The last podcast

It Runs in the Family (I think)

My family isn’t really known for being musical. My dad played trombone and accordion when he was younger (I don’t really know how well!) and my sister played alto sax for a while (and I don’t even know for how long!) I would say I’m probably the most ‘musical’ in my immediate family.

However, not so long ago I discovered my dad’s cousin, Graham Ward is a former child ‘drumming’ prodigy who played the drums in the movie of Bugsy Malone and owns a recording studio in LA. Nice huh?

Anyway my dad is going to LA (I think for work…this is a rather unsure blog!) and is hoping to pop by so he’s going to try and take a CD of my music along. I guess because we both record (him obviously having the upper hand of a luxury recording complex!)

This is the tracklisting for the CD I’m sending to LA via ‘Dad mail.’ Not all of these songs are on my soundcloud yet, but the ones that are you can download for free. I’ve been recording over the past couple of days so I’ll put them on my cloud soon. I would have put them up already however the Soundcloud site won’t let me upload more than five tracks per month. I have made all of the featured songs on my myspace downloadable so you can grab and go from there! I hope that people who like my music will pass it on and possibly blog about it, however I know my recordings are scrappy. I can’t quite capture my voice as I like it – I know that vocally, I’m much better live. The effects on my desk aren’t great and the reverb is rather difficult to program. I also have coined myself the phrase that ‘I haven’t the time for a metronome’ because none of my recordings are recorded to a click track. I record to literally keep a record of what I’m writing and creating and I like to be quick. If I was recording with other people it would probably be more fun and a more precise process.

In terms of uni work I’ve got a 1,000 creative analysis of a radio play I’ve produced and designed the sound for and I’m ready for the next semester. Hurrah!

Frank x

Easter Holidays? Art Brut Vs Satan and Going gigging…

There is a question mark in my title.

I doubt very much that I’m going back to Kent this Easter for a number of reasons, mostly because I need books and have a lot of work and also because one piece of work, a 10-15 minute radio play requires me to use the computer network at uni.

One of the biggest common problems with Uni is it has a distinct lack of books. With thirty people or more writing the same essay often you can’t get the right book before the deadline. I’m popping into the library later before band practice with Pyschonaut to see if I can find anything and then tomorrow I’ll begin my radio play. Its a play called Sunday Morning at the Centre of the World by Louis de Bernieres. I’ve got some ideas but not sure if they’ll work yet so I’m sure I’ll spend tomorrow finding out. My aim is to get this done by the end of the week. I wrote a 2,000 word essay over the weekend. To be honest my aim is just to get rid of my current backlog of work. I want to focus on bringing music back into the guild.

My music ‘manifesto’ as it is shaping out is to try and get Guild Venues to put on music acts. You can find out more and join the facebook group I’ve set up too and have your say. The group has only been in existence for a few days but its growing nicely. I’m going to email Adam Craig, head of venues at the Guild of Students later and see if I can set up a meeting.

I think I’m starting to get a reputation as a workaholic.

I just like to get things out of the way so I feel responsibility-free…except that never happens because I take something new on! However I can’t afford train fare home so if I do get rid of all ‘to dos’ I still can’t go back. My real aim is to start recording better Get Frank demos, but my guitarist Nick isn’t around and he always plays my stuff differently to me! Martin from Urbanfly has asked me to play an unsigned showcase at the Victoria pub on the 4th June and even if Nick can’t make it, I’ll figure something out.

I was reading Eddie Argos of Art Brut‘s blogspot blog and read a Drowned in Sound article he wrote for them about new album Art Brut Vs Satan. I’ve just reviewed the new single Alcoholics Unanimous for Culture Deluxe and wrote a review of the album earlier today. I now wish I’d read the article first. I really really like the record, its another brilliantly realised collection of songs with more than your average share of wisdom. On my uni course we learn about postmodernism/challenging perceptions/going against the grain etc… and I completely ignored my own intellect and gave the record a 7 out of 10, when in my own personal opinion I’d probably give it a little bit more, I was just thinking in a ‘person reading the review’ rather than writing the review way. The band are playing the Academy 2 on the 28th April so I’m hoping to go see them. I’ve seen them a couple of times and both were awesome. The last time was at Lounge on the Farm in Canterbury. I managed to grab a quick interview with Eddie and guitarist Jasper Future for my BBC Blast page but my bloomin’ dictaphone ran out of batteries without me realising. Grrrrrr…..

On thursday I’m playing a headline gig at the Birmingham Academy 3 with Pyschonaut . I play bass. It’s fun but I’m running out of time/ diary space so not sure how much longer I’ll be a part of them. I also want to concentrate on my own stuff – I need to find a bassist, possibly another guitarist, a drummer and a keyboard player but haven’t got my bum into gear yet. The gig on thursday will be my third gig at the Academy 3, having played there once with Psychonaut, and once on my lonesome (literally last minute supporting The Rileys.) Tickets, I believe, are £5. I’m not even sure who we’re playing with to be honest but details on request folks!!!

Frank x

Let Battle Commence…

Tonight is the night!

Its the very first Burnfm.com Battle of the Bands at the University of Birmingham Guild of Students. Personally I’ve put LOADS of work into this, as have the societies who have been helping us, Vale Festival, Band Soc, Rock Soc and Metal Soc.

We’ve got 360 headlining which I’m very excited about…however I know I’ve blogged about this before so all I really need to say again is…

7.30pm, guild of students underground, tickets £5. Student bar prices!!!

On tuesday it was the guild of students Guild Awards. Burn didn’t win anything. Burn did not even have a photo in the slideshow of the years events.

We have had a number of issues recently and therefore I have decided to publish an email I sent to the sabbatical officer for Student Activities and Development…

I understand that the Guild want to support us however I really feel that currently we are not appreciated as a fully functioning society. At the Guild Awards we felt that we were unfairly left out of the proceedings, with any possibility of mentioning Burnfm completely overlooked. For example in the photo montage (and I sent in plenty of photos with nominations and after nominations had closed as I was aware that there would probably be a slideshow,) we were completely left out and the only look in burn had was a short, silent clip in a film made by GTV. Of course it is up to the discretion of the panel who chooses the shortlist for award winners and I totally respect those who won and was happy for them, but I think we deserved at least a shortlist position for Most Improved. We have worked so hard this year to get Burn back up and running. We visibly support the guild (including a ‘Guild news’ section of our hourly news bulletin,) advertise its events, give societies a spotlight in specially allocated radio slots and also allow the guild and societies to use our recording equipment, making time to show them how to use it, and often operating it for them. For example I have recorded podcasts with yourself in the past and today I helped Watch This! record voice overs for a production they are putting together.

Personally I feel my job has become a thankless one, it is not my agenda to recieve personal praise for what I do but to get the radio station noticed and appreciated. I’m sure you understand that. This is one of the reasons I do things like strictly brum, to try and get our society’s name recognised. I always do as the Guild asks me, including missing classes that my tuition fees have paid for but feel that the Guild do not always do what I ask of them. I am very grateful for the BOTB spot on the TVs in Joes bar however no A0 posters have gone up and there are still Got Involved posters up in the Guild that could be replaced. In the STA travel corridor there are at least two empty poster frames where the posters could have gone, without disrupting advertising for Fab and Friday or Stock Exchange.

Tonight I am writing this email after spending a great deal of time on the phone to Burn members who have not been able to do their last ever shows on Burnfm because Luke Mayer (?) of the sports night is refusing them entry on account that we have not given the guild a list of the DJs broadcasting after 8pm. This has never been requested of me or Burn, otherwise you can be assured that I would have done it. For the past two semesters we have been broadcasting until 11pm on a wednesday night. We have been broadcasting until 8pm on tuesdays, despite VIT’s cancellation (the Guild did not inform us of this, therefore wasting oversubscribed specialist hours) and this friday, despite not being informed, we have chosen to cease broadcasting at 8pm due to Fab and Friday. To make us cease broadcasting early on another day is ridiculous. It is another example of Burn being treated as though we do not matter. Mr Mayer refused to speak to me on the phone, but due to having spent 7 hours on shift at Burn today, I need to catch up on work and could not spare the hour or so required to travel to the Guild deal with an impossible situation and then travel back.

I would also like to be updated on the motion passed in Guild Council about Burn being played in Joes [bar]. I want to work with the Guild on making sure this motion is stuck to, and making sure that the broadcasts are of high quality. Next term we are going to formally write up how training will work (probably an hour or two talk with the committee, James Piggot of Legal Services and hopefully a radio professional) and then studio sessions with small groups. We will start to look at how we can really push the idea of producers to potential members and how to make sure shows are efficiently structured and broadcast. We also want to focus on our community of DJs next term by having more socials, applying for SRA awards and putting together podcasts with input from everyone and anyone – just giving a voice to whoever wants one (this includes societies, musicians and the Guild in general.)

The reason I am publishing this is because I have not yet recieved a reply from the officer I sent the message to. I feel that Burn is actually supported more by people outside of the Uni currently. I have recently been faced with a situation that required me to miss classes that my tuition fees have paid for. My time might not be worth money to the guild, but it is worth marks to me….

On Friday I participated in Strictly Brum Dancing for the University of Birmingham Ballroom and Latin Society. After speaking to DJ Steve LeMaq on his friday BBC 6 Music show. I didn’t win but apparently, for my quick efforts in learning a chacha and a waltz I have been named a ballroom dance prodigy…hurrah!

Frank x

Burnfm’s Battle of the Bands

botb-poster

Finally!

We have a Battle of the Bands poster! I don’t think I can get it to display, but the event is at the University of Birmingham Guild of Students at 7.30pm on Thursday 26th March.

I’m ruddy excited…We’ve got six university acts lined up to battle for a slot at Vale Fest 2009, and a headline slot from brilliant Birmingham act 360.

The finalists are:

The July Days

Varney and Sons

Motion

Battle Stations

Jessica Sharman

Wicked Messengers

We held a preliminary round to whittle the bands down and you can here recordings from this here, simply click on the BOTB link. We judged the acts by their live performances, not recordings as we felt that this was much fairer.

The final will be judged by Aaron Wright, music editor of uni paper Redbrick, Johnny O’ Callaghan who runs InD at Walkabout and two members of another Birmingham band, the almighty Scarlot Harlots.

We would love to have you along as profits are going toward Vale Fest and its charities. Vale Fest usually raises over £50,000 for charity, we hope to make that over £60,000 this year! Tickets are £5 and are available from Joes Bar (in the Guild) or on the door. It is not a student exclusive event and is open to all, so if you’ve never been to the Guild/Uni before, or are simply feeling nostalgic and want to check out both new and established talent, then please come! Group (10 or more) discount is £4 per person and can be arranged by emailing me, frankiepromotes@googlemail.com

If you would like to review/photograph this event also please get in touch.

The live music ends at 12am and will be followed by DJs until 2am.

Frank

A Brief History of Helen of Troy (or Everything Will Be Different.)

I’m writing some songs for a Mark Schufler play called A Brief History of Helen of Troy (or Everything Will Be Different.) One of these is ‘Bedspread’ which I’m playing as part of my Get Frank on sunday at the Yardbird.

You can find out more here. The gig is free!

Helen of Troy is going to be performed at the Custard Factory on the Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th March. Find out more here!

Frank x

hope to see you sunday. It is free after all!

If you see Atom/Business Time/Get Frank’s first gig

…I sent an email to Adam of Atom and His Package and got a response!

Apparently my email asking the retired musician to come play in England so I could sing on track ‘Head (she’s a)’ made his day, but unfortunately he has no plans to make a trip any time soon (or ever it seems!)

In other news I’m still searching for judges Burnfm‘s BOTB and getting messages from interested acts. Burn is sounding pretty er… ‘hot’ right now and I’m rather chuffed with everyone involved and their hard work.

I’ve got lots of work atm but I can’t help myself from watching Flight of the Conchords constantly! The new series is on Youtube…and I’m a tad obsessed. I even played ‘Business Time’ on my radio show on friday.

MOST IMPORTANTLY!!!!

I’m playing my first gig as Get Frank on thursday at the Victoria on John Bright Street (behind the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham.) It’s a Bohemian Jukebox in the City event organised by musician Ben Calvert. I’ve recruited friend/ Burnfm Head of Specialist Nick Mannix to play guitar for me so I don’t completely crack! I may play something aside from singing but haven’t decided yet. I really need to find someone to do precussion and someone to play glock and keyboard but haven’t got any takers as of yet. I should probably advertise but haven’t got a clue where to start…..

PLEASE COME! Any Q’s just email me or comment…

Frank x

frankiepromotes@googlemail.com

Burnfm…back with a band?

A couple of days ago I finally decided to GET ON WITH IT!

‘It’ being the first Burnfm.com Battle of the Bands. We’ve scheduled it for the 26th March (thursday before term ends.)

I’m currently on a desperate search for the organisers of Vale Fest so that I can negociate a slot on one of their stages for our winner. I also need to find some willing judges who are passionate about finding new and up and coming talent. I feel it is important for people to show their enthusiasm for Birmingham produced music as this is one of the issues raised by organisations such as Gigbeth.

We’re looking for about 5-10 acts. The amount of songs they play will depend on how much interest we recieve. If we have 10 then I’m currently pondering whether to get them to play one ‘crowd pleasing’ cover and one of their own songs (so the judges can really pick up on whether they have that ‘special spark.’

I’m going to have talks with members of Rock Soc, Indie Soc and the newly launched Band Soc to try and see how the event will work and how to get people involved….

Any ideas please comment or email me…

On other Burnfm.com stuff we’ve been back online for nearly a week and finally have some stings and beds in place which is lovely! We’re going to sort out more marketing and start talking…!

The most important thing to get off the ground is the computer system which our Tech guy, Michael Barton has built us an automated playback system. He just has to correct a bug in the program and then we’ll all be able to put music on the system and really get things off the ground.

HURRAH!

Frank x

My name in ink

When I was six and being ‘groomed for stardom’ by a weekend stage school the only ambition myself (and my mother) had was for my name to be up in lights on Shaftsbury Avenue. Thirteen years later I have seen my name in super shiny ink and I couldn’t be happier.

On Saturday morning a bubble wrapped package lay in the hallway of my student house. On seeing the Channel 4 logo I realised the package was for me and spent the next ten minutes joyfully trying to work out how to actually hack my way through to the gloriously bright magazine inside.

It came as quite a surprise to me when I discovered that, despite not winning, I could still make an appearance in the winter issue of 4Talent magazine. I entered the wrong category, without preparing a proper portfolio or giving myself enough time to post hard copies off to Birmingham based 4 Talent Central. (Ironically I usually live in Birmingham for university but was in Kent working for the BBC when I discovered about the awards and it’s nearing deadline for entry.)

Reading through the magazine has given me inspiration for the future- not only because of the advice and professional insight provided by the contributors but also due to the fact that the age cut off for entering the awards is thirty. This means I have eleven years to get myself together!

Without realising, my first foray into journalism came on my16th birthday when I decided to make a documentary on the ‘chav culture’ of a local nightclub titled ‘Ikon or Pikon.’ When I showed this, and other videos to my year eleven form tutor he insisted I show them to the head of media studies and consider the subject itself for A level. I declined the option to study the subject however; I wanted to create media- not study it.

When it came to choosing University I decided to do a subject I could actually stick at for three years and enjoy. I went into uni thinking I wanted to be a theatre director. As I sat in a student union bar full of student drama fanatics I yearned to be in the meeting next door, where my friend was applying for a radio show. A few days later I found the studio and blagged myself a specialist music show. A few months later I was on the committee and in a few days time I will stand for Station Manager.

At first, trawling through online work experience applications and email rejections I imagined I’d never find a placement to set me on a broadcasting career path. I was of the opinion that to get work experience you had to have already had experience and the whole system was an impenetrable system. Now I realise you have to make your own. My way of doing this (again without realising it) was through writing and contributing to blogs and radio.

One of the great things about being a student is the freedom of having an interest free overdraft! I worked for BBC Blast, BBC Radio Kent, Myspace Radio and 4Talent over the summer and found myself owing a lot of money to the bank. The good thing about education is I have a while to pay it back, and as far as I am concerned, the more experience I get, the more likely I’ll be able to once I have graduated.

Recently my University held a ‘Breaking into Broadcasting’ event that I unfortunately missed. My friend, however, didn’t. “It was all scaremongering” my friend said, “They basically said there’s 100,000 British media students and 60,000 broadcasting jobs.” (both of us, not studying media, are not included in that 100,000.) Suddenly I was glad I’d passed up the opportunity to stay at home and write.

These days broadcasting has become increasingly focused on the ‘360’ of television, radio and online. I realise that it’s been three years since my debut documentary and now may be a good time to return to the moving image.

Since getting a Macbook with a built in camera and getting involved in the Internet Zombie Movie (which was referenced in the current issue of 4Talent magazine.) I’ve developed a keen interest in the way that You Tube works. How do you get subscribers for starters, and then how can you become a You Tube Partner and actually make earnings from your home made efforts?

This process I am aware, will not be as simple as creating a blog: I have no budget. My three year old camera makes a horrible whirring sound when I press record and all I really have is my Macbook, but something tells me I can do it…

Well I made it into 4Talent magazine didn’t I?

Open mic-ing

Student life, it seems, is no longer about getting drunk, staying up all night chatting or going out on a whim.

As the christmas season approaches, so do deadlines and currently no one seems to be doing much socially which I feel is a shame as my dying kidney is back to happy and I can’t properly celebrate.

So today I’m off out to open mic at The Soak in Selly Oak as I’ve got nothing better to do (except um…work) and I’m going to play and probably leave…or stay depending on who is there.

The thing about open mic in The Soak is that only a few people are there for the event itself, everyone else is boozing, snooker-ing or gathered around the large screen watching some type of sport. Some will find this offputting, others will like that not everyone is examining them. I’m in between the two as on the couple of times I’ve played there before, I’ve been unable to hear myself playing and as a nervous newbie to the bussiness of gigging etc… I can’t even hear my own mistakes. This causes me to panic and make even more errors- so I act self-deprecating and laugh it off. No one will ever take me seriously until I do myself I suppose.

Tonight I’m going to play a couple of covers and a few of my own. I usually play originals but if you open with a cover people seem to settle a bit more. Their ears prick up because they’re trying to work out ‘what is that familiar-but not so similar tune.’ The eureka moment when they realise could lose their attention or retain it for longer, depending on the listener.

Will post a ‘set list’ and some you tube videos later…