Tuesday at Midem

Well today is just a half day – as I’m off home on a plane to my lovely family this afternoon.I started the day with I quick session on the British Midlands at Midem stall to catch up with all the other folks. It turns out that Khaliq is very ill and has been kept in hospital over night for tests following his horrible electric shock on the stand. It brings it home to me as I was using that plug just before him – so it so easily could have been me. Best wishes to Khaliq for a speedy recovery.I then went off to the Music Week stand to get a discount on my subscription for this year and told them off for sending a journo to the first Gigbeth and never writing anything. I think we may resolve that this year!I then dashed off to some very interesting sessions on ‘How to make festivals green’ – a subject very dear to my heart and very useful and inspirational. Most of the talk was related to summer festivals in fields with camping – but through that I learned that city based festivals based in existing venues will always be the greenest (whoopie!). This is because people can get to city festivals more easily by public transport (discuss!) and there is less waste generated by paper cups etc. However following our partnership with Friends of the Earth this year I am keen to see what we can do to move even further on this in 2008. The journey home was easy. Saw Pete Townsend at the airport on his way home and some very nice views of the Alps from the plane! I also had a giggle to myself when I read the section on Birmingham in the BMI Baby magazine – it focussed on quirky gigs in Birmingham – so I thought who wrote this?  It turned out to be Pete Ashton of Created in Birmingham….

Monday at MIDEM Part 2

So after leaving you yesterday – I hiked up the road to the Martinez Hotel (where it all happens at Midem!) to see the British Acoustic Showcase. The line up was varied and I caught Beth Rowley - a singer from Bristol with a real vintage sound. She has the most amazing voice but I would like to hear her sing more contemporary tracks – I suspect she’ll go far. The I sneaked out for a Crepe and came back in time to hear Bailey Tzuke another singer but this time from London. I’m not sure if I saw her at her best as tuning was an issue – so felt a bit disappointed there. I also went on to the full on British Showcase – where I was reminiscing about seeing Mr Hudson and the Library just 12 short months ago and being blown away. However, tonight did not blow me away as the first band on where distinctly average in my book so I headed home for my first early night since I got here!

Monday at MIDEM part one

Today has a much better energy about it. Everyone is doing deals – I’ve met some genuinely interesting people and made some links that might just come to something – so I’m pleased too. I also had a very nice lunch in the sun (thanks Phil and Ken) and have spent some time putting the world to rights. We had a very upsettin incident on our stand though. Khaliq got a nasty electric shock off one of the power points that looked put together with tape. He’s been to hospital to have all the tests and so far it looks like he is going to be ok – but I have a feeling he won’t be partying much tonight. I have just been to a fascinating and inspirational talk with Peter Gabriel which I wanted to blog about before I go off to the British Music Showcases this evening. He made some very good points – and when asked about the way things are going for record labels he said “many wonderful new things grow out of corpses!”. He has some very interesting projects underway trying new ways to make the music industry work – and whatever you think of them – you can’t argue with his innovation. He has won MIDEM’s Personality of the Year award and I didn’t hear anyone arguing with that. His new download site We7 is certainly worth a look.Anyway – I’m off now to listen to some music – hurrah!

Sunday at MIDEM

Sunday is the day when everything kicks off at Midem – not much conferencing but lots of meetings and stands to wander round and people to chat to. Today was no exception – I now have lots of business cards in my bag and more cds than I can realistically carry home – so I have to try and listen to them now. After all the business was over I had a few more meetings ‘over drinks’ and then was off to a meal with music industry types from the West Midlands. We have a stand representing the West Midlands that is a great way to promote the region and have a base for all the companies from the area. The big showcase tonight was music from China – and unfortunately the meal finished too late for us to go along – but we have been given some CDs in our delegate packs and there is some fantastic Chinese music amongst those. Se some of us headed off to find some other music and failed miserably (boo) so we headed to where most delegates gather (in either the Carlton or Martinez Hotels) and bumped into some interesting people. Here is Lee from Ditto  with singer James Blunt. Not only was it funny getting this piccies but is sparked a rather interesting conversation about how we all felt about his music and what is represents to us…. More on that later!

Saturday at MIDEM

After getting up at 3.30am and being driven at lightning speed to the airport by Kevin Da Costa from the Arts Councilwe successfully arrived in Nice just after 9am french time. This is my second year at MIDEM so I know my way around. I’m staying in the same apartment block as last year – although my room has the most incredible view of the sea! I’m a bit cheesed off though because the wireless is broken and my plan of talking to my kids over ichat video each day is now scuppered I checked in and got my MIDEM bag (very nasty colour) I wish I’d brought a Gigbeth bag to carry around instead and followed that by a traditional 2 hour french lunch and ate the biggest salad ever!Met a couple of people, and then browsed the Cannes Sales.  I also spent a little time star watching (with no luck) outside the Palais as the NRJ Music Awards were on. I then got ready to go out for a meal of cheese and more cheese at the most amazing restaurant in Nice – followed by discovering a cool little music bar and listening to some Ninja Tunes with Kevin and a couple of his friends who live in Nice. Its so nice to go into a venue and find that you are not this oldest in there, the music is good and the atmosphere was good (shame about the extortionate drinks prices!) 

My MIDEM Daily Blog

I thought it would be good to record some of my adventures in Cannes this weekend. The conferencing is good, I’m having some good meetings – but also there is tonnes of interesting music to write about – so sorry if I focus on that a bit too!