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I’ve not played a gig for other a month now… I’m hoping people don’t forget me!

It’s a decision I’ve made partly cos I’m so darn busy, but also because I’ve got a new drummer, Eve and a new glock/keys player, Desi. It’s really exciting because it means I’ll be able to have more fun when I’m performing rather than having to stick by the mic stand. It’s also exciting because Eve is an incredible drummer – not just in the playing sense but in the way that she can listen to something and bring something completely new to it. She likes to look at my lyrics and play something that works with them rather than purely keeping a beat. It makes me think of a time supporting the wonderful Dan Smith when his former manager told me I ‘had it’ and discussed drums (back then it was just me and my friend Nick doing our duo thing.) He was of the opinion that drums are purely to keep time but I’m starting to do a u-turn on this. I think that from our few practices together as a new line up, precussion has become an essential part of what I do. As my own precussive skills are limited, a lot of the stuff I utilise on my poorly recorded myspace demos can sound quite samey.

Hopefully if anyone who reads this and has seen us live before, or will do in future will be pleasantly surprised! I’m hoping that the lovely Mr Hearing Aid will pop along and give his opinion on our progression. Unfortunately we’ve lost our sax, but we’re aiming to sound a lot more together before we hit the ‘scene’ again. I’m also writing new material – aiming to produce more stuff along the lines of ‘Cautionary Tale’ – style rather than content.

(I have never actually watched this video before… I usually record them and shove them on Youtube…. it’s so different to how it is now!)

I’ve never been too keen on ‘Cautionary Tale’ yet a lot of people (well I say a lot… I mean most of the people who’ve heard my stuff) say it’s one of my best songs. It is always fun to play with a band though!

This is the first ever incarnation of ‘Arrangement’. I’d had the uke for a few days and was writing as I learnt new chords…

and this is the second

The new version, as of yesterday is nice and slow… until a few bars in. Then we ska it up. That’s another thing about being a collective – the influences that everyone brings. James, our guitarist is really into ska (and Abba as the chords I found in his guitar case yesterday would have me believe,) and we’re always break into a song by Spunge every now and again (usually that old classic ‘Kicking Pigeons’!)

I’ll hopefully record a practice soon so you can share in the fun!

As mentioned in this post, click here for an online preview of the very first issue of Melonz Mag…it’s looking rather lovely

I am always interested in all things ‘Created in Birmingham‘ and think I’ve found the latest project to follow…

Melonzmag is a new magazine venture developed by Birmingham City University 3rd year media students Natalie Chillington, Laura Blood and Katherine Higgs.

From reading the blog it seems that the girls are huge kitsch jewellery fans which is awesome given that I’m overly partial to sites such as Heidi Seeker and Lady Luck Rules OK! Plus the blog provides links to some cool vintage stuff. They also feature some music events from the Midlands area (surely I have a ‘Melonz shaped heart’!?!)

You can grab a copy of Melonz Mags’ first issue soon hopefully! They’ll be taking it to all good independent record stores, so I guess the best thing is to keep an eye at the Melonz Mag blog for details…

The following is taken from the ‘about page’ of the Melonz blog and I’m guessing pretty much sums up the magazine too…

Would you rather gouge your eyes out with a shoehorn than watch Hollyoaks?  Welcome one and all to the blog page of Melonz Magazine.

We are a new, small (but not underestimated), West Midlands-based women’s magazine for women who believe there is more to life than celebrities, X-Factor and diet fads. We promise to deliver a witty, honest and entertaining outlook on life for those of us who would rather live an interesting existence than talk about Paris Hilton and the price of bread.

My boyfriend Alex and his friend Neil set up a business a few years back called Mouldy Loaf. They started with a shop in Stratford….and although that’s gone now they now have their online shop (see hyperlink) and now have a shop in the Custard Factory. Although an undeniably cool space, and a very cool shop design (go have a look and see what I mean) I think it’s sometimes hard to attract new customers along.

Perhaps if there was a space next to Cow Vintage (formerly the Big Yellow Vintage Store) then they would do really well from alternative-lovin’ customers but unfortunately unless its gone midnight and the Custard Factory’s legendary parties are going strong, those people rarely venture beyond the Digbeth Subway.

Mouldy Loaf is now joining forces with local silk screen printers Cut Out and are sharing the Custard Factory shop space. Cut Out of course printed the Created in Birmingham Acorn Hospice T Shirt which you can get in the shop complete with a charming brown tag which tells you what number you are in possession of (there are 50 unisex shirts and 50 tote bags.) So if you haven’t got yours yet clearly you should go have a nosey!

Mouldy Loaf deserves and should be an enterprise that becomes vital to the Birmingham creative scene. It supports up and coming artists such as local cartoonist Gaz Barnett. You can find more artists and about them on the Mouldy Loaf Myspace page.

Here are some photos from the shoot we did for the website. I turned up in my lipstick ‘ready for my closeup’ and had a plastic bear face shoved on my mug. Charming!!!

This film was made for Al’s (Alex Buckmaster) Visual Communications project at BCU. Thanks to Nicky Getgood for Twittering and blogging about it!

Hope to see you there tonight! (I’m on after 7.)

I sent in a video entry for the Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice Birmingham’s Got Talent competition ages ago and got a phone call this morning to say I’m through to the final next wednesday at the Jam House. It was rather a shock I can tell you! I sent them a video of myself and Nick performing ‘Untitled’ but watching it back I realise it really wasn’t my best performance, hence why I really am surprised!

I don’t think I’ll be performing Untitled at the event as I’m not sure how long I’ll be playing for, I think with the short length of my songs probably two. I doubt Nick, the guitarist in the above video is going to be free to play so I might be on my own! If I am then I’ll probably play ‘Three Floors HIgh‘ because I feel that works on its own, just me.

Yesterday I did some work for Chris Unitt at Fazley Studios (the studios are amazing!) I basically tried to find as many dance focused companies as possible for Chris’ work with West Midlands Dance. The company that I’d particularly like to see after looking at over 100 schools, agencys and production companies is Blue Eyed Soul who are an inclusive dance company who involve anyone they can, no matter what ability or disability that one may have.

On my way home I popped into Mouldy Loaf, a shop in the Custard Factory that commissions local artists to create unique T-Shirt designs. It made me think of a slighty ‘grown up’ Lazy Oaf (who I absolutely love!) They have a couple of offers on at the moment and I couldn’t resist a tshirt with a cloud on it. (I like clouds. Especially ones that talk.)

Feeling considerably ‘arty’ I finally recorded some stuff in my room. I decided to rearrange a song called…’An Arrangement’ and here it is…

I’ve just been offered at support slot for Dan Smith at The Rainbow pub with 444 Club promotions on the 29th May.

I played with Dan Smith at the Yardbird last month and he was awesome, (think male Regina Spektor with a synth.)

So basically I need to build up a band with keys, bass, guitar and drums and for that I need people. Anyone really! If you’re interested email me, frankiepromotes@googlemail.com. You can listen to ‘fragments’ of my stuff on my myspace, watch me and friend Nick playing some stuff on Youtube and also grab some downloads of old songs on my soundcloud.

I don’t care about virtuosos or skills or anything. Keeping time is a good thing to have as is having instruments (although I’ve got some of those of course!)

So spread the word and if possible, come on board…it will be fun, promise!

Frank x

Martin from Urbanfly (follow his tweets here,) has featured my live Rhubarb Radio version of ‘Disappointed in Me’ on his blog which was a lovely surprise. The track is available to download for free with a few others from my soundcloud.

I’ve met a few people in the last couple of days who have mentioned recording with me which would be great – I need to get some decent sounding tracks as currently I’m far too lazy. I like the group feeling of recording and its fairly uninspiring cobbling things together on my own. I call the recordings I’ve made so far ‘fragments’ because none of them are complete. Often I’ll be unhappy with the vocals but because I just want to get it down, I put up with unsatisfactory takes.

The song I really want to work on is ‘So Far Away’ (makeshift video below.) I recorded it as I wrote it, (as I usually do) I want to make it longer and use it to play around with my voice a bit more. I don’t really stretch myself vocally – its time to use my training! I’ll put the first version on my soundcloud as I’ve not uploaded anything for a while….

Frank x