Buskers Sunday

The sun shone down on our first Buskers music event at Downstairs at The Vortex and Gilett Square on 24^th July and in parish magazine speak…..a good time was had by all.

Everyone we interviewed agreed that buskers get a raw deal in London, which is sad given our history (a medieval London were troubadours were megastars).  Now you can be turned away by Customs and Immigration if you try to enter the UK with an instrument.

Adding to the street-performance atmosphere were face-painters who were turning out works of art and the impressive poi expert, Helena, from Brighton. A small boy summed up the spirit of the event when he went up to African drummer Alex Dayo as he performed and waited patiently for Alex to let him join in, which he did.  As the boy walked away with a big grin on his face, someone behind me said:  “That has made his day…..and maybe started his career as a drummer….who knows”.

The Ideas Tap donated £1000 towards the event and enabled us to pay musicians and other performers, face-painters and people editing the free promos and compilation video about the event which will go up soon. The mission for next year is to make it a two day festival, with more street performers and buskers, a higher profile and more people.

Album Launch Party

“Wow” is the word that comes to mind when describing the SoundAdvice Label Launch at Proud on Thursday 28^th July.  Eight amazing bands played to a crazily tight schedule that we actually kept to, about 400 people came through the door and 10 journalists texted to say they were there and loving it.

By the time the Eric Ness Band ended the night, the audience were leaping in the air and calling for “more”, which they got because by a miracle, we were only running 7 minutes late. With 8 hands, that is a serious achievement.

We started heaving our equipment into a van at 3am on Friday morning, Proud management had apologized for early problems and told us it had been a great success for them and they welcomed us back. Because of ticketing and entry issues we earned half what we hoped, but everyone had a great time and loved the music, so maybe we should feel good that it was great and move on.

What next for the Label Team, is the question in the air now.  They say they will be helping their signed bands in every way they can, working towards the next album in a year from now and helping on another project.

Launch Party at Proud Galleries

“What is small, round and musical and involves everyone, everything and every minute?” …..a riddle Bilbo might have asked Gollum in “The Hobbit”, to which the correct answer is “making an album”. 

SAUK wanted to do something to capture the best of the music that has been played at Acoustic Sundays or recorded live by us. The idea of forming a label that supported musicians and took no money from them, began with meetings, followed by a democratic vote on which of the bands to approach and the creation of the Label Team.  Then we organised free recordings for some of the bands at Soundlab Studios, courtesy of Billy who SAUK filmed when he played with Dances with Henry. Now he owns the studios and the musicians were so impressed by the recording quality that several are going back to him as clients.

At the same time, artists produced samples for the CD pack design, duplicators produced quotes and the team visited venues.  Soon after this 1000 CD duplicates arrived in their glitzy and cool digipacks. Copies went out to the press, Proud Gallery in Camden came through as the venue, flyers were designed and printed and the office was taken over by orange and black balloons, streamers, people filling goody bags, making signs and crazyness.

If music, effort, imagination and creativity count, everyone at Proud Galleries on Thursday 28^th July.2011 will witness the official launch of the debut album on the SAUK Label and have a truly amazing time!  We'll let you know and of course, there will be a film to make all those people who didn't make it wish they had!

TTS and Buskers Sunday Update!

Track the Sun

Remember the idea to circle the world with an unbroken loop of music played on Peace One Day by musicians around the world? It was conceived in an alcoholic haze in the wee hours of January 1^st 2011 and it was unique, exciting, audacious and ….also a lot harder to do than we imagined.

We started to develop the project in March. Since then we have lost volunteers, had problems finding music charities, struggled with the technology and with time and yet we are full optimism! Is this a testament to our strength and tenacity, or plain stupid? Well when we set our targets we hadn’t the faintest idea what lay ahead. Things had to go wrong and we are a lot wiser now. Our plan is to run a trial as soon as we can, using musicians we know and a Skype connection to test the concept. We can film the screen and make a promo that will promote the concept and help us expand in 2012.

Nichola and Dominic are the key people involved and they would like help from anyone with energy and enthusias. Please apply now!

Buskers Sunday

Imagine Gilett Square in Dalston invaded by a huge crowd of enthusiastic local people, old and young, families and faces from across the world, coming together to listen to a weekend of buskers playing in the square and running workshops. Across the square tumblers back-flip, jugglers juggle, pois twirl and face-painters paint faces in what resembles a medaeval London scene in the days when this was the capital of street performance.

July at Downstairs @ The Vortex.

We will have achieved a great deal nonetheless, by bringing this event to the Dalston community and it can only get bigger and better in future!

We will make a short film of the highlights and use this to fundraise for a bigger Buskers Festival in 2012 that will take over the whole square for the weekend. Our aim is to make Dalston famous for its annual Buskers Festival!