We are pleased to announce that Sable Accounting Group is joining us as a partner and as such is offering a 10% discount to our Members on any of their accounting fees for the first year. This offer is valid for both Standard and Premium Members, please make sure you mention your BOTS membership to them during your initial conversation. BOTS is using Sable too and they have proven to be extremely professional and very responsive. We know how artists sometimes struggle with accounting questions or issues related to their income and we believe this partnership will help them get reliable information at a very cost effective rate.
Sable contacts are: Steve Scott - Scott.Brown@sable-group.com Davinder Chaggar - Davinder.Chaggar@Sable-Group.com
Any question do feel free to contact us at contact@beonthescene.com Thanks for supporting us!
‘They don’t realize that if you actually want to succeed in it and make money out of it, you have to present something worth buying’
I had the wonderful
opportunity to spend an hour talking to a Stuart Epps, a man with a story to
tell. At a very young age when most of
us are deciding what university we want to go to, what career choice we are
going to make, Stuart was touring America with Elton John, boarding private
planes with John Lennon, getting to know Oasis and thought he would retire at
the age of 23. His life reminded me of a scene that should have been the film
Almost Famous, take out the journalist, add an office junior and an assistant
and we have The Stuart Epps Story. Let’s backtrack to 1969 where every musician
was in show business.
The moments that pass,
I am being introduced to Stuart, sitting casually on his chair adorned with a
giant pair of silver headphones. After a few courtesies and shared laughs, I
asked him to transport me back to when he was a 15 year old boy.
With a Reminiscing look on his face, he begins, ‘At age 15 went to work for Dick James who
was the Beatles music publisher. He
didn’t have a record company although having the Beatles , The Hollies, The
Troggs, Gerry And The Pacemakers and many others he was one of the biggest publishers at that time . One of those songwriters
was named Reg Dwight.’ Reg Dwight is more commonly known to us as Elton
John. ‘Reg and I became friends and he
was a pretty outrageous guy back then already. I was only 15 but I had already
been in bands and I liked to sing and write songs. That’s what I really wanted
to be, but meeting Reg and hearing his songs I was just taken away really and I
thought he was quite brilliant, just sitting there playing the piano. I never
really thought I’d have that experience.’
Stuart and Reg Dwight became friends when Stuart was an
office boy, but soon went to be a Disc cutter and cut demos for Reg, who was
renamed Elton John. ‘We were all mates and it just became like
a big social thing and I went pretty quickly from working in the studio to
A&R and working in the office. It’s quite a long story actually; I managed
to write a book about it...’
He started working with a man by the name of Steve Brown who
was working with Elton at the time and ‘Things used to happen pretty quick in
those days and within in a year or two he was this star.'
Stuart got the opportunity to be his
Assistant and worked with Dick James who formed record company DJM. There were
other artist but the main focus was Elton and they had been working on this
every day, booking gigs and eventually tours and at the age of 18, he went on
an American tour with Elton, who by that
time had already been to the states and was starting to do rather well.
He engages me with a story of how things used to happen in those
days, he remembers going to see Bob Dylan at the Isle of White and a year later
Bob Dylan came to see Elton in Los Angeles at the Troubadour and how Elton got
a few albums on the American charts, Tumble Weed Connections, Yellow Brick Road.
Stuart decided to form his own record label called Rocket
Records. So he left DJM after five years and as it was quite unusual to have an
independent record label in those days, personally, I believe
he might have influenced how music became so available from an independent
level. Rocket Records went on to signed Kiki Dee, who was one of the artists,
Stuart signed a band called Long Dancer, which one won’t have heard of, but the
guitarist of the band was Dave Stuart who became one of the Eurhythmics. Having
Kiki Dee on the label, he became her personal manager - and even did and a tour
with Elton John in 1974.
Stuart and the team had their own plane and did a massive
tour of America with Kiki Dee second on the bill to Elton. Redirecting the
story, he told me of how he thought he would retire at the age of twenty three. ‘I felt like I had seen everything and done
everything, so I was going to retire.’ But
before he made a decision, Elton’s producer, Gus Dudgeon told him about the
studio he was going to build, sadly Gus has since passed. Instead of retiring
Stuart came out to Cookham and started working on building this studio, Mill
studio.
‘I was more involved engineering and
working on Elton Albums however, a band called voyager and Chris Rea was
discovered there- we did his first album there and I started singing and became
friends with him.’
Gus had to sell the mill, to Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin and
Stuart became his engineer and started running the studio for him. He was now
with Jimmy Page who was working with Atlantic records. Stuart began to see
another side to music as opposed to the more mainstream type in those days and
got to meet heavy rock bands and produces the band Twisted Sister and Vandenberg
more heavy rock, than what he was used to working with Gus. Following that Stuart had founded his own studio called
Wheeler End.
‘Wheeler End was what I made
into a pretty good commercial studio.
That wasn’t easy, it was a beautiful studio but a lot of hard work to
get it known, and to get new business, but I had Bill Wyman and some people
knew Paul Weller so he joined, and then the word got out and it grew and one
day I got the call.’
In the time of Brit Pop the mid 90’s, groups like Super
grass and Oasis where at the top of the charts and one day, Stuart received
a callfrom
Oasis’s record company, they told him
that Noel Gallagher wanted to book his studio.
’That was great; because they were literally the biggest band of that
time, so during that Mark Owen, from Take That! Who I had been singing and working with came
to the studio and then naturally Robbie Williams came too. The studio was doing
quite well, but eventually that had to go too. It’s quite hard keeping a
commercial studio. It’s like the bigger the bands, the better the deal and the
more you have to look after them but
that was good and during that I just carried on freelancing as I didn’t
have my own private studio anymore . So I just used studios that suited the
artist really. So that’s it, that’s a short version of my story. ‘
My curiosity and dreams of the Rock and Roll lifestyle
spoke for me when I tried to ask Stuart about some of the craziest moments, but
being in the business, he knows what to say and what not to say, he was only
inclined to give me a moment that to this day, 40 years later and before my
time, gives me Goosebumps.
BOTS: Tell me about
that moment, when you were side by side with John Lennon, at Madison Square
garden, only one of the most iconic moments in live music history.
The performance was all based on a bet. When John, Elton and
Stuart were on the Plane, they had come to agree on a bet about a song called, ‘Whatever
gets you through the Night’ which was co-written by Elton and John. If that
song made it to number one, John would have to perform it on Tour. It did
become number one and Elton rang up John and said, ‘I’m playing at Madison
Square Garden and I want you to come on stage with me.’ John at that stage hadn’t been on stage for
about 10 years , he had become a bit of a recluse living in New York, but he
had to do it, because that was the deal, so true to his word, he went with them.
‘That was incredible moment for us as we
all are massive Beatles fans, but then we were at this incredible venue in New
York and I’m back stage with John Lennon, literally with him when he went on
stage and he was very nervous, he didn’t know how the crowd would react, but he
just went up and the whole place - 10,000 people- went absolutely crazy for
what seemed like forever. They went into ‘Whatever Gets You through the Night’
and then did ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ which was a Beatles song. It was the most amazing thing I had seen on
stage. Even though Elton has had some incredible gigs this was just something
else. It is still regarded as one of the top 5 concerts of all time. Sadly following that, he was shot.’
As a lover of music
from the 70’s it is incredibly sad to think I could never see the Beatles
perform or if we will ever have a moment captured like that on stage. The pure
spontaneity of show business. I asked Stuart if he thought that the quality of
music has changed from 1969 to present day. I wanted to know if he thought it is
just mass generated and people are putting out anything or are we lacking the
artistic element that went into music production back then, because it is so
easy to do it these days?
‘Well, in some
respects, nothing has really changed. A
good song is still a good song and a good artist is still a good artist.’
‘The business has changed;
the way of gaining recognition and selling records has changed. Everything can
be done through the internet. I mean, the
one interesting thing is going through the 60’s and then the 70’s with all the
bands that were around and all the changes that were happening. It was new, it’s quite possible that that will
never happen again, these days everything has been done and everything copied.
So it’s a bit like a rehash. So from my age group, we have seen a lot so there’s
very little that is new, which I personally find a shame.’
‘In those days, you
would get phenomenal artists like Elvis or Michael Jackson, people that were
giants in the industry and then you had songwriters like Lennon & McCartney. I still think that is because that was still
early days for the business. So maybe that time period, we thought it was
really good at the time and now everyone is copying it, everyone is doing
covers, and every band favorite band is Led Zeplin and so on… Everyone is
constantly going back to those great days. So I guess it must have been great
and when you hear the music, it is still great.
And today’s music tends to be a little more disposable. Not for all artists but there is just so many
coming up, which is good for music because it makes sure that everybody gets a
bit more chance, new artist get a chance. There are so many places you can
advertise your music. It’s not totally reliant on record company moguls to say,
yes, we will take you and make you into a star.
You know there are other ways of doing it.’
‘Those days it was
more specialized. I liked it like that. But I have to say, I enjoy the fact
that everyone is more into music generally.
Music gigs, Xfactor etc. I love
the fact that I walk down the street and everyone has headphones on. When I
used to do that, I got pointed at, they were like, look at that funny person
walking with headphones listen to music…stereo music! But I’m quite pleased now
that the whole world seems to have caught up to where we were in the business
40 years ago. You still need to be a Great Artist, you need to be focused, you
need to be talented and all those things. That hasn’t changed. Even with all
the technology. You still need to be good.’
I took this moment to
ask him, if he had to make a list of say five things a musician must have, in
order to succeed in the business, what would they be?
‘Talented, absolutely
focused and passionate – it cannot be a part time thing, Ruthless- It’s not a
nice word but you got to be ruthless with yourself. In making decisions to be
in the top .There is always a bit of ruthlessness. And Resilient- having drive
and ambition.’
‘It can be a very long
conversation because artists being artists and having artistic temperaments,
they personality is very sensitive. They have an ego. At the same time,
especially if they are performers, they put themselves in the firing line. It’s
not exactly where a sensitive person wants to be. Defiantly not on a stage in front
of 10 thousand people.’
‘I should actually
tell everyone this, because I get young artist coming here girls or guys who
can’t take criticism- except that they are performers and that’s what you set
yourself up for. It’s the same for everyone. It’s like an artist who paints,
they paint a picture, they are going to want to sell it, they have to ask
people what they think of it and some might say it’s horrible, and that will
upset the painter. But they have to have a resilient to that. There are so many things that a musician,
singer, songwriter has to be. I don’t
think people realize how difficult it can be. I mean if you look at a show like
Xfactor, there are people crying and breaking down and I think that’s its very
bad for that because it can destroy young people’s career in the very early
stages. But you know, it weeds out the ones that can’t handle it and it helps
you realize very early on if you can or can’t handle it. It’s not easy, that’s
why not everyone can be a big pop star or rock star.’
This is something I
am faced with things like xfactor, yes, you are an artist you are a singer, but
you are told you are not set out to be a recording artist. What does it take to
be a recording artist? Audiences play a huge part in deciding if a musician is
any good, but it can’t be the deciding factor. For instance, Rodriguez went to
America and performed and he wasn’t too well received, by an entire
country. He then went to South Africa,
people loved him and now he has reached iconic status. If he gave up then, we
wouldn’t have the gift of his songs. How do you know when to give up?
‘Well these days, with
live music been more popular than it’s ever been. You can’t just be a recording
artist. You have to be a performer. There are very few people who can just make
records without performing. All these things take time to perfect. Any talent
needs time to develop.’
‘Now and again, you
have these people who have this god given talent and need very little before
they make it and before you know it, they are big, Elton John being one of
them. A lot of kids these days want it
to happen tomorrow. Because they think that is how it happens by looking on the
telly, where as they don’t realize how hard it is.’
‘It’s a tough way to
find out through the audiences and that’s why I think with bands in the 60s
they developed so well, and when they did succeed they had this incredible
longevity. The classic one that stares you in the face is the Rolling Stones,
they been going for 50 years. The reason why they have lasted so long is
because they are grounding, they were playing every night in clubs all over the
place, and they were playing cover songs, just like Musicians today. So they
were seeing what went down with the audience… honing their craft. You wouldn’t
think so at the time as they were pretty outrages, but if crowds are not taking
to you, you do something about it, you change it.’
‘It’s very difficult
for an artist to distinguish who they are, what they are, what audience are
going to like them, that’s why an
artists has a manager, then the manager sees these things and can help that
person. In the case of Elton john, I used to go to gigs with him and people
were totally ignoring him, it’s hard to believe, but when he went out to
America, he designed this persona. He did this flamboyant jumping on the pianos
and wearing crazy outfits and the America liked that, they took to him. So as soon as the Americans liked him, everyone
in England liked him, that doesn’t happen to every artist. Oasis went to
America and nothing happened. Robbie Williams went and nothing happened. One
artist, for some way or another, appeals to a certain market whether it’s the
style of the music or what they look like. That’s all down to marketing that
artist. It’s a huge question really as an artist has to find out who they are
first really and invent themselves, based on the music. That’s what record
companies and managers are supposed to help with; if they are experienced they
will recognize the possibilities.’
We have spoken a lot
about what musicians can and should do. What are some common mistakes you find
that they make and how could they avoid it?
‘Not being able to
decide on anything and spending too much time making demos. One of the things I believe is that too many
artists want to do everything. They got
to be the singer, guitarist, writer, the producer and the engineer, all this
stuff. Well very few people can, the thing to do is team work. Team work can
produce some of the best artists out there. Not every artist seems to know
that.’
‘Take advice and not
being too precious. If you can’t write words, but you can write great melodies,
find someone who can write great words.
Focus on your strengths and ask for help.’
‘Most people in the
60’s became artists because they didn’t know what else to do, that’s all they
wanted to do. I can’t do anything else so this is what I do.’ – I suppose that’s why they make it, if you
aren’t able to do anything else, you focus so hard on making it happen, you
don’t lose site.
Sadly We have reached
the end of our time together and usually at this moment, we are inclined to
give a bit of wise words or pass on some knowledge, what do you want to say to
our readers?
‘Fake it 'til you make
it…in other words, always presents something great that you can live up to. The
era I grew up in was show business. I think that young musician don’t
appreciate the meaning of show business, there’s not so much emphasis put on
the fact that you are actually selling something.
‘They don’t realize
that if you actually want to succeed in it and make money out of it, you have
to present something worth buying’
If you go on stage,
you put something on to wear, don’t come to the gig and get on to stage with
clothes you arrived in. A lot of young bands do that. They look at oasis and
think they are just ‘Yobos’ who got lucky, but that’s far from true, I worked
with them and they are incredible showmen and amazing promoters. Sure they have
some down sides but that’s what you need to be, you need to be able to sell
yourself. They are not really dark glasses, moping about. They are great
performers. That is generally the case with people who have succeeded. There is
a reason for it. It’s not just how they look or luck. It’s how they marketed themselves.’
'Gregory Heisler is a New York-based photographer who is renowned for his technical mastery and thoughtful responsiveness. His enthusiasm, curiosity, and drive are manifested in his hands-on approach to all aspects of Photography. . Iconic portraits that have often graced the covers and pages of many magazines, including Life, Esquire, Gentlemens Quarterly, Geo, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, and The New York Times Magazine. He is best known for his more than seventy Time cover portraits. A shot that appears to be straight forward to most of us, to a photographer it is a scientific formula and hours and hours of test shoots which resulted in the heroic "Mount Rushmore" inspired picture of Bill Gates, Bono and Melinda Gates. In this advisory interview, Gregory breaks down the production for us and gives a few useful tips i think are beneficial for all our photography members. enjoy! Romy
Two of my favourite giants in the entertainment world talk about songwriting and collaboration. With high accolades for each other these two are a perfect example of musician and film collaboration.
Fiona with her raw, truthful and angry lyrics and Quentin with his violent and uncensored films are a beautiful mesh of both art forms.
As a musician and working in one of the most competitive industries, you need to look into different ways to put your work forward. One of the best examples i can give you is to look at student films being made and how they need tracks/samples without infringing any copyright laws. As the process of film production, be it a short film, documentary or feature all go through the intense pre- production, production and post production, your track can be heard by a large audience and then extended to another audience who will watch the film. if that particular film gets into certain festivals, your reach is intensified and so forth.
Do you have any other insiders tips or ideas you would like to share? Inbox me your thoughts romy@beonthescene.com and you might have a chance to feature your idea on the upcoming blogs!
' These are not photos of me, these are constructions'
Model Cameron Russell joins the TED stage to discuss image and how the world perceives you. How in six seconds, your opinion can change of the person you see.
Cameron has spent the last 10 years modeling. Having appeared in multiple editions of Vogue and Ralph Lauren editorials the Victoria Secret Angel admits she won the 'Genetic Lottery'
In this fearless talk, she takes a wry look at the industry that shapes societies ideals.
When talking to our Members it appeared clearly to us that artists are sometimes struggling to find the right vehicle to sell their work. Many platforms are available but often involve upfront costs - with no guarantee of sales - or are taking an heavy cut on the sale.
With that in mind we have decided to create the BOTS Market Place! This part of our website will allow any of our Premium Members to sell their work to any of our visitors.
Although we will have to pass on the cost of the payment processing through Paypal (about 35p for a song, 4% of the item cost for anything else), Be On The Scene will not make any profit on the sell of the work and our artists will be able to use this service for free. Hence our Premium Members will only occur a cost if their work is selling.
The BOTS Market Place is currently under test and due to open to artists in the coming weeks for them to upload their work, and to the buyers very soon after that. If you are interested to sell your items and help us test it, feel free to contact us at contact@beonthescene.com
If the platform takes off like we hope, we will be moving away from Paypal in about a year to reduce the payment processing fees, and allow even more profit to our Members. Thank you for supporting us!
These days it seems that being a model requires one to be a
svelte size 0 or a photogenic plus size.
Now with the world having over 6 billion people at any given
time, 7 million of those travelling on London’s underground in a year alone,
one comes across the many beautiful women and dapper men on a daily basis.
These men and women, although extremely pleasing to our eyes, don’t seem to
have a place in the high end modelling world.
The average skinny girl is
logistically between a size 10 and 14, which to most of us should seem normal
when trying to sell and advertise in high street stores which are targeted at
the average everyday person. That’s another debate that’s been around since
after the heroin chic 90’s phase and will never truly be a closed argument.
Anyone who browses through our community, attends our
events or works with our friends will
know that we are not short of beautiful people who are trying to crack it in
the modelling world, but a % of them, even though through years of trying cannot
seem to get it right.
Here’s some food for thought… Does being a working model involve appearing
in high end fashion and beauty magazines as well as other reputable editorials?
There is a movement and breed of beautiful that is now
emerging from campaigns such as Dove, ‘reinventing beauty’ and Dentyne, ‘smile
you are beautiful’ that encourages women to embrace our imperfections and steer
clear of mainstream ideals. The point to
I am trying to get across is trying out Character modelling instead.
Character models are individuals you see on television
commercials and magazines that represent everyday people. They include all
ages, sizes and people we can identify with.
So what are some of the steps you can take to become a
Character model?
1- You need
to examine yourself and identify what persona suits you. Are the blonde
bombshell, girl next door, bookworm or typical elderly? Ensure you are able to
present that side to a Booker/agent or casting director.
2- Before
an audition, get into the character mode. Much like acting, represent yourself
as to what your ‘character is’ rather than what you are. So for instance, if
you are playing a working office girl, arrive at the audition in work attire
etc. It might not be the best way to
showcase your asset, but agents don’t want to have to think how they will make
you the character, they want you to walk in the door and be it. Taking an
acting class or practicing monologues will help ease your confidence
3- If you
haven’t got a portfolio, this should be the first thing you should start with. Always
keep it updated and impressive and much like the typical model portfolio,
showcase your different looks. Collaborating
with the BOTS community is a great way to keep up to speed with this and pretty
affordable too.
4- Join a
modelling agency that includes characters or commercial models in their books. Remember,
most agencies will only see new talent/models by appointment only, so always keep
your wits about you. And take a friend to any potential appointments if the
company is not too well known.
For more tips and advice on how to start your career, keep up to date with the Be On The Scene Community or send your comments/questions to my inbox romy@beonthescene.com
On a previous blog, I spoke
about Adrain Salamunovic, a Canadian born Artist who has changed the way
mediums can be used in producing original pieces of Art.
DNA 11, a unique concept
that pioneers the application of genetic science in creating a personalized piece
of art. They utilize fingerprint
portraits and lipstick kisses.
One would think that to be
an artist, you have to go through the process of being educated in the art
field, but two people have put this theory to rest. One Adrain Salamunovic, who
started his career as in business technology, specializes in high tech
marketing and another Nazim Ahmed, who holds a degree in molecular Genetics. These
are two disciplines that seem far removed from the art world. But these two
pioneers of Modern art have collaborated together to come up with a concept
truly magnificent and ground breaking
.
With a bit of thought and collaboration with your peers,
especially thinking outside of the box, the possibilities of changing the way
your world sees Art are right at your fingertips. Break the norm and explore.
Adrain Salamunovic,
co-founder of CanvasPop talks about how up and coming artists can market their
works and still maintain their artistic integrity.Adrain discloses six
myths and six tips on Art distribution, sale and marketing.
I hope that you find this
informative and if you have any tips of your own, feel free to comment and
share.
I thought this video from Artist house music distributor Mike King, would be
beneficial for our musicians in the community wanting to know new ways to
distribute their music.
This is very informative and explores ideas of what will get your album to
consumers without the need for traditional methods which independent artists
might find hard to secure.
For those of you that have been
following our blog, it will come to no surprise that we share a love of Fashion
Films.
Before, I posted about using music,
dance and film to showcase and deliver a different element to your work. The importance
of getting noticed and making an impact on the fashion world cannot be stressed
when you are a young upcoming designer.
Take a look at this video for example. Here
we have a beautiful model, who not only showcases what she is capable of, but
the collaboration of the designer, set designer and background artist skills. The
creator of the film has used a photographer, a videographer, fashion designer
and make-up artist all of which can be found in the Be On The Scene Community. The
question I am proposing is, when last did you look around the community you are
involved in? Have you tried connecting with them? How can you as a make-up
artist, designer or cinematographer come together and create a show reel that
will not only help you stand out, but will put you in direct line of what is
trending at the moment. If you are a musician, why not put yourself forward to
be featured in these films?
Go on, take a look around and explore. The
possibilities are endless.
If you need help with connecting with
the members around you or need any suggestions, drop me an email and one of our
dedicated members of the team will be more than happy to assist you.
'I am really interested in where humans are going to be going in the future, what exactly is going to happen to us, because technology keeps on advancing and we are probably going to lose a lot of our identity and what makes us different'
Hello everyone,
Following my last blog on Matthew Syed and
the Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice, I’d like to introduce to you two
individuals Victoria and Zoe Yin, two sisters who started drawing and painting
before they could even walk.
Zoe began drawing when she was one
years old and sold her first piece of art work at the age of six. She became
the youngest artist to exhibit her work at the age of eight at the
international art expo in New York, while her sister Victoria, had her artwork
collected internationally by the age of ten.
It comes to no surprise that these two
are now known as the ‘Art World Child Prodigy siblings’ and have a book under
the same title. The book was selected to be exhibited at the annual Frankfurt
Book fair in Germany.
This comes back to the good old saying,
‘Practice makes Perfect’ if they are able to do this at such a young age,
imagine with a few more years of honing their skills and a bit of life experience,
what kind of work they will be producing.
We are extremely please to announce that Stuart Epps, major music
producer, has accepted to join our advisory board as a music
advisor.
Having work with
many great artists such as Elton John, Led Zeppelin, George Harrison, Bill Wyman, Robbie Williams, Jimmy Page, Paul Rogers, Jeff Beck, Oasis, Paul Weller, etc... over the last 40 years, Stuart has a huge amount of
experience and knowledge in the music field.
Stuart will help us make sure BOTS activities are in line
with what music talents need, and has already started to provide
us with tips and guidance on the music industry.
As previously, Stuart is also available for production, recording
and mixing; check our service area for more information.
We are pleased to announce that Sable Accounting Group is joining us as a partner and as such is offering a 10% discount to our Members on any of their accounting fees for the first year.
