admin August 25th, 2008
Welcome to the Jon Astral blog. I will be keeping a weblog on here as I work on my debut record Keeping It Real. It is due out in Autumn with the following tracklisting:
01-Wrong To Mess
02-Caught In The Race
03-Pulling Poses
04-Crazy In The Head
05-Rainbow Road
The genre of the record is something I dub rawtronica; a raw and lo-fi approach to electronica music production which attempts to capture the timeless charm of the vintage records of yesteryear and combine them with modern production techniques.
admin August 25th, 2008
Ethan Thomas, twelve year-old Appleby Grammar School student and talented musician, took the stage first, with a set that for one of his age can only be described as excellent. With great potential for the future, Ethan is definitely somebody to look out for. Ethan’s set was pleasant with some Classic Blues, very capably performed, alongside some of his own songs which are well written and with some tweaks have the potential to make great chill-out tracks. Ethan’s guitar playing was good and his only hitch, a time-out for guitar tuning, gave the audience time to talk. Ethan’s vocal performance was strong with a fine melodic quality. Ethan is a young lad with a future; once he finds his direction, as singer songwriter, a guitarist like Clive Carroll or a session musician, he will do well in his field. You can check out more of Ethan Thomas at his web site or check out his youtube
After Ethan had finished his set, Jon Astral joined him to do a 12 bar Blues jam, with Ethan on the guitar and Jon on piano. This really showed off the performer’s ability to improvise. Considering it was an on the spot and spur of the moment decision, the performance was good and the audience seemed to enjoy the jam. This gave Jon Astral a good solid lead into his set. Jon’s second song “Your Hero” had a very controlled vocal and the audience responded well to the lyrics. The piano was tight and accompanied the vocal well. Another good song was “Bittersweetheart” which was one of Jon’s slower songs of the set - it was good to see some variety in set. “Bittersweetheart” had some good strong lyrics which had been well laid out and structured and I could see this working well with some soft strings and acoustic guitar. One song called the “Feeling” captured my ear with its powerful lyrics and strong chords, the song having really good dynamics which complimented the structure of the song. At the start of the second half, Jon borrowed Ethan’s guitar and played “Trapped”. You could tell this was one of Jon’s favourite songs as the vocals had real passion. To finish the night Jon played some instrumentals on the piano which rounded off the night well and really suited the venue and mood of the audience. Jon really captured the audience, with his silky vocals and heart felt lyrics. Keep checking Jon’s web site for upcoming shows and the latest news. www.jonastral.co.uk Jon’s site will be launched in the next coming weeks.
On the whole, the night was a success with some audience members saying it was the best they’d yetexperienced. The audience responded well to Ethan’s and Jon’s performance, the whole night was slick with no hick-ups. The acts were very professional and knew how to move a crowd. I saw Jon at no 15 last week and this performance was even better with Jon showing mor confidence and giving a greater insight into the meanings behind his songs, which are obviously a great labour of love for him.
admin May 28th, 2008
Fiona now has a new website! In addition to the new website Fiona also now has a Facebook profile. Both sites allow you to be a fan, add photos, pictures, videos and chat with other fans.
On Fionas site you can find all the latest news, gossip, videos and music. On the site you can find out information on Fionas UK Tour, which will be announced later this year.
www.fionaclaytonmusic.co.uk
admin May 28th, 2008
This month we are proud to confirm that Jon Astral has signed with PhasingHz Records. Jon was first discovered at Plug and Play in Penrith, after his stunning performance at Plug and Play Jon was googled and that’s when we stumbled accross his site, “Life Into Machine”. From the mini web site PhasingHz was able to see potential in Jon Astral. A few weeks later at the next Plug and Play , PhasingHz caught up with Jon and offered him a recording contract. From then onwards things quickly fell into place, PhasingHz put Jon in the Photography Studio and asked Charles Paxton to take some photos for web sites and publicity. Charles, as usual, did a cracking job and there were great results.
From there PhasingHz had a web site put together for Jon, along with adding him to social networking sites. For those of you who have never heard of Jon Astral before, you could compare him to the likes of: The Fray, Chris Cornell, Counting Crows or Daniel Powter. Jon writes all of his own music and he can play a wide selection of instruments from, guitars to pianos. For more information on Jon please check his website Plug and Play in Penrith, after his stunning performance at Plug and Play Jon was googled and that’s when we stumbled accross his site, “Life Into Machine”. From the mini web site PhasingHz was able to see potential in Jon Astral. A few weeks later at the next Plug and Play , PhasingHz caught up with Jon and offered him a recording contract. From then onwards things quickly fell into place, PhasingHz put Jon in the Photography Studio and asked Charles Paxton to take some photos for web sites and publicity. Charles, as usual, did a cracking job and there were great results.
From there PhasingHz had a web site put together for Jon, along with adding him to social networking sites. For those of you who have never heard of Jon Astral before, you could compare him to the likes of: The Fray, Chris Cornell, Counting Crows or David Powter. Jon writes all of his own music and he can play a wide selection of instruments from, guitars to pianos. For more information on Jon please check his website www.jonastral.co.uk”>www.jonastral.co.uk
admin May 28th, 2008
Ben Mattinson has recently had his web site redesigned, giving the fans more interaction. With the site there is now a forum for his fans, photos section, more information and new online shop.
admin May 28th, 2008
“Fiona Clayton treated the crowd to a short but sweet glimpse of her greatness. Words can not describe just how wonderful an artist 16-year-old Fiona is. Fresh from an appearance on Solfest’s main stage, Fiona captivated the gathered crowd with her tender, yet strong vocal delivering and exquisite guitar playing. She could well produce PhasingHz’s first platinum selling album!” - CW Herald, Andy Keogh 2007
admin May 28th, 2008
In the next thew weeks PhasingHz will be adding some extra cool new features as part of the website development. The idea of these new features is to allow users to share their thoughts and experiences.
Below is the list of features:
The first feature is ‘PTV’. This feature has been online now for a few weeks now, today PhasingHz are allowing you the user to submit your own videos and share them with others. To submit a video go to www.phasinghz.co.uk/media and from there click ‘Upload Your Videos’. This will then load a form were you can send a video. Please be aware that all videos are moderated.
The second feature that will be rolled out in the next few weeks is a picture service. The service will allow users to upload their own photos, whether it’s a picture from a festival you attended or an artist you saw busking in the street. The service will be run using Flickr, the user just needs to register with Flickr to upload photos. The photos will then be displayed on the media page of the PhasingHz website.
The third and final feature is comments/reviews. This feature will allow users to post comments or reviews on venues/artists and festivals. The idea is to give people a better idea of venues/artists and festivals before they go. Its also a good way of sharing your thoughts.
Here are some ways you can currently get involved with the PhasingHz website:
If you run or work for a festival or venue, then you can have your own small website for free on the PhasingHz site. To sign up then all you need to do is please pop PhasingHz an e-mail at enquiries@phasinghz.co.uk
Now you can also send us a demo using the online demo form, see the footer for a link to the form.
With the Juice you can post your own thoughts on bands or anything music related, simply register with the Juice to start blogging.
If you have any ideas or suggestions then please send them in to enquiries@phasinghz.co.uk
admin May 28th, 2008
Dear Reader
The PhasingHz web site has undergone many changes over the last year and half, however PhasingHz are proud to announce the launch of the new web site that is here to stay.
The site was commissioned by Chris Archer, Managing Director of PhasingHz. The site brief was to create: a dynamic website that would embellish the Record Label side of the company. From this information the designers got to work on creating a new look for the company that would best portray the company’s new image.
After many weeks of design following design, Chris said “why not let the user choose the look of the web site?”Work then started on the template. From then on the site quickly got put together. While the site was being built, new ideas came to the table, like “why not bring back the forum and gig sections from previous versions?” Once the design was finished, the content was then added. For the final stages the site was checked for browser compatibility and compressed for faster loading times, to ensure everything was in order.
As many of you may recall PhasingHz announced last year in a press release, that there would be an online television service coming. Due to the amount of technical involvement that is needed to create this exciting new service, it has taken slightly longer than expected. Please keep posted for further notices on this service.
At the top of the page you will see a yellow feedback bar, if you have time then please fill out the form, it shouldn’t take longer that 3 minutes to fill in. The information in the feedback form is used to help us improve our quality of service. PhasingHz will not pass on any of your details to third parties.
Thank you for all the support you have shown. Look forward to seeing you in the future.
admin May 28th, 2008
A series of courses for creative people working in Cumbria. Cumbria Cultural Skills Partnership would like to thank the Learning and Skills Council and the European Social Fund whose funding and assistance made this programme possible. To view the list of courses just click the title.