We like to think that The Mashers tell it as it is without the “bullshit” (sorry to those of a delicate imposition) and so it is with the Acoustic Rotherham Guide To Making Your Musical Footprint, published this week.
Over quite a long period I’ve been looking at a lot of the material available on the Internet claiming to help musicians to make a lot of money and become stars of their genre. It’s expensive advise to, you can spend a mini fortune down loading Directories and Manuals, all leaving one feeling a little ripped off as the bottom line is that essentially they are passing on nothing more than some common sense solutions that often cost even more money.
We also found that much of the material assumes that people have more than just a little basic knowledge of how their computer works and how other Web Sites work, which we now know from experience, is not the case.
So we’ve put together this small booklet of 50 pages to get people going. No fills or anything. It tells it as it is was for the musician currently playing every week in their Folk Club or Open Mic but would like to take the next step – and perhaps for those of us who have taken that next step, a basic reminder of what we should be doing.
We’ve packed the booklet with links to other mainly FREE sites that we have found to be valuable in helping to get our music heard by a wider audience: there’s illustrated step by step guides for some of the basic computer procedures needed to bring your various profiles together: we look at the useful tools available on the main Social Network sites: we even throw in the basic hmtl code you need to make some of the profiles look a little more slick: and there’s loads of advise about how to use all the tools, build publicity packs, get your own Web Site up, find Gigs etc.
It’s not just about Rotherham.
And it’s only £2.50 – with automatic updates when we amendments are made. With every penny going to keep Acoustic Rotherham up and running.
We make no promises of stardom tomorrow, or huge Bank Accounts in twelve months. We do give you the starter tools that if you are prepared to spend the time working on can help to push you on your way.
So go and down load, even if you think you know it all, there’s bound to be something new, just as we in The Mashers are always finding something new.
So that’s the “no bullshit” advert out of the way. HERE
The Mashers had a nice week. Our normal Monday Practice went off according to plan at The Bridge.
On Thursday we packed our instruments into the back of the Mashermobile and headed out to the wastes of outer Sheffield. Crooks to be exact.
Remarkably we found Crooks Social Club quite easily, only two wrong turns, not bad for us, in fact the most difficult bit was finding somewhere to park, the Club Car Park and surrounding roads being jammed packed with parked cars.
The Crooks Social Club appears to be a hive for the local community activities, which is great to see in these days when WMCs appear to be suffering so much, if for some different reasons to the Pubs.
The acoustic music night hosted by Jacks Rake, who on their own can fill most car parks, is clearly very popular. I’m not sure what the format is suppose to be, but the Band did one of their fantastic thirty minute sets before inviting guests to make a contribution, which included music as diverse as traditional Irish numbers to Neil Young and of course Paul Pearson – no session is complete without one of Paul’s super sets.
And of course there was The Mashers.
Best of all there was an audience, not one made up of the performers only, an appreciative one at that. Even the Mashers went down well.
To return to the Club though – activities on Thursday included, everything from Pool / Snooker to Community Meetings and of course Speed Dating – and no I didn’t “pull”. Myke didn’t try as he’s still in love. Speaking of which there’s a nice lovey picture of the man himself on Facebook somewhere.
So it was a pity that Sainsbury’s Long Life Batteries failed to live up to their name thus making the camera defunct. I think they might also have something to do with my guitar not sounding quite as it should. Well, it’s a good excuse to visit Crooks again sometime.
This is a session that deserves to go from strength to strength and our congratulations to Jacks Rake for a super enjoyable evening.
On to other things.
Monday 15th – and a land mark CD launch day. Anna Shannon’s “Over Land” has a bottle of Champagne cracked over it and finds it’s way out to a wider audience than those of us who have been lucky enough to enjoy the live previews she has been doing around the Folk Clubs. HERE
There’s a David Kidman review + extra’s to be found on our special Anna Shannon page, including a track from the CD for you to enjoy.
Not forgetting links to where you can buy the CD. It’s available through our Amazon Associate Shop for only £9.99 – and it’s post free. HERE
The 19th February – 21st should see you heading for Kirkby Fleetham for The Winter Warmer. I trust you already have your tickets – I’m told The Mashers tickets are safely tucked away somewhere. Go to the news page to reserve / book yours.
The overall rebuild of the Acoustic Rotherham site continues. I’ve had so many folks say that there is so much information on the site now that I’ve added a site search engine which should throw up items you are looking for a little quicker than sometimes heading for the main navigation buttons. HERE
The site seems to be working quite well at the moment, we’re closing in of the one million mark for world wide sites and 28,000 in the UK for the most visited sites. We can still do a lot better though, and would really appreciate it if you can link us in somewhere on your Social Networking Profiles and Web Pages.
Lots coming up this week – so check out the Gig Guide HERE
And don’t forget the CD SHOP – there’s some great albums listed and what’s not there you’ll find via the Amazon link up. HERE
Thanks to all you folks for your continued support.
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