Tips from the excellent site for skint musicians! www.MoneySavingExpert.com .

One of the most common questions I am asked is, how to we get a record deal?

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Happy New Year peeps!

My old band “Energy” played our 1st gig for 3 years the other night and I would just like to thank the amazing crowd that turned out and apologize to those that couldn’t get in due to being full up! We had such a good time we may well be back a bit sooner than 3 years

UPDATE:

Energy Gig…..After the mega night we had at xmas, my band, Energy will be playing on Sunday 23rd March at The Raven. Top Corby band, “The Above” will also be playing. Doors open 7pm-see you there!

The Living Daylights are on Radio 1, Monday 28th Jan in The Lock Up show. Check them out if you get a chance! (see review of their EP below.)

“Promo EP, The Living Daylights

The Living Daylights are a pretty interesting prospect. With a distinctive English vocal twang, they remind me a little bit more of a straight-up Failsafe – they certainly have that kind of energy anyway. This five-track EP was recorded with Iain Wetherall so from the bio you know it’s going to sound good and this record is very slick and well produced. ‘Catastrophe’ has some very good vocal harmonies, while the Short Warning-esque ‘Hanging On’ is another decent track. It’s very much no-frills, solid pop-punk with a bit of an edge and I think if these guys hit the road hard this year they could well attract some interest and make a name for themselves.”

Review courtesy of “Punktastic”.

The Xmas RockSchool Live Awards night will be on Thurs 20th Dec at The Raven, all the top bands from 2007 will be there so get yourself along for a cracking night.

Buy a Xmas song and support the kids of Corby. Simply go to itunes and dowload “What A Wonderful time” by Kimberley Mclean. If Kimberley gets 4000 downloads she will enter the UK Top 40! The song was recorded at Premier and features about 20 kids from Corby schools. Its only 79p!

Have a great Xmas!!

“I can’t hear the Bass Drum!”

Went to see “The Police” at Twickenham – never again! The place is a massive reverb chamber which any band would struggle to get a good sound in. The sound was terrible – couldn’t hear Stewart Copelands Bass drum at all!! 50% of his kit was missing!! These live sound engineers are unbelievably bad, or is it that they don’t give a *hit. How do they get the job?

What saved the gig was Stings voice, which was amazing, plus, the great songs. Andy Summers also played half a solo in “The World Is Running Down”, in the wrong key! It did all smack a bit of a jam session-a well paid jam session (my ticket was £113). I’m glad I went, but it does go against the grain when you’ve paid so much for a gig and simple things like a basic good balance within the band, are so bad. Anyway! A tip for you guys out there is when you are gigging – get your soundman to listen to you from the worst part of the room (often round the corner in an L shaped room)- and try a still get a good balance within the band. If its pretty good in the worst part of the room, it should be excellent everywhere else.

Top Tips for all you Rock drummers out there;

1.Dont play your Hi-Hats too loud!

2. Dont have your Hi-Hats so close to the snare drum that too much Hat goes into the Snare Mic.

3. Dont use large Hi-Hats which again, are too loud, (13″ Hats are a good starting point, I have a set of 12″ Hats for bands I record, but these could be a bit quiet for gigs)

Checkout www.drumtips.com