Seeing success come to those who’ve worked long for it…

#weeknotes S02 EP04 – week ending 16 December 2018

This week has been building up to one big gig: LIINES opening for The Slow Readers Club at the O2 Apollo Manchester. And what a night it turned out to be for LIINES – one huge stage, their biggest audience yet, and their songs filling the massive space of the Apollo. This gig was the perfect end for the band – who we manage and are the label for at Reckless Yes.

My journey with them started back in 2014 when I was editor of Louder Than War and David Brown of Even The Stars tipped me off to them. I covered them throughout the next year and when Reckless Yes took shape in early 2016 they were one of the first bands we went to see, immediately falling in love and wanting to work with them. Since then we’ve hooked them up with producer Paul Tipler and released double-A 7″ Disappear / Be Here (last few copies here) and debut album Stop-Start. Next year looks to be even bigger – a tour with Sleaford Mods, headline dates, new music – and I was so immensely pleased for them watching last night as they flexed their sound on a bigger stage, to a bigger audience.

This sort of growth seems impossible for many independent bands at the moment but it can be done – The Slow Readers Club playing a storming headline set to a sold out crowd is a perfect example and we can see LIINES following a similar path now. It’s no coincidence that both bands have similar teams supporting them – from David Brown (surely one of the hardest working and passionate music journalists in the field today) to DHP and Scruff of the Neck Records. DIY and independent doesn’t have to mean ‘alone’ – it is better to think of it as teams with a shared ethos – as a journalist, as a label co-owner, and as an artist manager I’m so pleased to work alongside others and to give bands and fans amazing, musical experiences.

And it’s on how to work even harder across these areas and support more people that I’m focused right now. I’ll be opening some new workshops and events for booking – if you’re an independent musician or record label you might want to check them out and get ahead on building audiences, and earning from your music, in 2019. Check out Noble and Wild for the info.

What’s next?

This is a week for finishing up before a break for Christmas. Not much travel – Nottingham and the Peak District – around end of term festivities for my boys.

I’ll also be giving some love to my novel – it’s six months since it was published and this coming Friday is also an important date in the plot. If you’ve not checked it out yet and you’d like to you can find eBook editions on Amazon, and the last few paperback copies are here.