One of my favourite (and most consistent) UK outfits, 29th Chapter return with a new-look website, just ahead of the promotion campaign for their new album, Louder.

The guys have always delivered good quality in absolutely everything they do, and the new website – as with the new CD – is no different…

Guys, as ever, I salute you…

See the new 29th Chapter website

That’s the way, aha, I like it…

If you’ve got even the most remote of interests in the UK gospel music scene chances are you’ve seen the strong campaign that Preacher Boy Records is currently undertaking for Timothy ‘E Tizz‘ Grimwade’s debut album ‘Sound Of My Soul‘ (click picture to download).

Apart from the distinctive branding created by Christophe ‘Design By SPIRIT‘ Pierre (nice one, bro), they’ve also taken the unusual (but not altogether surprising) step of releasing the entire album under a Coldplay-esque ‘pay-what-you-like’ model.

I’m actually going to put the download link on UKGospel.com as well, but seeing as I promised to have this live ages ago, I just thought I’d do the ‘quick mention’ thing here, and run the link and widget on-site.

US Airplay

In an additional, encouraging turn of events, Preacher Boy have just Tweeted (Wednesday 4th November 2009, night time) that the single ‘Never Leave Me‘ has had national radio airplay via US sydicated station Light FM.

Pay What You Want

Anyway, on to the reason for writing this: (more…)

‘Flashback‘, the new single from Faith Child, featuring Alex Greig and produced by G.P. of DVine Muzic (who is also part of the excellent New Direction Crew) was released to media this week, and should start getting airplay about now.

It comes out ahead of his debut album ‘Illumination’, launching on the 4th of December.

More information on the event on Facebook

Faith Child on Twitter

Apart from the sterling work of people like Sammy G and Roger Moore continuing to have a huge impact on the national UK gospel scene, Birmingham has been relatively quiet in the past couple of years, certainly when compared to the massive moves they were making between 2004 and 2007.

However, the RTS collective has been making a few moves that I’ve been keeping an eye on.

A collection of artists offering everything from music to media to event services, they recently recorded their own take of Tryumf’s popular underground hit ‘I Don’t Pack A Matic’

Get your free download here: http://www.soundcloud.com/rts/rts-dont-pack-a-matic-remix

Guvna B has just been announced as the winner of the gospel category in the Urban Music Awards, with management team-mate Yolanda Brown picking up the ‘Best Jazz’ award in a year that has been excellent for their Black Grape management team.

Guvna B website

Yolanda Brown website

Black Grape Website

Urban Music Awards website

The UMA Gospel category was sponsored by the rather excellent m-briomusic website

Came across Noblemen a while ago.  Their bio says they ‘combine live instrumentation with quality production and deep lyricism’, and that ‘their music is destined for the mainstream…’

Now almost every bio I come across says that, but it still doesn’t take away from the fact that their track ‘Christian’ is one of my current favourites.

The guys are currently recording new material for their EP, and this mixtape, Overdue is a compilation from the London-based crew, offering impressive wordplay in places.

• Download it from http://noblemen.bandcamp.com

Resitance is futile…?

I resisted it for as long as I could but in the end, I don’t think there was much doubt that I was going to create a Facebook page for UKGShop.com

It’s only been live for a few days (even though I created it months ago), as I just didn’t see the point of a Facebook page.

The Potential…

To be honest, I’m still not totally sure about its usefulness, but about one week in I can already see its potential.

For one it seems to have a stats package supporting it – and I’m a sucker for stats. Forget the hype, let’s see what the stats are saying…

Your free stuff!!

Of course you’re going to benefit too: free stuff (CDs, downloads and maybe even books and clothing) – among other very lovely and very useful things I haven’t even thought up yet…

Do the civil thing and be a fan. Like now.

• So – stop reading this and sign up right away!

Music Week is reporting MySpace has unveiled a number of new features on its music service.

These include MySpace Music Videos, new analytical tools for artists and the ability to buy music via iTunes.

Read the full story here

Producer J Swizzy comes to the rescue of cash-strapped artists by releasing a 12-track Grime instrumental album as a free download.

Grime Factory is immediately available at Filefront.

J-Swizzy on MySpace

Remember Nathan Prime?

Him of the absolutely massive tune ‘Knowing You‘ from a few years ago..?

Well, he’s back with a new EP, due out any time now.

Brand New Day is produced by industry veterans Steve Campbell and Clive Mckinley, as well as Nathan himself, and continues the classic Adult Contemporary RnB sound that Nathan does so well…

More news on that soon.  Meantime check out Nathan on MySpace to hear Brand New Day, and read the production credits for the new songs…

Sonnie Badu is the first receipient of the inaugural BEFFTA Awards, picking up the ‘Gospel’ gong.

Other artists in the category were Four Kornerz, the London Community Gospel Choir and Tryumf.

• Beffta website

Kirk Franklin in Ireland, November 13th 2009.

By the way: if anyone knows how to reach Bono, Kirk wants to hook up…

(Shout out to Godfrey Chimb of Gospel Music Ireland for the link up to the video)

I really don’t need to say much about this.  The visuals say it all. I love Uprise!

Read the UKGospel.com feature here.

Radio for your week

Hello UKG World,

My name is Henry Yanney and I’m new to this bloggage world, but Mr UK Gospel has graciously allowed me to contribute to the official blog of UKGospel.com, the world’s most frequently updated UK gospel music website.

Updates
Updates from me will include everything from album reviews to random musings to anything relatively related to the UK gospel scene.

Official Blog
For my first official blog (minus the constant ramblings on my Facebook/Tweets, etc) I’ve decided to give you a list of great radio shows which you can listen to throughout the week if your 9 to 5 requires you to press the enter button (or any other key) for the majority of the day… (more…)

Breaking into the mainstream music industry

I don’t know how long this BBC 1Xtra Audio documentary is going to be up, but it’s well worth you taking 20 minutes out of your life to listen to it if you’re serious about your music.

It features Mpho, Sluggz, KMD and Boyson – all at different stages of their music career…

Triple O Album Update

I know quite a few people want to know this, so here’s the short version of what’s up with Triple O.

I’ll be bringing you more in a bit…

Album
Drops 1st quarter 2010, but there will be no launch in the ‘formal’ sense of the word, though there will be a few things in place to mark it, so be on the look out for further announcements.

Promo/track leaks
‘Mayday’ released as single before end 2009.

Specials
A UKGospel.com/Double Portion Music – album podcast special out soon…

Showreel
Album showreel available for download once Triple and I can sort some dates out

Big news
A major announcement early 2010…

More soon…

Last week Friday was UKGospel.com Teamster Faith Jegede’s first day recording her UK Round Up segement on Muyiwa’s show ‘Gospel Tonight’ on Premier Radio

She wanted to keep things quiet.  I had other ideas…

Nu Colours recently recorded a song for the new BeBe & CeCe Winans album due to be released tomorrow (October 6 2009), reports George Luke.

The invitation to record with BeBe & CeCe came as a result of Nu Colours’ appearance on the One Voice album, which has just been released.

The group re-formed specially for the One Voice album, on which they co-wrote and recorded the song ‘All Over the World’ with husband-and-wife team producer Warryn ‘Baby Dub’ and Erica (one half of Mary Mary) Campbell.

“About four weeks ago, we had a call from Warryn,” said Lawrence Johnson (pictured), who is both a member of Nu Colours and one of the executive producers of the One Voice album.

“He asked if we could get together and record a track for BeBe & CeCe’s new album.  This is what the One Voice project has been about – creating relationships between artists.”

Buy the One Voice album on the Survivor website

George Luke is a London based freelance journalist and radio producer.

Latest video from Taymé Tee, Always Love You, Taken from his album ‘So Good‘

Worth sticking this video on here just for the groove of the tune alone – and you really want to check how the last minute plays out…

The groove from 3:44 is deadly.

Buy the CD at UKGShop.com/rnbsoulfunk

After 7 years on Air DJ Proclaima and has taken a little time off his radio show on Cross Rhythms Radio.

Birmingham-based Hyzac ‘Gap D’  Boothe (pictured) has taken over this show aired every Friday and will be every Friday 8 – 9 pm.

Gap D also continues the Street Music policy: Hip Hop, Bassline, RnB, Funky House as well as the staple Praise & Worship.

Download the show from 2nd October 2009 here.

Ryan Carty’s excellent debut album ‘Journey to Purpose‘ has impressed the influential US GospelFlava.com website.

Reviewer Donna Marshall was not only impressed with lead track ‘Gratitude‘ but also singled out ‘Words Cannot Explain‘, ‘Won’t Quit‘ and ‘Lord Revive me‘

The album still remains one of the strongest releases to come out of the UK gospel Soul/RnB scene in recent years.

Follow the links

• Read the GospelFlava review
• Buy the CD on UKGShop.com

What you wanted to know:.

MOBO 2009 Gospel Winner: Victizzle

MOBO 2009 Jazz: Yolanda Brown

You can also watch it back on BBC 3 TV

I came across Alan Charles ages ago, at the launch event of his album, Da Plan (which is still – to this day – one of my favourite UK gospel CDs).

He was one of the first people that genuinely impressed me with his choice of venue – it wasn’t a ‘churchy’ one  (not that there’s anything wrong with churchy venues), but the Straford Rex, (I think) – a great site for what turned out to be a great album.

You’re probably not very impressed by that.  But I’m going back years here, before that sort of thing became popular…

He had the stage presence and audience interaction skills to match, and even though I don’t think I’ve ever told him this, I made up my mind there and then to support as much of what he does as I can, based on the standard he set back then…

So now, his latest project is the play Love Sax and All That Jazz (he explains the full premise in the video below), which starts touring from October.

Looks like it could be one for the diary…

One of UK Gospel’s leading young artists performs an intimate gig at the Jazz Café.

After the huge success of ‘An Evening With Guvna B‘ live at Hackney Empire, Guvna returns to headline another show.

‘Guvna B live at Jazz Cafe‘ is on December 9th 2009, featuring full live Band, special guest collaborations and loads of audience interaction.

He will also be showcasing new songs from his forthcoming second album as well as old tunes…

The event also sees the release of his DVD ‘An Evening with Guvna B’.

You can purchase your limited tickets now at www.jazzcafelive.co.uk.

Guvna B: Website | Twitter | MySpace

Serious Times

I recently finished reading Steve Smith’s book, British Black Gospel.

In it he suggests the UK gospel scene had something of a golden age in the 80s: high-grade music, serious mainstream industry interest, and a thriving live circuit.

Things weren’t perfect, but it seems people look back on that time with great fondness.

Now whether that’s because – like most things nostalgic – the rose tinted glasses filter out the hardships, I really don’t know.  I wasn’t around the scene in the 80s.

Back To The Future

However, one thing I do know for sure: if I had a choice about what time period to be in the UK gospel scene, it certainly would be right here, right now!

Have a look at the Garage Cypher video below by Uprise

Unshakeable

This is the 4th in this series.  It highlights a number of things emerging industries need to have to assure long-term survival:

(more…)

I used to get asked this a lot.

It was one of the reasons why I set up the ‘What’s Selling’ page on UKGShop.com.

It’s a fair question, but one that probably needs more space than I can give it here.

So, if you’re an artist looking to submit your music and need an idea of how well your CDs can sell, here are some good tips for you: (more…)

Wednesday evening. April. Tired…

Preparing the world for the mark…?
(more…)

Saturday evening. April. Worked hard on UKG Presents and UK Gospel.com all day…

I’ve liked Victizzle for ages.

Just checked his MySpace page having not been back for weeks.

His current big tune for me: Jam Yourself (which is why he’s holding his home made jar in the picture LOL). He’s definitely one to watch…

He also posted a very interesting blog on a topic very close to my heart. To borrow a line from it:

‘…y isnt any1 takin the tym 2 “perfect” their skills b4 dey jump on a track…’

Preach on, preacher.

In case you’re wondering: he’s wearing a traditional hat from the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria.

I know cause that’s where I’m from as well…

Friday Afternoon. September. I always thought it couldn’t last…

The shakedown of the digital music delivery services continues:
(more…)

Tuesday morning – off to ATL in 2 days…

DJ Fitz: end of an era – and the confirmation of a strain of embedded apathy…

This year (2007), the BBC scrapped 9 radio shows on its Black Music station 1Xtra.

One of those shows was the ‘Vibrations’ Gospel Show, hosted by DJ Fitz. His last show is actually this Sunday… (more…)

Me: biiiiiiiiiiig fan of Triple O.

This video: G2G acapella for Urban Mission TV.

Reason I like: one artist, one camera (single light source works great) and pure talent.

I feel a feature coming on (to go on UKGospel.com or UKGPresents.com, I think…)

Recently made friends with DJ Marcia Carr (via Facebook).

She’s a serious figure in the UK music scene, and now solidly into House music DJing (among other things, I’m sure).

(more…)

Originally published on UKGPresents.com – October 2007

This was the most-replied blog post on UKGPresents.com back in 2007

GOSPEL GATHERING – AND SOME WORRY

This can still have a happy ending….

So Gospel Gathering has been and gone.

It’s been a huge triumph for gospel music in the UK, which is still so deep underground it’s somewhat hidden even from those of us within it…

However, I worry.

(more…)

Should UKGShop do downloads…?
(29 Sept – 12 Oct 2008)

.
Downloads are pretty much a staple feature of music consumption.

Chances are you ripped your tracks to your MP3 player from the CD you bought on UKGShop.com.

If that’s the case:

should UKGShop offer MP3s…?  (more…)

This video : Soul Survivor’s ‘Bling My Youth Leader’ – MTV’s Pimp My Ride meets your local church youth group.

Featuring: 29th Chapter, one of the UK’s best at successfully representing across the racial divide, along with people like Noel Robinson and GreenJade.

Reason I like: They have a great sense of humour.

Came across this video last night – absolutely brilliant.

And for extra bonus points, it features Tim Hughes who’s written some of the most popular spiritual songs of recent years.

This’ll no doubt ruffle feathers in certain quarters, but it’s undeniably funny regardless…

This is a view that few people ever get to see.

10th January 2009.

Pic is of the backend/editing area of UKGospel.com 1.5 .

It’s Saturday night, and the site is nowhere near finished.  I still want to have it live for Monday, so the pressure’s on… (more…)

…Missed My Deadline!!!!!

Spent the weekend (was so tired I slept through most of Saturday) tidying up the site ahead of what I hoped was going to be a Monday Launch

But still didn’t get everything finished.

However, I did manage to start (and finish) mixing the very first UKGospel.com V1.5 Audio Update.

Found some old drops, jingles and sound effects that I thought I had lost, when an old portable hard drive died…

I then went ahead and put together a rather tasty (I think it is anyway) 15 minute show…

Was up until gone 1am working on the update, so at least that part is now ready…

But: missed the launch date of today, but I think I’ll go for a go-live date of Wednesday 14th…

The fallout of the economic downturn (we’re not allowed to call it a ‘recession’, apparently), means that there’s bargains to be had.

Bought Adele’s debut album ‘19′, real cheap from Zavvi.

One word: Serious.

At 19, (well, 20 this year), that girl has no right to be writing those kind of songs. Talk about talent…

And if you like Adele’s excellent Singer/Songwriter thing, then you defintely have to check out Lain’s Brother Soul. 

Listen to my preview mix of his album on UKGShop.com’s SoundClick page. 

If you like it, the guy will appreciate it if you buy it at UKGShop.com

By the way: This ‘GM is GM’ series is all about the non-gospel stuff I listen to.

Finally!

At  just before midnight on 18th January 2009, I retired UKGospel.com Version 1 …

UKGospel.com Version 1.5 is now live: more interactive features, audio, video and a cleaner more web 2.0 look.

It’s still very bare-bones, and there’s little by way of actual features and stories on the site, but the most important thing is we’re live!

Now to start thinking about version 2 – even though that’s not due until later this year, but more likely 2010…

So we went to the BET presentation on 5th Feb 2009.

We were there to hear what BET and Glen Yearwood, (apparently the person responsible for BET happening in the UK), ably supported by one of our industry’s media veterans, Roy Francis, had to say.

On the plus side, the omens are good: (more…)

After all the media hype about Twitter, I signed up for an account. I was totally underwhelmed.

I’m happy to admit to one of those people that just doesn’t get it.  It’s too much hard work…

On the other hand: I signed up for Spotify 2 minutes ago, and I love it!
Music on demand, with a nice clean interface.

Yes, indeeeeedy!

It’ll be easy to do that panic measure thing and start seeing conspiracies everywhere, but I’m curious about this picture from Morrissey’s new album campaign…

There’s a mark on Morrisey’s right forearm (can’t make out what it is), and a mark on the baby’s forehead (that looks like a butterfly, I think)…

I suppose it’s probably some art director’s idea of styling…

But then again, there’s Revelation 13 and Revelation 14 to give me some interesting (disturbing?) context.

I still don’t understand it all myself, but it’s interesting nonetheless…

Listening to an internet radio station broadasting out of Barbados (I think) the other day, and Estelle’s American Boy comes on…

In Kanye’s verse in the middle 8, they’d actually blanked out ‘hell’ from his line: ‘to hell with all that rubbisssssh’…

Apart from what it says about the sensitivities of whoever the broadcasters were, I wonder what also says about  what we’re prepared to accept coming out of our radio…?

Here’s a totally random question:

Should I still buy the music even though I have good contacts in the music industry and can get pretty much anything I want for free, even though I do all I can to support it via UKGospel.com and UKGShop.com…?

Saw a bit of the Channel 4 series, Christianity- A History recently, particularly the one featuring Kwame Kwei-Armah (called Dark Continents).

In it he travels to Latin America as well as Africa, where he traces the impact of the journey of Christianity into East Africa via the Middle East, into Ethiopia (and not the European, slavery-tainted West African channel).

Very interesting.  He came across as more angry than he possibly intended, but some of the connections he made about Africans being more in tune with the original spirituality of New Testament  Christianity, and the modern European church (I use that is the widest sense of the word) having lost much (or all) of that over time was fascinating.

Europe, he argues, has become the Dark Contintent of the title…

Very interesting stuff…

24 hour station.  Every kind of music style to suit your rather varied taste.  Huge team of DJs.

See the site.

Went to the free Digital Music Training seminar organised by the fantastic Roney Henderson of 03 Media.

It was, in a word, brilliant.

It was led by Toby and Juan from Music Ally (who really knew their stuff), and the cross section of invited guests covered the range of the Christian music scene: publishers, managers, company owners and media heads like me…

As it was an introductory course it covered the basics:

• ‘What is’, ‘how to’, ‘what works’ and ‘what others have done using these same tools’.

Much of it I was already familiar with, but there was some tremendously useful stuff for me to pick up and use (I’m now importing my blogs into my Facebook profile as a direct result of the course, for example!)

Anyway, moving on.  The title probably suggests this is a rant, so I might as well get to the point:

(more…)

UKG, Connected…

The other day UKGPresents.com went down – complete with all the content I have added (or updated) over the past three years (audio, video, documents, news, hard-to-find links and more).

As I type this, it’s still not back up.

Technically that should be a major crisis…

(more…)

Going through my WordPress blog today, looking at some of the old entries and just making sure all the links and bits and pieces were working, I came across my MySpace page, (which I haven’t been back to for an age as it’s allllllll about Facebook at the moment)

Anyway, I stumble upon my very good friend Lisa Mayers’ MySpace page as well, and had a listen to her album preview…

That’s one of the very, very very best things I have heard in goodness knows how long!!!!!

Simple.

I spend a significant part of my week outside the UK gospel scene’s self-contained bubble: Media Guardian for news, and BBC 1Xtra for radio (I rarely miss Ras Kwame and Twin B’s 100% UK shows).

I also indulge my old-school Reggae interest by trying to catch up with David Rodigan on KISS as often as I can.

So what’s this got to do with UK gospel…?

Well, not much. At least not directly.

But the thing is this: 2008 was tremendously significant (Guvna B, Ryan Carty and Sammy G / Jimmy James did good, in my view).

It’s March 2009.  Now that the echoes of New Year cliches have died down I’m looking to see if the 09 shine will be brighter than the 08 great (sorry, couldn’t resist).

Anyway here’s what this is really about:

• there seems to be a lot of very mediocre music around at the moment.
• And people seem to be encouraging it.

Thing is you’ll always get good stuff and downright bad stuff.  That’s just the way it goes.  Just because something is done in the name of gospel doesn’t automatically make it good.  Sorry, it just doesn’t.

I’ve seen and heard tracks around the place where responses to decidedly ordinary tunes have been greeted with ‘fantastic’!  ‘Great! ‘ ‘Brilliant!’ ‘Can’t wait!’ ‘Sick!’ [add your own superlative here]…

Am I missing something?

When Sammy G and Jimmy James released Dublit, we knew things had changed.  When Guvna dropped The Narrow Road I had to beat a path to his door and get a copy. Ryan Carty’s album Journey To Purpose is still serious.

When I’m listening to music outside UK gospel, and hearing how the UK mainstream independent scene is going on, I’m not sure there are that many of ‘our’ tunes I can be recommending to my non-Christian friends at the moment.

So, if you have a friend that is an artist in any shape or form: tell them the truth.  If their craft and/or skill needs to be much better and much tighter, give it to them straight.

They may not like to hear it, but hopefully they’ll thank you one day when they raise their game as a result of your honesty.  If you like their sub-standard stuff as it is, cool.

I know it’s March, so there’s still a long way to go.  And I certainly haven’t heard everything that’s out at the moment.  So there’s still hope.

Like Mystman once said on the Swift Phase beat: ‘We need to rise the level up… Because the world is rising the level up every day…’

Selah.

More like this?  Check out the UKG Blog

Early this week: saw some exasperated status updates on Facebook from people trying to get Michael Jackson tickets.

Later this week: More happy updates popping up as people start tracking down tickets.

Got me thinking: so people are happy to pay a minimum of £50 (I hear) for MJ, but our promoters seem to be struggling to pack out small to mid sized venues charging typically less than half of that…

Go figure…

The fallout over my ‘Hit Your Friend Hard’ (blog below) yesterday (imported from the official UKG WordPress blog into my Facebook profile)  was so much that today I’m giving you guys some light relief…

It’s a television advert.    A very efficient, attention grabbing one at that.

Nothing to do with the UK gospel scene, but it’s currently one of my favourite TV things for a number of reasons.

It’s a fantastic way to:

• differentiate your product in a crowded market
• get your message across in less than 30 seconds
• create instantly memorable characters
• build a sustainable marketing campaign (this is the second in the series, I think)

And before you scoff, a few sobering facts:

• As I write this, Alexandr the Meerkat now has 278,415 fans on Facebook (not to mention the other pointless fun groups springing up around him)
• His official group has 5,106 members

They’re selling insurance, for goodness’ sake!

Simples

I think I’ve tapped into a collective nerve with my last few notes on Facebook.

You guys have been great!   Thanks for the comments, links, references and feedback so far.

The idea behind these notes is to share some of the info that will energise what it is you’re up to, whether that’s as a promoter, photographer, DJ, artist, designer,  whatever… (more…)

Here’s a question that’s probably going to split us down the middle:

What’s better: firebrand gospel preaching (that works well in church but few other places), or just doing good works that inspires all that come in contact with you…?

And yes, it’s a loaded question. Watch this video (if you’re reading this on my Facebook profile click the picture to see the video on YouTube):

Royal Priesthood have been championing Platform2 (get to know) for a while now.

It’s a Government-funded project seeking to encourage 14 – 25 year olds to volunteer on projects overseas, living and working in a country affected by poverty, and then doing something positive to help their own communities on return to the UK.

The only thing you need is a passport.  Everything else is taken care of by the Government.

This video is from their appearance on Tim Westwood’s Hip-hop show on BBC 1Xtra (my favourite line: ‘more guns on the streets, someone’s got to be lying – can’t be the Government’s fault all of the time’…).

Seeing as I haven’t spoken to Smooflow for a few weeks I’m not sure how many in the community have actually responded to the call.   In the meantime these guys are walking the lonely walk that pioneers sometimes have to in order to do what is necessary to do.

So what are you thinking: do we need more prayer conferences, more scripture quoting with little action outside our own sweet little circle(s), or more Christians making it happen on road…?

Selah

The other day I came across a press release that recommended 200 words councils shouldn’t use in trying to communicate their messages.

They included the following classics (suggested alternative in brackets):

• Blue sky thinking (thinking up ideas)
• Cross-fertilisation (spreading ideas)
• Coterminosity (all singing from the same hymn)
• Seedbed (idea)
• Horizon scanning (Why use at all?)
• Predictors of Beaconicity (Why use at all?)
• Thinking outside of the box (Why use at all?)
• Contestability (Why use at all?)

It got me thinking.  What will be the Christian equivalent words…?

And even though this should go without saying: it’s just for fun, guys!

If you want: see the full list here

Fact vs Fable Series

Intro: OK, guys: I’m on a roll now, and I can’t stop… 

Off the back of my recent industry-style notes, I’m bringing you an occasional series of thoughts under this Fact vs Fable stream.

It’s actually quite simple:  I’m looking to highlight thinking/attitudes within our industry that have somehow over time evolved into solid, almost incontestable ‘facts’. 

While I can’t suggest I’m right every single time, my intention is to provoke you into thinking, and – more importantly – challenge you to incorporate some action into our faith (and that’s not suggested that you already don’t)…

Lemme know how I get on.  I know I don’t even need to ask that because you lot always do anyway! 

 Fact Vs Fable

Fable 1: The UK gospel scene has no industry.

Fact: it does. 

It’s just different to what you’re probably measuring it against (more than likely the mainstream industry, who promote what they do so much that it becomes hard not to believe their hype).

Hmm… I’m sure there’s a lesson there somewhere… (“,)

More like this: Facebook | WordPress

Fable: The ‘mainstream’ will get turned off by overtly Christian messages and lyrics.

Fact: the evidence suggests otherwise.

In an age where Kanye West’s hard core Hip-hop image didn’t prevent him from releasing ‘Jesus Walks’, and DMX was happy to put out ‘Lord Give Me A Sign‘, and over here people are happy to go properly mad for songs with titles like ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes‘ and ‘Migraine Skank‘, it seems, in the words of the song, ‘It Ain’t Necessarily So…’

I’m not even going to talk about Black Eyed Peas‘ ‘Where is the Love‘. Or Crazy Frog.

Here’s a crazy thought: why don’t we just release our overtly Christian lyrics, let it sell to the one person that might not have otherwise heard, and let God do the rest…?

‘Good music is good music’.

Selah.

About the ‘Fact Vs Fable’ Series

• Fable: God isn’t in Hip Hop.
• Fact: No one knows for sure.

There’ll be reasoned, skilled, passionate and intelligent arguments made both for and against.

My take: I’ll have Tryumf, Jahaziel and Jay Ess (to name just three) any day.

About the ‘Fact Vs Fable’ Series

I’ve been so busy, it’s not even funny.

Looking good for the weather this summer, and the UK gospel scene’s been buzzing.

Seems the Facebook backlash has started, as the Twitter take-up kicks in (Guvna B,  Faith Child, Karl Nova and Tryumf to mention four). Who would have thought a 140 character limit would be so fascinating…

I  still can’t see what the fuss is all about, but it’s a great deal of fun to watch.  I still get Twitter telling me people are following me – even though I’m not really doing anything…  Oh, well.

Facebook notes have also taken a bashing: Guvna B (again), S.O. and Icie opt for WordPress to share their thoughts…

As it turns out, looks like things are going to absolutely blow up musically this year.

Stand by for my ‘Incoming’ feature on UKGospel.com.  It’s taking so long to compile because there’s so much going on…

Before I go though: a few (not exhaustive) mentions of brilliant digital marketing campaigns I’m loving, in no particular order:

• Victizzle: for iSing. Well over 100 response comments in less than 48 hours of uploading a single song to Facebook says it all.

• Triple O for his pre-album campaign.  Loving that.

• Karl Nova for his digital outreach, more so for his intelligent and personable discourse with his community/fan base/whatever it is you want to call it.   What Karl is doing goes beyond marketing/promotion.  This is pure brand extension,  community participation and bare witnessing  in the purest form.  Some university should run a course on that guy…

• David McQueen.  An articulate rebel with a noble and laudable cause, blessed with good old original, stimulating thinking.  Warning: one dimensional Christian stereotypes need not apply.

Lots more to come, but just thought I should do a quick update.

By the way: this might be a bit premature, but: RIP MySpace?

I’ve got to be a bit more careful with my Facebook status updates.

You just never know who’s reading, and – more importantly – how they’re going to respond.

Secret Moves

One lovely afternoon a short while ago, I was making really good progress on some of my UKGospel.com projects.

I was so chuffed that in the heat of the moment I wrote something like ‘making secret UKG moves’ as my Facebook status update.

Signposting…

Background: I post several status updates a day on Facebook and Twitter, the vast majority of which are links pointing out a lot of the good work that people do out there.

I also post random notes about more mundane stuff happening around me.  As you do.  The ‘making moves’ update was one I thought no one would notice, let alone respond to.

Less than a minute after posting it, I get a few ‘tell us’ responses, which – strange as it sounds – caught me totally by surprise.

Moves revealed

I told that nosy lot they had to wait, and pointed to the (rather obvious) clue in the  status update: the word ’secret’…

But now, I can let a few little kittens out of a rather big bag:

(more…)

G.P: adds a major US gospel artist to his serious UK roster

US artist Da’ T.RU.T.H’s next music video will be for the song ‘Talk to you’  (featuring and produced by London-based G.P., pictured) from the iTunes gospel chart-topping album ‘The BIG Picture’.

G.P. (from the Preacher Boy Music label, also home to Jahaziel and E-Tizz) has also produced hits for Jahaziel, Tedashi, Da’ T.R.U.T.H, New Direction Crew, E Tizz, Four Kornerz, and has many more projects soon to be released.

G.P. will be releasing his first single in the forth quarter of 2009.

Grammy-nominated and Stellar award winning artist Da’ T.R.U.T.H will be in the UK to headline GL Live 5 from 20th-22nd August, will also be performing in Germany on 28th August.

GL Live also features Commission, Sean Simmonds, ETizz, and Mark J.

As well as shooting the music video, Uprise Music Television (one of our very best platforms for underground Christian artists) will also be filming a tour diary and documentary on Da’ T.R.U.T.H.

It’s the Uprise.  And we’re coming…

And what’s better, the world is taking us our own terms.

This video is an ad for the new Da’ T.R.U.T.H’s new video, A UK product for a US artist.

The track is produced by G.P., the video shot by the very lovely people at Uprise, with huge promotional input from Preacher Boy Records and GL Media.

Key US artist, key UK producer, key UK companies….

Soon the world will understand: in the words of L’Dubzy: it’s nuffing long…

Watch this space.  it’s not just about yellow taxis, it’s also about black cabs…

One of the Marys was in town.  As was Darlene Zschech.  And Israel Houghton. And Warryn Campbell. And Kierra ‘Kiki’ Sheard.

The stellar US lineup was matched by the UK rollout: a specially reformed Nu Colours, Muyiwa, Matt Redman, Bishop John Francis and Noel Robinson…

Four years in the making, with a cast of over two hundred pulling together many different nations, Survior is billing this as ‘the most anticipated album of the year’.  And it’s finally ready for release.

I’ll have a listen this weekend and report back to you next week…

The new track released by TP to celebrate is 22nd birthday is now available as a free download.

‘Ose Baba‘ (Thank You Father) continues TP’s trawl of his native Yoruba (South Western Nigerian) heritage for musical inspritation, this time going beyond his usual sprinkling of the language and extending it to the rhythmic arrangement of the song.

Fans of Victizzle’s iSing, Gwyn Jay Allen’s O Holy One, and Tunday’s Cast Your Burdens need to check this…

Click here to download Ose Baba

Dwight Elliott (AKA DJ Gus) joins forces with Urban Gospel Network with his show Back2Basics, going out live on Mondays from 9pm to midnight.

He specialises in Urban and Contemporary Gospel music across all genres, classic and new, and the show features interviews, reviews and gospel news.

Regular show feature ‘Food For Thought’ addresses environmental, community and personal issues challenging Christians on a daily basis.

As a matter of course, I only accept a handful of new-release CDs for UKGShop.com.

That’s because many new artists still underestimate how much work is actually required to promote their music.

Interestingly they still seem suprised when the album/EP/single doesn’t do as well as they had hoped…

Tryumf’s CDs are always the exception to the rule.  Ghetto Scripture was the first CD to sell out on UKGShop.com way back in 2005, and 777: The Mark Of The Peace repeated the feat again in 2007, before Tryumf sold out of his run, and didn’t re-press any more.

But now – for a short time only - 777 – The Mark Of The Peace (2009 version) is now back in stock.

This version – a taster until the full 777 album release – already has orders coming in directly to Tryumf from all over the globe: USA, Germany, Estonia, Canada.

Order 777 Mark Of The Peace directly from Tryumf or from the UKGShop.com Hip-hop section

Track Listing:

1. I Don’t Pack A Matic
2. Matthew 24
3. Proverbs 31 Woman
4. You Were There
5. Right Now
6. Roll Out (taster)
7. So Amazing (Rock version)

Want to sell more CDs? Read these tips

Streetbrand is one of the UK’s strongest multi-racial, multi-denominational teen-focused Christian websites around at the moment.

Originally starting out as a magazine, it subsequently migrated online, and last week Monday returned as a hard-copy publication once again, with its original mix of music, fashion and faith.

The magazine will be published three times a year, focusing on teenagers looking to interact with other Christians.

Articles on music, books and gadgets will sit alongside interviews with other young people – not necessarily Christians – and celebrities talking about their faith.

In the meantime excellent digital marketing, commentary on youth-based faith issues in the news and smart use of web 2.0 tools has given Streetbrand good presence in the mainstream.

Founder and editor Kofo Baptist was interviewed by the BBC last week, and the site was even name-checked by the Financial Times online.

Get Streetbrand magazine at UKGShop.com/streetbrand or see the stockist list

Nice one, Kofo.

Karl Nova

Victizzle

Tunday

Karl Nova, Victizzle and Tunday are just three of a growing number of UK artists increasingly finding fellowship, fans and a whole new fan base internationally.

Before 2009 is out Karl will be in Baltimore and Washington DC and Nigeria, and Tunday and Victizzle are due in Miami in December.

Producer G.P has not only been out and about, but is producing for heavyweight US gospel Hip-hop names.

Both Jahaziel and Tryumf have been abroad several times this year, have been very well received and still have more international appointments before the year is out.

We comin’. Watch out.  UK stand up.

IDMC returns with their new album Soul Food in the coming weeks. 

Lead track It Is To You (a new cover of the classic UK gospel staple written by Midlands-based Duke Kerr) will be released to media and in digital stores shortly.

I’ll update you with the news here as I get it.

Meantime, enjoy the video (which also has Duke Kerr as a guest on keyboards):

You can’t have missed the noise around T.P’s latest all-singing, all dancing, all-Funky offering from his ‘Funky Fresh’ Series.

‘Funky Fresh 2‘ is once again a 30-minute selection of tracks written produced and mixed by T.P. himself.

Fans will be delighted he retains the same winning formula, riding the current Funky House wave that has swept the UK scene in the past 18 months or so, and lacing his take on the genre with scripture and dashes of his native Yoruba language to serve up an infectious mix of beats.

Download FF2 at GKMusic.com and get your CDR at UKGShop.com

Royal Priesthood (Smooflow and Roucheon) have consistently put out material over the years, and are now 10 albums deep.

Ahead of their new release ‘Empire Of The Sun’, comes this new track ‘Forbidden Army’ with contributions from some of the scene’s longest-serving artists including Adelaide Mackenzie, Judah Racham (GreenJade), Bold, Wizdom (GreenJade), Chenoa, Wariyah (Zion Noiz), 3rd Son (GreenJade), Roucheon, Silas and more.

Check out these promos.

Promo 1: Wei and Klarity

Promo 2: Chenoa (introduced by Wiz and Tor)

You know I’m excited about this one already!

Don’t make the same mistake I did.

Do not, under any circumstances, underestimate this song…

It’s BIG!!!

G Force is back, man…

Beatsmith has pulled another huge track out of the bag, trust me…

Karl Nova’s excellent track, ‘I Still Believe (Take 2)’, produced by Victizzle and featuring great vocals from Kirsten Marie plus a cool bridge/middle 8 rap from Michigan-based Kiwi is now available as a free download.

This is one of my favourite Karl Nova tracks – I therefore have no hesitation in recommending you download this one ASAP before Karl comes to his senses and decides to – quite rightly – charge for it…  

Go here: http://bln.kr/1IA

WriteWay Music, Tunday and Victizzle’s company is looking for quality talent to sign and develop.

The intial focus is on songwriters and producers, so if this sounds like you, get in touch with Tunday: http://www.myspace.com/tundaymusic

It’s only being going for a very short time – one week to be precise – but I thought I’d draw your attention to the Gospel Music Ireland website.

According to founder Godfrey Chimb, the intention is for the site to be the ‘premier Irish resource’…

Show them some love, people…

Taymé Tee follows his debut album with two new digital singles released within weeks of each other: Just As I Am is and One Life (ft Da Capo) continue Taymé’s blend of Jazzy, Inspirational and Soulful Contemporary Gospel.

Video: photo shoot for the One Life single cover

• Just as I Am on iTunes
• One Life on iTunes

Just took delivery of this book ‘British Black Gospel‘ a few of days ago.

It’s written by Steve Alexander Smith, a guy I know is majorly into his UK gospel history with a passion – and then some.

At first glance (I haven’t read all the way through it yet) the book traces the history of British gospel music and its impact on social, demographic and even parts of popular UK culture, taking in the history from the late 1800s to contemporary times.

It’s subtitled ‘The foundations of this vibrant UK sound’, so – quite naturally – it focuses more on events of the past in the runup to our contemporary times, with extensively researched and presented information, anecdotes and images.

This is history that is significant and hugely wide-ranging, taking in elements of American Historical events, slavery, the Caribbean Windrush generation and the emergence of the African influence.

It’s really good to see someone try to put those potentially disparate strands together in one volume.  I don’t feel sufficiently qualified to comment on how well Steve achieved that, but I find it a hugely welcome addition to charting the history of the UK gospel scene.

Crash and Burn

As you’ll no doubt have noticed by now I feel this book deserves more than my usual brief news blog entry.

I desperately hope it gets the attention and support it deserves from the demographic that inspired it, in addition to it becoming a useful guide for anyone else interested in the scene and its rich history…

But I fear it might crash and burn within the Black Christian community.

Let me explain. (more…)

S.O.E (another one of those long-standing artists most people have probably not heard from recently) released a new video just over a week ago.

Out from the same school as Royal Priesthood and GreenJade (in that he’s very active at street level, contributing directly to a few youth development programmes), this new release is called ‘Breakin’ Da Silence‘, featuring a number of young artists that worked with him on an anti violence programme of the same name.

Have a look

Mark Of The Beast: Endgame Theory

I’m always wary about the default doomsday scenario panic mode that some Christians go into when looking things to do with the sign(s) of the end times.

You might have seen it before: the often generalised, doom-laden statements: ‘the world is coming to an end NOW!!! Pray, Pray, Pray!!’

Or: XYZ (insert current high profile mainstream personality here) is a Freemason who in turn is of the Illuminati who in turn are going to bring the entire planet into slavery and then hand us ALL over to Satan!!!!!!!!!  ‘Pray Pray pray!!’ (more…)

Faith Child’s debut album (following on from his first single ‘I Like It’ ) will be launched on  December 4th 2009.

More details to be released in the coming weeks.  Get the full details from Faith Child on Facebook.

Buy Faith Child’s single at UKGShop.com

One of my favourite rappers - JayEss - released his ‘Banned From TV’ mixtape on September 11th.

He chose the title because he argues the content will not neccesarily be aired on (what I’m guessing is mainstream) TV, as it points to the truths of the bible and of Jesus Christ.

Tracks include

- Trapped in a box
- It’s Okay featuring Once from G-Force
- Got wot we got
- Breathe Easy

- The Legacy with Da T.R.U.T.H.  and more …

The mixtape is available now.  Click here for a free download.

As voting closes on the MOBO nominations for 2009, a new Black awards ceremony announces itself to the world.

And Four Kornerz, the London Community Gospel Choir, Tryumf and Sonnie Badu are the four inaugural nominees in the ‘Gospel’ category for the first Black Entertainment, Film, Fashion and Arts  (BEFFTA) awards.

Saxophonist Yolanda Brown also had a nod for ‘Best Female Act’ to crown her ‘Best Jazz’ MOBO nomination for the second year running.

The BEFFTAs have been set up to ‘honour the best personalities in the UK and globally’, and the 40 voting categories include areas as diverse as dance, fashion choreographers, newspapers and event promoters.

• Full details at the BEFFTA website
• Click here for the BEFFTA nominations

S.O.’s campaign towards his album release continues with the announcement of a side-project:

‘Bridging the Gap‘ is his collaboration EP with US-based producer Battle Axe (who did S.O.’s very well received ‘Love Is‘ track).

Battle Axe will produce all the music while S.O. will be on full vocal duty.  The EP will be available in September or October 2009 as a free download.

Apparently S.O. sings too…

• S.O. on MySpace

The nominees for the 2009 MOBO ‘Best Gospel’ share their thoughts with me.

If you’re listening to this before midnight on the 13th of September 2009, you can still vote!!

GUB (Gospel Urban Beats) announced the third edition of its premier podcast, The JBL SHOW.

Following the first two shows featuring Karl Nova and producer and artist  TP in the JBL studio, this month has UK Gospel legend Isaiah-Raymond Dyer (pictured).

The show is once again hosted by Edwina, and this edition showcases music from  from Raymond & Co’s album ‘Playing Games’ with Isaiah-Raymond,  talking about the inspiration behind the tracks, perspective on ministry today and up coming projects.

In ’JBL On the Streets’, Davelyn talks to Michaela the poet at her Fixing Barbie album launch.

Bola, JBL’s newest member, hits the streets of East London on a crazy adventure with comedian Simply Andy at his long-awaited one man show, The Adventures of Simply Andy…

• Go to the GUB website

A Star and Mystman, better known as Forever Christ released their first promo set, J.U.S.T.I.F.I.E.D (try typing that when you’re in a hurry).

Their music is inspired by Grime, Hip Pop and Electro.  I just like their bold and ‘quite-in-your-face’ lyricism – and there are a couple of really strong tracks on the set too…

The music available on Facebook (search Forever Christ Music Group), on free download and hard copy.

I’ll see if I can get a few CDs for UKGShop.com

If you like the selection you won’t have long to wait for their new set.  They’re already working on J.U.S.T.I.F.I.E.D Vol.2

Click on the picture or click here to download the promo

A free download track by Karl Nova sharing his thoughts on his love/hate relationship with the idiosyncracies of the gospel music scene (the somewhat ironically named Love Letter) is generating an interesting response on Facebook.

If you’re on Facebook, go here to hear the track and read the responses.

Or click the following link if you just want to download the track.

The video to one of my favourite tracks from Michaela’s ‘Fixing Barbie’ album, video, produced by the lovely IYDLIT ladies…

Get the CD from UKGShop.com

Urban Gospel Network (UGN) has announced their new Breakfast Show with Dave P.

The show runs from Tuesday to Friday from 7am to 11am.

It follows the familiar breakfast show format, presenting old and new music, giveaways, a ‘Quick Word from Beth Moore’ segment, news, interviews and an event guide.

For requests and dedications send an email to radio@urbangospelnetwork.co.uk.

You can also email all the UGN presenters as and when they are live on air.

Came across this on Facebook.  You’ll either find it cloying or totally disarming.

For the record, I like it.

God’s Chisel…

Not much more to add, really…