The Ultimate Event

Well, its official, I have been booked in to host this brilliant event again. I love The Ultimate Event and have worked with the guys that run it for about 5 years now. Its the largest 1 day Christian music event in the uk and has had some of the biggest Christian artists from around the world in past years.

The vision of the event is a simple one, to convey a positive message to the youth that come along. A message that will not be found in many other places in music.

This year they have Delirious, a band that has had 5 top 20 hits but has never been featured on Top of the Pops (RIP). This actually makes them the only band to have had that many chart entries that hasn't been featured on there. Why? Because the message in their songs may offend! May offend who? They had songs on there about sex, violence, death and worse but if a song contains lyrics about God it may offend? Strange!

We also have Toby Mac. Toby was one part of arguably the biggest Christian band of our time, DC Talk. Who? Well there hasn't been a whole lot of talk about them in the uk, in the usa though, they went platinum many times over! Toby brings with him some of the best HipHop, rock fusion there is!

Its going to be exciting, hopefully it will be a repeat of a couple of years ago when we sold out of all 12,000 tickets. Oh, and did I mention that its the whole day in Alton Towers theme park as well as the gig? Well it is, why would you NOT come?

Funny Video

Its an old one but a good one, I love this:-

Norwich vs Hull

OH DEAR!!!!!

When a manager that has been with the club for just over a month comes out with comments like this, you know there is going to be trouble!

"We needed the fans for the full 90 minutes and we didn't get that - for me that's a disgrace.

"I've got to choose my words carefully but I thought the supporters let us down badly, they never got behind us when we needed them most.

"I keep going on about passion and commitment. Does it work only one way?"

Yesterday was awful, if we had of won, that would have been a discrace, we were dreadful, where was the passion and commitment that Ggrant talks about? It may not have been in the stands but it certainly wasn't on the pitch either!

Its always a chicken and egg situation, if the team plays well the crowd get excited and sing and shout, the players then get a buzz out of it, play even better and the feeling grows. If you are treated to a no show like yesterday, what do the fans have to shout about? At least if the players get in there and kick a few lumps out of the opposition, it gets everyone excited, to stand back and let them play does nothing for anyone!

So Mr Grant, stick a foot up those players backsides and make sure they turn up on Tuesday. We know you have been left with a pretty poor team but the least they can do is have some of that passion you seem to think the fans need!

Motivation......

Its amazing how difficult it can be running a business, especially when things don't go quite to plan. As a record label, we have often struggled to finance te projects we run and especially for me, believing that this is something that I have been called to do as part of my reason for being here on this Earth, it can really de-motivate me when things do not go as well as I hope.

Business often feels like......



I decided to visit a church that meets just down the road from me today, I have been feeling like I needed some time where I could just fade in, where people did not know me but I could focus and hopefully get some vision and direction.

Well all I can say is that the guy preaching had me in mind when he prepared. The talk reminded me of why I started up the business in the first place, the things that I had felt God say to me and that actually, God made me to be in this place. Knowing that means I know I am the best equipped to do this job at this time and that I am supposed to be doing this, even when the times get difficult.

Sometimes it feels like........




The best thing is that the things he said made me realise that actually, I have the answers as well. Just because sometimes I can't see a way forward doesn't mean that there isn't one, of fact, a lot of it is outlined for me, I just need to study the principles that the bible lays out and other things will fall into place. I have felt hurt recently, hurt that God did not seem to care, that decisions I had made had been the wrong ones and hurt because oter people had wronged me. I had forgotten one of the main things I used to say to people, /its not what happens to you in life that defines you, its the way you handle it.

Another thing that has really helped me to get things in perspective was a blog a friend of mine wrote about being intentional in your life, Check it out here, he is spot on with what he says and again, it has been inspirational for me, Thanks Finch!!!

I was reminded of this today and yes, sometimes the shit hits the fan, yes, sometimes things don't go to plan and it can be hard but over all, its the way I handle this that will see me be a success or a failure. Heres to an amazing few months, building the business, building my life and seeing others motivated through the things that happen to me.

Fantastic Pavement Art

These pictures are by a British artist that paints not on canvas but on pavements, I think they are really cool so I put them on here.

MySpace and others

Many people ask me what I think of myspace as someone in the industry, do record labels really look at it people ask me, the answer is yes, sometimes they do, usually after you have sent them a demo though. Labels don't tend to look through finding the best bands but if they hear a band they like they will often go on to their myspce to get a feel for their popularity.

Personally, I think that Myspace is a fantastic tool for bands. Bands no longer need websites as they have a myspace site that gives fans all they need, music, video, a blog and up to date news but I do have a problem with people that say myspace is one of the best marketing tools around.

Having a myspace is one thing, and yes sometimes people do just find your page as they trawl through BUT the fact is, you still need to market your myspace if you want people on it. The funny thing is, I must get about 3 emails a month from new sites that offer bands the chance to 'market' their music by having a page on thier site. Most of these are exactly the same as myspace, they have the music player, they enable you to add video and upload your gigs but again, you have to market your page if you expect people to look at it.

So why on earth are we about to launch our very own version, musicfinity? We believe we are going to do something different. Musicfinity will offer you all of the thngs above but will be a site to help bands, a site that will give bands all of the tools needed to market thmselves.

Musicfinity wil allow bands to send a press release to local and national media at the click of a button. Thier fans will be able to advertise the band to all of their contacts online at the click of a button. Bands will be offered gigs, some on fringe stages at some of the uk's biggest festivals. Basically, everything a band needs to enlarge their fan base and get their music out there should be on this site and just about all of it will be free.

And just to show that we are not completely against myspace and similar sites, it will automatically update the top 5 sites whenever a band updates their musicfinity page.

So hopefully, we can do something different and help bands build a name for themselves..... time will tell!!!

Its official, I look like Orlando Bloom....

Found this on one of my mates blogs and thought I would give it a go..... Thanks Finchly, its given me at least half an hour of fun!! After the miserable display by Norwich this afternoon, its really cheered me up, ha!

And now I have found some pictures........

I think I may go on about this gig for months.......... Found these potos in different places around the net, I still can't believe how good it looked. I know this is a really geeky question but if anyone knows where to find the specs on the lighting etc. let me know, I want to recreate some of this stuff in gigs I do!

Muse at Wembley

Last night featured a trip to Wembley arena to see my oh so favorite band, Muse. Even though I had, quite possible the worst seats in the place, the gig was fantastic, the absolute best gig I have ever been too. The band are the most talented I have seen and the thought that had gone into the show, from the drum riser/space shuttle to the dancing cyborgs and the amazing 3D graphics, was amazing. It has given me so much inspiration and I can't wait to put some of the little things they did with their lighting into practice at some of the gigs I do. For your enjoyment, I have found these clips below, from the gig on youtube, I would post my own but they were too rubbish to even entertain the thought.....

The Opening.... Knights of Cydonia......



Intro to Plug In Baby....



Hysteria



The end of Bliss, the balloons appeared from behind the stage.......



Oh, and just on the offchance you wanted to know the setlist, here it is

01. Knights Of Cydonia (with trumpet)
02. Starlight
03. Butterflies & Hurricanes
04. Map Of The Problematique + Riff
05. City Of Delusion (with trumpet)
06. Plug In Baby
07. Forced In
08. Hysteria
09. Citizen Erased
10. Hoodoo
11. Invincible
12. Supermassive Black Hole
13. Time Is Running Out
14. New Born
***Encore***
15. Apocalypse Please
16. Bliss Extended (with balloons)
***Encore***
17. Muscle Museum
18. Stockholm Syndrome
19. Take A Bow

The whole of my life in one little bit of leather

No, I am not about to talk bondage! I am talking about losing my wallet the other night, my whole life was in that things and the best thing? Would you believe it takes 7-10 working days to get my cards replaced, how do I do anything without cards? My life is ruled by being able to pay by card or to withdraw money with my card!

So, I have been trying to work out how to live for the next week without using any money. First problem: I ran out of hair wax this morning and with nothing to put in my hair, I am just a tall person with a weird frizz on top. So I break out my emergency cash, managed £5 so went to get hair stuff and milk cause I had run out of that too. Well, I am walking around the store and I see the wine section, anyone that knows me, knows this is the place you will usually find me in any store and they had some great bargains. The trouble is I was looking at them FORGETTING I had no money, arrgghhhh, the pain of seeing a good bottle of wine on offer and having to leave it on the shelf!

So this brings me onto my question for the day. As a Christian, I believe that Jesus did a huge amount of miracles; I have seen miracles happen, people being healed by prayer and so forth. So if I have seen miracles and witnessed things happening such as a blind man being able to see after being prayed for, can I recreate Jesus' first miracle and turn good old Anglian water into wine??

Well, I guess not, it’s not really as important as making someone better or turning an impossible situation around but it would make me happy...........

The Great X Factor Debate

So, as someone in the industry, one of the questions I get asked the most is what do I think about X Factor. Well to start with, I have to say what a brilliant piece of business. The format of the programme draws people in and they fall in love with one of the acts, voting for them by text, generating lots of money which can be used to give them the '£1 million contract' and then because the public have been following their progress for 6-8 weeks they go and buy the record they release.

They don't even have to worry about what song that is, by the time it comes out, the public are so caught up they will buy anything!

I think the sad thing about the programme is that in the end it is all about the money, in the beginning about humiliating idividuals. The first stages, which by my own admission are the most entertaining, are about drawing an audience in by taking the piss out of people that have very little or no talent. Not the nicest thing, its not like you can normally invite people into your house, sit them down and rip them to pieces!

To put a different slant on that though, I would at this point like to mark my admiration for Simon Cowell. Yes, he can go over the top, yes he can be nasty but at least he is honest! I think I gained most respect for him when he took on the angry parents of a girl they said wasn't good enough and told them off for giving her false ambitions. It was great!

So anyway, in true broeknrule blog style, I have found a clip to go with this bit of rambling. I love this, Ant and Dec go to american idol to try out and fool Simon, funny!

Muse

I am off to see Muse live on tour n the next couple of weeks, a band which I personally believe are one of the best the UK has ever spawned. Not only do they have fantastic tunes, a vocalist with a truely brilliant voice and a sound that really isn't like other bands out there, they have a great personality and can have a real laugh.

The video below is their first ever live performance of Bliss. Matt (vocalist and keyboard in this clip) looks as tough he has some trouble with the synth to start off with but gets it going and then looks truely proud of his achievement!

If you are sending me a demo, check out these guys first. If I can ever find an band that manages to experiment with sound and make music like Muse, I will sign them immediately!!

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I forgot to say....

Go on you Yellows!!!!!

WBA 0 - 1 Norwich

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Back to it

I write this completely knackered and ready to collapse on the sofa and wait for Spooks. I love that programme and was once really looking into joining the secret services myself. With the amount of charaters that seem to get killed off in Spooks, I am rather gald I didn't

On the other hand, at that time, my wife had just left me and I really felt as though I had nothing and it wouldn't matter if I died or not. In Proverbs in the bible, its written that 'without vision the people perish'. That was exactly where I was, depressed, without vision, feeling like there was nothing left for my life. I am so glad that vision returned to me and the vision that I got was so much bigger than I had ever seen before. To set up a record lable that would be there to help bands, to be fair and to help Christian bands get to the same place as any others that are out there, in the charts.

The other thing, is that this project, this vision seems to be just as exciting as it would have been in MI5. Thanksfully, I don't look down the barrel of a gun each day but I do face constant challenges. I am happy to say that my faith really does help with these problems and the fact that I actually feel that God is more like a friend than anything else, really helps me when I pray. I have learned that I am allowed to get annoyed with Him (and I have got angry at times), He can take you swearing at him and asking Him what the hell is going on.

The main thing is, I really do feel like He helps me when I need it. I would never thrust this belief into someones face, in fact I very rarely mention it unless asked and am very happy for anyone to disagree with what I say on this blog. So go on, chuck a comment on here, let me know what you think, is there a higher force that can help us, Can this force guide us, give us vision and help us with work?

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Norwich City Football Club

Well, it was only a matter of time before I put a post in about Norwich City! One of the greatest passions in my life, football! Just started thinking about it as I wait for the radio commentry of todays game away at West Brom which we will probably lose. I then started thinking of some of my best memories, the one below against Man Utd stays in my memory not just because of our 2-0 win but because it was a match I couldn't get too. I was at a gig in Yorkshire, I had rushed through sound checks to make sure I could sit in the van and listen to the match, and what a match it was!

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The Ultimate Showcase

Well, here I am working on The Ultimate Showcase, a competition that as a record lable we run in conjunction with Ultimate Events. If you don't know what The Ultimate Event is then you are missing out on a good one! The Ultimate Event is now in its 13th year and is an annual Christian music event at Alton Towers, the biggest theme park in the UK.

The Ultimate showcase is a competition that invites unsigned Christian artists to battle it our to become the the opening act at the gig. In the case of next years gig they will be supporting the likes of Toby Mac, Delirious and Ayiesha Woods.

So why am I writing about it? Well, because its really doing my head in at the moment. The website that we are running it off is over a month overdue and because of that we can't get the live semi finals sorted. By the end of the day, I want to have venues sorted for both the semis and also the final and know what other acts to get in headlining.

The best thing about this competition is the varitry of acts we have entering, its great to see the talent thats out there and see them come into their own as they play at their best to try and get their place in the finals. Our main vision as a record lable came through running youth events in Worcester with the local churches. Its where we met most of the bands we started working with and also saw te sruggles bands had at getting a big break.

On top of that, we noticed that some of the bands that were absolutely superb couldn't make it because they were Christians. The lable of 'Christian' had such a stigma to it that as soon as they mentioned it, people turned off and didn't want to listen. Where did this stigma come from? Well, personally I think many areas, as a Christian myself I avoid the people shouting on the street about going to hell, I hate it if someone knocks on my door and tries to tell me why I should accept Jesus into my heart, I HATE it when I am given tracks in the street! It really is no wonder that Christians get pigeon holed. The only ones that seem to be out there sharing their faith seem to be doing it in a way that is so irrelivant to our culture that they earn the rest of us a bad name.

So how are we supposed to act? Well, this is open to discussion and I would love to hear other people's thoughts on it so leave some comments! I will put my toughts down on the matter in a few days.

In the meantime, back the the Showcase. This is a great opportunity for bands to get a good gig, get noticed by thousands and build their fan base. Not because they are Christians or because of any message in their music but because they have great music. I would love to see more bands in the charts and on things like MTV. Did you know that Delirious are one of the only bands to have had 5 top 20 hits but not been shown on Top of the Pops (RIP)? Why? Because their lyrics might have offended people? Well, that doesn't seem to apply for a lot of other bands who really do have offensive lyrics. It will be interesting to see how we do, getting Christian bands just as far as we want to get bands that are not Christians on our lable as well. I wonder if we will have more problems?

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Meatloaf - Bat out of Hell 3

Well, I woke this morning fully intending to have a day off but the first thing I see as I flick on the tv is something advertising te new single from Meatloaf. That means I decide to get my laptop out to see what his new offering is like and that means my brain kicks into gear and here I am writing in my blog and i'm about to start on some work.

So anyway, my thoughts on Meatloafs new single, 'The Monster is Loose'. Well first of all I had better explain that I am a bit of a closet Meatloaf fan (I hope none of my friends are reading this!) but 'The Monster is Loose' realy doesn't fulfil my expectations. Considering this offering is supposed to be Bat OUt of Hell 3 it offers none of the passion that the previous two managed and in my humble opinion has none of the top 10 qualities that kept Bat out of Hell in the charts for 474 weeks (did you know that the album still sells approx 200,000 copies per year?) or Bat out of Hell 2 at number one for 7 weeks in the uk charts (another random fact: Bat out of Hell 2 reached number one in 28 countries!).

One thing I have always liked about Meatloaf is definately still there though is a theatrical side of the music and although I have not been that impressed by the title track on this occasion, I have found other tracks that I really do like. Check some out for yourself below, I have included the 'trailer' (I thought only films had those) of Bat out of Hell 3 and also a video of another song off the album (which was on a previous one as well so I have no idea why its on there but I do like it, a lot!

Its All Coming Back To Me Now


The Trailer

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You have to love Trigger Happy TV

Found this the other day, some of the best bits from the hidden camera show, Trigger happy TV, enjoy!

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Another bit of Ross

Couldn't help it, I just love this guys standup, check this one out!

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So I put the funny for the day up............

And then thought I might write something profound and interesting. I seem to be failing, all I seem to be able to get out of my head is lalala but you never know, something might appear.

To be honest, I am so tired from this weeks work, there is not a lot left in me. It is amazing how stressful it can be trying to run your own business, especially in the media world when anyone will do anything (and I mean anything) to get ahead of you.

I have had the chance to get ahead through underhand techniques in the past but have turned them down, why? Well because I really do believe that you can get ahead by doing things right, that you don't have to hurt other people and crawl all over them to get somewhere. The problem is, I have seen far MORE people move forward by absolutely crapping on anyone who gets in their way. How can the honest person manage to get anywhere if they are up against these others that will just kick us in the balls and leave us for dead?

Well, I have found that actually by being honest with certain companies has really helped me out recently. One large record label said to me that they normally wouldn't have given me the time of day but because I hadn't exaggerated and tried to pull the wool over their eyes with the things we were talking about they really wanted to deal with me. They then chatted to me for ages giving all sorts of advice!

So maybe this approach can work. Maybe the small honest independant label we are will one day rise up and be amoung the majors. You never know........

And I couldn't talk about honesty witout fnding a video about it!!

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My First Post

So, here we are, my first post. There are several things that I want to make sure of on this blog, 1)That anyone that reads this is thoroughly entertained and 2) that what I write is thought provoking.

So, lets start with entertaing! Below is a video I found recently of Ross Noble, this guy is the most random comedian I have ever seen. I went to his live show and laughed constantly for about 2 hours, it hurt and I think a little pee probably came out!

In this clip, Ross talks about my favorite programme, 24 and Ice cream vendors!

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