Thanks to everyone at the Survivor's Poetry event (Tottenham) last night. You were such a great audience and I met some lovely people. Thanks to Razz for giving me the gig too. Doing the performance was a very special, intense and transformative experience and you were all so supportive. If anyone has photos, or video or audio they would like to share of the gig please link it into the Facebook page or send me a link of they are online. Thanks to those who bought CDs, Big Love and Peace to all you Crazy Diamonds. xxx
Hello Good people who sometimes read this blog.... It was lovely on Thursday to play briefly at Survivor's Poetry (at The Poetry Place, Betterton Street, London). I am still battling with stage nerves after a long absence from live performing. I never get rid of my stage nerves but I can deal with them better if I perform regularly. Luckily I have a couple of gigs coming up at Tottenham Chances on the 28th of January (Survivor's Poetry) and also a private gig at Limehouse Town Hall in early Feb. which will be a new electronic set. I seem to be playing at the most anarchic, community based venues in London, and since these places are rarities I consider myself very lucky. OK enough of being an artist, now however uncomfortable it makes me feel ,here is the capitalist "hard sell" I have written a review of my own album because I need to sell it! So I can make the next one and also continue with my studies. But before I do that I want to do a little rant about PPL and how they distribute royalties. I am shooting myself in the foot in terms of the music industry by doing this and I am a bone fide member of PPL who may not appreciate my revealing their dirty little secrets online. But I cannot help but be myself these days as I mentioned before, something about the Paris attacks and Lemmy's death conspired to make me more rebellious and forthright than ever and to be myself regardless of consequences. to put you in the mood I will put here a little Indian Restaurant music you could play in the background as you read this, for my bit of classical Indian-influenced music listen to "Ode to Miss Iron Pants" on "The Psychacoustic Tapes" album. Here is a little rant about PPL and how they distribute royalties in the curious case of Indian Restaurant music. I attended a PPL (Phonographic Performance Limited) meeting last night in Soho and was stunned by what was presented as “fair” collection and distribution of royalties from music played in UK “Indian Restaurants”. PPL are a CMO (Collective Management Organisation) founded by record company giants EMI and Decca in 1934. Their role is subtly different to PRS or MCPS as they mainly collect royalties on behalf of record companies, who hold the rights of a recording, and sometimes also distribute to performers on these recordings ( if said performers have PPL performers accounts and know how to make a claim). PPL collect money from cafés, offices, supermarkets, and other businesses who either play recorded music in public or have the facility to do so. They also cover UK TV/Radio channel streaming and catch up such as BBC iplayer (but not youtube). PPL have devised special regulations for all “Indian Restaurant” owners in the UK. These are charged large sums annually (on top of Performing Rights Society charges) to be able to play music in their restaurants. The fee is not set, but is estimated by PPL by counting the number of chairs, tables etc. and looking at the layout of the business premises. Then PPL have devised their own system to re-distribute this annual fee “fairly” as royalties. For example they distribute a percentage of the royalties to record companies on the BBC Asian Network playlist, stipulating that this playlist contains the same music recordings that are played in UK "Indian Restaurants". Further to this PPL recently “found out” that “Indian Restaurants” also play pop music, so another portion of the royalties goes to record companies who feature in the UK Music Chart in order to “make things fair”. The speaker from PPL did not mention if the “Indian Restaurant” rules also covered Pakistani Restaurants, Bengali Restaurants etc., and what happened to restaurant owners who refused to pay this annual fee. Any comments around the distribution of royalties and world music are appreciated. I mainly wanted to share how the UK music business operates. Thanks for reading! I think the Music Business needs to change, enough of the sexism, racism, ageism and obsession with objectifying women. Well I think it's getting a bit late now to give you the other review of Creatively Anti-Perfect so I'll do that another time. In the meantime here is a link to my little "Ode to Miss Iron Pants" which starts with a bit of Indian influenced music from me:
Love and Peace and Standing up for Freedom, and Free Thinking, Free Creating
Véronique The review can be accessed via this link:
http://www.siiye.co.uk/E36/PAGE_001.html Hello Good People who read this blog... I just wanted to write about a couple of things... Firstly I wanted to share a review that I got for the re-release of my Creatively Anti-Perfect album originally assembled from tapes in 1999 and released in 2000. You can read the review via the link at the top of this post. The review is featured in a wonderfully written music ezine called "Caught in the Act", also featuring some amazing artists including Van Morrison, Elvis Castello, Nils Lofgren. I really am not worthy! The article which details aspects of my life and my music work was written by Brian R.Banks and I so appreciate his support. If it wasn't for a few music experts and wonderful musicians and others who egg me on to write my songs, and who want me to return to the stage, then I would no doubt be permanently silent. I find it difficult to juggle my heavy commitments in life and health problems with writing songs, but I am still writing them when I can, playing them at home late at night when I feel the most creative, probably to the dismay of my tolerant neighbours. Anyone who wishes to purchase a copy of the re-released "Creatively Anti-Perfect" would also be doing a lot to support my music and my life! Let me also wish you all a good 2016, let's face it 2015 was a pretty bad year for the world. Charlie Hebdo, Paris November 13 attacks, both had a profound effect on me and my daily life, but so has the demise of musicians who represented freedom, and uncompromising self-expression. No I don't mean Cilla Black, but Lemmy, Daevid Allen, and Chris Squire who were all important musicians for me. I also have lost so many musician and poet friends, people who supported me and encouraged me very much with my music, who I socialised with and respected, in particular I was recently shocked at the demise of a fine human being, Ingrid Andrew also known as HeartsSong. I know we all have to die but some go well ahead of their time. I don't know what happened but something changed within me on November 13th 2015 and also when Lemmy left us. I feel kind of stroppy with renewed self-confidence in my own beliefs and not wanting to follow orders from anyone, not wanting to live as a powerless insignificant individual swamped by the conflicting views of thousands of others in the media, online and everywhere I go. Everything we do and say and think matters, because everything we do has consequences. We should be able to be who we are and act freely, not just projecting a perfect industrious image of ourselves for a good resumé or CV, or to follow a trend in what is cool to think or be. Since every politician and cleric seems to think it's OK to broadcast their opinion of what we should all do and be at New Year's, here is my message.: Find out who you are right now, be honest with yourself how you really feel, spend time to reflect on what you truly think and then live openly according to your own values as best you can even if everyone tells you it is not allowed! Let the world accommodate you, don't be a slave in thought or deed to anyone or anything. Love and Peace to all, and a safer world. Veronique xxxxx |
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