Christmas Magic in the Air

As the festive season is fast approaching, it's good to begin to take stock of the year gone by and start to look ahead to the coming year. For The Summats, January 2015 will see the release of a new single, 'You Could Be James Dean'. This track, featuring Becky Dawson on lead vocals, was completed in October and is just about ready to roll.

As mentioned in the previous blog, this is Becky's first lead vocal on a Summats release and she has given a wonderful performance, the track also features some outstanding and very haunting lead guitar work from John Kettle. We are so looking forward to you hearing it, however given the impending festivities, we thought a January release would be wise, hopefully it will be worth the wait.

Becky in the studio

We haven't recorded a new festive song this year, although we really did intend to, time just got away from us. Rest assured, there are new tracks on the way, and we will be looking to be back in the Christmas song song business next year.

Something new which is very much available this Christmas is a short ebook I have written entitled 'Christmas Magic in the Air'. The book, which I am incredibly proud of, covers the whole back story around the writing, recording and release of 'All I Want Is Christmas'. We have had such great success with it that I thought it was worth putting pen to paper (metaphorically of course, I actually used a computer!) to let you all in on what has been a roller-coaster ride since the day we wrote it. I've shared a great deal of memories and anecdotes from playing in our first bands together way back in the 80's, which included sharing a stage with Rick Astley and takes us right up to the present day. Primarily it is based around what has been a tremendously popular song for us but there are also some great tips for budding songwriters and hopefully you will find a few amusing anecdotes which will give you a giggle as well as a real insight into the songwriting process. The book is available from Amazon in the Kindle store, if you don't have a kindle eBook reader, not to worry, you can download the free Kindle app from the Amazon store which will allow you to read the book on your computer, tablet or smartphone. Who knows, some of you who have supported us from the beginning may even be mentioned. There is certainly a big mention in there for Tunecore who act on our behalf as both our distributors and publishing administrators, we couldn't have done it without you guys.

With the above in mind I would like to say a huge thank you to all you wonderful people who have supported The Summats from day one, downloading our music, reading and sharing our blogs and Facebook updates etc. As a very special thank you,  'Christmas Magic in the Air' is available as a free download for the next five days, after which it will go back to its usual Amazon store selling price around the world. I hope you will take the opportunity to download the book whilst it is free and if you enjoy it,  please rate and review it afterwards, that will certainly help it on its way.

I have thoroughly enjoyed writing 'Christmas Magic in the Air, the writing process, as far as books go, is obviously new to me but it is amazing how much detail comes back once you begin trawling your memories, I can definitely recommend it. It is very time consuming, which is something I never seem to have enough of, however it was written over two summer holidays in 2013 and 2014, writing a story about a Christmas song whilst sitting by the pool in Italy was an interesting experience to say the least! Hope you enjoy the book.

Our friends over at Segal Gardens have done us proud in their Christmas video. Damo Cummings has been a big supporter of The Summats over the past few years and really has done a brilliant job using 'All I Want is Christmas' as the soundtrack, You can check out their video at Summats Songs

Also worth checking out our friends over at www.festivesongs.com, the site is very supportive of The Summats and is also a great place to hear brand new Christmas music.

Good to see that Band aid is going all out to help worthy causes again this year, the track is possibly not as strong as in years gone by given the lyric changes and the new lineup, but, well, who cares! It's for a great cause.

On that note, I will sign off by wishing each and every one of you a fantastic Christmas and

Hope that you have a healthy, happy and prosperous 2015.

Thank you  for your support.

Take care and keep smiling

Baggers

Gigs & Books!

Travelled to see The Fratellis play at Leadmill in Sheffied last week, they rocked the place. So good to see this outstanding British band back together again, if only for a few gigs.

 

Jon Fratelli is one of those amazing songwriters who seems to go completely under the radar of the heaving masses for some reason. With the exception of the wonderful 'Costello music' debut album, his work has gone largely unnoticed. For the record, aside from the excellent Fratellis follow up, 'Here we 'Stand'. Jon has previoulsy collaborated with Lou Hickey as 'Codeine Velvet Club' using his real name of Jon Lawler, for a stunning set of songs in sort of rock/jazz fusion which deserved far greater recognition than it got, plus a great solo album, 'Pyscho Jukebox'. Roger Daltrey is a big fan, which is cool by anyone's standards! His work both with and without The Fratellis is brilliant, check him out.

 

 

The Leadmill itself is a great venue, reminded me very much of The Tivoli in Brisbane, small intimate with a really great atmosphere. It isn't a place I'd visited previously, but I should have, it has a great pedigree and a deserved place in the history of British music, shame on me for not getting there before now, the brawl that broke out during 'Chelsea Dagger' only added to the authenticity! Ah I remember the first time I had a beer too!
Speaking of The Tivoli in Brissie, I hear an old acquaintance from my mis spent youth, Rick Astley, will be playing there shortly, enjoy Rick, it's a great venue!
http://www.leadmill.co.uk/
http://www.thetivoli.net.au/

Another gig lined up shortly is 'The Killers' in Manchester in November,really looking forward to this one too, Brandon Flowers solo album in particular has just grown and grown on me over the past couple of years, now one of my favourites. My good friend, Mrben09 has managed to trump me however, with tickets to see them in Las Vegas during the Christmas break, lucky fella! Ben has interesting views on a number of subjects and is happy to share them in his blogs, well worth checking out.
http://mrben09.wordpress.com

 

Given the mountain of literature I've read on the life of Elvis Presley, I would have imagined there was very little left to learn, until I read this book. 'Last Train To Memphis' is the definitive account of the man and the musician. Painstakingly researched, informative and entertaining, the writer, Peter Guralnick, has drawn on accounts from people who were actually there and who are very much part of the story he is telling. For the first time the myth of Elvis is stripped away leaving a description of a likeable albeit completely driven young man. It is very difficult for anyone under a certain age (including me) to fully understand the impact Elvis had on 1950's America and shortly afterwards...the planet! To quote John Lennon "Before Elvis, there was nothing!". This book goes a long way to explaining how he redefined both popular music and popular culture.
It is a quite stunning biography, one of the best I have ever read. I would highly recommend it to both Elvis fans & anyone who has an interest in the history of pop/Rock music. I'm certainly getting mileage from the above text, used it to review the book too!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Train-To-Memphis-Presley/dp/0349106517/ref=cm_cr-mr-title

 

Anyone who has followed this blog will know that we are having an interesting time obtaining royalties from Australian TV AirPlay, PRSformusic said we should expect payment in September, running out of days guys! We're going to have take matters into our own hands soon and travel back down under to get them! We may have to confiscate tinnies and snags...you have been warned!

On a serious note, our music has been played both on TV and radio without a single penny touching our accounts, I certainly dont expect to retire on the royalties, but I'd like to put them towards a beer!...cough up!

The new EP continues to take shape, albeit slowly. We are putting the finishing touches to a track titled 'One Day', recording session scheduled next week with our two, yes you heard it here first, our two female vocalists, more news on that to follow.


If you enjoyed the post, please leave a comment below, we would love to hear from you.

 

 

Until next time, take care and keep smiling

 

Baggers