priorities

ah priorities... basically, the biggest obstacle to following through on this documentary has finally reared its head. real life. and real life loves to munch through time and money.

i have been putting off building or buying an edit system for about six months now and i have reached the point where it will be financial issues putting it off for me. i'm lucky enough to be buying a flat. unfortunately, its going to eat a huge hole in my bank balance, which when you're self employed as i am, requires keeping enough in reserve for those times when you're not working much. this leaves little change for an edit suite.

but biding my time, i have been practising away on a free edit suite - Avid Free DV (sadly no longer available). i have mainly been cutting live performances, as you can see in the This Ain't No Picnic special video diaries.

so in my spare time, waiting for the moment to take the documentary into post production, i'll be cutting more performances and diary entries.

ac

This Ain't No Picnic Part Two

As promised, here is part two, featuring a live performance by Alan MX, more of me rambling and some sights from the festival. including plenty of STA general manager Daniel - because I know how much he loves being on camera...

This Ain't No Picnic

As part of the documentary, I dragged Ciaran along to "This Ain't No Picnic", Smalltown America's festival held to raise money for charity by getting some of the best bands around to perform. This is part one of two, featuring a full live track from The Young Playthings.




Part Two will follow very soon.

notting hill arts club

not sure where to go next - loads of exciting things coming up for sta and their artists (including a couple of new ones!) but above, you can watch a little about the occasional showcases organised by sta in assosciation with ROTa at the NHAC. theres somehing going on pretty much every saturday afternoon, so if you're around london with nothing to do, drop in (its free, the music is great and there seems to be different beer every time you visit...

Revenge Of The Video Diary

yes, i know it's been a long time. and yes, quite a lot has happened. and yes, i was there to film some of it. so here's a sneaky peek for you from the sta sessions at maida vale for bbc radio one.



more to come from the sta notting hill arts club gigs as well as me talking crap again (probably) - don't worry, i'm not in this one!

get on with it!

as ever, the need to pay rent etc. has curtailed activity on the doc. however, i should be getting back to it in a couple of weeks time as well as finally sorting out an edit system. next stop will likely be another showcase gig at notting arts club with another great line-up. also there will be a chance to get a sneak peak behind a new sta project and some members of the sta family we haven't met yet. oh, and the web diaries will soon re-appear!

rock (and indie electronic...) legends

last week i was lucky to be able to head along to the bbc's amazing and legendary maida vale studios to shoot a special sta session for the doc. alanMX and fighting with wire each performed sets in front of a small invited audience. the sessions will be broadcast on Huw Stevens' show in the coming weeks when sta will also be his label of the week.

andrew and daniel did their label business thing, supporting alan and fww whilst charming the radio 1 folk with their eloquence and enthusiasm whilst i busied around with the camera, trying not to get in the way. alan and fww rocked the place (fww's cahir narrowly avoiding choking to death on a sweet during a song - bet that wasn't in the beeb's risk assessment...)

so big thanks to andrew and daniel, fww and alanMX, the audience, the engineers at the studio and of course Huw and his peeps, all for letting me film and being dead nice.