Jump to content

#56: Clay's going to sing. Life is good.


jmh123

Thread Title  

36 members have voted

  1. 1. What should be the next thread title at FCA?

    • A burgeoning roar of eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees!
      7
    • Behold the Allure of Aiken!
      1
    • Guys, it was just so, so, so good.
      1
    • The man is a star and we saw him go super-nova.
      4
    • Oh yeah, he really is just. that. good.
      15
    • Shoot, I'm still suffering from post-concert giddiness, and I wasn't even freakin' there!
      0
    • I really think it is now his time and yes it is about damn time!
      8
    • And we love every minute of his many talents.
      0


Recommended Posts

CV and CH have already dubbed it "Magical Mystery Date." LOL!

That's perfect!

(Especially since right now I'm listening to Ringo Starr's new album, Y Not. He sings, 'living in the mystery of the night' -- exactly, Ringo! This is without a doubt the best thing he's done post-Beatles. And he's peaking at 70.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

(Especially since right now I'm listening to Ringo Starr's new album, Y Not. He sings, 'living in the mystery of the night' -- exactly, Ringo! This is without a doubt the best thing he's done post-Beatles. And he's peaking at 70.)

Hmmm, I guess I should get my hands on that. ;)

I am loving all the excitement....my email hasn't been this busy in months. Wheeeeeeeeeeeee! :04:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I,ve made my hotel reservations at the Marriot where they held the Gala. At least I know where it is and can find my way around. Made them for thur., fri., and Sat. Maybe some of the people on this board can go to breakfast at that great Irish Pub we went to last time we were there. Tyr na irish pub and restaurant. I think thats the name.?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

(Especially since right now I'm listening to Ringo Starr's new album, Y Not. He sings, 'living in the mystery of the night' -- exactly, Ringo! This is without a doubt the best thing he's done post-Beatles. And he's peaking at 70.)

Hmmm, I guess I should get my hands on that. ;)

Oh yeah, luckiest, and especially since there's some Macca to be had there.

Maybe some of the people on this board can go to breakfast at that great Irish Pub we went to last time we were there. Tyr na irish pub and restaurant. I think thats the name.?

Just a guess but was it Tyr na nog? (I only know that from one of my guilty pleasure Van Morrison songs.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

loving the excitement. It's not a definite no for me...just all depends on how long my temp job lasts. I was told today that they would keep me as long as they could hide me. bwah.

The good part is that it will air on TV so eventually I'll get to experience it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He sure knows how to keep everybody tuned in, watching, waiting and talking!!!

I hope there are enough tickets for as many fans as want to be there and can go, and more for local audience too!!

I've made the hotel reservation for HippoGA and me, and maybe a couple of others! Won't book airfare until we know more. Haven't looked at it yet though, since it doesn't matter right now.

The EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE's we've been able to expend lately sure do feel good!!!

On another note, I saw the new Harrison Ford movie, Extraordinary Measures, tonight and it was good. Harrison Ford is still good looking!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How wonderful to hear SOM'PIN about Clay again!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

March 12, 7 pm in Raleigh. Doubt that I could get there, but oh it's fun to think about it ... and talk about it. I miss him so bad, but it's begun to feel as if it was another lifetime when we got to see Clay So. Dingdang. Much. Hard to believe I last saw him in March 2008 in Spamalot.

Want an album. Want a TOUR!!! Near meeee I hope, I hope, I hope!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

First of all -- thanks jmh for creating the new thread! She did a fine, fine job!

I'm feeling better today, and am at work, albeit at a different library location than normal. Fortunately, it's fairly quiet around here now, so I can do this...

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

*ahem*

That date might work for me, as it is right before Spring Break. BUT....do I want to blow my travel money on this, and then have him announce a tour later? I really can't afford to do more than one Clay trip per year. Besides, I'm planning a trip with my husband for the last two weeks in June to Washington, DC. (Anyone have any hotel tips for that city, BTW?)

But still.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Hey ldyj at last I can help out on something! We stayed at the Embassy Suites (in about April 2008) and loved it. It was about a 10 min walk to both Dupont Circle and Foggy Bottom stations. The staff were very helpful and the room was one of the nicest we stayed in - though to be fair we did stay in some "v.budget friendly" rooms in most other places. The area around it is lovely and we really enjoyed our time there.

Wish I just happened to be passing by Raleigh in March.....It could happen... I could just set off to work one day and my bad sense of direction could get me on a plane landing in the wrong hemisphere!........Think DH would buy it?...Nah me either.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The news is so exciting. The timing is perfect for me as I am on spring break then. But my husband's and mom's health will figure heavily into my decision. I really won't know until must closer to the date. I am in my if-it-it-is-meant-to-happen-it-will place.

FearH2O, your "promise" to your DH cracked me up. It reminded me of one of my favorite Mark Twain's lines: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics." or something like that. I would place your promise in the "damn lies" category.

KeepingfaithThank you for bringing over that information about Celtic Thunder and Decca's promotion. I have never heard a single from CT. I continue to wonder if we will have a single from this album. I really hope so. I love the surprise of hearing a Clay song on the radio and love to follow spins on yes.com. Yes it is about me!

Listening to Weekend Edition on NPR right now. They reported that organizers hoped to raise a million dollars from the celebrity studded telethon last night. Considering the celebrity wattaage and the fact that it was broadcast world wide (I believe that was a case), a million dollars seemed sort of low. Didn't Clay manage to raise 200,000 in a campaign for Unicef-my memory is hazy on that and of course that was over a period of time, not an evening.

I thought many of the performances last night were excellent.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:GM_FCA:

I haven't seen Clay since December, 2007...sure hope he tours this summer...seems if you want to see Clay anymore you have to go to Raleigh.

9 Days until GFI!

:yahoo:

35 Days until Clay Speaks at the HRC Convention!

:yahoo:

48 Days until the Magical Mystery Date!

:yahoo:

57 Days until The First Day of Spring!

:glasses:

4 and 1/2 months to June and The New CD/PBS Special!

:04:

Happy Birthday to all celebrating!

Everyone have a great day!

Kim

Link to comment
Share on other sites

According to the CBC's website, donations to Haiti Relief are upwards of $9 million so far. I could swear that number was much, much lower at the beginning of the telethon last night. I watched both the hour long Canadian telethon, and some of the US telethon as well. I admit to channel hopping during performances that weren't to my taste, tho. ;) It was really quite overwhelming and so, so sad to see all the devastation. I am glad that the telethon was a resounding success, because the conditions that those survivors are living in right now is abysmal. I can't even imagine. Please donate if you can! For Canadians, the government is matching donations dollar for dollar right now. Not sure how long that offer is going to last.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

According to the CBC's website, donations to Haiti Relief are upwards of $9 million so far. I could swear that number was much, much lower at the beginning of the telethon last night. I watched both the hour long Canadian telethon, and some of the US telethon as well. I admit to channel hopping during performances that weren't to my taste, tho. ;) It was really quite overwhelming and so, so sad to see all the devastation. I am glad that the telethon was a resounding success, because the conditions that those survivors are living in right now is abysmal. I can't even imagine. Please donate if you can! For Canadians, the government is matching donations dollar for dollar right now. Not sure how long that offer is going to last.

I watched and capped both. The one OR one of the ones from Quebec is on again this afternoon. I saw about 1/2 hour of that last night and it looked great, going to record that AND a second one (at least I think it's a second one) tomorrow. It is really sad what happened in Haiti and amazing how the world is getting together to help. I'm proud of our government for matching the donations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From the CH:

From Twitter

BTW, last night's show (@felamusical) had both Wesley Snipes & Clay Aiken in the crowd. Can you say, the next great Buddy-Cop movie?

The show "FELA" which is running on Broadway

I watched the last 3/4 of the telethon last night, and I was impressed with Sting, and, surprisingly, Justin Timberlake (but then, he sang one of my most favorite songs ever, "Hallelujah").

Link to comment
Share on other sites

KeepingfaithThank you for bringing over that information about Celtic Thunder and Decca's promotion. I have never heard a single from CT. I continue to wonder if we will have a single from this album. I really hope so. I love the surprise of hearing a Clay song on the radio and love to follow spins on yes.com. Yes it is about me!

Hi Cagney, I also had this saved in my documents and it's from an interview from two years ago with the then-new head of promotions for the label. Very interesting, I think.

Up Close With Decca Label Group SVP Promotion David Leach

Talk about the challenges that led you to accept the task of heading promotion for this re-launched, re-imaged label.

The first thing that was appealing to me was the people that were running it, Chris Roberts and Paul Foley, both of whom I’ve known for 20-plus years. They are great record men and both are good people and have assembled a tremendous team of experienced and talented people in every department from A&R right down to finance. So right off the bat, it was appealing because of the quality of the leadership and the people in charge. Number Two, I find the musical mix here very eclectic, very challenging, but also very, very strong in its fabric. We have the number one Classical label in the world. We have a Jazz label that is really starting to ramp up, a Broadway division that is unparalleled, and then we have the Decca Label Group which is starting to sign more and more quality adult music.

So you have those three components, and there are four joint venture distribution-type deals. We distribute the incredible Rounder Records, and we are starting to be involved with some of the promotion. We’ve got a label called Velour Records that is a very well run small label that has a couple of bands – Cat Empire, Kaki King – that are great artists that will be heard from. We have a label out of England called 14 Records that has The Waterboys and Souixsie Souix, both of whom have CDs coming later this year and have made wonderful records. And we have a partnership with World Café Live for their live DVD series. We have a great mix of product and a great mix of people in this thing, and now it’s time to make sense of how to get this music exposed on the radio.

What is the A&R philosophy of the label?

Number One is quality music and quality artists. Number Two, we want artists that can tour and help us get out there and work the marketplace. But it’s the quality music we’re after – quality Adult music. The mission statement of the label is to develop an image as the premier Adult music label in the business. We already had that with the Classical division and the Broadway division, which has fantastic soundtracks we put out and incredible Jazz that we’re starting to redevelop. Along with that comes the Popular music component which is Paula Cole, Mark Cohn, Boyz II Men and Paul Anka’s 50-year career retrospective, which is coming at the end of August.

Talk about the significance of the artists you’ve signed and what they bring to the label that’s going to help you brand it at radio.

First of all, those are name artists that have careers that are still very healthy and ongoing. We all know how tough it is to get a brand-new act going these days, so these folks at least have a resume to fall back on. They’ve made giant hit records. Now our challenge is to get radio and the marketplace to give these artists a fair look, so we can go back to their existing audience and develop some new audience for them, continue to propagate their careers and help them continue to be relevant on the radio.

Radio, like the rest of the industry, has changed dramatically since the Decca brand was put on hiatus 30-plus years ago. How is the new Decca approaching the new radio landscape to further these careers?

Decca has been very smart in how we approach radio. Radio is not the primary driving force at this record label. Hopefully that’s going to change over time, but right now it’s smart not to put all your chips on the table behind radio. Radio has been difficult the last few years. Radio used to “drive the car.” If you didn’t get on radio, you wouldn’t even put the record out half the time.

Nowadays you’ve got to develop ways to get radio to be excited about your record, to be a partner in the project with you. You want to make them feel good about playing an artist like Paula Cole or Mark Cohn, but as an important part of the mix, not the only part of the mix. We have a great sales division here, with three super pros who know how to get the right records into the right retail accounts at the right time. We have an awesome press department that has taken difficult artists that don’t get radio play, and delivered major television and media hits. We already have the fundamentals of a very good record company, and hopefully [National Director of Promotion] Louise Coogan and I can help radio become a partner in breaking some of these projects and furthering these artists’ careers. I couldn’t be happier about having Louise here. She has a great resume in the business, having done both radio and independent promotion. Her fresh ideas have already opened my eyes to some new things. I look forward to having her as my partner for quite a while.

How do you take advantage of New Media opportunities, without making radio feel like they’re competing with New Media for your resources?

They are competing in many ways. But the fact is radio also has new media departments. They have Web sites and online initiatives that, more and more, you have to get plugged into. I’ve done promotions at stations that have not been playing an artist of mine that I think should be, but we started out doing an online promotion on their Web site with some of their more active listeners. So a lot of times now the first point of entry into a radio station is with their online division, and then you stir it up to the point where it creates enough of a story where maybe the PD will give the record a shot on the radio. It’s not a mutually exclusive proposition.

You’ve described a label that is positioning itself as fairly boutique, yet you’re part of the largest music conglomerate in the world. What are the challenges of maintaining that image in the corporate environment?

Some of the boutique-ness has to do with the niche artists we’ve had. There are very few labels that have a Broadway division that is active and has platinum records, or a Jazz division that contributes big time to the bottom-line, as well as a Number One Classical division. And our Jazz component has two of the greatest Jazz artists of all time – the greatest living saxophone player, Sonny Rollins, and one of the greatest Jazz vocalists of all time, Dee Dee Bridgewater. We’ve got some very cool, great artists, and that immediately brings cache to the label that others don’t have.

About the Haiti telethon last night, did Jennifer Hudson look too fabulous or what? I want her trainer. I thought Coldplay was excellent, and Justin Timberlake. The other iconic musical moment last night was the playout of Conan's last show. Will Ferrell and his cowbell with the all-star band ... that was a way to do it! I've only watched that show once -- last night -- and I know a lot of folks can't stand Conan because of remarks he's made about Clay. But tell me, was he worse than Jay Leno, because Leno's gay jokes are sophomoric and pathetic to me. I only watched him when he had Clay on the show. NBC is in a world of hurt with me. I didn't watch Conan, and I didn't, and won't, watch Leno. They should have just given the whole thing to Jimmy Fallon, who actually has TALENT! Imagine that! I think Craig Ferguson is doing an excellent job at CBS, too. He makes me laugh out loud.

*** merrieeee, I'm leaning toward NOT Clay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...