Sunday 26 June 2011

Important News of The Web Site / Out and About / + News Extras + Pictures


It’s been a Web Site admin week.  But more of that later.

First, to Tuesday night and a fantastic night of Folk Music and poems at the Cross Keys, Handsworth.  For a Summer gathering it was a super turn out, helped by the massed performers of The MBMT Wandering Minstrels Club.  


On a personal level  it was good to see good friends, Sue and Barrie (who for the next couple of weeks will become Masher Roadies,) Paul Pearson always good value for the ears, Welsh Geoff with his witty Welsh based mystical songs, Tina McKevitt in great voice (although, one does wonder why she carries that guitar across town and then not play it) our leaders  Sylvia and Phoebe (in fine voice of course), Leader of The Pack Roy Blackman, and of course the boys in band of the Poetry Club.  All making for such a fine evening of quality entertainment. 

Those who were not there missed The Masher producing a rabbit from his cap when he surprised the Clan by performing a Monologue!!    However there was a strong suggestion that the cheer was because he left the guitar locked in it’s case, and was not going to sing.
Well done one and all and a fine way to celebrate the longest day.

Mid-week came the news that the Bluegrass Buddies had pulled from their dates and would not be gigging for a bit except on an informal basis as Rob the Mandolin Player had left the band.   The Bluegrass Buddies had built quite a reputation for themselves in the Clubs for quality musicianship and vocal harmony.  Unfortunately though, Rob had quite a central role in the Band and I’m sure we can all understand why the remaining members have to withdraw for a bit to regird their loins.  

One assumes that Rob has moved on to concentrate upon his work with Bob Humphries in Florin, a band quickly gaining a reputation for quality acoustic music around the venues of South Yorkshire. 

It’s also sad to reflect upon the sad passing of a Folk Legend, Mike Waterson.  I only got to see him the once myself, but it’s one of those cherished Folk memories from my youth often dug out in conversations about those heady days around the South Coast Folk Clubs.  His songs will live on.  If you’ve not seen Mike in action here’s a link to one of his later performances.   HERE

A surprise Email from Anna Shannon this week.  Her second new CD of the year is soon to be released.  “Up The Rigging” will be available in couple of weeks.  I for one will be looking forward to this one.

THE WEB SITE

With the Resource Page, Acts Page, and Regional Link Page in place, all that was left to complete the final phase of the Site Rebuild, was an up to date Contact page.  This has now been done. 

The Diary Pages have been evolving with more and more Clubs and events being added.  However, while there is a shout box for people to inform me and others of events, it’s usage has been minimal, so now we have a full Listing Form, which also allows you to upload a Flier / picture or other material.    If Club Organisers or members could check details of their Club and advise me of any amendments I would very much appreciate it.  



The Artist page is a simple listing of acts available for bookings within the Region.  Clicking on the Act name will currently take you to the acts entry in the Acoustic Rotherham Page that they appeared, where contact information is available.   Would Acts please check that their details are up to date and if anything is missing advise me immediately.  Thanks. 
   
There is a form available for Acts who have not appeared at an Acoustic Rotherham  to get themselves listed.    So are list is by no means exclusive.  



We’ve also added a form that will let Acts forward new demo material.  IT WILL ONLY ALLOW ONE TRACK AT A TIME.  Sorry about that.

We hope this will produce a really useful resource of available acts.   

Most pages now have a standard position for the Facebook Like Button.  Please, if you’re visiting the site just click the button if it’s showing as Live.  

If you want to send us anything at all be it a review, picture, MP3 Track, you can now do it using the forms you can find on the Contact page.

AND OF COURSE THE SITE IS SILENT – EXCEPT FOR, yes there’s an exception, The South Yorkshire Folk page which will be sorted when I update it.

I’ve had a report that some people have experienced difficulty playing the Slideshow Galleries on the picture pages.  It’s not a fault that I have been able to recreate.  Apparently the page goes blank.  

When you click on a picture a new TAB is opened and the slideshow should load in the new Window.   Obviously there is a loading time of a few seconds.  My feeling is that the problem is caused by security settings being set too high.  Another, less likely explanation is that the Flash Player has not been updated or that if you’re using Firefox the wrong Flash Player has been installed.  

If you are experiencing any problems at all with the site or please use the Contact form that you can find on the Contact page

You can use the same Form to send any Links that you think should be added to the site. 

Finally, thanks to everyone who has provided input into the development of the site.  
 
It has been reassuring this last couple of weeks to see the number of hits onto the site growing in leaps and bounds and we have improved our Axia position.   You can help to get the word out there though, and help promote our local talent and Clubs by passing on the links to your own Friends, Fans, Club members.  The official link is http://www.acousticrotherham.com  and this allows viewers to access all areas of the site.

Talking of spreading the word.  The Mashers could do with a few more of the Facebook friends heading off to their Facebook Band page HERE and giving the appropriate button a click.  I just like to know that someone is listening, somewhere!!!  There's a link on the JMUCREATE Home Page HERE

OTHER STUFF

Would you like your music played in Australia?   A good friend of Acoustic Rotherham, Gazza, is heading that way in August for a few weeks, some say he shouldn’t be allowed back, but we will reserve judgement on that until he plays at Acoustic Rotherham 12 with his Band Stompin’ On Spiders.  

Gazza Is offering to do a bit of music pushing on his trip and hopes that he may be able to influence the powers that be to play more of our music.  He’s offering to take CDs or tracks over with him.  If you want to be included Email him HERE and send him a message, he’ll sort out how to get tracks to him.

ACOUSTIC ROTHERHAM 12 looms.   Sunday 31st July.   The first call goes out to Acts to get your Profile / Picture and Track to me ASAP    Thank you.

The Masher Is running into a busy little period, so he had better get his strings renewed and some practice done, like quick.   July 2nd will find him delivering no less than two (thankfully for the gathered folks), short sets at The South Yorkshire Show, full details can be found on the July Diary page HERE  

The following weekend should be interesting with appearances at The Birdsedge Village Festival at around 2:00pm The Acoustic Circus Festival at 4:30 on Saturday 9th, before heading up the A1 for the Nature’s World Festival on Sunday 10th July.  Again full details of these events can be found on the July Diary page HERE along with Google Maps in the margin. 

I hope to see you out there suffering as I launch into some standard Masher numbers.    I’m not sure that the timings allow you to dose yourselves up with the recommended five pints and bottle of whiskey, but if you can you’ll feel a lot better for it.

And this week, top of the charts comes Nellie Folk, Monday night at The Bridge, Rotherham.  Make sure you’re there. 

Of course there’s loads more music to be found around the Region, and you can find it all listed HERE   

Keep your eye out for details of Myke’s Birthday Bash, coming soon.

And all that is more than enough for this week.  So whatever you may doing, or wherever you may be playing have fun and please KEEP IT LIVE

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