shortened version of a video I’ve already made, (The Youtube Factor) and a new video…

To be honest I haven’t tried very hard, and people who know me know that I’ll end up, if I’m asked to audition, seeking out the producers and asking for work experience! I mean imagine if I was selected…if I was interviewed every session would end with me handing over my business card and trying to blag a reference! I’ve said in my audition that I work in media so I doubt they’d risk me…

I also want to see how the production side of the program works. X Factor is a complete disgrace in terms of how the auditions are portrayed and how they are truly conducted. I admit I watch the live shows but, unlike most others, I don’t watch the auditions. They make me itch.

Ooooh my mum has got two new cats. Dodger is 7 months and Elf is 14 months. They’re from a rescue centre and have seemingly adopted me! I made a video with Dodger and one of the recordings from my Rhubarb Radio session with the lovely Mark Steadman (for his show with Anthony Herron.)

Asessment week

Sorry I’ve not had much time to post recently….

On youtube I’ve got nearly 130 subs now, here’s a recent vid (I’ve been watching too much xfactor!)