groove armada at ibiza rocks – first video arrives

i took some footage of groove armada – super stylin at ibiza rocks last night on my iphone but the sound was rubbish so i thought i’d have a quick gander on youtube. i didnt think anything would be up – but this is 2009 and of course someone put something up about 20 minutes ago.

after the wailers gig on formentera last friday this gig was just what i wanted to top off a great week – the gig was similarly superb – the video is not great footage or audio but it just serves as a reminder to anyone who was there – top night

ibiza rocks 2009 – rumours start

got told about 2 bands last night – management say the 2 are wrong – not to keen on the second band

“today was a good day”

i think it started yesterday

madrid rings to say they are issuing my passport

went to the pub and won my pool competition game

went for dinner at a friends last night and had a really great time but ran out of fags – got back into town at 2am but cosmi bar was still open – result

today booked a return flight to london for TEN euros

got “a forest” played on neil coles request hour – ok so i’ve had loads played but it was nice to hear that track

printouts of feb’s magazine turned up on time this afternoon and it was relatively painless to proof read – and no time pressure

spoke to a friend about an artist who they look after who i hope may come and play here this year – i have a good feeling about it

i have been in a strangely good mood all day

future of the cd and gigs

i’ll preface this with the fact that i have to be careful about what i say – me and the net and the music industry have a turbulant history – hi mr mensch, hello ignition

i read bob lefsetz and to be honest i’m getting bored with the same ole same ole

there’s a certain friend of mine who i used to work with who now works with a quite a high profile artist who i happen to like

through facebook weve just got back in touch and its been great – i was curious to see what they were up to now. they are interested in coming out to live in ibiza so i have obviously extended all offers as i think this person would like it here and they have a 5 year old kid and ibiza is a great place for kids to grow up (yes you read that right..)

so we were talking about the artist they are closely associated to and a recent music press story and this artist then comes out with a statement about releasing new material in the new year

given the fact that the music industry has its head up its arse and is still trying to come to terms with the net (dont get me started on that subject) i was thinking about some of leftsetz ideas and came up with the perfect solution

for years bands have toured to flog their current album – thats why most of them tour – why not do it the other way around….

buying the album is the gig ticket…..

a band has a new album, they announce a tour to promote it – you go to the website, buy the ticket and it gets printed and sent to you – you then take the ticket to the gig and give it to them and they throw that printed material in the bin

what if instead of printing a gig ticket they printed a cd of the album – its a permanent souvenir of the gig you signed up to go see and you move physical product and people come to your gigs and you flog them tshirts etc

obviously labels hate this but if you are your own band/artist you can do it yourself – the days of spending gazillions on album production should be over by now – sure fine if you have the money but its not necessary – if i was a band this exactly what i’d do

make the album itself the gig ticket – its probably just as cheap to print the fuckin cd as it is the paper version

it works for me

Phillipa “pip” Brown – aka Ladyhawke

I took this photo of Phillipa Brown at this years ibiza rocks gig when they/she/ladyhawke supported The Fratellis – its probably one of my favourite photos i took this year so i make no apology for putting it online again

ibiza rocks 2009 news

hold up – dont get too excited – this is my wish list for next year

santogold
lykke li
the music
ravonettes
johnny foreigner
deus
ladyhawke
eagles of death metal
dinosaur pile-up
we have band

bands i know wont play but i’d love to see:
guttertwins

on an unrealistic note i’d love to see the following at an expanded hippodrome:
the cure
kaiser chiefs
kasabian
primals
mercury rev

and the stuffies have started gigging again so obviously they’d be top of any gig wish list i did

ibiza rocks 2009

i cooked a big fuck off fish pie tonight and since a certain bar still owes money and we’re drinking it off i thought about wandering down there

it was a nice night and was capped by an interesting conversation with a venerable ibiza icon

we got around to talking about ibiza rocks – i love what andy does but i think that 2009 has to involve more non-uk & non-us bands – we’re a global village – reflect that

everyone knows that fans *will* travel to see their favourite bands – dont restrict ibiza rocks to uk fans – lets see what else is on the table

Ibiza Rocks is over – I am officially depressed now

Last night was the ibiza rocks closing party. Its been threatening to rain the past couple of days and i thought it would be ironic if ibiza rocks was topped and tailed by rain but it ended up being a lovely summer evening – albiet very warm as usual…

I’ve had a blast this year, highlights were dizzee rascal – not for the music but for the energy, the streets, again not for the music but for the sheer showmanship of mike skinner, the zutons for some decent live old school music and pendulum last night for some raw guitar and electronica a la nine inch nails.

in fact other than soulwax they were all great gigs. the one thing that did piss me off sometimes was that because i was taking photos it was sometimes hard to ignore that and watch the bands

there were a couple of occasions though where i thought “fuck it – i’m watching the band, sod the photos”

next year i want an assistant

and where’s our freebie t-shirt like we got last year ?

how many free column inches?

all of our ibiza rocks photos, reviews etc

I am a fashionista…

i was at ibiza rocks as usual the other week and after the soulwax gig i was upstairs having a beer and chatting when an italian woman came up to me and asked to take a photo of the back of my t-shirt.. “er sure..”

i was a bit perplexed but hey – whatever… she gave me her card and i forgot about it, then today i found it so had a look at the website – *laughs*:

Tendencias Coolhunters blog

the black kids and the zutons at ibiza rocks

how’s that for loving a band and not knowing who they are ?

i had wanted to see the black kids because they were the support band and i felt i hadnt seen enough of the support bands this year (for whatever reason) – i didnt realise that it was a band i’d been listening to and have loved for a couple of months – the black kids were fuckin great

one of the problems living in ibiza is that unless you seek music it doesnt turn up at your doorstep – you have to listen to online radio – you have to go looking for it

i’d love to know who booked ladyhawke and the black kids – i’d love to talk to them

i think i can honestly say that the black kids and the zutons were my fave gig of the year – its the first time i took photos and halfway through the zutons i said “fuck it” i’m watching this, i dumped the camera in the backstage bit and went out and watched the band (i’d essentially did the same with the black kids)

the problem is going to be seeing pendulum next week at the closing party – last year’s ibiza rocks closing party was my birthday and it was soulwax so it was easy to just go fuck it – this year i want to see pendulum and document it – but at the same time enjoy it…

it pisses me off that i can look at a photo at a decent resolution and it looks great but when you resize for the web it looks crap – so i’m going to do 800px wide lightbox photos for the zutons stuff and see what happens

its bloody 3am and i still havent decided what photos to use

cue a fag on the balcony…..