Happy Xmas. War is Over.

 It's 41 years ago today since John Lennon was shot. I remember hearing the news on the radio as I was lying in bed and couldn't quite believe it. Double Fantasy had just come out and fans like me hoped that this album would be the first of many. It was not to be. Yet John Lennon's legacy lives on.

One of the sounds of Christmas every year is John and Yoko's 'Happy Xmas. (War is Over).' It was written as part of their peace activism and a wish for peace and that war be over forever. It's eminently sing-a-long-able (is that a word?) with a simple, overriding message of Christmas being for everyone and a hope that the coming year is lived without fear which is one of the reasons it does the rounds every Christmas season.

Ahh, that living without fear thing. That seemed like an easy thing to do pre-Covid. But with omicron arriving on our shores and doubling every 2 or 3 days, a government that is happy to gaslight the population, the NHS on its knees and living through climate change, it's not quite so easy to live without fear these days. Oh well, the song is still great. I love that combination of melancholy and hope in both the lyrics and the music. I will always wonder what music we've missed due to Lennon's untimely death.

Further links

Happy Xmas (War is Over) Wikipedia entry 

Happy Xmas (War is Over) lyrics

Lennon's death, I was there. a BBC reporter's account of what happened.

The Murder of John Lennon Wikipedia entry

Have you been Wham'd?

It's Whamageddon time. Are you playing? I'm a bit late to this as it's been going since 1st December but since I haven't yet been Wham'd, I'm still in the game.



I have a soft spot for this Christmas song as it played a big part of my teenagehood and forms the soundtrack to many happy memories so I don't mind hearing it. It's also by George Michael and with him passing earlier this year, it's a reminder of his contribution to our musical history (arguably, he wrote better songs than this, but this one is possibly the most pervasive).

Have you been Wham'd?

Day 14/25 Blogmas

A little bit of Glastonbury goes to Oxon

This September a little piece of Glastonbury comes to West Oxfordshire with the first ever Battstock Music Festival.

Battstock is a 1-day event sponsored by Wychwood Brewery and hosted in the grounds of The Batt School in Witney and is being held in order to raise funds for The Batt School Association.

Some of the best live acts around including, Danny & The Champions of The World and The Epstein are lined up to play along with Oxfordshire bands Les Clochards and Quadrophobe. Also on the bill are singer Daisy Chapman from Bristol and the perfect pop of London-based Jonathan Haselden plus there will be an appearance by youngsters from the Witchwood School of Rock.

There will also be food, stalls, a bar, music workshops, a bouncy castle, face painting and plenty of things to keep children entertained apart from the music.

Battstock is the brainchild of dear friend and online music promoter Adrian Phillips of TunA the Day http://www.tunatheday.com and Graeme Merrifield who runs the prestigious and rather wonderful, Wychwood Festival which I visited for the first time this year (and thoroughly enjoyed). All profits will go to The Batt School Association. 

Battstock

Sat 11 Sept - Gates open 1pm - Live music from 2pm – 9.30pm

Adults £5  |  under 16s £2

Tickets available from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/86482

And if you purchase online before the end of august you could win tickets to next year’s Wychwood Festival, £100 of CDs or cases of Wychwood beer.

You can also order by phone on tel 0845 257 4938 or from Rapture Entertainment record store in Witney.

Want to know more? Then check out the Promo video

Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: festival,music,UK,Witney,Oxon,Oxfordshire,Batt School

TunA the Day's Big Benefit Night Out in August

Yup, it's true. The popular website, TunA the Day, the site dedicated to promoting unsigned and little-known artists is having an official launch party at 229TheVenue (at 229 Great Portland St, directly opposite Great Portland St tube station) on Sunday 24 August 2009 in London Town from 6.30pm.

So if you're not at a festival or out of town and find you fancy a Sunday night out (it's the Bank Holiday so no need to get up early the next day), hang out with some friendly folk, check out some new music and enjoy a beverage or two until the wee hours (the bar is licensed until 3am), then this is the night for you. And tickets are just £10 and all the profit is going to the Marine Conservation Society charity to help it save dwindling fishing stocks in and around the British Isles.

I must admit I don't know any of the artists on the night, but they all look pretty tempting to me judging by their myspace pages and the night will be ably compered by all-round nice guy comedian MacKenzie Taylor and the line-up includes:

Official Secrets Act – hotly tipped Indie popsters

http://www.myspace.com/officialsecretsact

Red Box Blue – top class pop/rock with a country twist

http://www.myspace.com/redboxblue

Lizzy Spit – acoustic folk from Steve Lemacq favourite

http://www.myspace.com/lizzyspit

Murmur – driving guitar alt rock from Essex based 4-piece

http://www.myspace.com/murmurtheband

Schwab – bonkers dance pop with serious grooves

http://www.myspace.com/schwabtheband

DJ set by Millimetre – dance late into the night with top electro fusionist

http://www.myspace.com/millimetre

So if you fancy doing your bit for marine conservation as well as having a really good night out while you're doing it, then come on down and hang with Big Ade and his TunA gang and we can be 100% Dolphin friendly together with the help of 2 bars, lots of bands, a great DJ and a 3am licence. Doors open at 6.30pm, music starts and 7pm and you can book tickets at http://www.wegottickets.com/event/32872

Orange Glastonav review

Yes, I admit it, I'm overly interested in mobile gizmos and when I heard about Orange's Glastonav mobile service, I thought I'd give it a try. The blurb says:

"GlastoNav, the must have mobile application for you and your friends at Glastonbury

• view the complete line-up from The Guardian Guide
• build your own schedule and share it with friends
• find your way around with a detailed festival map
• broadcast your location on the map and send alerts to find friends"

It was promoted heavily before the event via email (neither the URL nor the text in to the shortcod e worked - FAIL) to everyone who was on the Glastonbury ticket database. I finally managed to download it (why I was still trying to do this, I don't know!) and on taking a look, it showed all the bands and which stages they were on which was useful. There was also a map which was handy too I guess.

The option to add your location and the time you'd be there didn't work for me. It wasn't precise enough and there was no interactivity around it to confirm to your mate that you would meet them at that point at x time.

The gig finder was marginally useful, but what would have been more useful would be to set up reminder s so that your phone went off 30 minutes before you needed to be at whichever stage you wanted to be at - either linking in with the calendar/alarm system, or using SMS alerts (provided they could be timely). As it stood, it was confusing so I reverted to using the old skool paper guide. I also spotted typos on times and some bands which didn't exactly inspire me with confidence.

There was a news feature included in the app, but this was dependent on you having the app open at all times and checking it for news. As I only opened it from time to time (it was a real battery drainer), it meant I got the news that Hot Chip were dj'ing up at The Park 2 hours after they finished their set and that Franz Ferdinand were a replacement for Pete Doherty the day after they played. These alerts would have been much better done via SMS and actually, I probably would have paid a nominal amount to be included to get those alerts.

The service was promoted very heavily on site - it seemed to be on everything - the cups, posters and everywhere Orange was, they were promoting the application.

The biggest bugbear about it though was that it was a memory hog and a battery hog. As a memory hog, it meant I couldn't have anything else open at the same time on my T-Mobile Nokia N95. And battery life is critical at a festival the size of Glastonbury for your mobile phone. I took a spare battery with me *and* I got to charge my phone every day at a pal's market stall on site which meant I didn't have to wait around the orange tent for 2 hours every day to charge up. Most people won't bother to charge their phones up unless it's an emergency, and they're certainly not going to use up the battery on an iffy mobile application that drains your battery quickly to boot.

I hear along the grapevine that they got about 15 to 20k downloads which isn't bad going. I wonder how many of those were actually on site rather than armchair viewers? Let's say they did get 20k requests, of which, being generous, 65% successfully downloaded so we're down to 13,000 and of those 40% turned it on more than once which is now down to 5,200. And this is out of a total audience of around 178,000.

It seems we still have a long way to go with this kind of service. Firstly, don't rush a mobile service - do it right or don't bother. Secondly, make it easy and ubiquitous to charge your phone up on site. Thirdly, make data cheap/free so that there's no fear about downloading and using it.

10/10 for concept. 6/10 for implementation. Verdict: Could and should do better.

Technokitten's back from Glastonbury

And it was quite an experience. Arriving earlier was a good thing as it allowed time to settle in, but the lack of sleep really got to me by the end this year at which point I was exhausted. It was good to catch up with some pals from last year and to make some new ones too. And having less mud was a bonus on one level as it made for much easier movement around the place, but on the other hand, I think it made the crowd lazier and I missed the 'Dunkirk Spirit' or was it just that I didn't have an excuse to sip hot cider with a brand in it?!

Verdict on Shangri-La was that it's pretty good and bigger than Lost Vagueness. And The Diner is always guaranteed good fun late at night. Trash City was pretty spectacular. But neither area lived up to it's 'up all night' billing and when the plug was pulled on the power at The Diner at 5am on Monday morning it was a disappointment. Last year, the party went on until after 9am - maybe we got away with it because it was muddy last year or something? Anyway, once the plug was pulled that was it and was the end of the festival.

The music was brilliant and particular highlights for me were Crowded House, Duffy, Spiritualised, Neil Diamond and the awesome awesomeness of The Verve. Richard Ashcroft totally rocked my world that weekend and it was worth the ticket price to see The Verve alone.

On the downside, food and drink seemed more expensive this year (but maybe I just didn't notice the prices last year). Security was much more evident and noticeable and there seemed to be at least 2 security in every tent and they were enforcing the smoking ban pretty vehemently (no bother to me since I've never smoked but their presence was felt). I know they're there for our safety 'n all but not all of them were terribly friendly - although I did spot one girl in the Igloo tent swaying from side to side to the music whilst the rest of us were dancing which made me smile.

I was also unfortunately witness to several folks being stopped and searched for drugs before they got in and saw a couple of men being cuffed on Monday lunchtime. I also heard along the grapevine that there was a drugs bust at the Stone Circle on Friday night/Saturday morning. Maybe it was a rumour as I can't find anything online about it. I also saw a girl being carried off in an ambulance after falling unconscious in The Diner in the early hours of Monday morning. Tent crime was up significantly which was a great shame and maybe a reflection of the fact that it wasn't hard to get a ticket this year - in fact you could get a ticket right up until the event itself. And drugs arrests were up too apparently but that's no big surprise when police and security presence is so much greater.

Overall, there was good music, plenty to eat and drink, lots of folks having a good time and places to play after dark. Glastonbury, you did it again!

It's been a while

I've been gallavanting in Ireland at the rather marvellous Electric Picnic, and then had a bout of laryngitis and now I'm kinda back with a few links for you on a Monday. Of course, there's a ton of stuff I still need to catch up on but there's the day job to think about too. So you'll have to do with a few links until I magically find some time to blog more.

Stephanie from Atlantic Records dropped me a line to tell me about the mobile marketing she's doing for Yung Joc, a top-selling US hip-hop artist (no, I hadn't heard of him either, but then I guess I'm the wrong side of 22, much to my chagrin). Stephanie tells me, "to be a hustler, you gotta know how to trade like one. With the rise of the digital age, trading cards are shedding their physical skin and moving to the mobile world, Yung Joc style. Collect, trade, and redeem Yung Joc wallpaper for your cell phone and you could win a grand, or a call from Joc himself. Sign up for Yung Joc trading cards at cards.yungjoc.com or Text JOC to 87233 (TRADE). Get 3 cards straight to your cell for only a $1 a week. Collect all 42 and you just earned yourself street cred and an A in Hustlenomics. Competition is for US residents only.

And while we're talking about gaming and gambling, did you know there's new legislation covering this area in the UK. And as legislation is such a minefield, the nice folks at Million 2-1 (the lottery and games company), have created a lovely free guide to the new regulatory framework covered under the directives and legislation laid out in the new Gambling Act (effective September 1, 2007). Well worth a read if you're looking to do anything using premium rate SMS and telephony.

Got a Nokia N-Series phone? Like Audi? Then you might like this. Nokia users will be able to download one-minute clips from longer Audi Channel programmes such as Anatomy of Fear , which provides a scientific look at the emotion as we take celebrities Lady Isabella Hervey and Oliver Skeete to Dubai for a series of psychological tests to push their limits, and R10 v Harrier, which features the Le Mans winning Audi R10 going headto-head in a sprint race with an RAF harrier jet at RAF Wittering. The service is fully on-demand, so users can download the clips whenever they want using the N-series Plus service (which I've never heard of until now, and I've had a N-Series phone for over 18 months). The Audi Channel - a 24-hour non-subscription service on Sky Digital channel 884 and at www.audi.co.uk - will now also be available free to users of peer-to-peer network Joost, and Nokia N-series mobile phones.

Normal service will resume shortly

Yes, I know I haven't blogged very much over the last couple of weeks, but life is just a bit hectic at the moment with a big project to finish off and about to take on a big project too (all being well). And trying to do all the other stuff that one has to do day to day.

Anyway, please bear with me a little longer. I'm off gallavanting in Ireland this weekend at the Electric Picnic music festival where I shall be getting lots of fresh air and exercise and will come back knackered refreshed and ready for work next week. Should be a good 'un, especially if the last two I went to in 2005 and 2006 are anything to go by. The forecast is for drizzle and sunshine so pretty much like London right now then. Still debating as to whether or not wellies will be required (I have a fetching pair of pink croc wellies so maybe I *will* need them...)

So I'm off to pack my rucksack now and then it's an early night as it's a hideously early start in the morning. And then the fun begins at around tea-time once the tent is up and the main festival site opens for business. Yes, it's a schlep of a journey to get there with camping equipment in tow, but it will be worth it I'm sure.

See ya'll when I get back from the land of my forefathers.

More linkage

I guess it's one of those days - so much to write about, so little time, so a few more links are just going to have to do you...

• The Mobile Goldmine event looks an interesting one where you can explore how to make money with mobile content. It's on October 17th in the evening and limited to just 50 places. And the price? Absolutely FREE (but you do need to book in advance).

• New research out from Netimperative in conjunction with Q Research about 'Young Minds'. They interviewed 3,000 eleven to twenty-five year olds for the four reports including two on mobile - Mobile Music and Mobile Advertising. A synopsis of what's covered can be found over at the Netimperative website. Reports are usually £1,000 each, but you can get all four for £2,500. I don't s'pose the nice folks at NetImperative would like to give me a copy of the mobile reports for review here maybe...?

• Barcamp Mobile London is happening on Saturday 29th September in Soho. Aimed at designers/ developers/ entrepreneurs/ artists working on mobile applications, devices, and experiences. From FlashLite and mobile Processing to openMoko, Green Phone and the iPhone. "The idea is to create a camp where hackers and designers can come and play together. If you do stuff with small screens, voice, or something in between, come and share. mobileCampLondon is about big idea evangelism, and nitty-gritty details. We’ll look at what matters most: well crafted code, and a solid understanding of how people use their phones."

So if this is your thing, then Mobile Bar Camp London is well worth a look. Find out more about the whole Bar Camp movement over at wikipedia to get a flavour of what to expect.

• Mobstar joins up with this weekend's V Festival to offer a virtual mobile flame amongst other things. I would tell you what they are, but they're exclusive to Virgin Mobile customers. You know what, you've missed a trick here guys 'n gals... A chance to make extra revenue (charge non-Virgin customers more), ask someone if they want to know more about the advantage of being on Virgin vs whatever network the customer has come in on (for they know the operator in 9 cases out of 10 so could personalise it), a chance for data capture, a call to action to check out a Virgin shop or the Virgin Mobile stand at the festival. Come on peeps, it's not good enough to simply say 'This is only for Virgin Mobile customers' and alienate the 10s of 1000s of customers of other networks who've paid good money to attend the V Festival. Mr Branson would *not* be proud methinks. Grrr.
  

Bloomin' Marvellous Bloom Festival

As if Glastonbury and the Electric Picnic wasn't enough this year, I've managed to fit in another wee festival in the interim and toddled along to the Bloom Festival with festipal Lisa. Lisa's done a marvellous write-up of the festival with pictures to boot. So I won't go into as much detail here but will give you a little run down of some of the highlights for me.

• Glorious sunshine - all weekend (well, ok, a little bit of rain overnight a couple of times, but that was refreshing after the heat)
• No mud - after Glastonbury mud, this was totally ay-may-zing
• The Whip
• Crazy P (this was my musical highlight - she was great)
  
• Soul II Soul Soundsystem
• Coldcut Soundsystem
• Aim
• Dancing to reggae on Sunday lunchtime to the Trojan Soundsystem
• Beardyman - the human beatbox
  
• Dancing at The Funk Bar - every night - great music, great vibe.
• Meeting loads of people especially Emily, Hannah and pals, Kate, Carla and the rest of the crew, Circus girl Lou in the White Hat, the man with the blow up hula hoop (that was hilarious fun), the man with the weird kaleidoscope thingummy (v cool), Chris - the man in the nightie, the 3 graduates from Nottingham University, Ella from Chai Wallahs, Crazy P, Nick and Jim (our tent neighbours), Simon and Alan and their useful spanner, and loads more folks whose names I just can't remember! Big up yo'selves.
  
• Fancy Dress night dancing at Beats Bubble alongside the dancing zimmer frame and various other creations
• The Lounge
• The Burrito Bus and the Choc Star chocolate brownie place
  
• And the very friendly security guards who got the tone just right for looking after us all
  

For a small festival, it punches above its weight and is great value for money and it'll be on my list for next year.

A musical interlude

A few musical bits and pieces have struck a chord with me in the last 24 hours.

First off, coming home from the lovely Oli Barrett's 'Quality Connector' do last night, I ended up sitting next to a guy who, as he read The London Paper, turned to his friends and said, 'I'm gonna be a pop star'. To which I replied, 'good choice'. Anyway, we got talking and it turns out the man who wants to be a pop star is actually Herbie Treehead, a Glastonbury regular (I was in the right field at the right time apparently, but missed them too busy doing something else!), who has an album out and is the man behind the chirpy 'Happy Song'. It put a smile on my face anyway when I heard it.

Secondly, I'm browsing through some blog feeds taking a cursory glance at some of the blogs I don't get round to reading very often and stumbled across this post from popbytes about a British artist Bat for Lashes and their song horse and i. Natasha Khan, the brains behind the outfit, is also a visual artist and was also at Glastonbury, although I didn't see her either, but never fear, she's playing the Electric Picnic in a month's time. Wahey! Anyway, I'm suitably impressed with her quirky but very appealing style and there's a video clip of her performance at Glastonbury on theblog as well as a free download of horse and i. You'll need to be quick to get the download though as it will only stay up on the site for a few days to promote the new album, Fur and Gold. You might want to check out her myspace page too.

And finally, if you haven't signed up yet, then sign up to Ade's TunAtheday.com. It's free and 5 days a week, you'll get something new to listen to to get your day to a good start. There's also a discussion forum where you can talk about what you've just heard, make suggestions about tracks for upcoming tunas and generally put the world to rights. Oh, and in true web 2.0 stylee, you'll also find Ade and his tunatheday on myspace and facebook. Go on, sign up, you know you want to!

Tune in for mobile, marketing and media stuff shortly!

Motorola Wirebreakers campaign launches

Lee from Cake (who by the sounds of it is also suffering a post-glasto-meltdown this week) had just let me know about the latest viral video campaign, Wirebreakers, from Motorola to promote their new stereo Bluetooth product, The MOTOROKR S9 wireless headsets. I already know, anecdotally from my niece, that the Motorola KRAZR phone has better sound quality than her ipod so I'm hopeful that this product also rocks (or should that be RKS in hellomoto vernacular?).

The videos show a fictional dance crew, The Wirebreakers, encouraging members of the public to join them in random dancing in public places like the golf course, the shopping mall or a squash court. There's an example of one of the videos above.

The campaign is aimed at a younger demographic and focuses on strengthening Motorola's link with music. Does it work for you? Answers on a text message...

Technokitten goes to Glastonbury

Well, I survived it. It's way bigger than you can imagine, even though you've seen all the photos and seen it all on the telly, it's massive. There are more people there than you can imagine and tents and stuff everywhere you look. And then there's food and drink of every kind, art, performance, music, random entertainment, burlesque and weddings at Lost Vagueness, circus and cabaret, trapeze lessons, clay-model making, chanting, yoga, dancing 24/7, comedy, political debate, rain, mud, sunshine, wellies and smiley, friendly people from all walks of life with one common theme of being at Glastonbury and leaving behind their day to day lives for just a little while.

[The picture is of me dancing at sunset at the sacred space on Friday night (I'm in the middle with the hat on) - as taken for The Guardian by Martin Godwin]

So what did I do at Glastonbury...

Thursday. Arrived, after a 6 hour journey, and wondered what on earth we'd let ourselves in for when I saw how busy it already was. We trekked for ages to find a spot to pitch our tent (all the maps we'd been given were worse than useless), were directed to Paines Field eventually and pitched tent, had a recce (is that how you spell it?) and some food then trekked back to get more stuff from the car. You soon learn that when someone at Glastonbury says something is about 5 minutes away, they're on Glastonbury time!

Then we went back to the tent and waited for Sarah and Lozza who were massively delayed due to National Express uselessness, I was wiped out so I skipped the Stone Circle and had a relatively early night instead awaiting Sarah's text message to tell me when she'd finally got through (it came at 5.30am).

Friday. [6 hours sleep - see I said it was a relatively early night]. Breakfast (smoothie and apple crepe for me) with Sarah, Sheila and Lozza. Sunscreen sharing with a lovely lady on the same bench as us. Found Merrell's (the trainer people where some pals were) and clean loos (oh, how wonderful that was). Then lunch and hot cider and brandy (a wonderfully warming drink when it's bucketing with rain). A bit of leftfield stage and walking on water (at least that's what it looks like inside the leftfield stage).

Then I went off and did random things for the rest of the day. Wandered over to see Trish at Youth Music. Met up with Joh and Ed from Brighton and had rum punch and mead, saw the trash city statues, had a bit of a lie-down, rocked at the circus stage and then silliness at Lost Vagueness - dancing to a fab clarinetist, the insect magic show and a wedding, as you do. Then hung with Adam for a bit (life is a miracle boy), met his mate Alex who was much better looking and spent the rest of the evening with him - dancing at the stone circle, a bit of Bjork, a wander through the Glade, very late night tea in the healing fields listening to a techno remix of Bright Eyes whilst watching the film Watership Down on an outdoor screen, catchin' up with Whatley Dude, Big Al and Caterina from Norway (Alex's sister's friend) at the stone circle, getting cold feet (I realised that at least 3 pairs of socks are essential with wellies now) and returning to my extremely cosy, more or less mud free (internally) tent at about 4.30am.

Saturday. 4 hours sleep. Breakfast with Sheila - a very large smoothie and a cake. Then off to the Leftfield and a long sit-down at Trish's as it was raining and she had deckchairs under cover. Then Sheila and I did the random thing together. A sonic art installation. The band in a caravan. Wading through mud and nearly getting completely stuck. Making clay models. Shopping for festi-gear. Lost Vagueness and another wedding and competitive wedding bouquet catching (I caught the bouquet this time!). Costume sourcing and customising for Lost Vagueness (using the bouquet). Back to Merrell's for food (all the best food stalls were near there) and then off to Lost Vagueness with Pimp Daddy, Eh Hombre and Lady Russell to see Madness (it was rammed) and The Beat and then all night dancing in mud (the mud was pretty bad in the LV field) finally leaving at around 6am.

Pimp Daddy was da man and was getting the love - the fake polar bear coat was a real hit and everyone wanted to touch the coat and the bling. And my hat was the biz - just need a better outfit to go with next year. I'm thinking I might finally get round to doing something with all the material sitting in my spare bedroom.

Sunday. 4 hours sleep. Got up around 11am. I think. Random wandering around and being very disorientated due to extreme tiredness and general dazed and confusedness. Food. Met up with Alex briefly. Watched Shirley (she was great and revived my flagging spirits for I was very very very tired by this stage), back to Merrell's for food, water and clean loo stop. Kaiser Chiefs, a walk round the back of the pyramid stage and random high fiving with Who fans. Random wandering with an off-his-tits scouser in a silly hat, helping him find Lost Vagueness via a bit of dancing at The Glade. Bought a flare and watched the end of the chemical brothers. Met up with the fab Merrell's crew and headed to Trash City where I met Random Mike, Welsh Alex, two mermaids, a very cute pirate and danced all night long and absolutely didn't want to leave.

Monday. No sleep. Finally headed off to my tent to pack it up at 7am, skipping and singing all the way. Got in, got changed into dry clothes, packed up (fortunately, most of it was already packed for I knew it might be a large one on Sunday night), trudged back to the car with Sheila. Got very wet and cold and miserable as I'd had to stand in the driving rain for what seemed like an eternity as the car was stuck in the mud and I was stuck with both our bags. I eventually got to the car and changed clothes again (not that anything was particularly dry but my Lost Vagueness PVC skirt came in very handy) and we had to be towed out of the first car park.

Waited, waited some more, waited again and one more bump later from the tractor to nudge us through another field and 5 or more hours later, must have been more like 6 or 7 actually, we finally got out of the car park and on to the road. I got home at about 8.30ish in the evening.. Happily exhausted.

So a big up to *everyone* I met there. A big up to Sheila for getting me there and back safely. And a big up to the whole Glastonbury vibe. Yes there was mud and it's evil and really hard work but I'll be back nevertheless.

Bring on 2008.

For more Glastonbury tales, then head over to Lisa's and Whatley Dude's blogs and check out Bluejoh's pictures too

Knock Knock The Future of Music was awesome

What a great time I had in Arhus in Denmark at the Knock Knock conference and accompanying SpotFestival. A fantastic conference, interesting speakers and content, great venue (Musikhuset - a bit like the South Bank in London), top atmosphere, yummy food and lots of music. A winning combo!

[If you don't want to read the whole post, but look at the webcast instead, then here are the links:

Morning: Nicolai Wammen, Eric de Fontenay, Les Ottolenghi, Henrik Bodker and Anne Holst
Afternoon: Steve Gordon, Claus Pedersen, Magnus Eriksson, Mirai, John Buckman, Pieter Betist, Richard Heidenreich, Tue Lund-Christensen, Martin Buck, Steve Myer, me and Martin Spenner.

And pictures on flickr from Innovation Lab and my own pix]

Right, back to the post. The day before the conference, I arrived to be greeted by a radio journalist who wanted to interview me for Danish Radio (their BBC equivalent). They were covering the conference and festival and interviewed some of the speakers. You can hear the stream live here and also download the podcast of the whole radio programme here as an MP3. How exciting to be on the radio! Then it was a quick freshen up and off to a local restaurant for a speaker's dinner where we got to know each other a bit better. I love the Danish way of restaurant dining where the waiting staff actually announce what's in everything that you're eating thus building up the anticipation and the tastebuds.

The the day of the conference we (I was there with my pal Gillian) headed down to the venue ably guided by a man with a map and another man with a GPS and both of them got lost so we ended up asking a local anyway! So much for men, maps and technology ;) When we get there, we are greeted by coffees and nibbles and a DJ mixing choons. There was also a small exhibition going on alongside showcasing innovation in music.

Then the conference began. About 200 or so delegates live and another 1000 or so following the conference's live web stream on the internet. All kinds of topics were covered from piracy, new business models, challenges and issues that artists face, music and mobile and lots more besides. The webcast is live for two or three weeks, so if this subject matter interests you, then it's well worth a look. Particular highlights for me were Eric De Fontenay from MusicDish, Steve Gordon, author of The Future of the Music Business, and Les Ottolenghi from Intent Media Works.

I was also very intrigued by the "downloan" service offered by Danish Libraries. Of course, it makes perfect sense. Libraries have been loaning music for many years so why not loan MP3s too and it seems to be a success so far. I wonder if we'll see something similar in the UK. I hope so.

I was also interested in the variable pricing model that John Buckman discussed, formerly founders of Lyris and now run their own record label, Magnatune. As a MP3 buyer, you can choose which pricepoint you want to pay for something. That means, if you're a real supporter, you pay the artist more money. And if you don't have the money, you don't have to. A neat idea.

And Henrik from Aarhus University was spot on when he said there was no 'one big thing' to look for but lots of small but important things that were part of the future of music (and IMHO can be equally applied to the world of web 2.0 and/or mobile).

Just before lunch, we were treated to a performance from Mirai, Ras and Keely (Ras had to leave as he was playing a gig with the Pet Shop Boys or something). Mirai was showcasing some new music technology which allows you to play different instruments just by moving different parts of your body. Think a Star Trek version of the old-fashioned one-man band routine but hooked up to a computer rather than having to carry a bass drum on your back.

In the afternoon, there was more talk about piracy, peer to peer and issues around DRM, Pim from Sellaband introduced us to his concept of fans being able to help finance a band without the need for a big record company. A real example of people power. Then later in the afternoon, Steve Myers from Theta Music in Tokyo and myself talked about the world of mobile and what impact it might have on music. And I'm quite sure I've missed a few things - it's not intentional, just a lot going on.

After that was another wonderful networking dinner and then the opening concerts of the SpotFestival with the Marybell Katastrophe and The National Bank.

The next day, Friday, was a gloriously sunny day, spent lazing around the festival, drinking, eating and chatting and listening to the odd band, but mainly putting the world to rights with Anna and the Icelandic Music crew. Then it was dinner with the gang - me and Gillian, Eric, Steve, Ricky G (a bona fide jazz musician and composer of music for Spike Lee), Rick and Lynette. Then underneath the very posh restaurant we were in, there was a ragga/dancehall club where we headed to afterwards and got into the groove (or whatever these youngsters do these days). When that closed, the American Boys were hungry so we headed to a late night pizza place, got chatting to some friendly locals, and ended up having a party back at their gaff. I love that kind of spontaneity on a road trip.

On Saturday, I managed to get up and explore a bit of Arhus and do a bit of shopping and picked up a few bargains. Then it was a lovely dinner with Gillian before heading back to the festival for the last night. We were tipped off that we should go and see Spleen United (think Kraftwerk meets Kaiser Chiefs), which we did, and they were great. So good, in fact, that I have bought the CD (couldn't get the downloads anywhere using English money). Then we headed to the after party, and as we were 'VIPs' we were able to jump the queue. Keith Harris had turned up over the weekend and I got to spend some time with him at the after party (he chaired a music tank panel that I was on recently) and eventually, after more chatting, we all headed home.

Sunday was spent packing, travelling and being delayed in the wi-fi-less Billund airport and reflecting on the previous days. I learned stuff, I made great new friends and thoroughly enjoyed myself (well you know me, I *do* like a good music festival and the Spot Festival is a rather good one).

I eventually got home in the early hours only to have to get up early the next day to go to Monte Carlo for MEM/Global Mobile Messaging Forum. I don't recommend back-to-back trips. It's a killer.

Anyway, a big-up to the guys at Innovation Lab for running the conference, Anders and his team did a marvellous job and made us feel extremely welcome. Keep an eye on this team, they're doing good stuff. I know a few organisations who would do well to take a leaf out of their book.

The Road to Glastonbury

is getting ever nearer and I'll be heading off later this week with some of my mates, a trusty tent, a pair of wellies, a cosy sleeping bag and a smile to spend a few days enjoying life, love and music in a field in a farm in Somerset. Let's hope my stuff doesn't get nicked and my tent doesn't leak!

So for those of you who *are* heading to Glastonbury, some bright spark has done an excellent job of timetabling all the acts with a so-called Glasto Clashfinder so you can see at a glance who's on where at what time so you can argue with your mates as to which band you're going to see.

The weather report was looking ok-ish yesterday with showers and sunshine forecast but I've just refreshed and Metcheck's report is now not looking good at all with heavy rainfall predicted. So there's going to be mud and I'm going to need wellies and a waterproof jacket and patience.

And although I've invested in spare batteries for my phone, I doubt I'll be using it much beyond the usual texting and calling to find out where Sarah is to try and rendezvous with her. It's unlikely I'll be using it for blogging purposes as I have a feeling my mind will be on things other than mobile marketing and media, not least trying not to fall over in the mud!

So this does mean that the little burst of blogging today and in the next day or two might be all you get for a week or two whilst I play at being a hippy in the rain.

Instant Karma Party Right Now

Well so say The Pinker Tones from Barcelona (it's one of their tracks). They were playing on Tuesday night at La Linea Music Festival at Cargo in Hoxton and very good it was too. Think electronic (like Kraftwerk), lounge (like The Gentle People), chillout like Air or Zero 7 mixed with a hefty slice of rock, very convincing air guitar, dancing and a Barcelona upbeat vibe. I loved it. Especially as I missed their gig in February in Barcelona.

It was an enthusiastic crowd with lots of their Catalan fans and TPT showed their appreciation by really pumping out the tracks from their latest album The Million Colour Revolution but remixed and revamped with a rockier feel than the album which suited the crowd at Cargo.

And then we got to meet them afterwards and they're the loveliest young men you'd care to meet - really friendly, no pretensions, just really pleased to be able to share their music to a willing audience and to be able to do their thang. I really hope they go from strength to strength as they deserve every success, and I do hope we see them in London again sooner rather than later.

More pictures over on flickr.

I want my MTV

I'm really excited to be on a very prestigious panel at next week's Music Tank event, 'I want my MTV'. The keynote speaker is James Scroggs who is VP Marketing MTV UK and Ireland and he's going to be talking about the fact taht the old world of music TV is a shadow of its former self and its role in the music marketing world is up for debate with newcomers like Joost, YouTube, MySpace et al.

The chair is Keith Harris (no not Orville's master AFAIK) and fellow panellists are Assia Grazioli-Venier who heads up Ministry of Sound TV and Malcolm Gerrie who is Chief Exec of WhizzKid Entertainment, and who created the legendary 80s music show, The Tube.

It costs £20 to £30 to attend and is on at Bertorelli's Restaurant and Bar on Frith Street from 6.30pm.

So if you're not going to Mash-Up or didn't get your ticket in time for Chinwag Live's PR Unspun, then why not join us?

The Serendipity of Blogging

Musings of a Mobile Marketer reader, Jason Delport, recently commented on my blogpost about twittering and suggested I give Twitlet a go. It's a java interface for twitter and it worked for me straight out of the box. If you like twittering but don't want to send lots of SMS but have cheap data, then give it a go. Rudy, I think that'll get round your international SMS charges a treat. You can download it for free from your mobile if you go to http://mobile.paxmodept.com

I did however notice that Whomp! FM designed their logo and I thought it was an interesting enough name that it was worth checking out. I'm so glad I did. It's a site for vinyl junkies and it streams mixes of some of their favourite vinyl tracks. And I'm lovin' it. I particularly enjoyed Dad's Old Record Box and Keramick and Lobo. Enjoy - it's free!

Last chance for tickets for DMC Europa on Tuesday 13th February, Barcelona

STOP PRESS: DMC Europa on Tuesday 13th February in Barcelona has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.

Swedish Beers has not suffered the same fate I'm pleased to say.

The DMC (Digital Music Conference) Europa is a focused, one-day executive-level event tackling issues vital to the European and global mobile and digital music industries, including EU and international regulation and deal structuring, the mobile music marketplace, networked communities and the evolving Peer-to-Peer market.

Decision makers from across the music, mobile, digital and entertainment industries will gather at this event to make deals, engage in a candid discussion of the challenges and opportunities in the global mobile and digital music marketplace and to showcase new products and services essential tools for the creation and growth of successful mobile and digital entertainment businesses.

It's on Tuesday 13th February and is running concurrent with 3GSM and is at the Tryp Apolo Hotel in Barcelona and I'm sure it will be a fantastic day.

Speakers, who are sadly lacking in any women which I'm sure they'll work on for next year, include:

Keynote:

- Ingo Schneider, VP, Group Strategy, Mobile Data, T-Mobile International

- Ralf Lülsdorf, Senior manager Music, Sponsorships and Events, T- Mobile International

- David Ulmer, VP, Marketing, Digital Media Services, Motorola

Panelists:

- Michael Bornhaeusser, CEO, Secure Digital Container

- Luke Magnuson, International Music Project Manager, T-Mobile

- Nenad Marovac, Managing Partner, DN Capital

- Thomas Ryan, SVP Digital and Mobile Strategy and Development, EMI Recorded Music

- Dominick Tolli, VP, Mobile Data Services, Virgin Mobile USA

- Albin Seviant, Senior Director, Marketing, Musiwave

- Glenn Litwak, Founding Partner, Litwak and Havkin

- John C. Beiter, Of Counsel, Loeb and Loeb LLP

- Cornelius Claudio Kreusch, CEO MUSIC JUST MUSIC GmbH & LLC

- Anthony Stonefield, CEO, Emotive

- KamranV, President, Spaceland Recordings / CEO, CyKiK

- Pablo Soto, Founder/Creator MP2P Technologies

- Steven Masur, Managing Partner, MasurLaw

- Mark Bush, VP, Business Development , Urban Sports Network

- Adam Levin, CEO, Cinema Electric

- Ted Cohen, Managing Partner, TAG Strategic

- Peter Sung, Managing Partner, FM, Inc.

- Mark Frieser, Managing Partner, FM, Inc.

For more information on the event, a full list of speakers and the latest agenda, please go to:

http://www.dmceuropa.com/agenda.html

And what's more, as a special offer to Musings of a Mobile Marketer readers, you can get in for just 250 Euros. Yes, that's right 250 Euros instead of the standard 650 Euros. To get the special rate you need to register here as soon as you can.

And if you do go, don't forget to come to Swedish Beers afterwards and tell us all about it (and we're only a few minutes walk away - so no excuses now!).