Digital Economy Bill - Oxymoronic...

This little video (which has no sound, btw) brings to light more than one issue about the absurd Bill that Peter Mandelson is championing at the moment. First of all it is clearly impossible to police and, as has already been proven with some court cases, inconclusive as to who the actual culprit is.

In this country there is a huge amount of mistrust whilst in Canada, for example, even high profile folk do not have fences or hedges around their properties. Their WiFi connections are usually unprotected and therefore a subscriber could be open to abuse by a passer by, however, my impression was that Canadian people are simply more interested in being real world, i.e. outside and enjoying themselves!

However, in the UK it makes a lot of sense to protect your WiFi router as someone could piggy back and exceed your monthly allowance or, if you have an uncapped service, get it restricted. Now I think that to abuse an openness of an unprotected WiFi like that does amount to stealing, however, when it comes to the thorny matter of royalties from uploaded videos and other matters the Digital Economy Bill seeks to address it is a very different matter.

I very much take the view that has been eloquently explained on Steve Lawson's blog and the reference to Danny Barnes' blog here, we are living in a new era for music generation where the revenue is returning to performance rather than sales of media that has an enormous mark-up on it. Despite the plethora of seriously crap output and the promotion of 'celebrity' above talent there are many new ways to be heard and work within reasonable means to be an artist.

Ironically, for me, as a bit of a 'has been', my music is tied up by worldwide rights such that I cannot use the very wonderful Bandcamp to sell new recordings of my own 'legacy' material, the very pieces that former followers of After The Fire do want to buy. We are restricted to any brand new material that would have a limited market. However, there is no doubt that this is the way ahead for all but a tiny slither of folk trying to make their way in music. Alternatively trying to shoehorn the old music business ways into the new Digital economy is a complete non starter.

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Computer destiny post iPad domination...

Pc Coffee Maker

See more funny pictures and videos at Fugly.

A use for all the old PCs after Apple iPads take over the armchair world... as long as it's Fairtrade coffee, of course!

Coffee much needed today at the half way point on After The Fire's wee Help for Haiti tour of Essex and Sussex, last night centre of the lesser known universe, Mersea Island, tonight down in Burgess Hill.

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This is how the world will end...

... and this video from The Elms was shot and edited BEFORE the earthquake and gives an idea of the scale of poverty in Haiti... we can send money, we can help raise money... we MUST cancel the debt.

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Putting money where mouths are... for Haiti

Delighted us old rockers, After The Fire, (or ATF) have been approached to play not one, nay, two fundraisers next weekend to raise money for the needs of the folk in Haiti:

Jan 29th 2010 - Haiti Fundraiser - ATF plus two Bands £5 min donation
Essex Youth Camp - Mersea - CO5 8SX - Doors Open 7:30pm

Jan 30th 2010 - Haiti Fundraiser - Touchstone, The Puritans and ATF £5 min donation
St Paul's Catholic College - Burgess Hill - RH15 8WA - Doors Open 6:30pm

Spread the word!

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After The Fire - International Rescue!

On my chum Peter Dixon's Facebook status today

:...lost the mobile phone in the middle of a snowy field....fortunately it wasn't on silent - I've never been so pleased to hear "Der Kommissar" (12inch version!) blasting out in my life!

Saved by the riff...

Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

Some live recordings from songs that former Talking Heads mainman David Byrne and world renown producer and artist Brian Eno worked on together, collaborating across the internet...

David says:

Some time ago Amnesty International asked if I might do "something" for that organization this year- (in previous years I had done one of my tour dates as a benefit for them). Amnesty has such an amazing and consistent track record of speaking out and helping to illuminate courageous people who might otherwise not be heard from so the answer was "yes." It was decided to record some songs from my current tour for them to be sold as a download with the proceeds going to Amnesty. As there are no physical costs with digital distribution this means more of the sales percentage actually goes to where it's supposed to. So, thank you for supporting a great organization and I hope you like these recordings too.

Read more here....

Well groovy!

h/t Martin Wroe

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In the air tonight... Advent 3

Let everything that hath breath Praise the Lord... yes, everything you hear is created by the human voice: bass, drums, percussion and the synthesiser effects! I love the combination of beatbox techniques, hip-hop, gospel and re-imagining creativity going on here. So appropriate for Advent ;-)

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Love will always make you cry...

A wonderful piece of artwork drawn at our gig last night in The Cut Theatre, Halesworth, Suffolk by the delightful Katie (yes, we do have a younger audience too!). I definitely see an album cover here?

After The Fire are now on the last leg of our 2009 mini Autumn tour, up in Cambridge tonight and finish next weekend, Saturday in Godalming and our End of Tour (free entry!) gig in Billericay on Sunday Afternoon 5pm... we'd love to see you!

Memorable Musical Moments Meme...

Think of eight memorable musical moments, not necessarily all time favourites, but those when, for example, you felt compelled to wait in the car when listening to this amazing song on the radio because you just had to know who it was by. Or the piece you heard on the tv in a drama that drove you straight onto iTunes to download... (remember once we spent the princely sum of 6s 8d on a vinyl single?!). Optional details for each song give where, why and Spotify or youtube links...

I hereby tag: Maggi Dawn, +Nick Baines, Richard Hall, Jonathan Evens, Tim Chesterton

The Promise You Made – Cockrobin (view)
Inside of you - Alice Martineau (view)
Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap (wow!)
Quanta Qualia - Patrick Hawes (listen)
Mmmm, Mmmm, Mmmm - Crash Test Dummies (view)
Don't Give Up – Peter Gabriel and Paula Cole (view)
While You See a Chance – Steve Winwood (view)
Belief - John Mayer (listen)

Harvest Festival

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Saw the very wonderful Seth Lakeman perform last night at Harvest at Jimmy's, a new cosy and intimate festival of food and music at our customer Jimmy's Farm just down the road near Ipswich, Suffolk. Seth is a consumate professional and a seriously gifted musician - launching into his 'defining' solo fiddle and stompbox piece, Kitty Jay, as shown above. This piece illustrates that special place where musician and instrument become as one, a truly uplifting experience which I first witnessed when he headlined at the Greenbelt Festival in 2008. The band is excellent, too, with unfussy, solid drumming, great musical support on guitar from brother Sean, a new guy on guitar/mandolin/etc. and a very tall double bass player.

The event was excellent, too, bearing in mind this was the first time Jimmy's Farm had staged something of this magnitude. Another one of the irrepressible Jimmy Doherty's great ideas!

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First day back at School...!

We returned to Dagenham to start rehearsals for the festival gigs we have coming up, always a few cobwebs to clear away first - then we got going and all was very well! See you on the road soon...

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