The turkey has been stuffed and so have we – with lots of lovely food and drink that is – and now we’re squaring up to January and saying: “Bring it on pal!”
Well, if you can’t quite face it all just yet, grab yourself a coffee and take a moment to look at my new podcast series CATtales being broadcast on Deep Red Radio, a new on-demand radio service that has just launched. (more…)
Much of the country may have been looking forward to the release of 50 Shades of Grey, but it’s 50Folk that’s exciting me!
As a journalist of…huh-hum…a good few years, it is often hard to get excited about new writing projects, but I was thrilled to be asked to compile the introduction for a limited edition book, 50Folk, and give my take on its author, iconic rock photographer, Nick Elliott. (more…)
Autumn is well and truly here and I’m in a reflective mood. The summer has been a remarkably busy one with the festival season, in particular, dominating my time.
In my role as a music journalist I’ve been fortunate enough to cover quite a few events but one of the more unusual of these was one I worked in my PR role where literary and art, rather than music, took centre stage.
Reaching middle-age can be a depressing time for many, but when the subject in question happens to be a legendary folk festival, then the rings round the trunk are cause for celebration.
Cambridge Folk Festival, one of the premier music events in Europe and one of the longest running and most famous folk festivals in the world, hit the big five-o this year and I was lucky enough to be on site to join in the celebrations.
I saw a post on Facebook recently by a friend who had met the motorcycle champion-come-rock star, James Toseland, one of the celebrities I’d had the pleasure of working with last year. She was over the moon at meeting him at one of his gigs and having the opportunity to post a picture of her with him on her social works, as you can imagine.
It reminded me now lucky I am to move in professional circles that often bring me into contact with celebrities, like James, regularly and how easy it is to take it all for granted. Sure, the people I meet are not all wonderful…they are just human beings like you and I…but to those who are not lucky enough to meet the rich and famous regularly then it can be somewhat of a novelty and, maybe even, a lifetime’s ambition fulfilled. (more…)
Avid followers of my blog may recall that, in March, I was invited onto Star Radio 107fm to divulge my thoughts on PR in the music and entertainment industry as part of the Cambridge Marketing Colleges Marketing Review show. (more…)
They say that a day is a long time in politics. In the music industry, a decade seems like a lifetime.
In a short space of only a few years, the way we consume music has changed unrecognisably, metamorphosing from the fantastic plastic through to pint-sized compact discs and settling on the current darling of choice…the digital download.
Whatever next? Cranial implants? You may smile, but that ‘fantasy’ may not be confined to the realms of science fiction with recent developments in China already pushing the boundaries of android technology. (more…)
Last month, I was invited to divulge my thoughts on PR in the music and entertainment industry as part of the Cambridge Marketing Colleges Marketing Review feature on Star Radio 107fm.
I don’t often swap my usual position with the microphone to become the subject of an interview but it was great to give people an insight into the world of music PR and to dispel the myth portrayed in Absolutely Fabulous that it’s all about cracking open the “bolly dahhhlings“. (more…)
I was faced with a bit of an uncomfortable situation for me last month – I swapped my usual position with the microphone to become the subject of an interview on Star Radio 107fm.
As a fellow of the Cambridge Marketing College, I was invited to divulge my thoughts on PR in the music and entertainment industry as part of their Marketing Review feature. (more…)
“An app is the next progression for us….you can sort that one out for us, can’t you, CAT?”
What a gauntlet to throw during the latest meeting with my client, Deep Red Magazine. I couldn’t argue with the logic….Apps are not only critical as a means of accessing online content for a publication but are also expected to be available, so I had only one option.
The digital revolution has a lot to answer for.
If the world of the PR specialist wasn’t already complicated enough with off and online content generation, media relations, event and project management, sponsorship and crisis management, digital media has made it a whole lot more demanding. (more…)
Since the rise in popularity of digital recordings, vinyl has been considered by many to be just a quaint relic from the past, a remnant of a by-gone era when the music industry was vibrant and record sales were in their millions.
Yes, there may have been some who clutched their PVC memories to their chests in a gesture of shear defiance but no-one can deny that the golden age of the 12″, 10″, and 7″ vinyl as the preferred method of recording music is now just a distant memory.
Vinyl enthusiasts, however, have ensured that this well-loved medium has not been totally relegated to the history books with the UK and US even seeing a vinyl revival in the last seven years or so and a new generation of music buyers now enjoying the unique audible experience.
I don’t think I’m the only PR professional who is more than a little uncomfortable with promoting themselves….we’re a bit like the construction industry worker who fails to find time to fix up their own house.
But just recently I’ve been re-evaluating the balance of my public ‘shouting’ about my clients success compared with promoting my role in their communications. So I’ve re-tuned my radar into WII.FM to consider “what’s in it for me”, and repositioned my website slightly to maximise this frequency. (more…)
There was a time when there was no choice other than a pen and paper to record the details of an interview in a journalistic situation. The nuances and specifics of the exact conversation were at risk of inaccurate recording or mis-interpretation.
The welcome arrival of the analogue tape recorder brought accuracy and clarity for the written transcription of the interview but the reproduction of audio was a still out of reach in the general office. (more…)
