Photo from Tired of London, Tired of Life

In amongst my archive I have a box file containing random pieces of paper; notes, ideas, drawings, and bits of scripts that time has not allowed me to finish. While looking for something else I came across an interesting idea that I (unusually for me) didn’t write a date on. At the top of the page is the heading Could You Form A Band and Publicise It Without the Internet? I have underlined the heading in red felt tip, something we all did at school and a habit I still have. Although there is no date, the word ‘MySpace’ appears on the paper so that dates it to at least four years ago. Under the heading is a simple list:

·         MySpace

·         Facebook

·         Reverbnation

·         Soundcloud

·         YouTube

·         Website

·         Email

·         Advertise in music magazines/fanzines

·         CD mail out to radio stations and venues

·         Postal mailing list

No mention of Bandcamp in those days and MySpace at the top of the list shows this to be rather an old scrap of paper and one I now regret not dating. I obviously had an idea for a project by where I would attempt to form a band the old fashioned way, this is an idea I rather fancy having a go at, although I am deliberately writing it on the blog in the hope that someone will steal the idea because I don’t have the time. If someone does steal the idea then maybe they will have the good grace to credit the idea to me and make a donation (perhaps a percentage if the idea makes money) to the PayPal account on this page, just as Broadway Cinema didn’t.

It’s hard to believe what a trailblazer MySpace was in giving freedom to the musician, something I have written about before. The fact that MySpace was the best of the social networking sites is something you’d have a difficult job explaining to today’s generation of Snapchatters, but in the days of the 1.0 profile layout that is exactly the case. My experiment was presumably based on taking away all of today’s technological conveniences and getting back to basics. Those of us who remember Selectadisc will no doubt have some nostalgic feelings towards the notice board (other independent record shops in your area will have the same thing, unfortunately I couldn’t find a photo) advertising for musicians to complete a band, maybe complete with the little tear off tickets at the bottom containing a phone number. Filling Jiffy™ bags with tapes or CDs to send out to whoever you thought would be interested in hearing it is something that has been lost forever. Although I listen to every song I am sent, they are mostly sent by email attachment or a link to a download which I then have to save to a USB memory stick. I don’t have to save them of course but I keep a musical archive for future curiosity. In this day and age would anyone join a band based on an advertisement in the back of a fanzine? Would they even read something in the back of a fanzine that required a reply by Stone Age methods of communication such as writing a letter or making a telephone call? Do fanzines even still exist in paper form? If they did this, what happens next? Do musicians have the patience or attention span to record their songs on to a CD and then spend an evening addressing them to the radio movers and shakers before feeding them into the post box? Do teenagers even know what post boxes are or do they wonder who left a load of oversized money boxes dotted around the streets?

As an experiment it would be interesting to see if it was possible to gain a fan base without social media, although it would be hard work. This is a worthwhile subject for a documentary and/or book but not as a serious way of forming a band. Having said that, it was possible in the olden days downloading and everything and nobody complained.

What would U2 do for example if they couldn’t foist their album on an unsuspecting Apple customer?

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