Category: live ukulele music

Warning – This is a short rant. If you are easily offended, skip reading this and go and do something else

Phone Video, please just don’t do it… (seriously)

I totally understand people’s enthusiasm for capturing live music events, but video of musical performances taken by phone has to be one of the worst ideas ever in terms of data capture. Its one of my all time pet hates for a number of reasons.

Firstly the picture quality is never that great, so as the old saying goes “You never get a second chance to make a first impression” Secondly the sound capture is also not going to be great. So apart from terrible visual and sound capture I suppose its “ok” (just kidding) I can understand enthusiastic fans pulling out a phone in the heat of the moment (without thought) to capture an artist performance, although I would respectfully suggest perhaps watching the artist might be more fun and respectful to the performer. Just a thought…

To my amazement some artists use a mobile to film their bands and worse still some promoters use phones and then post online. Again full marks for enthusiasm BUT zero for creating a good impression. If I were to award minus marks this would be for not even holding the phone straight during the well intended activity. This has to be the ultimate in not engaging brain. Social media is full of really terrible clips that do the artists no favours at all. For promoters and artists, there are many superb affordable ways to record video AND have great sound. Use the phone for what it was designed for – PHONE CALLS…

Smart artists hate phone video recordings

Prince placed a notice of “Purple Rules” before a surprise show at New York’s City Winery in August 2013, informing the audience that photography, videos and phones would be prohibited. Prince’s security physically removed phones from fans trying to record, ushering them out of the theater if they didn’t comply.

Don Henley, Eagles’ drummer and co-vocalist, took a much more aggressive stance on the matter. During their “History of the Eagles” tour in 2015, the band implemented a policy to reprimand anyone caught recording.  “This could be our last time around,” Henley told news.com.au. “We want people to be in the moment with us and experience the concert through their eyeballs and not a tiny square on a phone.”

“The Flight of The Concords probably put it best when when said

“We say the same thing to you as we do to our sexual partners. Please stop filming.”

Rant over

When I first came across the Henriksen Bud mentioned by Gerald Ross (“The King of Swing”) within minutes of trying one out, I was totally convinced that this is the best acoustic amp out there. I bought a second one for the band, so when we play live we usually use the DIs from these Henriksen Bud’s into a PA or as stand alone amps. At 120 watts they are loud enough for most small venues. In New York I picked up a Henriksen Blu which is the single channel lighter option and equally sonically superb. The Henriksen Bud extension cabs also add more sonic possibilities to the stand alone Buds.

I was curious to hear what the Buds might sound in a stereo set up, but a key problem appeared. This was the earth loop sound created by linking these and no matter what I tried all we got was a really nasty hum. Finally my instrument tech found a unit made in Germany that sorted the problem. Lehle make great switching units for amps and the Lehle P-Split II High Impedance Audio Splitter Box totally resolves the problem. All Lehle products are built like tanks and fortunately this is not a massively expensive solution. This means that I can now run two Henriksen Buds and extension cabs in stereo if I want which makes for a really great set of sonic options. 

I appreciate we are now heading into “Billy Gibbons” territory and many folks will be happy to plug into a Marshall or similar acoustic amp, but I’m always interested in getting the best possible sound and figuring out how to do this. Peter Henriksen has been brilliant in communications and this means even the smallest uke can sound absolutely terrific rather than just “ok” i have sat through sets at some uke festivals where the instrument sound is beyond terrible and sometimes that’s the soundperson as well as the equiptment being used. Call me picky, but with music, getting a really great sound is really important. I learned this from Martin Simpson who is known for creating a brilliant sound. The great thing about the Henriksen Buds options is that they are small and light as well as sonically the best out there. BTW when I first showed Martin a bud he commented “That’s a tone monster!” 

Friday Nov 3rd was the launch party for Lullabies for Cynics from The Small Change Diaries. This was also a beta tester for a bigger future platform which will be revealed in 2018. This is a platform for MUSIC of the best possible kind and nit limited to any niche style or instrument! I’m a great believer in smart music and live entertainment and this was a great group effort in every way where artists supported each other. Special thanks to the Trouble at Mill Team who organised the logistics for this evening

There was no “star of the night” the event and the collective experience for the audience was the purpose of the evening, in short

“Music for the Head & Heart” 

Here are some of the photos

We started working on the Small Change Diaries launch party a few months ago and we are now in the final stages.

“Music for The Head and Heart” is promoted in partnership with the excellent Trouble at Mill organisation, who really know how to create a great customer experience.

We had a number of key considerations to address for this night, to make this a complete experience for those attending. This inevitably means a lot more work and a lot of attention to details. I’d looked at some events described as “launch parties” and often folks in my view really missed a few tricks, which made the event “ok” but probably not that memorable. You can usually when this happens by the lack of activity online pre and post event. We don’t claim to have everything nailed, but its all about the details.

These key details include

• A great space large enough for 250 attendees with some real style
• The best support acts we could find providing a diverse range of music 
• Great affordable hot food for all tastes including vegetarian, vegan, gluten free and other tastes
• Free parking
• Full bar for the evening
• The best front of house sound guy as well as a lighting assistan
• Proving a great dressed stage for artists
• Proper remuneration for all musicians for performances 
• Working on a “pay as you feel” model so its affordable for EVERYBODY who attendes
• Attracting a diverse audience, not just hardcore uke enthusiasts
• Friendly support team so everybody experiences a great evening

As well as meeting all these considerations we decided to give ALL attendees not only the brand new album, but also the first Adam Blames Eve album, so a 20 pound gift for everybody who attends on the night.

All these details mean that those attending the launch have a complete experience. I have been running polls in recent months and one key factor people love is a proper healthy great food option, an affordable bar as well as comfortable seating.  

We quickly hit the initial 200 ticket allocation and were able to get special dispensation to offer some additional tickets which are now almost all taken. Its going to be a terrific night and a beta tester for a much bigger project in 2018. Special thanks to everyone who has supported this including Jessica Bowie, Jen Birch aka Astraluna, Phil Doleman, Sleepy Kev Bishop, Laurent Zeller who is flying in from France. 

I’m blown away by the enthusiasm for this launch and we have Karen Turner on had to take photos of the evening as well as our band produced Carl Rosamond to run front of house. The band are keen to bring our music to as wide an audience as possible that includes uke enthusiasts BUT crucially attracts an appreciative listening audience that have a genuine love of great music.