Tag Archives: Saturday Morning Music Club

Squeeze blog, Fred Perry and Sub-Culture

Posted on by
4

Chris Difford set up a brilliant digital music / video / photo / blog system called SMMC – Saturday Morning Music Club which is a pure delight to use. It’s based on the same system that delivers BBC iPlayer and is such a smooth and trouble free experience. It was so successful with his Cashmere If You Can album and then with a re-release of Glenn Tilbrook’s Pandemonium Ensues (with six bonus tracks) that it has really taken off and there are exciting plans to use it again. Here’s the SMMC update:

We at SMMC and Squeeze Towers, after an autumn of r&r (research & relentless development) – are more than delighted to be able to announce that in the very near future we will be launching 2 incredibly exciting initiatives based around the awesome SMMC App, and of course our flag-waving standard bearers, SQUEEZE.

In association with our friends at Fred Perry, and their fantastic Sub-Culture website, we will be bringing you an “up close and personal” so intimate it should come with a personal space warning. Every single day of the tour, resident video blogger and occasional drummer Simon Hanson will be bringing us his unique take on the tour happenings, in the form of a short movie ….. delivered direct to the SMMC Subculture App.

Along with this, Captain Alice will be bringing us the Captain’s Blog – the diary of a tour manager. Alice will give us her insight and stories and experiences of how its going on the road, and is even threatening to throw in some pictures.

And finally – the inimitable and incomparable Chris Difford will be bringing us his bird’s eye view of the tour, daily – with Diff’s Pics, his choice of documentation from his very own camera.

All brought to you by Fred Perry Subculture. Every Day throughout the tour.

We aim to please.

Another exciting announcement to follow.

Well, where’s the announcement? Coming soon I hope!

All 11 Chapters of “Cashmere If You Can” are available together, at once. That’s a total of 37 songs, complete with lyrics, plus 11 videos, tons of exclusive photos, and loads more, all delivered via the incredibly clever and elegant Saturday Morning Music Club Desktop App.

Lots of News

Posted on by
4

Well, Glenn Tilbrook has a new web site design which looks excellent.

This week Glenn’s on Ken Bruce’s Tracks of My Years on BBC Radio 2. The show is everyday between 9.30 and midday. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/ken-bruce/tracks-of-my-years/ for details.

In addition, Saturday Morning Music Club has expanded to three releases – there’s the pre-order for Spot the Difference, the new re-recordings of Squeeze classics with a killer version of Loving You Tonight sung by Glenn, and a reissue of Pandemonium Ensuess which has six, yes six, extra tracks:
Black Sheep (Remix)
Happy Disposition (Acoustic)
Product (Acoustic)
Relentless Pursuit(Acoustic)
Still (Acoustic)
Too Close to the Sun (Demo)

and very good they are too – all for not very many dollars. Visit Saturday Morning Music Club to find out more and join.

Artist info 63

Posted on by
3

Squeeze are now in the US for their Summer tour. They start off on the Regis and Kelly show tomorrow morning. All dates for the tour can be found at www.squeezeofficial.com

Squeeze ‘Spot The Difference’ is being released on Anchor & Hope Records in the US on 3rd August. Over the last few months lots of hard work has gone in to re-recording some of the old catalogue, this release is your first opportunity to hear these great songs all refreshed and lovely. We are very proud of the recordings and hope you won’t be able to spot too many differences!

Don’t forget we have the big UK tour at the end of the year, dates on the official website also.

If you have not joined any of the facebook pages do have a look, they are a hive of activity.

There is lots of exciting press and radio in the UK and US to look forward to this year, keep an eye on the websites and facebook/myspace pages.

Glenn’s ‘Pandemonium Ensues’ album is going to be re-released very soon on Saturday Morning Music Club. There will be additional tracks and videos/photos available. One of the tracks is a previously unreleased song and there will be demos and acoustic versions. If you do not know about SMMC please check out Chris Difford’s site for information.

Glenn will be going up Mount Fuji this August with the Love Hope Strength Foundation. You can find more information here: www.lovehopestrength.org

You will also find information here on the bone marrow drives that LHS will be doing at all the US Squeeze shows this summer. We are really proud that we have managed to work with LHS to make this happen, all the venues and promoters on the tour have been very helpful in all arrangements so a big thanks to them also. If there are any (and we hope there will be) bone marrow matches from a donor that has donated from our shows, we will be informed and will pass that information on to you all.

Hope you are having a great summer.

Thanks for all the continued support.

The Quixotic Team

Cashmere If You Can

Posted on by
1

Well Chris Difford’s new album has been available for a few weeks now – in parts! It’s being released as part of Saturday Morning Music Club, where each week (yes, you guessed it, on a Saturday) a new track, plus b-sides, videos, photos, song lyrics and notes by Chris are released to your desktop by a shiny new application.

Here’s what’s available so far in terms of music:

Introduction – 5 June 2010
1975
Funky Dory
Po
Battersea Boys (demo)

Chapter 1 – 19 June 2010
Like I Did
Velvet Zone
She Is The Walrus
Trippy Take Me

Chapter 2 – 26 June 2010
The Still and the Sparkling
As Bill Sees It
Lover In Bombay

Chapter 3 – 3 July 2010
Back In The Day
Slap & Tickle (Country and Western version)
Under The Mon
Koh-I-Noor

It’s available for £20 and you get something like 10 chapters. It’s a fascinating way of releasing music and far better value than a CD when you consider all the extras and the personal connection with the artist. My favourite so far? It’s got to be Polestar I think:

She was a dancer who lived round a pole
From 8 until midnight, then she would go home
To kids eating kit kats and drinking Dad’s beer
While he was still there sleeping, headphones in his ear

Isn’t that just classic Difford?

You can get Cashmere If You Can here.
Chris Difford - New Release - Cashmere if you can

In the meantime here’s Chris performing Happy Once Again taken from the album Cashmere If You Can.

Saturday Morning Music Club

Posted on by
8

Here’s the latest:

http://www.smmcmedia.com/2010/06/02/smmc-a-brief-mission-statement/

The concept behind SMMC is relatively straightforward. It is our response to the question “what, exactly is an album these days?” A question a lot of people have been asking for a while. Well the truth is, we dont know any more. There is no answer. In the old days of not so long ago, an artist or band would spend weeks, months or years recording an album that would become a release – an event on a specific day, the release date – mostly as a result of the promotional and marketing strategies of the record labels.

Specific physical realities gently outlined the scope and limitations, and most importantly the length of the recordings that were released – through the various vehicles of vinyl, 45′s and LP’s, double albums, eight track, cassettes – then CD’s, which gradually allowed for more and more music to be included, and finally downloads.

Downloads changed everything, in particular that magic word “unbundling” which means that specific songs from albums could be handpicked by the customer. Until then the only way to get individual tracks from albums had been through buying 7″ singles or EP’s, CD singles, cassette singles, then compilations. Or of course, recording off the radio and then the TV, which a lot of people will remember.

“Unbundling” meant that the concept of the “album” would change forever. A band could record a whole album, but find that only a few songs from it were being bought online. Of course the physical CD was, and still is, available – but the focus gradually changed. “Why buy the whole album when you can just get the tracks you like? Unless its ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’, why bother?!” The sad truth is that there is a lot of logic behind that statement.

But we believe an artist should be free to work within the realms of this new thinking, rather than in spite of it.

SMMC Media, the very small sphere of influence behind Saturday Morning Music Club, believes that we are offering a tailor made service borne of the desire to operate within the chaos of the new musical consumer landscape, and outside of the physical constraints of the CD, in a way that will benefit the artist and the consumer. Not only that, we believe that we can extend the experience and enrich it – which brings us back to how it started, the Saturday Morning Music Club where each week is an event, there is no one “release date” as such.

We believe in being true to the artist and being true to the consumer. We do not believe that we are reinventing the wheel, nor do we believe that we are being dramatic, drastic or revolutionary. We simply want everyone who comes our way, whether artist, fan or consumer, to be able to enjoy the experience of music and all it has to offer.

Chris Difford - New Release - Cashmere if you can

Saturday Morning Music Club

Posted on by
1

Here’s the latest news from Chris about his SMMC. Why not subscribe to the site launch here: http://www.smmcmedia.com/ ?

First release announced
The innovative new digital distribution service SMMC Media is set to launch its first venture, the Saturday Morning Music Club later this month. Set to enhance the way we buy and listen to music online, Saturday Morning Music Club is a big step forward in how an artist can connect with and reward their fans.

The first release will be Squeeze man Chris Difford’s new solo album Cashmere If You Can, although other artists and releases will be announced through the year.
With Difford’s Saturday Morning Music Club, the premise is simple: once you sign up for it, you receive one chapter a week every Saturday morning for the duration. As well as the week’s lead track from the album, each chapter comes complete with a “cluster” of media: 2 b-sides, a video, photos, lyrics and song notes, gradually building up a whole library of music and content. This all comes for only one price. All the content is delivered straight to a single desktop application, which will allow users instant access to the music and other media, in an engaging and interactive way – and unlike other desktop services such as Spotify, this can then be saved to the computer or transferred to portable devices. Media content will not be DRM-protected. Latecomers to the Saturday Morning Music Club need not worry about missing out on previous weeks’ releases as once material is made available it stays that way.

For ‘Cashmere If You Can’, pre-orders for the set will begin on Saturday 15th May. The pre-order will come with an immediate download of the app, and include the ‘Introduction’ – which is the first cluster of content, and includes the album’s lead single ‘1975’.

Chapter One will include ‘Like I Did’.

Chapter Two – ‘The Still And The Sparkling’ on June 5th.

Chapter Three – ‘Back In The Day’ on June 12th.

Chris Difford is thrilled to be launching the new service: “Its not an album, it’s an experience … Like in my childhood, the excitement of rushing to the record shop every Saturday … I’d love to bring that feeling back to buying music.”
The idea came about after collaboration between Difford’s manager Matt Thomas – a former Universal and Warner Bros marketing executive, and boutique application design agency G-Raff. For Thomas, “this started out as a fun idea to get around the lack of physical distribution outlets, and to take the artist/fan relationship to the next level in a creative and more intimate way. It turns out that quite a lot of people are interested in using it. For the unsigned artist with a good fanbase, or small label, it’s a pretty cool addition to the mix. We’re not trying to replace existing distribution outlets, just add to them. Incremental sales are good sales. Direct to fan is even better”.

The engine and software behind SMMC Media are incredibly versatile; the app is customisable and can be changed and skinned to suit individual artists branding and artwork requirement. Delivery can be timed content or one time only – for singles or EP’s. Deployment is simple, straightforward and quick.

www.smmcmedia.com

Chris Difford News

Posted on by
2

Cashmere if you Can

Chris is now finalising plans for his new record, and the Saturday Morning Music Club (the new way of delivering songs, lyrics etc to members on – well I supposed you guessed that it arrives on Saturday morning, hadn’t you?). Here’s what his people have to say:

The record is now going to be called “Cashmere If You Can” (true to form Chris has now changed it twice), and he will hopefully be kicking things off mid-April, with the weekly delivery starting mid-May. Enigmatically, and topically, its highly likely that the first radio record will be “1975″. Saturday Morning Music Club is almost ready to be unveiled. Chris says: “I feel like the first man on the moon. Sort Of. Hope you enjoy it too. See you on Saturday”

Saturday Morning Music Club

Chris in intimate Brighton Gig – New Date!

Chris will be performing an intimate candlelit gig for just 40 people in his home town of Brighton at the Fairtrade Gallery on 23 May 2010.

26 MONTAGUE PLACE KEMPTOWN BN2 1JE : LICENSED BAR : 8 TIL 11 : 07990 511576 – TICKETS & INFO

Competition

There’s also a great competition to win a pair of tickets to see Chris live and acoustic at The Albany in Deptford on 21 May – final date for entries is 21 April (see the sidebar to enter) – let’s have your entries then!

Saturday Morning Music Club

Posted on by
3

Here’s the latest news from Chris in today’s press release:

Chris Difford, double Ivor Novello winner and founder member of the iconic and newly reformed Squeeze, continues to innovate and surprise with his new album ‘Chris, That And The Other’, the first release on brand new digital distribution venture ‘Saturday Morning Music Club’.

Rather than selling a CD or digital album of 12 songs through the usual channels, Difford aims to give fans more for their money than the standard iTunes jpeg. Over the course of a 12-week period, a “cluster” of media will be delivered direct to fans’ desktops each Saturday morning: the week’s lead album track, 2 b-sides, videos, photos and handwritten lyrics and notes – all for only one price.
All the content will be delivered straight to a single desktop application, which will allow users instant access to the music and other content – which can then be saved to the computer or transferred to portable devices. Media content will not be DRM-protected. Latecomers to the Saturday Morning Music Club need not worry about missing out as once material is made available it stays that way.

“Its not an album, it’s an experience” says Difford. “Like in my childhood, the excitement of rushing to the record shop every Saturday … I’d love to bring that feeling back to buying music”. A single, ‘Like I Did’, will precede both the Music Club and a run of solo dates, while a physical release of the album is due for much later in the year.

Chris Difford is no stranger to giving back to his fans and the music community. He continually runs music-writing workshops, is involved in music therapy as well as teaching, while he is due to curate the inaugural ‘Songs In The Key of London’ concert at the Barbican on March 9th – this will bring together Difford, current and former Squeeze bandmates Glenn Tilbrook and Jools Holland, as well as the likes of Suggs, Blaine Harrison (Mystery Jets) and more, singing their favourite songs about London.

As for the record itself, ‘Chris, That And The Other’ is Difford’s third solo album, following 2007’s very well received ‘Last Temptation Of Chris’. It was recorded at The Pool in South East London and Jools Holland’s Helicon Mountain Studios, and produced by Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno / David Byrne).