6Music proposed closure
Thursday, 4 March, 2010
As music lovers in the nation would already know, the BBC Director-General, Mark Thompson has made proposals for the closure of 6music. I feel very strongly about this, and have been compelled to write a letter to the BBC about this. Even if Essay Like Nephew are no longer, I feel a great deal of loyalty for the experience they have given us directly, in the case of our radio plays, and indirectly through providing the stage that we played at in Glastonbury.
For those who want to help to campaign against this closure, I urge you to visit this Facebook page as a first port of call.
Dear Sir/Madam,
I felt compelled to respond to the proposed closure of 6Music, as a musician and as a beneficiary of their activities. I am extremely grateful to the people who work at 6music who support programs like BBC Introducing in bringing new, under the radar music to a wider audience. Tom Robinson on 6music gave my band our first ever radio play, which gave us a confidence we never had before. The next year, with thanks to a local BBC radio station, we were playing at the BBC Introducing Stage at Glastonbury (2009), heavily supported by 6music who gave the best acts on that stage prominence. We met Tom Robinson who gave us the advice and confidence we needed to proceed with getting our music "out there".
Although our band has changed in formation, and are changing direction for our own reasons, I feel an enormous sense of allegiance to 6music and the music culture that they help to foster, and I believe there are many artists who feel this. The BBC Introducing program and 6music provide a vital and vibrant platform for new acts to prove their worth to the nation. Names such as The Ting Tings and Speech Debelle are recently "made" acts who owe some of their success to this station. It is no surprise that established artists such as David Bowie, Lilly Allen and RadioHead have come out to voice their concerns about the proposals. David Bowie says on his website: "6music keeps the spirit of broadcasters like John Peel alive and for new artists to lose this station would be a great shame". - I have always seen 6Music as the station that has taken on what I see as the institution built by John Peel, and I am not surprised that Mr Bowie and other established artists feel the same. 6Music provides a space for up-and-coming bands to break through into prominence, where their music is only judged on merit, not on sales and perceived popularity. Without it, I fail to see how independent bands can find success, and British music culture will be poorer as a result.
The music industry is today less driven by big budgets and big labels pushing their songs to be played on radio, but more by independent musicians and labels promoting themselves through channels like 6Music, in the knowledge that their music will be judged on merit alone. The first generation of music acts that owe their success to 6Music and their supported projects are coming into maturation today. These are the Blurs and Radioheads of tomorrow. I sincerely fear if 6music closes, several years later, listeners of other radio stations will start to wonder where the new, exciting music has gone. It would be because that link between the national audience and those who play music without the money has been broken.
I pray that the BBC management, through this consultation, can now see the unique contribution that 6Music makes to music culture in this country.
Thank you for listening,
Kind regards,
Tommy Kaneko
formerly of the band "Essay Like Nephew"
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Sad news
Monday, 4 January, 2010Friends, it is with sadness that we announce the end of Essay Like Nephew as we know it. For personal reasons, we four will go different directions in 2010.
We came to this agreement before Christmas and thought we would hold off from announcing until the new year, when we had time to think what to do personally, as well as with Essay Like Nephew. These musical years have been an amazing experience for all of us, and we shall look back on them fondly, even proudly. I hope that you will do the same.
We plan to keep Essay Like Nephew alive as an internet presence for the foreseeable future, so keep downloading, keep sharing! We want anyone to be able to listen to our songs. We even have CDs and T-shirts to share if the funereal dimension doesn't put you off.
At this point, we owe a big thank you to all of you who have listened to us, attended our shows, spread the word, and supported us materially and spiritually. Thank you, Dea, for giving us the most beautiful nest for making our music. Thank you, Richard and Graeme for lending us your strength and support which put us into Glastonbury.
Talking of Richard and Graeme, they gave our undeserving selves a sweet tribute on their BBC Suffolk radio show on new year's eve, an extract of which you can play below.
Lastly, I wish all of you a happy new year, and remember that music never dies. Keep playing, keep listening.
Spooky
Saturday, 31 October, 2009It is Halloween! So why not get into our spooky webcast video from last year. Featuring Grandpa Spinney.
Stay Together
Tuesday, 29 September, 2009
Our new EP, Stay Together, is now up and ready for you to download or stream here. We'd love to hear your comments, so why not send us an email?
Listen up!
Sunday, 20 September, 2009Hear three songs from the as-yet-untitled new EP here. The rest should be up shortly on the listen page.
New Song on Radio!!!!!!
Tuesday, 8 September, 2009Here's a sneak peak of a song from our upcoming EP, played on Richard Haugh's segment on BBC Suffolk. It's about 2:47 hrs in.
Hooray for Richard!
Monday, 7 September, 2009
Our good friend Richard Haugh is getting his own show on BBC Radio Suffolk, which is excellent news for him and for us, but especially for the bands of Suffolk. To celebrate and launch this new venture, he's putting on a show in Ipswich, and, guess what? We're playing! The details are here. He'll also be playing highlights of the set on his first show, at 7pm on Thursday 1st October.
Whine Whine Whine
Monday, 31 August, 2009
Open and respectable
Sunday, 23 August, 2009
The shop is now open for business! There's three glorious thread-based products avaliable, designed by our friend Gayle, as well as Burrows on CD. Hopefully more discs and bits and bobs will be added soon.
The shop runs on cod-liver oil, AAA batteries and PayPal, so all cards are accepted and it's secure.
Hand me the drum-stick! Snare-kick!
Sunday, 23 August, 2009
Today I've had to say goodbye to my old drums (pictured). They've been gathering dust in the attic for six years, and now my parents are moving and they've got to go.
I started thumping tubs at about eight, and bought these second hand from an advert in Loot magazine when I was 14. At the time I was playing in a nu-metal cover band called 'Prosaic'. George was on bass, and it ended with a slightly unpleasant fall out. Unpleasant, but had it not been for that I'm not sure we would have started writing our own music.
If you're interested, it's a rather worn chrome Pearl Export kit, now on eBay.
1 Comment Post a CommentWe Won A Prize!
Friday, 7 August, 2009
Thanks to you, we won the Twitgigs battle of the bands! We now have £250 more to invest in promoting the new single. For those of you who missed it, videos should be up on the Twitgigs website soon. Hopefully they won't use any of the interview we did afterwards, though. It was not a charm explosion.
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