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The Urban Witness: I See UK Gospel MusicSkewed Views And The UK Black Christian Music Industry... October 16 MySpace...? Pah!Windows Live Spaces - I love you!!! OK, so everyone's banging on about MySpace. Went there, tried it, was there for ages (last post here was in March...), but I'm back!!! MySpace is absolutely amazing, but it just didn't cut the mustard for me. It's cool for all the networking and stuff, but:
...But Windows Live is just so much more elegant... ...Yeah, call me shallow...  March 16 Latest News on The UK Gospel Scene Still Keeping Me Busy....Boy, there's simply no let up in my life at the moment. Working on about 3 major projects, all big, all time consuming.
When I see that UKG version 1 has over 100 unique hits a day, and I don't even market it, that continues to bowl me over!! Anyway, can't stay long. Just wanted to make a few notes: Music I'm reeeeeeeeally feeling at the moment (I'm at work, and I've just had a look at what's in my bag. That's always a good indication):
Looking forward to: man, there's just so much stuff, I couldn't even start!! Back later. Time to render unto Caesar...
February 13 Buy UK Gospel Music...Buy UK Gospel Music:
Dwayne Tryumf, Sam Moore, Lisa Mayers, Lain, Fruits, Sam Moore,
Natalie Phillips, Royal Priesthood, Siani, Raymond & Co, Four
Kornerz, GreenJade, Justin, Renewed, and a whole lot more. Prices from
£2.99... Go the store February 02 No time to stop....Back. Happy new year. Been away for a minute. VERY busy on the UKG front:
Plans for 06: Preparing a biiiiig 2005/2006 review/preview feature. I wasn't going to do one this year, but Chris from Raymond and Co effectively twisted my arm with some cool flattery and sly blackmail. Apparently a lot of people get their infomation about the UK gospel music industry from my pieces. I don't know how true that actually is, but the flattery definitely worked, Chris!  I've always published that piece on February, so I've got to crack on. Got most of the content in now, and this one's gonna be big, I suspect. Seems like a lot of people are busy in 06... Some of the many good things for 06: For the first time - arguably - lots of great music coming from the old school and new school at the same time. usually one or the other... Getting some of that MySpace action myself. So are more and more UK artists. THANK GOD!!! People are actually starting to wake up.... I'm tired. More later. Gonna check my PC to make sure I'm not infected by the MY Wife virus November 14 UKG V2...Have had to change my thinking on the look of UK Gospel.com Version 2.
Needed more functionality than I have on the current version 2... More than a month's work down the drain, but had to make a hard decision based on quality, and long-term endurance... ...So now I have to populate content from scratch again. Oh, well. Should be worth it when it goes live in January... This new look is amazing, though, and should do well. Need to find some designers to do me some new logos and section headers... Lain interview almost finished. Just the last stretch of audio editing, and I can start on the 4K podcast. Both interviews sound very nice... Mixed 2 more tracks for UKG Presents: GreenJade's 'GreenJade &...' compilation album, and S.O.E's Chase The Dream... Pleased with both mixes. Hopefully both albums will do well on UKG Shop... November 11 UKG Spin!: making a decision....I think I've decided... UKG Spin! is going to be powered by Libsyn: cheap to run, looks simple to set up, and most importantly of all, it'll give me detailed stats. ...It's all bout stats, man... Like they say: 'what gets measured gets done...' Libsyn will give me a stream as well as a podcast option. Tell me how many people are downloading what podcasts, where they are georgraphically, what browser they use... Figures broken down by month, year, averages, etc etc... Means I can find out what shows are popular, most downloaded etc etc, which means I can focus on issues/shows that matter etc etc.. Like I say: 'What Gets Measured, Gets Done Better...' November 10 Everyone Loves UKG MP20...UKG MP20
seems to have struck a chord. Loads of people coming back to say
they really like it, and like the idea that it's based on plays... Another set of satisfied customers... 4 Kornerz...Spent all of yesterday evening first with Dj El Nino from UB1 Music, then with 4 Kornerz at rehearsal at their home church in Croydon. Went round to record an audio interview for UKG Spin! BioChannel Fantastic interview. Went very, very well. The guys always make good radio! Will probably be the first UKG Spin! programme to be podcast, so you can check it out yourself. Check out the RnB/Soul freestyle at the end of the interview. Shows why they've got so much love from loads of people... Mixing starts tomorrow, and hopefully should be ready in a couple of weeks. Seeing as the whole thing is kind of a recap of 2003-2005, it'll definitely have to go live before '06... Speaking of stuff that's almost ready: the Lain interview is almost finished as well. That should be ready to go off to him by next week. Sounds reeeeeallly niiiice... One of the ones I'm most proud of... Bought a virutal mixing studio today. Only £10. Gonna go try it out... UKG MP20 - It's Gone ballistic....Came up with a formal name for the charts on UKG Presents.com: UKG MP20 Basically, the name's taken from Most Played 20 tracks on UKG Presents... Hits went mad day before yesterday. Don't know if that's because that's when MP20 launched, but the stats were serious... November 08 UKG Presents Top 20 Goes Live...Just finished the piece on UKG Presents 'Top 20 Plays' on UK Gospel.com. That should get an interesting response.... October 31 It's Been A Minute...Boy, it's been a while... And great for UKG Shop, as people now try out the music before they decide what CDs they want to buy. Everyone's happy. Now to bottle this formula and apply it elsewhere... September 16 UKG Spin! - What To Do Next...?UKG Spin! has taken a back seat
in recent weeks. Haven't got any major problems, but I'm yet to really decide on what direction to go in with it, especialy in view of of the 'streaming' versus 'podcasting' options open to me. The test site I did, which looked absolutely spectacular got deleted by someone who - until that particular point in time - was my friend. ...Just kidding. He's still my friend - just - and the unfortunate deletion of the site has just meant that I've had to really think about what I want to do with the project, and I think I've reached a decision of sorts... September 07 Tired...Gone off blogging for a bit. Been too busy... Haven't even updated UK Gospel.com properly in an age.
Random pieces...
I heard/read somewhere that someone said the Katrina devastation/floods in New Orleans, etc is a result of God's wrath.
George Luke wrote a very good piece on why we probably shouldn't be surprised at the fallout we're likely to get when put 'celebrity Christians' on pedestals, in light of Jessica Simpson's rather raunchy offering on The Dukes Of Hazzard movie getting quite a few peoples' backs up.
Did a photo shoot with GreenJade last weekend. Got some great pics...
Got a CDR of the Judah/DJ Secret weapon 2 Men From Tibet 'Truth Syrum' project. Not bad at all.... August 20 Introducing UKG Presents!Sometimes when you do things, you kinda hope people are going to like what it is you offer.
That's what happened with UK Gospel.com. Then you do things that you feel people are going to like, but you're still not quite ready for how much it connects...
That's what happened with UKG Presents.
I've had more response about UKG Presents than I have had to UKG updates in quite an age! Responses that have ranged from 'about time!', to 'I've already seen it, and it's great!!!!', to artists letting me know they liked what I have done with their tracks, to an invitation from an American station offering airplay...
UKG Presents uses SoundClick
streaming technology to present a 100% UK Urban gospel music to the
world, and rather than just going for the standard 'here's a track from
the album' vibe, I've put a few tracks in the mix, just to make it more
interesting. And people have loved it.
..It's all good. And I've only just started.
More to come on that front...
August 04 Back!It's been a while since I've blogged. I think I kind of overdosed on blogging back then. Besides, it's been huuuugely busy!
Anyway, things are going really well. Work continues on UKG version 2. Someone actually already registered on the site last night!!!!
 I've absolutely no idea how they found it!!!The new UKG Spin! site is looking sensational, and we're getting more product in for UKG Shop.
More later... June 13 Clips are done...Finished mixing the last of the audio clips for UKG Shop ...Hopefully that means people can actually try before they buy. Went mad on the mix for The Company and Spanna, though. Sounds more like a radio show mix than an online store preview clip. Don't think many people will complain, though...
Call from my mum over the weekend. She heard my voiceover on The Gospel Revue TV show again on Saturday. Forgot about that...
More updates on the site. Published the 2 Men From Tibet feature. Took me pretty much all of Saturday. More purchases from the shop. Gotta start work on UKG Spin! again today.... June 07 UK Gospel.com Version 2 - The Nightmare Is Finally Over...After weeks - literally weeks - of struggling with the demo version of UK Gospel.com Version 2, we had a MAJOR breakthrough over the weekend, and the core site started to work. Hallelujah! Now Obed from Colossal Multimedia Design and I are going to crack on and get the site live. And then there's the mammoth task of transferring content from version 1 to version 2... More CDs on UKG Shop: Spanna's new Ragga/Bashment album, Blessed Redeemer, Natalie Phillips' All Da Praiz (classic!), and Nana Margaret Tandoh's Seasons And Times... May 30 TV Update...10:40 pm. Tryumf's feature and Microsite are now finished. Looooong day.
Couldn't really do much more as Michael, the vision mixer was there to do some work on Show 3 (I think)... Tired. No work for me tomorrow though... Site looking much better now, so I can go to bed happy...
Numbers still looking good...Just checked the May stats for UKG. Looking veeeeeery good. For a website that doesn't have much by way of offline advertising, I'm always overwhelmed at the visitor figures!
If you're one of those people that keep coming back, again I can only say thanks so much!
Tryumf!Can't believe I forgot to publish my piece on Tryumf! And I've had it since February!!!!!!! Oh well... Bank holiday today. Might as well lock it down. So two UKG things on Tryumf: the Tryumf Microsite and Tryumf UKG First Play...
May 28 Site updateAdded 2 new music reviews to UKG: Adelaide Mackenzie and Not Ashamed. Looking at the data I suddenly realised this was my first music review update for 2005! It doesn't feel like 5 months since the last one!!! Where's the time going....???
Off to Richard White's studio to do some more voiceover work for his new TV series. Apparently he has some more interesting news to share... Intriguing... May 26 It's all about the music...Drove in to work today. Sun was out, temperature was absolutely spot on... Played the UKG Spin! Show 1 'Old School Flava' section in the car. I Don't Need Another by Caroline is still a heeeeeeavy tune!! It's incredible to think I recorded that section of the show last year, and even more incredible when I think that tune is a few years old now. Still stands up to much of the stuff being put out these days. Andrew Small did an excellent job on production. If I have anything to say about it, tracks from that album have to go towards UKG Download. They deserve to be heard by more people. Serious, inspirational stuff with broad appeal... Can't wait to release UKG Spin! Those shows should bring quality UK Urban gospel music to the world, man............!
May 24 Wired For Sound...Started recording sound clips for the music on UKG Shop over last weekend. That's a maaajor plus. At least people can have a listen to the stuff to try before they buy. In the face of major exposure from the US industry, its the least I can do. And again, another sale. Four Kornerz, Clap Clap single. Cool. Anyway off to record some more clips.... We Don't Know How Good We Have It...Just gone 1 am. About to go to bed. Just got in from the REGAL ENTERTAINMENT SHOWCASE for new gospel artists at London's Hard Rock Cafe. Intimate affair. Royal Priesthood, Prodigal Son, Ekklesia, Double Edge and a few more people. All in all a very 'Urban Music' affair.
Without any shadow of a doubt the night belonged to Adelaide Mackenzie, who proceded to give the small crowd a mini masterclass in acoustic praise & worship, performance and stage control. Reaaaally have to get her on UKG asap. She's definitely one of the quintessential new breed, and man needs to support that...
Met a few friends I haven't seen in a while. Hello to Juliet Fletcher of Green Tree (nice to know you read this blog), and Roucheon Iloyi, wife of Smooflow and one third of Royal Priesthood who's now back on the road with baby Kian in tow!
Also hooked up with media personality Lee 'Grantly' Grant long enough for him to buy me a coke! I've been meaning to do this biiig Hang Time piece on him and (I think) we've settled on me hanging out with him at Str8 Up's second anniversary bash...
Anyway, on to the reason for the title. Most UK artists (and more than likely a whole raft of non-artists as well) have got this 'it's all good/everything is perfect in America' thing really bad.
I've always been convinced it was just a severe case of 'green grass on the otherside-itis', and George Luke wrote an interesting piece on United by One about his experiences at this year's GMA, touching on the same point.
To sum up: we love our Urban gospel here in the UK, and things like the gospel riding on Hip-hop, Garage and RnB come with the territory. In the States, it ain't necessarily so.
If that comes as a shock to you, George's article sheds a bit more light.
George, nice one mate! Here's to hoping people will start to appreciate the talent (and creative freedom) we enjoy here much more.
Being a cynic however, I'm not holding my breath... May 23 UKG Spin! Update...Work in full swing for UKG Spin! 4 shows in the can (2 documentaries, 2 mix shows). The page I created on UK Gospel.com for it is also looking good. Hopefully should be going live with that by early - mid June. Also working on the UKG Spin! official website at the same time. No launch date for that yet, but more news here soon (for those of you that might want a preview)... Richard White's company, Stomp Media had its new TV series, The Gospel Revue goes live any time now, on UCB. I did the voiceover for that....
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