Radio Presenter (Wire FM, The SRA Selector), Producer (Key103). Studying TV & Radio. Love music & talking about it, countryside, kayaking, cycling, gigs & rum.
Expect lots of the above on this blog...
Lying in bed still, it's been months, absolutely months, since I've laid in till this side of midday.
Never mind! I'm having a chilled out wknd, last couple of weeks have gone so quickly they've blurred. Also, another out of character thing to do was completely turn my music off on the way home from last night's gig- gave me an opportunity to mull over what is actually going on in my little world.
Talking of last night- a great quaint gig in Tysoe, good laugh and a nice little earner.
I get paid to play amazing music to people! How did I stumble into that one!? Very grateful. Ended the night on Muse - Uprising, winner winner chicken dinner.
Setup all my kit in the living room earlier- did take up some space but Mum was particularly keen to keep the lights show for good!
Time to get up and go and watch some more Christmas lights been turned on in Banbury.
It's practically Christmas time in Manchester. The German market is in town - giving the whole town centre a lot more warmth and festivity. I did have a little browse the other day, all I could smell was ginger every now and again and sausages.
If you've not seen it, it's basically a load of wooden log cabins with shops in - selling all sorts of ornaments. There was one stall with the largest collection of snow globes I've ever seen! Whoever placed that order should be reprimanded.. it's similar to Anthony acquiring 1000 business cards with the word Editor spelt wrong. How the heck they're both going to get rid of cards and globes alike I'll never know.
It's been a fun week actually, we've released the Liam Blake video which is doing very well - Pretend TV are in the process of uploading it to their channel, we've had good feedback and lots of publicity.
Also, Anthony and I have been back in the Radio Studio! With quite a high demand for studio time at the uni, we've had to come in extra early to get a good few hours to ourselves. So in essence we've been doing a breakfast show.
Producer Anthony hard at work there. We're calling the show The Source - new music that will change your life. Look forward to hearing that on air in the new year.
I'm at home this weekend which will be nice. DJing tomorrow night then meeting people for coffee and beers in between. Sunday is Banbury xmas lights switch on - wonder if it will be like last year.... Banbury Sound are there which is nice, a good time to catch up with some friends.
Finally, our mini-documentary is ready to go! Thanks for your help, love and support through production, we've had a right laugh and a good fun time making it.
Hoping its the first of many projects like this, for now it's my pleasure to present our You & Other Stories Explored film:
Hope you enjoy! Please share with all your mates, we're really trying to let as many people know about Liam and his fantastic music as possible.
Currently sat on a train, tapping away on my phone, and you know how much I hate typing on this thing. Just left Manchester Picadilly, I have a Costa latte, baguette and a bag of general tat for Sheffield this weekend- in my pocket I also have 6 copies of Liam Blake - You & Other Stories: Explored, DVDs of the mini music video documentary we finished last night. Also in that pocket I have a Booths pen, some stickie notes and my marbles, which I found last night after I lost them whilst editing this week (metaphorical). Deep coat pockets eh.
I've just finished listening to Radio 4's Media Show podcast with Steve Hewlett. I listened to 2 of those shows: one that delved into the Levison enquiry and the other gave an incredibly insightful look at MediaCity's impact on indie producers and it also examined the state of BBC local radio vs commercial local. Bauer MD Dee Ford's interview was so informative, great to hear that. Also nice to hear Alex Connock featured - he gave a fantastic talk at Salford University in MCUK last Monday, very interesting look forward to how TV is adapting to the future. Got so many notes.
That's one of the very perks of being based at the heart of the Northern media landscape. Great talks and opportunities. An interesting stat that Connock mentioned in the podcast was how 90% of northern media comes from Manchester as opposed to Leeds, Newcastle etc...v interesting, Peter Salmon's piece on that podcast was inspiring too. Manchester is the place to be, so what a lucky boy I am, having a laugh every day, working hard with some great people in an enthralling place and I'm not letting the chances slide by.
You'll know if you read this blog that I've been working tirelessly on this mini documentary music video with Liam Blake with two friends of mine. The piece has been filmed by Sebastian Padget and edited by Anthony alker. Directly the result of Anthony pointing out Liam playing in Cafe Nero and then me developing a contact that bequeathed an opportunity for us. Thus, an incredible chance to put our skills to the test and for my hair to grey slightly with the relentless stress a producer endures. One of the most exhilarating projects I've been involved with and I'm so proud of what we've created.
It's also reinforced a few things. This was my first true stab at Producing something properly. The Leatherat music video for my Media Studies A2 project was a great process but imagine how good it could have been with more extensive pre-production, inc location scouting, story boarding properly, creating a shot list that could actually be followed strategically. The process was 'ad libbed' in reality, with chunks of the video being the product of spontaneous filming. Then editing was mainly done with a vague storyboard.
This project was different. I planned it thoroughly, I shot-listed, drew up a production schedule, risk assessed, detailed the locations, journeys and scene details and I used a brilliant programme called Celtx- which really has so much functionality in Pre-production, it almost makes you feel guilty if you 'don't' fill out the various planning forms. I thought I'd do it all properly, including production and post. What would be the point in doing a similar production process to the Leatherat video?- I'd learn nothing new. As it happens, I have picked up so many new skills and I feel enriched as a result of doing things properly.
Back to the reinforcement point- doing this project and producing it properly, has reinforced my deep love of Radio. Yes, I had a great time, learnt a lot and I would do it over and over again, but it doesn't ignite the same driving passion as I get when I do radio work.
However, I went with some mates to go and watch Celebrity Mastermind be filmed at the MediaCity studios the other day, I watched the production team work so professionally and with such coolness. There was not a hair out of place on any of the crew, everybody very composed and I heard the director and producers on talkback in the floor managers ridiculously loud headset and they were having a right laugh. Great vibe. Inspiring.
Very much looking forward to showing you the finished product. Tomorrow I'm at Sheffield Xmas lights delivering the DVDs to Liam and his manager, and it will be on YouTube very soon...then, it's time to implement everything I've learnt over the last couple of weeks about social media. Time to go viral!
I've spent the last week in rigorous pre-production all leading up to last weekend, where we filmed Liam Blake in Bath. Really fun weekend, as filming always seems to be. Very creative and amusing few days in the exotic South.
The video should be finished soon, editing is moving along swimmingly. Here's our behind the scenes footage:
Hopefully this serves as a kind of soupçon, a taster, an amuse-bouche of what our final video could look like!
Sat on the train, leaving the shire again and heading back to the promised land. Today has been ridiculously chilled out compared to last week.
As you know if you’ve been keeping up with this blog, on Friday Seb and I drove from Manchester to Bath to film with musician Liam Blake all this weekend for a new docu-style music video.
As a small taster of the video we’ve done with Liam, look out for an exclusive session video later this week.
We spent all of Saturday in and around Bath, filming some incredibly crisp and professional video and I’m excited to put it all together with Anthony on Final Cut this week. It’s been a fun production process:
Take a look at some of the blogs from earlier this weekend to get a really good idea at what we’ve been up to. We left each other mid-Saturday afternoon when Seb, Liam and myself were just leaving a specialist coffee shop after a productive morning.
From there we shot some nice film from a prime position on the canal bridge, then took a good 30minute hike up a hill (or small mountain maybe a more appropriate term) to a spot where we could capture Liam playing a song and doing an interview with the whole of Bath in the background. It’s a beautiful place but my god it’s got some hills. Steer clear if your handbrake is not keen on hill-parking. Despite Liam’s incredibly gracious and welcoming hospitality and motivation for the project, I hated him for the hike. But the shots reimbursed the hatred, so Liam, it’s all cool.
It was considerably easier wobbling back down that hill on the way home.. a sledge would have been very useful mind… Having said that, Seb nearly did slide down, and that little stumble is on camera ;)
By Saturday evening, the culmination of a mad week of pre-production coupled with the intensity of filming meant I couldn’t even speak whilst I drove home. I was shattered. I just put Chris Evans podcasts on and let his enthusiasm fill me with more. As soon as we arrived at my house, we had a cuppa Charlie then into town for a well-deserved pint or two with some more amazing people.
Great to catch up with all my best pals in AKA, a venue where we’re going to try and get Liam to play around Christmas time. Talking of Christmas, as soon as this edit has been finished this coming week, my next big project will be the Christmas tree decorations, the buying of a wreath and the intake of roasted chestnuts. In fact this evening the taxi driver who drove me back from Picadilly had one of those textured, valour steering wheel coverings.. I know my car is down south, but just for when I'm back I may invest in one with some festive embroidery.. may as well get some leather Alan Partridge driving gloves whilst I'm at it...
For now though, I’m well in the mood for a Turkish bath and massage, but such as life I’ve just spent a 3hr train journey with the new Florence & The Machine album, some podcasts and a wealth of satisfaction seeping through every crevice of my body knowing production has been ticked off the list. Roll on post.
We're in town, it's gorgeous sunshine and we've enjoyed a great morning of filming! We're currently sat in a specialist coffee shop, Seb went for an outrageous black filtered somatra coffee (to be honest, he doesn't know what he had, neither do I, it could have been anything). I went for a flat white guatamola 'kicker'. It was okay... well complimented by some carrot cake.
I don't know what I think of all this specialist stuff to be honest, it's hit and miss... and it came in a cup the size of a thin bull, which is good because if I had to drink a large Nero's mug of it I'd be awake till next week.
We started off the morning with the most incredible cooked breakfast at Liam's place, then moved into town at around 11am where the sun light was fantastic. We've been blessed by the weather today, lovely rays - Seb's been able to catch some sun flare in the camera so it's got a real autumnal vibe.
Started with some busking outside a nice quaint little pub, then moved on the 'the circus', which is a plantation at the top of town where you'll find 5 or 6 oak trees in a circle, forming an enclosure where we composed another performance sequence and we've done an interview piece there too.
Was a really nice stripped back performance from Liam, sounds superb. The great thing about that enclosure is that it has a strange acoustic.. so when Liam's performing there is around a seconds worth of reverb, so the whole song sounds so much more embodied and full.
There's 2 more locations to shoot at, then we're done for the day and it's back on the road. For now, back to the coffee.....
I've had this blog post in draft for a few days now but I've not got round to finishing it. Every time I sit down with the laptop and try and scribble some words down, another thing to do pops up.
Still, it's 8:20am on Saturday morning, really pleased with how well we go on yesterday at The Fat Fowl shooting Liam.
Let me just explain what's happening so we're on the same page. Basically, I'm producing a new music video documentary about Liam Blake - what music/artwork has influenced his latest album and where he's drawn his inspiration from.
The last week has been filled with pre-production. The amount of phone calls and emails I've been doing has been ridiculous but I wanted this to be as real-life as possible. It's been draining, exciting and relentless. I've been on edge and I've felt tense all week! Such as the life of a producer, this is hardcore.
This is technically a professional project we're doing for Helium Records, Liam's label, but next time it could and hopefully will be, a corporate job. However, what this does give us is an opportunity to work with some fantastic people with mutual interests on a great project in the exotic south.
Seb and I have travelled down to Bath and we spent yesterday shooting our first film sequence for the video. We filmed a quaint little gig he did at a restaurant called The Fat Fowl in Bradford On Avon.
It's a lovely tapas and jazz bar.. never even knew those kinds of places existed but the owners were lovely and Liam's gig was excellent as well. To start with we encountered a whole world of issues with the lighting. From what I've learnt so far there's two fundamental things that you just cannot change in post-production: lighting and focus. Seb's cutaways were lovely shots, but ridiculously dark and playing them back on the laptop showed us just how unsuitable they were.
So, a quick jog up the steepest hill in the world. Seriously, if I go outside in a bit and my car is not in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the hill I'll be doing well! Picked up some more lights and jogged back down.
With those lights set up it did make a big different but there was still some more improvements to be made.
Cue, another jog to the car.
When we'd finally got all the sound rigged up and the lights in place, we had achieved a warm and dramatic look. Really pleased with how we used the stupid amount of kit we've got to sort it all out - the end result on the video is nice and high-quality. Bullseye.
Today we're aiming to be in Bath by 10am so very shortly we'll pack the car........ahh how lovely, Liam's just come in offering a cooked breakfast...isn't that incredible.
We're staying with the most hospitable people in the world. I told Seb to pack some food and other crap just incase we felt like we were encroaching on Liam and his wife, but it's turned out to be far from that, they're the loveliest people and the house has such character. Even though we did fill it with far too many bags.
Last night when we got back in, I had two of the thickest slices of toast with, well, it tasted like actual raspberries on it, not jam. Seb had scrambled eggs on (the same) toast (the same thick granary bread, not the same slice, jam and eggs, weird man.. c'mon).
Seb also got a really cool mug for some late night coffee.............ahh maybe that's why I couldn't sleep. My brain was buzzing, mentally storyboarding what we've got so far.. As yesterday wasn't, today could be deadly.
Currently I think Seb is getting some nice shots of the early morning ambience upstairs and outside. I need to make a move because Liam's gone out the shop and I need to look after the coffee.
Like I say, this blog's been in development for some time now and I've had to change the tenses of most verbs here just so it now reads current.
For some reason I've embedded this Bon Iver video so there seems no logical reason to remove it. This is from some guy who felt it would be wise to video record the whole gig. Fortunately we saw it in it's entirety at Birminham O2 last Wednesday.... there are some life experiences you treasure and every moment of that gig was special to the n'th degree, with this song illustrating how magnificent his voice is.
We're at the services after a good 2hrs of travelling. Left Manchester ahead of schedule at 3pm and with the help of radio 2, the Beatles and some pretty bare motorway, we're sat enjoying 1000 calories of..well it's not crap but certainly something close.
Means eta a Bath should be around 7pm or something like that.. Good news! Looking forward to Liam's gig tonight..it's at a quaint little restaurant that do lots of tapas and twinnings tea and other fun stuff like that. It's also a jazz cafe so we can do our filming then I can have a proper chill out after an intense day. might even have a twinnings tea.
For the time being I go burn off those calories behind the wheel now..
Seb and I are embarking on a big project with Liam Blake, a musician signed to Helium Records, producing a short interview based music video in Bath. So exciting, been building up to this for weeks! We're looking his latest albums' influences and what has inspired Liam's music.
This is the first video blog of our production journey!
Follow our progress: @sirchaddy / www.louischadwick.co.uk/blog.php & @TheStandOutBoy
When we get editing next week, check out @anthonyalker for some more updates on progress. We'll be posting regularly for the next 2 weeks I imagine.
Let battle commence, let's go win some awards!.....
Big love to the bloke who missed the whole gig for filming it on his camera...... but for me, Beth/Rest followed by Skinny Love marked the best 10 minutes that's ever graced my spectacle at a gig.
There's been an awful lot of activity on this blog recently, hope you've been enjoying the posts, videos, audio etc. Be lots more on the way soon as projects get finished.
I've been crafting the production schedule for the new project I've got on. Working with Seb Padget and Anthony Alker on this one. Seb's AP and Anthony's helping with the editing. It's an interview based project with Liam Blake - means a busy week prepping, storyboarding, shot-listing and travelling!
This is the main focus of the video - a fantastic new animated music video. Through my project we'll try and convey how various pieces of artwork have influenced the music- notice this video looks very similar in animation style to The Snowman.... ahhhhhhhh yes all will be unveiled soon.......and we'll chat about Christmas a bit later...
Perfect way to describe it is how Rolling Stone have summed it up:
"Blake (Incidentally, a Briton) sounds like Gary Barlow with a cowboy hat"
The project is really exciting and opens up lots of doors. I can't wait for the travelling, a 3hr30min trip to Bath means I get to drive my car again! My plan is.. I'll drive to this Bon Iver gig on Wednesday, then drive on up to Manchester, meaning I can make a full journey down with Seb in my car with some proper mix-tapes and podcasts on! It's been so long since I've made a playlist for a journey!
Bon Iver. Yes, finally seeing the genius this week. Can't wait for this:
Talking of mix tapes and playlists.... the latest playlist I've made is called Northern Life - Manchester and it contains all the amazing songs I have attributed to this new Northern life! Check it out, you'll feel northern. Want a brew?
I've not planned a project so thoroughly for a while. Tight production values! Hope it all pays off, should be a fantastic journey!
Life's not just about work though, aside from this project and the exciting radio shows I've got coming up and uni work etc, there's been lots else happening here.
Went to see a band called The Rifles on Tuesday night.. my first gig at Manchester Academy3 - you know what.........the sound was pretty poor. I like the album tracks but live- very distorted and too loud. At dinnertime the following day I'd just got my hearing back.
The following night I went to see Charlie Simpson at Academy2 - a much better venue with amazing sound. And the sound was truly incredible - Charlie was an outstanding act, one that really shocked me really.
I knew he was good but seriously, the instrumental on the end of Riverbanks was so chilling and passionate I got goosepimplebumps. Watch this video all the way through, absolutely incredible, I promise. Mad stuff. Also really enjoyed the support acts- particularly Gabrille Aplin.
I also had a gig booked for The Travelling Band, who I saw at Fairport, but I got my dates wrong and it clashed with Charlie so Anthony went along to that one. He said it was pretty good.
Then this weekend has been relatively quiet, spent Saturday night at Heaton Park for the Fireworks and the fun-fair - lovely photograph of one of the rides above. Was adequate... rarely see good fireworks. Nothing quite beats new years fireworks.
Came home from the fireworks to enjoy one of the most satisfying things on the telly. Match Of The Day, in the flat, coming live from Salford studios. 10minutes down the road. How inspiring. I see Chelsea are still struggling though... 3 points sure, but by no means safe as houses yet.
Highlights of the last week or so:
Malteser Trail Mix
A new purchase from the Apple store...
My Pingu DVD arriving
My Gingerbread latte at Costa
Singing Merry Christmas Everyone on our wander through campus. That was inappropriate, given it's November 7th.
I'm so excited for Christmas. I am buying a tree in the next week or two, and seeing as I'm not at home, there'll be no beads this year Mother, tinsel all the way. I'm also buying some Turkish Delight and some more festive knit-wear.
Hello - in a couple of weeks time I'll be preparing the New Music Saturday show at this time of the day. However as there's no show for the meantime, he's a collection of music you need in your life this weekend!
Monday 31st October was a fantastic day to be part of the 2011 Radio Festival at Salford Quays. It's an event I've been looking forward to for a long time, I attended the Foot In The Door event in the afternoon and met some of the major players in the industry. Happily, I knew a couple, others I was able to meet and learn from.
It's a great experience and opportunity to network and pick the brains of experts, but in reality it wets my appetite for what I want to achieve in life. Earlier this evening I mentioned: Imagine if my personality allowed me to take a week off. It just doesn't happen, I'm going to be constantly on the go now until something big happens, then I'll be even busier. The important thing is I enjoy it all. If I didn't, I wouldn't do it.
This enjoyment factor leads me in to exactly what I want to share with you tonight. We'll revisit this point shortly.
After FITD, I took my seat alongside Producer James, an old colleague from Quidem, in the Quays Theatre at the Lowry and awaited the inaugural John Peel lecture. The session was opened by Radcliffe and Maconie, two treasures of broadcasting, then the lecture was delivered by Pete Townshend - a man with some strong views, most of which I agree with.
I'll elaborate. The lecture was broadcasted on 6music if you'd like to listen again, but Townshend went into detail about the 'lack' of John Peel-ism in the music world these days. Back in Peel's era, if you wanted new music, you had to listen to his show. And the music wasn't limited or restricted, John took home the records left at the radio station and sifted through the good and the bad until he'd found the music worthy of radio airplay.
This pioneering musical discovery is the very thing I am a great champion of at the moment. Finding a new band, especially in the acoustic/folk/roots and indie genres of music gives me the highest sense of satisfaction - then going to see that band live or even get to interview them is the next best thing!
However, I only know of a few other people who share the same passion for musical exploration beyond the realms of the Radio 1 playlist. This leads me back on to the point of enjoyment, I can't think of anything I'd rather do than introduce people to the outstanding new music that's out there. Being the new figurehead for up-and-coming music on the radio is what I'm so hungry for at the moment!
Happily, I have a brand new radio show launching in a few weeks time that will do just that. We'll start this programme on Shock Radio, but the same output could be translated on to any radio station that wants it's listenership to enjoy some seriously authentic and truly wonderful new music.
It's amazing what can happen in a year. Exactly 1 year previous to Monday on 31st October 2010 I was enjoying a fabulous Lissie gig in Birmingham with some of my best mates. That gig certainly opened my eyes to folk music of that kind, raw and authentic American folk rock delivered with true passion.
Since then, I've been interviewing bands on the radio, going to gigs at the brilliantly niche London Borderline and various Birmingham venues as well as the pubs and bars in the Banbury area.
I've been loving every second of the width and breadth of music I welcome into my world, and it is horrible to think of it going unappreciated, which is another of Townshend's points.
With so many opportunities to take advantage of new music on the internet and enjoy it for free on some platforms, it's no surprise that CD sales are plummeting downwards. We're constantly fed the grim details of how our precious music industry is in decline. Illegal downloading and sharing of music is resulting in less revenue for artists. So much so that Townshend enlightened his Lowry crowd into the sad truth of the matter that some new musicians 'would rather their music was stolen and enjoyed, than ignored'.
Townshend went on to suggest a number of worthy improvements to the the digital music world - picking a number of faults in iTunes. In short, new musicians should be supported way more in the creative process of making a record and getting it out there for the world to enjoy without having to suffer as a result of their music being exploited and robbed.
On the face of it, it does sound very depressing..... nobody to introduce us to new music, then nobody to buy it! But sure, the figures don't look good, but on the flipside of it, I think the music scene we enjoy today is healthier than ever. There is a wonderful array of talent out there across all genres and the ball is now in the court of the pioneering individual to go and find it!
I take full advantage of a Spotify Premium account, I go to gigs regularly, I get bands on my radio shows and I am generally a great supporter of new music. I buy albums. I take great pride in my CD catalogue and I have no problems paying for singles on Amazon MP3 or iTunes.
I find it satisfying to, in essence, reward and appreciate the hard work, the skillful artistry and grafting that goes into making a record. It's sad to hear the financial side of our music industry is struggling, but with some love and support for the new music out there, it can continue to flourish creatively.
Where is the new music? New Music Saturday is my new show, every week, 8-10pm on Shock Radio. See you on air...
