Live Music Bill

Posted on 22/01/2012 by LMF

I have been catching up with some emails and noticed that the Live Music Bill is now at the very final stage and as such is very close to becoming law. If you don’t know what it is all about here is a quick summary:

The entertainment licence exemptions for live music proposed by the Bill are essential if live music in grassroots venues is to flourish.
The exemptions apply only to performances between 8am and 11pm, and, for amplified live music, to audiences of no more than 200.
The Bill preserves licence review safeguards for residents near pubs and bars.

If you want to know more visit www.livemusicforum.co.uk who have been at the front of the drive for this law change.

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Ain’t Nothing but the Blues

Posted on 11/01/2012 by LMF

During a weekend in London last weekend my wife and myself decided to go and sample the “Ain’t nothing but the Blues” venue in Kingly Road, Soho. What a great place it is. Perfectly sized, small but perfect. The place must have had a large bucket of atmosphere poured in. It was buzzing. It was great to see so many young people enjoying themselves. Check it out at www.aintnothinbut.co.uk or on livemusicfinder.co.uk.

A quick word about the band, Gentleman Tim and the Contenders. Good job guys. Worth checking out at www.gentlemantim.com or of course on this site.

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Billy Joel

Posted on 28/11/2011 by DJ Dave

Hi everyone,

 Nearly there with the Dark side of the Moon, but in between time thought you might like this. Someone with De finitely too much time on their hands, but at least it has solved a few mysteries for me.

Take a look!

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Dark Side of the Moon

Posted on 15/11/2011 by DJ Dave

 

Hello everyone in LiveMusicfinderland, 

Just to recap, I must be the only human on the planet that has not heard Pink Floyds Dark Side of the Moon. This is the story of my preparations to enjoy what some consider to be the ultimate listening experience.

I didn’t go to Dixons, I ended up at Currys to buy my CD player. 

The trouble with Currys is that normally you can’t get through the door without some cheery overweight youngster on minimum wage saying “ Can I help you?“

Yes you can help me, only if you have directions to the Fountain of Eternal Youth., or 

Have you got a pair of original mint condition Florida Bars for a 1965 Lambretta LI 150? 

Otherwise, No. 

This time I was able to make my way into the bowels of Currys unchallenged. 

I found the vast array of CD players on the shelf and began to study. 

After a while, a voice behind me said. 

“ Are you looking for anything in particular?” 

I turned around and there was a cheery overweight youngster on minimum wage. 

I thought “ Yes, I want to buy a new Dyson vacuum cleaner, that’s why I’ve been looking at these ruddy CD players for the last ten minutes.“ 

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I have bought a brand new top of the range Matsui model, £29.99, 

Bargain, it’s even got a remote! 

Unfortunately I did not have enough money for speakers, but I have plan. 

My next task is to wire it through the speakers on my Regentone radiogram. 

I’ll keep you posted.

 

.

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DJ Dave Speaks Dark Side of the Moon

Posted on 13/11/2011 by DJ Dave

Hi all you LiveMusicFinders,DJ Dave here with my first Blog Entry.

Just a bit of background.

I would imagine you will realise from my name DJ Dave, what my main occupation was, yes, that’s right, I was a plumber.

I’ve retired now but when I was not messing around with someones ballcock or having fun with PTFE tape, I have been known to spin a few discs in nightclubs and the like over the years…actually I started in 1969…spinning discs that is , not plumbing…

And I have quite a lot of records…45s and Lps.

I love Northern Soul, Motown, Ska/Rocksteady and all the other bolt on bits associated with all that….mainly Lambrettas!

The main point of all this is that I woke up yesterday in a hot sweat after having a bad dream. In my dream (which was pretty frightening I can tell you) I was the only person in the world apart from a nomadic tribe that lived in the Gobi desert that did not own a copy of Pink Floyds Dark Side of the Moon in one format or another.

The nomadic tribe, in my dream had an excuse..they had camels packed with record players, cassette players and even one camel..Roger I think his name was, was laden with eight track players…but as you can imagine.. in the desert the one thing lacking, along with water, is a three pin socket.

Me? I had no excuse!

So, in order to rectify this complete oversight I have borrowed a CD.

Given all the hype over this 1970s piece of music, I need to give it the  listening reverence it deserves in order to appreciate…apparently.  

Problem 1

No CD player…so I’m off to Dixons.

Keep you posted.

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What to expect when you join Live Music Finder (LMF) as a Band or Artist

Posted on 25/10/2011 by LMF

Some of the questions we get have prompted us to think that maybe we should provide a little guidance on getting the best from LMF.

When you join you will be sent an email to verify that the email you entered is a valid one and that it is yours. Once you verify that you can enter the site and do the following:

Firstly you need to either search for and select yourself/your band or if not already listed add yourself.
Next add a short Biog to make your band page a bit more interesting to those potential fans.
Then upload some images and mp3 files to give people something to see and listen to.
Of course those two items can be left but don’t put it off too long.

Now it is time to start adding gigs…

Search for the venue, we have almost 5000 and are adding them all of the time. If the Venue isn’t there add it. (As a minimum please enter the Name of the venue, select the town from our list and enter the post code if you know it.) The more you add the better for all users.

To enter a gig you can:

  1.   Enter the date
  2.   Enter the start time
  3.   Enter an Event Title (e.g. Charity Event, Open Mic, etc)
  4.   Enter gig details ( this is a free form text box that you can use to entice muso’s to attend)
  5.   If there is an entrance price you can enter the Advance and Door prices.

That is it. Any Venue you play at will be remembered for the future so next time you won’t have to search for it.

Oh one last thing – for every gig that you enter you earn 2 credits. At the moment you can use them to upgrade your bands listing on our directory but later there will be other opportunities to use those credits.

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Ernie the Blues Singing Dog seeks new Harmonica Player

Posted on 09/02/2011 by LMF

Ernie doesn’t do many gigs these days, just the odd Saturday outside Waitrose for a more discerning audience. He has inspired other dogs to consider a life in music but without the dedication, the passion to entertain and the show biz mentality they just haven’t cut the mustard.

Why the Blues? Well, I guess castration has that effect on a dog!

Ernie has always insisted on a good harmonica player but he has expressed his dismay at his current, rather poor, mouth organist. In a shock outburst he was heard to say “I am really dismayed at my current, rather poor, mouth organist. Get me someone that knows one end of the instrument from the other, preferably someone that can play a decent 12 bar blues”.

We at livemusicfinder.co.uk are looking for a harmonica player to accompany this very talented canine on his next video. Interested perhaps?

Check out his most recent video to see whether you think you can meet his very high standards.

Ernie signs the Blues

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X Factor or Why? Factor

Posted on 22/11/2010 by LMF

I don’t watch the X factor very often. Well not strictly true. I like the early stages when those poor unsuspecting people turn up to demonstrate that their ability to sing is desperately lacking. I wonder is it better to shatter your friends or relatives dream by telling them that they can’t sing or to let them go on national television to have it revealed to them by a ‘no punches pulled – ratings hungry’ Simon Cowell? I never miss an opportunity to tell my friends that they can’t sing just in case. That is how good a friend I am!

The X Factor is probably the lottery alternative for marginally talented and delusional people. In fact this year there is still at least one still in it. Anyway, what is it about instant fame and fortune that appeals to so many people?  And how long does that fame and fortune last I wonder? On average I mean! Maybe a year or two with even most finalists fading into relative obscurity within a few months.

The real crux of this piece is about the many bands and artists that have honed their craft busking, gigging, practicing, researching, traveling, setting up, packing up and doing it all again and again ad infinitum. These people aren’t all interested in fame, they are not driven by the desire for more money than you can spend. They do it because they love it, they love playing, singing, entertaining! Yeah sure there may once have been a dream of stardom and all that goes with it but it’s not that that keeps them going.

There is a huge pride in doing something well enough that people want to leave their homes to come and watch, and listen to you doing it.

As I often do I went to see a band the other night who were just great entertainment. Yes they did a lot of covers cos that’s what Friday night drinkers want I guess. However, they also did a couple of their own songs and they were very good. Much better than Simon Cowell’s manufactured ‘would be pop idols’ in my view.

So instead of staying in to watch the X Factor this Saturday, go out and watch, and of course listen to, a live band near you. And hey, you might just find something on our gig pages. Click ‘Gig Guide’ above this blog.

Come back and comment on this blog.

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Squidoo

Posted on 22/11/2010 by LMF

I was recently made aware of a site called squidoo.com. It gives you the opportunity to build a ‘lens’, a page really, on anything you want. In fact as many lens as you like on whatever subject you want. Why, you might ask! Well actually you can make money out of it. Squidoo advertise on your lens and if someone clicks from your lens then you get half of the revenue.

Write about something that you are a bit of an expert at and then recommend books from amazon on the page and you get revenue from that too. What a nifty idea.

I decided to create a couple of lenses (I am guessing that they are called lenses because they focus on a subject, rather than because squids have got eyes or something equally obscure). Anyway, I have used it to get my site linked from squidoo not least of all because it has a page rank of 8. I have written about my site, how to get the best from it etc. Probably not a great read; probably not going to sell many books…I’m not revising my retirement plan anyway.

I have just thought of something mildly amusing…This blog appears on my squidoo lens!

See it at www.squidoo.com/livemusicfinder and www.squidoo.com/livemusicfinder-directory

Give it a go.

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Top 10 Cover Songs

Posted on 28/10/2010 by LMF

I recently posted on our homepage the ‘answer’ to a thought that began after listening to Teenage Kicks by The Undertones for the umpteenth time in umpteen plus a few weeks…a great song and perhaps not that easy to ruin. Anyway my thought was I wonder how many people up and down the country are also listening to this, you know, in a sort of rock song bingo sort of a way. Eyes down, I only need Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon for a full house and two tickets to a personal performance of Rolf Harris’ rendition of Stairway to Heaven.

Fortunately I run a UK Gig Guide and am probably well placed to find an answer to the somewhat futile question “what are the top 10 covered songs in our pubs and clubs”. Ever wondered that? No? Just me then!

I scoured the web sites of a couple of hundred bands at random and where they published a set list I recorded each song on a list (I know, I should get out more…but that is where this all started). However the list was big enough that I had enough information to put together the top 100. The top 10 are below. Visit www.livemusicfinder.co.uk for the top 100.

I look forward to your comments.

Rank Track Original Artist
1 Mustang Sally Wilson Pickett
2 Buck Rogers Feeder
3 Jumpin` Jack Flash The Rolling Stones
4 You Do Something To Me Paul Weller
5 Sex On Fire Kings Of Leon
6 Proud Mary Creedence Clearwater Revival
7 Teenage Kicks The Undertones
8 Dakota Stereophonics
9 I Predict A Riot Kaiser Chiefs
10 Johnnie B Goode Chuck Berry
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