2015 - years end.

2015 is almost over, so it's time to reflect on this year's achievements. I've done approximately 125 gigs so far (it will be 126 by the time the year ends, and 127 if you count getting roped into playing at my Mom & Dad's party as soon as I arrive!) left a band, put another band on the path to a mega agency deal, sat in on a career day as a 'proper' musician, got elected to the MU regional committee, played some great new venues and put on another highly successful Codfest.

Outside of music, Kayla and I have bought our first home and are expecting our first child!

However, I still haven't finished recording this *highly* anticipated new album. This year has been busy on and off stage, and I don't want it to be a rushed job as it's been hanging over me for so long now. It's no excuse now, and I've promised myself (and everyone who has asked) that it will be done in 2016. I've even comandeered a room in our new house for a studio!

A major highlight for me this year was getting the chance to support Bleeding Hearts in Kidderminster. They are fast becoming one of my favourite bands, and it was a pleasure to share a stage with them.

I just want to finish this post by paying tribute to Rich McMahon, a greatly talented local musician who died suddenly this year. I was blessed to play with Rich at The Grain Store and spend some time with him and Maggie that night. His music and personality were both inspiring in equal measure and he is hugely missed. His song 'Inbetweenland' is on the playlist that I play in between acts as the gigs I host, and is seriously worth a listen if you haven't heard it already.

Here's to 2015. 2016 has a lot to live up to!

A GoPro for Christmas (and the re-emergence of my YouTube account).

So I got a GoPro camera for Christmas. For those who aren't aware, the GoPro is a great little camera often used in extreme sports videos (and on the end of selfie sticks!).

Since then I've been recording a lot of my gigs both solo and with the bands. I thought I'd collate a few of them here for you to see.

  

The first two are covers from fixed cameras to the side of the stage.

  

The next two are with the camera fastened to the end of my guitar/bass. I like this angle and it's easy to operate the camera in between songs!

What do you guys think? Let me know in the usual places :)

Sam.

2014 in review

January often means it's time to reflect and set new goals for yourself (like finish that bloody album!).

With that in mind, here is a look back at what I got up to in 2014...

January
Number of gigs - 6

January is often something of a lean month when it comes to gigging. After a hectic December, that can also often be welcomed. 2014's edition did see me play at The Grain Store in Wolverhampton for the first time, a cool new little venue being promoted by an old school friend, Andy Turner. I would go on to host one of my highlights of 2014 there with him later in the year, but you'll have to wait for that!

February
Number of gigs - 6

February saw the first gig of the year for The Replicas and also my first ever show at The Prince Albert in Wolverhampton. It was really good fun actually, swapping between bands outside and acoustic acts inside in a 'Jools Holland' style. It was being hosted by Born Music, a sort of extension of the band Shatter Effect, who are good friends and good people. I'm not sure if there is anything going on there now, but I'd be interested in playing again if there is.

March
Number of gigs - 13

Monday is my birthday month and it just so happened that my 26th outing landed on open mic night at The Rainbow in Coven. Much fun was had by all! I also organised the music for my next door neighbours **th birthday party (I won't write how old she is, I'm a gentleman) in the form of a festival in her garden. This involved a couple of performances on my part, including a rendition of Macklemore's 'Thrift Shop' that I'm only partly ashamed of. I think there is a video around somewhere...

April
Number of gigs - 12

April was a great month. I co-promoted and played on a show at The Grain Store headlined by Oxygen Theif. It all started when my friend Hannah tweeted him asking him to check out my music after he appealed on Twitter for a support act for his Leicester show (is this starting to sound like a Grandpa Simpson story?). Instead of playing with him in Leicester, I ended up putting on a gig for him to play in Wolverhampton! It was great fun and really great experience for me as it was my first time booking and promoting a show for a signed artist.

A few days later I also played 3 shows in one day, starting out with some busking at Molinuex Stadium followed by a stop at The Golden Lion before finishing at Hail to the Ale. It was exhausting but really good fun!

May
Number of gigs - 10

In amongst the gigs this month I formed a new band. Asked to help out a band called The Times Flies after their singer/guitarist left, I eventually ended up starting my own 3 piece covers band with two of their former members (they folded, I didn't steal anyone). That band is now The Jukebox Dimes. You can find us on Facebook here.

June
Number of gigs - 14

June was great! I played two festivals, including a new one for me in Evesham (Worcester) called Dubs in the Middle. Also, The Replicas returned to The River Rooms and I returned to a place where it sort of all started for me, The Shrewsbury Arms in Albrighton. Almost 10 years ago I practiced there in the first band I ever gigged in, Too Shrewd. In honour of that, and of the memory of our late guitarist (and still to this day one of the best I've ever played with) Mr Tony White, I played a somewhat emotional version of Pink Floyd's 'Wish You Were Here' as he was a huge fan of the band. It was a really special moment for me and one I'll remember for a long time to come.

Also in June I took a young lad named Jack Curley on work experience with me for a week. It was a bit strange for both of us but really quite cool. I taught him the ropes of performing, recording, live sound and promoting in the week he was with me.

July
Number of gigs - 6

July was a bit lean, but I was on holiday for a fair chunk of it. Not one to miss a trick, I played a gig in a restaurant while I was in Turkey. It seems to be a regular thing when we go on holiday there now, but I don't really mind. It's a new audience I guess!

I also made my first appearance at Brewood Music Festival. It was a truly brilliant day and another highlight of the year.

August
Number of gigs - 12

August was festival month. I love festivals, and if you count a pub car park all dayer as a festival I played 4 consecutive weekends of them in August. The newbie to the list was Llangollen's 'Famous Faery Fest', a great little festival filled with music, stories and crafty stuff (which certainly kept Mrs Draisey happy!)

September
Number of gigs - 12

When it comes to gigs, September is all about Codfest. This year's was no exception. The line up (if I do say so myself) was awesome across both stages and I had a blast. I mean I worked constantly from about 8 in the morning until gone midnight, but it was amazing! Every year I wonder how we are going to better it, and every year somehow it gets better!

Also in September I got asked last minute to play at Shrewsbury Fields Forever, a great festival I'd love to go back to this year if the offer is there (hint hint). It was another booking through Andy Turner, who seems to have featured quite heavily on this year's highlight reel.

I know I've written the obligatory two paragraphs about September already, but I couldn't finish the month without writing about probably the coolest venue I played at last year. When I put the postcode in and me and Mrs D. headed out to Birmingham to the The Songwriters Cafe we weren't sure what to expect. I'll admit that we were a little apprehensive when the postcode took us to someone's house, but all those doubts were gone as soon as we were guided around the back by the wonderful Paul Murphy. The venue is in his back garden and no photograph of the tree house/adventure playground style structure could ever do it justice. It's simply amazing. The gig was streamed around the world and they were getting comments online from as far away as Canada and Angola! Even more amazing was that also on the bill was a guy named Dan Hartland, whom I supported on my first ever live solo gig at The Varsity way back when. I think The Songwriter's Cafe might just squeeze in as my favourite gig of 2014. Just.

October
Number of gigs - 4

Wow, October was quiet. I guess I must have subconciously needed a rest after the antics of August and September.

November
Number of gigs - 11

November started with me playing a wedding, which is always an honour. It's even more of an honour when I get to play someone's first dance. Whenever I'm asked to do a first dance I always video myself playing it and send it to the couple getting married for their approval. That way if it's not what they are looking for they can decide to have the original played instead and I don't end up ruining anyone's big moment! This time I played a version of 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)' that was adapted from a version by an american band called Sleeping at Last. I think my version in the end sort of linked that one and The Proclaimers' original, but they seemed to like it none the less.

November also saw the debut of The Jukebox Dimes. The first gig was beset with technical problems, but we managed to pull it around and put on a good show. I also played at the EP launch of one of my good friends Brains For Breakfast. The EP is great, so get your copy from him now!

December
Number of gigs - 8

Compared to the year before December was almost tame, though I did manage to squeeze in a 3 day run of gigs the weekend before Christmas (in 3 different acts!) and put together another Charity Christmas album. I also booked a Christmas party gig at The Crown in Codsall, which was another stepping stone for me in my quest to become a 'proper' promoter.

Total number of gigs in 2014 - 114

All in all that's not a bad year of gigging. It's over 2 a week.

I'm not going to single out any one gig as the best. After all, I didn't mention all 114 gigs above, so these are basically highlights. There are some obvious ones that stick in my mind as I write this, but I'm sure you can figure those out for yourself :)

What was your favourite gig of 2014? Where would you like to see me play in 2015? Answers in all the usual places.

Sam.

Promoters Vs. Musicians

I don't rant on this blog very often, but I just witnessed something that made me feel the need to. This blog is intended not only to document what I'm doing with my music but also to give my views on different parts of the industry, good and bad, which will in turn hopefully advise others and create debates to which we can all contribute and from which we can all learn.

I just left a Facebook group for UK wide promoters as an argument broke out about paying acts. Old chestnuts such as 'getting paid for your hobby' and 'I don't mind paying if people come' were banded around.

I get that some people do this as a hobby. I play in a function band that works essentially on that premise (though The Replicas are something of a hybrid between a hobby and a professional outfit due to the differing influences within the band). I also have no problem with that whatsoever. In many professions professionals can get twitchy about people offering services that they would charge for for free, or at least for a vastly reduced rate (photographers, for example) but my view is that, with music being as subjective as it is, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter to me that a million people are playing guitar and singing for free because they don't play what I play, how I play it. If my music is good enough that my fans will feel it worth paying to watch, hear or own, then I'm not effected by people doing it for the love of it. In fact I salute them. It's great to find something that you really love doing.

The 'I don't mind paying you if X amount of people come' line infuriates me both as a musician and as a promoter. Not only is it deliberately vague, so even if 1000 people came they could still argue that they never promised you anything, but also it's just plain lazy on a promoter's part. In my experience there are two types of well attended gigs. Firstly, there are the gigs where the band or bands on the bill have a known following in that area and are the main attraction to draw people in. In this case the bands should be letting their own fans know about the show and the promoter should be advertising in the local area to pick up the people who didn't get that message. If both do their job it should work. Secondly, there are the venues and promoters that are known for certain types of gigs and their quality and so have an attraction almost regardless of who is playing. Here bands will still be contacting their own fans and promoters will be be promoting in the local area to bring in people who might like the type of show being put on. If both of these happen it should work.

My point with all of that is that if a promoter backs themselves to put on a night that they think is going to work, they shouldn't be relying on a door split to 'maybe' pay the band. If they have booked the right line up to attract the clientèle they are looking for and promoted the event well enough, they should be confident enough to pay a band a discussed amount that they are worth. If the promoter has done the majority of the promotion work, they should be the ones rewarded if 1000 people do turn up. If it's just the band, their friends and family, then frankly I don't think a promoter should get paid at all.

Going back to the original argument, the worst part of it was that there were musicians sticking up for the promoter's stance that that mythical beast 'exposure' was more important than getting paid. I agree that in some instances exposure has been enough to make me take a gig. These have been when I have been offered the chance to support a well known or established act that I have felt would put me in front of a new audience of people who may enjoy my music. In these few cases I have been vindicated in my decision, as they have often led to a bumper night of CD sales and further bookings as support for acts or in new venues which can pay. However, that was a situation where I took a calculated risk financially that ended up paying off. It's not worth doing if you just being promised that the other acts are bringing people who won't have seen you before and the manager of the club might come and watch you for 30 seconds in between bar shifts.

The Facebook group argument then had an incredible claim made on it that the reason for there 'being so many shit bands out there' was down to people putting on free gigs and bands being given publicity that they didn't deserve. I hardly feel that this warrants any response, but I will just say that, as I stated above, music is entirely subjective and what one person likes another may hate. If anything this claim should be directed at lazy promoters who will book anyone just to fill a space on a line up and don't try and marry the acts on a line up to create an enticing event. The idea that the gigging circuit should be more selective in order to weed out less audibly acceptable bands is incredibly dangerous to any local music scene. There is an obvious catch 22 staring me in the face from that remark that I fear must have been lost on the original poster.

To conclude (and before I turn into a grumpy old man!) I'd like to state that I don't think that all promoters are lazy. Some work especially hard and they are the ones that get the reward for it. These are the promoters that people want to come and play for, the ones that create a reputation for themselves of supplying quality music, usually of a specific style, and can often generate their own following. I saw a post on Twitter the other day that said 'Think you don't have a favourite record label? Check out your CD collection and you might be surprised'. This is the sort of thing that happens with good promoters too. The kind of promoters I enjoy working with. The kind of promoter I strive to be.

The Crown

As I'm returning once more to The Crown at Codsall tonight to host a new open mic night there, I thought it might be nice to write a blog about my history with the place. If you are interested in my past gigs, you can check the list I made on my website here. It's not 100%, but it's a close as I could get it.

The Crown has always had the reputation as the 'young person's pub' in Codsall, with The Bull being reserved for the older folk and The Station more for the beer connoisseurs. Growing up I never remember it being open, as it also had a reputation for housing certain shady characters and not many landlords stayed there too long.

Not long after I first started hosting open mic nights it was re-opened after a number of years of closure and re-branded as 'Butler's Bar & Bistro'. I think it was around the summer of 2008. I played a few gigs in there both solo for restaurant visitors and open mic nights during the week, which went ok. Unfortunately the venture didn't last long, and possibly suffering from its previous reputation, it closed once more.

This seemed to revive interest in the pub though, and soon a new landlord was in place, a guy named Charles. I once again approached him regarding the idea of monthly open mic nights, and right from the first one it seemed like we were on to something.

Those nights at The Crown were some of the most popular I've ever hosted, and brought through acts that are both close friends and excellent musicians to this day. The most memorable night I had in there featured a touring act at the time, a guy named Kev Fox, who brought his band and a support act down from Manchester to play after contacting me on Myspace (I think that tells you how long ago it was!). There were over 100 people in the back room there that night to watch the performers! Kev now lives and gigs in Poland, and is doing quite well for himself I believe.

But he isn't the only one to have benefited from the exposure and practice that those nights gave people. Under a Banner, The Ratigans and even my current band The Replicas all cut there teeth there, as well as many, many solo artists who still gig today.

But all good things must come to an end, and after a fall out with the brewery over funding, Charles left. The pub once again closed for a while, re-opening briefly a few times, only to close up again soon after. It wasn't until Jim & Anne-Marie took over in 2012 that I finally got the opportunity to go back to a venue that I always felt I had a little bit of unfinished business with. The new open mic nights there started quite well, though a weekly slot there, while good for people's knowledge of the night, really stopped us from managing to put on anything like the shows of the scale of the previous regime. Then suddenly, just two months after starting, the landlords got promoted to a bigger pub in Wednesfield and took me and my nights with them. The Crown closed again, and I moved my weekly night to The Albion in Wednesfield, with little success.

However, Anne-Marie and Jim are now back at The Crown, and my journey starts again tonight at 8:30 in that very place. I'm excited about it, I must admit. It looks like they may want a monthly night again in the new year, which suits me down to the ground. I just hope that, with some hard work and a little bit of luck, I can get it back to where it was over five years ago.

Now that makes me feel old!

New Website!

It's been nearly two months since I posted a blog, so I thought it was about time that I got back to it! The places and times I would normally be writing a blog just haven't materialised lately, not that that is a good excuse. But anyway, here I am and here it is :)

I've been planning a 'new' website for a while now. I say new, I don't currently have a website dedicated to my own music, and so calling it new doesn't really feel right as it has nothing to replace. But it has involved elements of 'new', like coming up with a new logo for my music and myself. I wanted something that represented my status as a 'DIY, independent musician' and after a couple of different ideas were tried out, I settled on a simple text logo of my name looking like it was printed by an old fashioned DYMO label printer. I've gone for a cardboard background for the website too, to try and make it look even more 'home-made'

You can check out the beginnings of the website at www.samdraisey.com, though at the moment it's just a 'coming soon' page. I'll be launching the official website on Saturday the 30th of November, so make sure you check it out and let me know what you think :) I'll be doing loads of stuff in the build up to the day too hopefully, so keep your eyes peeled for that :)

In other news, I've had some good and not so good moments in music over the past two months. The 'Replicas September' was great fun and didn't feel like hard work at all, but then it never really does! I had a very poor turnout at The Robin 2 for The Sam Draisey Session this month (thanks to Matt Dooner for being the other person there!) and so will have to book acts again for next month's session if it's to carry on. I don't mind, it just leaves less space for people who just turn up on the night wanting to play (if you do want to play, best to get in touch with me and just let me know you are coming. Novembers's session is on the 26th). I also had another nightmare before last weeks open mic at Sunny Bank, and I can't apologise enough to anyone who made the journey out there to watch or play.

On a more positive note, I had another good outing at Molinuex Stadium busking for the Wolves fans and really good gigs at The Old Stag's Head in Penn and The Marches in Ludlow, as well as a good send off to this year's 'Festival of Local Music' at The Fox & Anchor in Coven. Here's to hoping I'm back booking there next year :)

Thanks for reading. I'll be posting more once the website is up and running, so make sure you check it out on the 30th of next month. Should be just in time for me to have a stupid moustache for Movember (donate to the great cause here)

Codfest 4

Codfest kind of deserves a blog post all to itself, so here goes...

For the uninitiated, Codfest is the yearly festival that I help to organise along with a small group of my family and friends. Naturally, the musical side of things falls to me, which includes booking the line up for two stages and running those stages both technically and organizationally as well as performing myself and doing other bits and bobs as and when I'm needed. I think its fair to say it's the longest working day of my year, but also one of the most enjoyable.

This year's Codfest was no exception. With over 600 people in attendance, the crowd was great the whole day, and the talent on show was superb. Its great to be able to showcase the talents of my friends (and also nice to sneak myself and my band onto a bill with such great musicians!) and just generally great to be involved in such a friendly and fun event. It really is life affirming!

I must say a HUGE thank you to my good friend Tim Douglas, who came down to run sound for us, and even bought a stupendously nice mixing desk for the main stage (I'll only drop the name of it if Behringer agree to give me a free one for the advertising, ha!). If you ever need a freelance sound engineer, I can't recommend him highly enough :)

The festival was superb, and it also kicked off a run of a Replicas gig every Saturday night throughout September, which I just know is going to be fun. I know I say it a lot, but I really do love my job!