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GOLDEN BOULDER WERE IN
If you enjoy holiday talent shows - this could be
the ultimate version without even going on holiday! This is intended as an objective and respectful report on our dip into a modern incarnation of the talent show industry. Just as the winners of the Live and Unsigned National finals of 2007, for us, it didn't appear to live up to the aims and expectations of "Get Live, get signed". It is a clever concept which openly emulates the well known TV formats such as X-Factor or Pop Idol except there's no public vote - just friends and family that buy the tickets! On one web forum even one of this year's judges has doubts about the validity of the method, certainly we put it to the test as you'll see later on. A couple of years ago there was South Coast Idol - so this business emulation changes with the times to tempt you in. Some differences to traditional music companies is how these schemes handle applicants, assess the talent, and how they follow through for winners. Certainly you need to be able to afford, or have someone who can afford to get the tickets sold. OK, so you need a following in this business, but who's likely to follow you to a 3 minute gig apart from close friends and family? Even some of them can drop out at £6 per ticket! Obviously any recently formed, evolved or even established company needs money to operate, and if a such a company doesn't have enough ongoing commercial product in a traditional form (for example, established artists income and sales), money would be needed up front. So payments to any associated companies / websites that make up such events at least save that company from being too picky about acts that won't make it. Conceivably it might be more important to ensure money comes in. If Live and Unsigned was marketed as a backing track / mini disk event then
maybe the wheat could be separated from the chaff at an earlier stage, and
nobody would question it. Simply, "whatever-Idol" implies
something very different to, "Live and Unsigned" which, (to us) implies
playing live music with the chance of getting signed to a record company. Emulation is often good business - a sort of tribute at times. We thought we'd heard of Future Music - but could not find Live and Unsigned associated with Future Publishing http://www.futurenet.com/futureonline/ , or the Plymouth based Future Music and its contemporary music festivals. Neither Future Music http://www.futuremusic.com/ or Future Music Magazine http://futuremusicmag.com/ or the Future Music forums http://www.future-music.co.uk/ So whether there is any association with any or all of these I've no idea, but it looked like there might be an association in the press release provided by Live and Unsigned which said "Or contact Future Music via e-mail on info@LiveandUnsigned.UK.com". Most communications came via this address and the first two pages of Google searching left us wondering at the time of writing, but anyway, we don't want to do anyone a disservice over it. Since the first draft (and after a threat and 'put down') we are now informed regarding this particular Future Music - formed for well over one year by the time of our auditions. A very impressive and stylish graphic webpage cleverly scrolls through lots of very general advice and opportunities if you do a deal with them. One section asks "Do you have the financial resources to stay on the road continuously, performing in new markets that are unfamiliar with your act for no pay until you establish yourself in that market?" Apparently it's "another £10k website", and in the interests of fairness here's the link: www.FuturemusicManagement.com so "open your eyes" as Chris Grayston advised us amongst other things... It really does matter how hungry and wealthy you are to achieve fame and success with an exclusive deal in Future. It could be a long haul, and no income from continuous gigging! It's a strange world, so there could be plenty of candidates out there. (I should also mention for completeness that Live and Unsigned is NOT the same as the Kerrang / Vodafone "Live Unsigned") The ethos as outlined in the Live and Unsigned
blurb: The Process
The TICKETS The Support Network Our Experience of the network The "TV" reference appeared to us to be a few wmf file videos on a (dot)TV website, and "Radio" another part of a website and a few different MySpace pages... maybe we didn't look hard enough through our TV listings for anything more substantial? Other sites provide a wide range of virtual opportunities such as advertising space for people to offer themselves forward for work or events in entertainment generally. I presume this gets use from people as there were some interesting listings the other way too. People to appear in TV shows and stuff, or appear in local events around the country. I think I'm right in saying there were listings to ask if anyone wanted to present Live and Unsigned shows. The Show: Less than a week before the event we were asked to
urgently call and discuss equipment. "You might need to bring your own drums if
that's OK" We said it was no problem and said we can do a very quick setup if
required. The next day we saw an email to everyone to say the drum kit was
being provided by Golden Boulder. This was a bit annoying (to say the least) as
we were not asked if we'd provide a kit for the event, so I suggested they
soften the blow for our drummer, but they were not prepared to hire them for
£50, despite the drums being "a £1k investment by us". So, maybe we were seen as
bad boys, despite (by then) also starting a hypothetical enquiry for drums and backline
hire for about 20 gigs... in the future. It seemed
We arrived at the venue (Ferneham Hall in Fareham), and registered in. We handed in our envelope with money and our remaining tickets. A lady presenter asked who we were - we said Golden Boulder, then after looking through some papers we were asked if we were in this session (there are four shows in the day). Without sounding obvious we said "yes". There was no other discussion or exchange of information to use as an introduction to the audience and judges which did seem a little impersonal. We were simply directed to report backstage. When the band entered backstage with an amp / head and cab it made us wonder about the event even more. I know some stage managers can be a bit offish - we've met loads at various gigs and festivals, but I half expected our Chris to apologise for daring to bring a guitar with him, and beg indulgence whilst he plugged it in for the sound check. To be fair the guy seemed preoccupied with some organisational issues or something. There was also a comment from someone about a band letting them down with the drums (LOL), and we could see a fairly awful set on a bare riser ready to dance around the hard surface due to the lack of a drum mat. According to the Stage guy there would be no time for acts to put a decent set of cymbals on. Why such an apparently established organisation with so many gigs and contacts doesn't own a kit already or doesn't hire one anyway is anyone's guess. Certainly there's plenty of banners, Live and Unsigned graphics and electronic moving text screen bits around to make you think this is as much an actual music, as well as virtual music operation...
Quote from another website / forum - about Live and Unsigned 2008 but
nothing to do with us or the show we were at At least the drum set up was the same for everyone, and Ellz was now resigned to "a less than ideal set up" for the jazzy rock number we'd written. (We chose "Song4Ron" based on advice from the original audition judges having heard a piece of it in a medley, three months back)... (There's a YouTube link above of an early performance of this number, filmed five months previously at the Hobbs Music Festival). It is about the most sombre song we have written, but it does have melodic lead guitar and harder rhythm to balance it, offset with poetic vocals during the melodic guitar and strong vocals at the crescendos - maybe we should have just played one of the heavy rock songs after all - maybe "Shame on You". Anyway back to the day... Each act does a brief sound check, then everyone is quickly sent out, ready to open the doors to the next session of friends and family audience. A slick talent show ensues, a familiar, if compact format whizzes you on stage, you do three minutes, then get whizzed off again. Phew, fifteen acts in just over 1 hour - no wonder there's no time to change cymbals. I'm sorry but in the end we found it a bit hilarious, and there were people in the audience commenting on how there was too much karaoke... and others giving back bad looks because presumably it was their relative up there. (Neither exchange was anything to do with us, we just observed it and heard it). It is so difficult to observe this and give rightful respect to people on stage who haven't actually done anything wrong of course. The "X-Factor-ish" or "POP-Idol-ish" routine can wear a bit thin. There were a couple of 30 second chats between the judges and presenters on stage, which might emulate a Simon, Sharon and Louis set up. The difference is that nothing specific is said, certainly nothing directly to any performer. "Lets wait and see" or "lets keep an open mind" for example; so certainly nothing that could upset the tension for paying supporters or parental investors. The audience, as we said, obviously tends to consist of friends and family for each act, so if each act sells £180 of tickets then maybe you don't want to upset them too much until the end? Remember the regular emails and prompts? The very professional promotion of ticket sales and promoting more entrants to compete against you? If you want to sell any multiple of £180 worth of tickets you are advised this can help you influence the judges.
Quote from another website / forum - about Live and Unsigned 2008 but
nothing to do with us or the show we were at No matter if you sing along to a backing track (which can include vocals on it), or sing to a Karaoke track, or even live sound with an adult strumming while you sing, it's all valid at Live and Unsigned. For some it may be the first time on a stage and judging by the range of "be kind as she's a little shy" through to arriving on stage with crutches to sing along to a recording of "Valerie", some will be very happy simply to have had the experience. It seemed to us that the under 18yr slots included a certain level of talent akin to an end of term school concert, or a holiday camp karaoke spot. But then, we are in no position to judge of course as we're "not good enough" anyway... Seriously it was difficult to get 'fired-up' the further we went along the Live and Unsigned 2008 process. There were some gems amongst the fifteen acts of course, and some of the sing-along to a CD acts showed potential in our view - but you can only really judge and compare with bands if they work with a live sound. There were three bands (real music), one girl singing quite meekly while the adult strummed an acoustic guitar. Apart from a third singer guitarist we think it was all pre-recorded for the remainder, although one girl did bring a dancer on stage to shadow dance alongside. So this was the broad definition and totally inclusive Live music in these stages of Live and Unsigned for 2008... Getting back to "Live and Unsigned" saying you are able to influence the judges votes by writing your top two choices on the used ticket and handing it in after the acts have finished. Obviously ticket sales help to pay for the events if no-one independently sponsors or advertises, and there's nothing wrong with that per se. Equally for the artist there's no safer way to apparently influence the judges than to have sold the most tickets you can possibly afford, and having done so, it must be questionable how objective the audience is likely to be about choice two? After putting your own act as 'no1' then (have faith) either give a credible second place choice or maybe (more likely) choose a worse or even the worst act as 'no2'. However If enough people think an act is terrible then heaven forbid they could even win? If not, then make your own mind up as to how much influence there was in the first place? It could possibly be a dilemma for judges at times, and openly discussed on forums this year.
Quote from another website / forum - about Live and Unsigned 2008 but
nothing to do with us or the show we were at Call us dim for deciding early on to continue with the process even with the expectation we might not be viewed favourably if we didn't sell tickets. Although initially concerned about this, in the end it was more c'est la vie - we had entered a competition called Live and Unsigned. This indicated that this would be a serious live music event, and entrants are interested in being signed up. Of course this is only a loose indication. After all, the real TV shows rarely have live backing musicians or even musicians up front, however they do take the winner to a position of being signed (for whatever short period the producer decides). The other factor (no pun intended) is the general public that vote on the real shows don't just consist of friends and family. Also you get a little bit of background to base your vote on compared to a fleeting three minute slot without any other niceties apart from "they are from...." I suppose it makes things easier to only do three minutes, easier for the cash-flow and easier for anyone to enter. We wonder how many of the entries could have done a proper ten or twenty minute slot? So this was as much a matter of intrigue as anything else,
and circumstances kept leaning us toward doing the gig and "calling it a day" irrespective of the outcome, but we need not worry, as
handing over £48 for 8 tickets sold apparently wasn't a good start to any assessment of
our usefulness in the music industry or our hunger for fame (LOL-ocks). Anyway, it hadn't
cost a fortune... actually maybe it was
considering it was
a three minute slot on stage? Of course I've been advised we were not good enough
anyway -
and we're definitely not going to complain about that happy release as we thought
the Live and
Unsigned set up wasn't very good either! With three band members and only two
families represented, we felt really guilty about the few tickets bought
by staunch supporters.
We had decided a good time before to pay them back and not push tickets to others as it just didn't seem right, and anyway we've got proper gigs coming up that we'd like them to support. "Phew" was all we thought as we went off to prepare for real gigs where our first number lasts longer than the whole of our gig with Live and Unsigned. Thank goodness there was a side door near the stage otherwise we'd have had to buy tickets to get in ourselves... So, best of luck to the Karaoke queens, metal bands and cutie starlets that can afford to ride this musical funfair in 2008. It has a valid place in the market, but not for serious musicians maybe. We've spoken to a number of past finalist entrants - some quite well respected regular paid musicians - who said Live and Unsigned was less than they'd expected... we'll just leave it at that, for fear of more threats (LOL) The Special Guests We forgot to mention the mystery guest act which was hyped up from the early stages of the commentary - and yes, when they were totting up the money and ticket choices at the end, ready to announce who would be the best acts to carry the process forward, we were treated to two guys singing along to a CD of an old Marvin Gaye number followed by a repetitive musically backed session of convincing people to text a special number to reserve copies of their proudly announced forthcoming first single release. Maybe another contributing factor that one of the paying supporters - totally independent of the families but very passionate, enquired whether the Guest Act was "signed" yet? They replied "sadly not yet", but that they hoped to be soon. Well it was their first single - released (presumably through Future Music), one year after they won the adult national final of Live and Unsigned 2007. We wish them well of course, they do have good voices, but how to make yourself known? But of course that's what the management company is for, so look out BRITS and whoever with any luck. Making it to a national position with the media is one measure of success, and out of the thousands and thousands (10,000 claimed this year alone) who have taken this route I really don't know how many have made it. Lasting as a signed artist is even more difficult these days and might be a completely different prospect. As we said, we have no need or reason or desire to defend ourselves about our outcome, but it was quite nice to be approached by people afterwards and even outside the venue, to say they could not believe we didn't get through - even a PA guy said - quite unprompted - that he thought we should have won. Now that did surprise us, as we were less fired up for this gig than we might have been for a proper one. We were also separately congratulated on the professional manner in which we took to the stage and were ready to go inside 50 seconds, well, that comes from knowing what you're doing. Good job we'd already decided it was probably 'not our thing' before we got there, or we might have been a bit more miffed... We played Concorde2, Brighton in December 2007 - and our last number was our song "Shame On You". It is, (in part), about promo companies that are more interested in themselves than the artists or their future.. Someone said it was a premonition, but it's a crazy old business, and who knows. I certainly doubt we'd be picked for a Live and Unsigned tour, and we might not be able to afford to do one anyway... who knows! Good luck to them anyway - and all who enjoy the ride. We did make some great connections after the event, so it wasn't all wasted time. Also despite the "press release" (below) sent off 2 months before, the press decided to wait until after the event to contact us for whatever reason. We were called up to discuss all the things we've been up to and have planned this year; that's nice, and all for free. We don't even have to get people to buy copies of the paper... but second thoughts - it'll probably be less than a quid a copy and more than a three minute read, and you have something to keep afterwards! We'll link the article here in the coming weeks hopefully. Anyway keep an eye on the gig list and maybe you'd like to come along to see the band that just isn't good enough (LOL).
Luckily we've since been invited and completed some free recording with a local college in collaboration with BTEC students, and have just been approached about recording through a University facility for free - so that would be superb, and definitely more about music than anything else to date. It might be a good idea to approach educational establishments, as they often have the equipment and the skills. Even if you need to contribute toward costs at least it's going to an entity that works toward the betterment of all concerned. After all, there's rarely money in recording contracts these days.
Selling CD's at gigs is a good way to recoup some of your costs until you strike lucky with Sony BMG or whoever, if nothing else, it could provide a modest income beyond the gig fees. Yes, you should be paid, otherwise music might become worthless beyond what a promo company can make from it themselves. The industry needs to find a way of keeping itself balanced, and yes there's still a place for PRS for when you make it big! (Oops, nearly got carried away, I forgot how bad we are.... heh-heh). Are we unfair? Please let us
know, we only bite sharks... beyond that we're happy guys - in
it for gigs, for music and great audiences! The "Where Are They Now" section: The 2007 Live
and Unsigned Winners & Runners Up See also
http://www.southcoastidol.co.uk/
- (There are Loads of them!) Good luck to all the above (including Corliss
presumably) it's a tough old world out there with many sharks in the pond Is it as simple as they say: Get Live, get signed?
The views expressed here are
entirely our own from our own experience The starting point... and how to build it up "Firstly congratulations on getting through to the Live
stages we have had over 10,000 enter this year (and still growing by the day!)
across the UK so well done!
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