You could tell that Saint Raymond’s gig
tonight at Rock City was going to be a significant one because the people who
support and champion Nottingham music were there. I was writing the review for
the Nottingham Post (it’ll be online tomorrow and presumably in the paper on
Friday) but would have been there anyway. This has been a bugbear of mine for a
long time now and it seems that nothing has changed. Why do these jokers get
patted on the back for supporting local musicians when they only leave the
house for high profile gigs? This goal hanging attitude flies in the face of
their ethos, I still have yet to see these ‘champions’ at a regular gig by a
Nottingham artist. Do they only turn up when the television cameras are there?
If this is the case then they are pissing into the wind as they are only Notts
TV cameras presumably filming segments for the local music show Literally, more people will see shaky camera phone footage
on Facebook and YouTube tomorrow (there were a lot of phones aloft) than will
watch Notts TV. Let’s be honest, there were more people in Rock City than have
ever watched Notts TV.
In the lead up article in the paper last week,
a potted history of Saint Raymond’s achievements mentioned everything apart
from the fact that he made a solo appearance on our radio show NottinghamLIVE and soon after signed a major record deal. We
joked on air that this was all down to us because it just fitted right at the
time. I know the two events were not linked but surely it is an interesting
footnote that this was his last appearance as an unsigned artist; Darren and I
will no doubt be missed off the thank you list on his album sleeve notes or
Brit Award acceptance speech. Is this city so incestuous that someone like me
who refuses to play the game by the same set of rules is airbrushed out
whenever there’s a danger of recognition? If I had some idea of where to go
next I might consider leaving Nottingham and leaving the music scene to disintegrate
into the arse kissing love in that it wants to be.
This would be upsetting if it wasn’t for the
fact that my podcast (that is taken seriously outside of Nottingham) has so
many listeners and this blog and my others (apart from my conceptual
art/pointless photo blogs) didn’t receive so many views. I know I am doing
something right and so do other people. Whether freezing me out is to do with
intimidation (I’m not that intimidating when you get to know me) or just
because I don’t join in and say that everything is brilliant is unknown to me. Nobody
asks for my opinion when writing about such matters; I’ve lost count of
articles about music in the local paper that carry quotes from armchair
commentators and the situation is really rather amusing.
My review will appear in unedited form on my IMHO review blog after the paper has published it.
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February housekeeping
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