I met up with highly-respected producer James Reynolds in Battersea last night, as we joined over 1,400 guests at the Music Week Awards.
Tag: Events
Cumberwell Park
A regular date in my relatively slim golf calendar is the charity event hosted by Neil and Sarah Davies at Cumberwell Park in Wiltshire.
Eurovision up West!
It’s Eurovision week! A joy to meet the wonderful Sandie Shaw and Katrina (of the Waves) this evening.
NEU Conference
A busy few days on the road in preparation for the MU’s involvement in the NEU Conference at Harrogate. Mark and I drove to Warminster on Thursday to collect our stand furniture from Neil Davies, our long-term stand installer, before organising and loading the promo and merchandise at HQ in Snowsfields.
Photo of the Year
Jonathan Stewart and I met up in Soho this evening to attend the inaugural ‘SO.CO Music Photographer of the Year Awards’, an international competition – sponsored by Affinity Photo – to celebrate the best music photographers.
Tribute to Horace
A marvellous afternoon at Casa do Frango, a Portuguese restaurant in Borough Market, London Bridge, in the company of MU colleagues and partners.
Guitar Show
I travelled up to Birmingham on Friday to oversee the installation of the MU stand at this year’s Guitar Show, organised as ever by Jason Hunt and his team. Joining me during the two-day weekend event were the excellent duo of Stephen Brown and Benson from our Midlands office.
Education Expo
Following the customary build up day, when Mark Batchelor and I joined Neil Davies at the Business Design Centre in Angel, Islington, this year’s Music and Drama Education Expo was fully underway this morning.
Final mix
Always a pleasure to visit Greg Fitzgerald in Canterbury and to work on tracks in his rurally based studio. Thanks to a quality contribution by session supremo John Thirkell on trumpet and flugelhorn horn, we polished a final mix of Promises at Midnight, which now features a heartening balance of horn flourishes and lead guitar courtesy of the excellent Ashley Blasse.
Americana Awards
The UK Americana Awards returned to the Hackney Empire tonight and reminded us all of the huge value and reward of a supportive community and uplifting live music. The Awards ceremony is the culmination of a week in Hackney featuring an industry conference, which was attended by 300 delegates, plus two nights of showcase gigs with 80 artists across six venues.
Conference launch
A cracking evening at Night Tales in Hackney, as the UK Americana Music Association kicked off their annual Conference with a superb series of performances by former winners of the Bob Harris Rising Artist Award, all backed by the Northern Cowboys supplemented by the excellent CJ Hillman on pedal steel and guitar.
Stacey Brothers
Mark Batchelor and I met up this afternoon at the Nellie Dean pub in Dean Street, Soho, ahead of attending a superb performance at Ronnie Scott’s by the Stacey Brothers’ Big Band Steel Dan Project: aka the Royal Scammers. The 14 piece band deliver an amazing collective sound and reflect the depth and nuance of their world-renowned inspiration.
BBC Corporate Affairs
I was kindly invited by Vanessa Elliott, the Head of BBC Corporate Affairs, to the Department’s first Christmas reception this evening at the ‘old’ Broadcasting House in Portland Place.
UK Music at Groucho’s
An excellent dinner for music industry comms representatives and journalists was held by UK Music at Groucho’s in Soho this afternoon.
Live Awards
An entertaining evening at The Brewery in The Barbican, courtesy of the inaugural Live Awards, which has been established to reward all those organisations, individuals, venues and festivals that give so much to the live music sector.
Richmond, Yorkshire
Julie, Ben and I travelled by train on Friday to north Yorkshire for a long weekend in Richmond and the surrounding countryside. The trip was centred on the wedding of Julie’s nephew Robbie and Ellis at the delightful setting of the Middleton Lodge estate.
Party at the 229
An excellent evening at the 229 Club in Great Portland Street, as the efforts to organise a Christmas Party for the Council of Music Makers – at very short notice – all paid off. The Council consists of five music organisations: the MU, the Featured Artists Coalition, The Ivors Academy, the Music Producers’ Guild and the Music Managers’ Forum.
Day and Night Owl
This afternoon I attended that classic start to the party season at 7 St James’s St, the PPL Christmas drinks. As ever, good to catch up with Peter Leathem, John Smith, David Cohen and their colleagues from the collecting society, plus to meet many familiar faces from across the industry.
Beckenham Labour
It has been a busy week, with planning for events during December and the New Year, plus working in PR and other comms for the MU. Tonight, my attention turned to local issues, as I joined the local Labour Party members for a social and fundraising evening with Jess Phillips MP, at the Amber Fort in Elmers End. My thanks to Eileen Welsh for the invitation.
Musicians in Whitehall
The MU, Equity and Bectu officials and members gathered this morning outside the offices of the DCMS on Whitehall, to voice their anger at the cuts in arts funding for certain organisations announced this month by Arts Council England.
Ivors Composer Awards
The Ivors Academy revealed the twelve winners at the 20th edition of The Ivors Composer Awards last night, celebrating the best new music in classical, jazz and sound art.
Brian Blain
I attended the memorial service for Brian Blain this afternoon at Golders Green Crematorium. Brian was an influential music promoter, editor, writer and MU Official, with a particular love of live jazz.
Brodsky Quartet
The world-renowned Brodsky Quartet have been performing at Kings Place in London this weekend, offering a complete Shostakovich Quartet Cycle to mark their 50th anniversary. The group, who started out in Middlesbrough in 1972 as the ‘Cleveland Quartet’, now feature original members Ian Belton (violin)and Jacqueline Thomas (cello) alongside Krysia Osostowicz (violin) and Paul Cassidy (viola).
