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Posts from the ‘Music’ Category

17
Jun
phone

No more music on my iPod thanks to Spotify

I’ve had ‘the middle’ iPod in one form or another since the first iPod Mini was released in 2004.

And ever since, from the very beginning of my iPod ownership life, music and speech have been fighting for dominance of the limited space. Read moreRead more

14
Jun
glasto

New look Glasto site makes use of 6music names

Every year  the BBC relaunches its website for one of the major festivals it covers or, in the case of the Big Weekend – hosts.

The latest site to get this treatment is the Glastonbury festival, normally I wouldn’t blog about this but, unlike the others there are a number of things of note. Read moreRead more

26
Aug

Covering a music festival – socially

A weekend for me is usually a fairly predictable affair; I wake up on a Saturday and spend the day looking after my (nearly) six year old son while my wife goes shopping with our eight year old daughter and toddler.

Then on Sunday we spend the day together as a family – go the park, sometimes to the zoo and usually have a Sunday roast at around 2pm – like I said, all pretty predictable.

But one weekend a year, the first weekend in September to be exact, I spend nearly a full 23 hours interviewing, listen to, photographing or filming bands.

The first weekend of September is when the Jersey Live music festival happens at the RJA&HS Showground in Trinity, Jersey.

This is the sixth year of the event and the sixth year I’ve covered it for the BBC in Jersey.

For the first four years I spent the weekend gathering content and then pulled it all together for the BBC Jersey website, BBC Radio Jersey and a bit for BBC Channel Island News (then BBC Spotlight Channel Islands) on the following Monday.

Then last year I tried an experiment – instead of holding all the content and publishing it on Monday – I’d publish as I went along – socially.

2816227820_468f2e56da_bActually the original idea was to publish it all to the BBC Jersey website – updating a series of features and galleries as the weekend went on.

But it didn’t really work out that way due to an error with 1) logging into the BBC FTP server and 2) intermittent WiFi in the press tent.

So our coverage sort of went social by accident and by that I mean photos on Flickr and updates on Twitter – with slightly longer reviews posted to our MySpace blog.

This year we have a whole new look BBC Jersey site, a new publishing system and no way to update the site remotely on a non-BBC laptop.

So I’m planning to go social from the start and will be tying the whole thing into the various social media pages for my show – BBC Jersey Introducing.

As with last year I’ll be posting photos to Flickr as I come out from the front of the stage, or as I get back from wandering the festival site taking photos of people.

Then I’ll write 140 character reviews of the bands on the various stages I visit (as will the other two people covering the festival with me) on Twitter as well as using our Twitter stream @jsyintroducing to write any interesting festival facts or stories.

I’ve also set up an Audioboo account for BBC Jersey Introducing where I’ll have the phone next to me when I interview bands – so you’ll be able to hear (albeit slightly lower quality) interviews as I do them.

I’ll then be pulling the mass of content together using Tumblr so it can be found in one place and having that re-post the mass of content to the BBC Jersey Introducing fan page on Facebook.

I’ll then be able to use all of the above to help me write the various reviews, articles and create the galleries that will make up the bbc.co.uk/jersey coverage of the festival.

It will also help me piece together my first ‘post festival’ show on the following Saturday as the highlights will be on Twitter and Facebook.

And obviously I’ll be trying my best to respond to any comments or feedback on any of the various social sites while running around the Showground in Trinity.

So if you’re not going to Jersey Live but want regular updates on what’s happening just follow @jsyintroducing on twitter, become a fan on Facebook at jerseyintroducing, follow my boos or keep track of the whole thing on Tumblr.

Or you can still do all of the above from a half decent mobile if you’re AT the festival – you might even hear about a cool band just starting you might not have gone to otherwise.

Then again you could just enjoy the event and catch up with our coverage on the BBC Jersey site on Monday – they’ll even be video.

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27
May

Who let Clarkson programme Glasto?

For the last few years Glastonbury has become renowned for putting ‘interesting’ acts in their headline spot.

This year they’ve pretty much filled the main stage with ‘interesting’ bands. In fact the bands are so interesting thatthey could have asked Jeremy Clarkson to pick the acts.

I’m not saying this is a bad thing. It takes all styles to make a festival – especially one the size of Glastonbury – and once you take the fact that there are plenty of other stages to enjoy – it’s pretty quirky fun.

So lets take a look at the Pyramid stage (aka the Dad rock stage).

On Friday Neil Young is headlining the stage followed by The Specials as the penultimate act.

But there is also Lily Allen and friendly folksters Fleet Foxes and the first band on the stage on Friday is Bjorn Again – the ABBA TRIBUTE act.

On Saturday The Boss, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band are headlining – then Kasabian are on bring things a little towards the 21st Century while still remaining dad-inoffensive.

But then we are going back a few decades to Crosby, Stills & Nash followed by Dizzee Rascal and Spinal Tap.

Then on Sunday you have Blur, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, Madness and Tom Jones.

And at the start of the day on that stage you have Status Quo and Tony bloody Christie.

If the goal was eye opening shock, laughter and then realisation that – you know what – actually that could make for a great day out – then they’ve succeeded.

And if Dad rock isn’t your scene then go the Other Stage for The Prodigy (which WILL be an amazing set), Glasvegas, Bat for Lashes, Bloc Party, Ting Tings and many more.

Not to mention the John Peel stage, the BBC Introducing stage and the Acoustic stage.

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I think Glastonbury, now approaching its 40th year of existence, seems to have been through its quarter life crisis, had a snap at a mid-life crisis with JZ last year – and is now settling comfortably into middle aged.

While at the same time providing a garage and a room downstairs for its children, grandchildren, the cool kids from over the road and the odd wandering hippy.

Of course if you want a really interesting, friendly and top festival experience – book a ticket to Jersey Live in September and say hello to me.

Headliners Kooks and Basement Jaxx are joined by Passion Pit, Doves, Jack Penate, Twisted Wheel, Spinnerette, Frank Turner and my current favourites – Fight Like Apes.

But that isn’t all there is to it – you’ve got a silent disco, a great local stage and a VIP stage backstage with Frank Turner headlining on Sunday and a DJ set by Craig Charles.

That isn’t all though – you’ve also got the thing that splits Jersey Live from the other UK festivals – the Les Inrocks stage – bringing a touch of France and the French music scene to a UK festival – mixing France and the UK – much like Jersey itself in fact.

Then there is the brilliant dance arena with headliners Andy C & MC GQ, 2MANYDJS joining London Elektricity, Birdy Nam Nam, Beardyman and others.

NOTE: Main image CC by hbl

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3
Sep

Social media festival coverage

The Zutons at Jersey Live Let me tell you about my weekend and the reason I haven’t blogged much in a few days. It all starts with an ftp client and a wristband.

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18
Jul

Signs of growing up: The Proms

Proms

As I approach the marking of my 27th year on this planet I’ve decided to take a look at the signs of growing up I keep noticing as the days steam past me.
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9
Jun

Tune in to me

When I joined the BBC in Jersey nearly six years ago one of the first things I pushed for was a radio show all about the Jersey music scene.

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24
Apr

The 21st Century Mix Tape

Hands up if you ever spent four hours hunched over the radio, finger over the pause button getting ready to tape the Top 40?
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15
Apr

What to do with the music?

As part of my day job I get sent dozens of CDs every week. These take the form of full albums, album samplers, white label promos and singles – even big package singles with sleeve notes.

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