This Saturday (11th September) tune into Premier Radio on freeview, sky, DAB, online or on local frequencies (London) between 6pm and 7pm to hear the track ‘Joanna’ off my album ‘Escape This Town’. Full details of how to tune in to Premier Radio here

If you haven’t downloaded my album it’s completely free at http://marktiddy.bandcamp.com ….just hit the ‘buy now’ button and name your price as 0 to get it free!

My next aim…to actually get around to doing some open mics!

The show continued introducing us to the band as they recorded their first single and filmed their first music video before their song hit the shelves…pure and simple!

I have to admit that whilst no longer own the single I did buy it…I never owned the album (but back then I only really brought singles).

Popstars as a television show, wasn’t bad…it was fun and gave you an insight into how the life of a pop star begins…and I guess after two albums from Hear Say we saw how it ended!

Then X Factor came on the scene and sadly 6 years later it still takes up our Saturday nights for a third of the year. The problem with the X Factor is that it’s just not very good….and nor are the contestants!

Sure Alexander Burke can sing…I wouldn’t buy her music but she has a cracking voice…in turn JLS seem to have done well for themselves and generally each of the winners have bagged themselves a number one (one of which wasn’t a Christmas number 1 thanks to the RATM campaign).

Last night as the new series began I didn’t tune in but I did catch the hype on BBC’s breakfast and in turn saw 1 act which pretty much sums up the X Factor.

This act consisted of a lady giving a rendition of Duffy’s ‘Mercy’ which can only be described as a cross between that famous scene from ‘When Harry Met Sally’ and the noises someone would make as they went through the transformation between man and werewolf (or Jekyll and Hyde). Despite having buttons all 3 judges let her carry on before putting her through!

Now I’m all for novel acts but she wasn’t an act…she’s wasn’t a singer she was just a nutter who (truth be told) probably needs to be introduced to Jedward and locked away with them in some padded cell where the world will never hear them again!

For me it sums up the X Factor…it’s not about music it’s about 2 things:

1 – Entertainment - Ridiculous acts get through so people tune in again…fair enough and we know they won’t win but kinda defies the whole point of a talent show…it’s like the holiday camp talent shows where the 2 year old who managed half of ‘mary had a little lamb’ goes through just because she looked ‘cute’.

2 – Simon Cowel’s Pocket - The biggest winner from the X Factor is Simon…he pockets a nice tidy sum from Christmas sales hyped up by the X Factor and all he has to do for that is to record a middle-of-the-road single and promise them an album at some point. Awful as he is Joe McElderry (or whatever his name as) proves that once the Christmas money’s made no-one cares…afterall what’s he doing now?

So anyway there’s my rant…I won’t be tuning in but I will take part in whatever the campaign is that stops Simon bagging a number one!

To finish here’s a song called ‘The Next Big Thing’ by MxPx…I think it sums it up nicely

Whilst I have managed a fair few gigs in the last 5/6 years a festival is one experience I’ve never done (other than Soul Survivor which doesn’t really count). The one thing I’ve loved about the gigs I have been to though was the intimacy with the largest gig I’ve ever been to being Angels and Airwaves in the Birmingham Academy which holds probably no more than 500.

The Isle of Wight festival was jam packed with bands to see, strangers to talk to and over-priced drinks & food to be consumed…perhaps the best thing about a festival is the ability to move between several venues and see live music everywhere!

During the weekend we managed to catch Ocean Colour Scene, Pink! (who was awesome!), Reef, N Dubz (who I don’t really like but they had the most amazing drummer and put on a cracking show), The Saturdays and the legend that is Paul McCartney. The one thing I’ve always wondered about larger gigs is how much of the atmosphere you lose but during his set (mostly because he is Paul McCartney) the atmosphere even with Macca less than the size of my little finger it was immense, he blasted out some Beatles tracks and a few others putting together a fantastic set!

All in all I loved my festival experience!

Before I waffle on for a bit you can download ‘Escape This Town’ free here at bandcamp (name a price of zero) or be lovely and pay for it on amazon mp3 or iTunes

Back when I was 16 and I could only play the drums (and a tiny bit of keyboard) I started song writing…songs were nothing more than lyrics with a drum beat however at the age of 17 I eBayed myself a cheap guitar and set to work learning to play the guitar.

Ever since being able to play enough chords to make a tune I spent a fair chunk of my spare time recording drums and guitars and song writing.

A few years back when I started my gap year in Peterborough I was encouraged to lead worship…with very little confidence in my vocal abilities I started off miles from the microphone but as confidence grew my closeness to the microphone followed.

Throughout the years prior to moving to Peterborough, during my degree and since beginning my new job in Yorkshire I’ve continued to write and record music to the point of having an entire album released into the world.

I’ve been thinking about this blog post for weeks and I didn’t really know how to phrase it because in reflection for me as Mark, having an album with me on every instrument plus vocals is a huge thing. 5 years ago would be allowed anywhere near my voice…now it’s out there!

I’m not going to write much more other than a shameless plug for my album! I’ve been describing the music as ‘realistic Christian’…it doesn’t sound like a Christian album although some lyrics fit the bill…nor is it completely about things outside of my faith…it’s a mix of styles and sounds and even genres…flicking between pop, pop-punk, acoustic and sometimes a little heavier.

You can download it for free here on bandcamp (by just naming a price of 0.00 and giving an e-mail address) or if you’re feeling generous you can download ‘Escape This Town’ on iTunes here or Amazon mp3 here.

I hope you enjoy it (and the blog theme to match)

I’m going to write some more stuff on the song meanings on my Tumblr over the next few weeks

In the years following that I’ve managed to add all their albums except Cheeses (of Nazareth) and Upbeats and Beatdowns to my collection and have grown to adore their mix of ska-punk comprised with both fun and profound lyrics.

Earlier this year the ex-lead singer of the band Reese Roper finally announced that the long-awaited Five Iron Frenzy DVD would be released on the 13th April and that pre-orders would get it shipped a month early…I pre-ordered early March and anticipated the arrival of my DVD from the States.

A few weeks back the DVD arrived and I’ve almost finished watching it minus a few extras and wow…what a DVD!

The DVD is in fact 2 DVD’s….the first being the 3 hour documentary ‘The Rise & Fall of Five Iron Frenzy’ and the second labeled ‘This is a coaster’ is actually a disc of extras including the video of the live album ‘The end is here’ (the band’s last gig)..I’ll come back to the extras in a minute!

The Rise & Fall of Five Iron Frenzy

The 3 hour documentary covers the 9 years of the band and is mixed with interviews, live clips and goofy home movies the band put together and gives you a real insight to the passions, struggles and lives of the band members, their journey with God during the 9 years of Five Iron Frenzy and how the band really took off yet struggled with being in the middle of the Christian and secular genre.

The documentary is well put together and is very much a visual timeline…Reese Roper who did much of the editing hasn’t made the journey look like a nice a fluffy ride with God but has documented the struggles too which makes it a really genuine piece of documentary.

The Extras

Whilst the documentary is amazing the extras are something else completely.

Packed onto the 2nd disc are 5 music videos, 3 lives concerts, a few random clips and a whole host of short movies!

I’m not going to to review all of the extras but just the Filmore Gig Video.

Filmore was the last show the band ever played and so to have it on DVD is something very special. The video includes all the stuff that was cut from the live CD and there’s real emotion in the gig from the whole band. The real highlight was the 5 minute introduction Reese gives to Every New Day which was so powerful to watch.

and summing up…

To sum up the Five Iron Frenzy DVD is amazing and was well worth the $20 I spent on it however it is for the hardcore fans…if you just think ‘they’re alright’ then it’s probably not for you…borrow someone’s and watch the live Filmore gig!

I finish this post with the live video for ‘Every new day’

I first saw The King Blues back in September as part of Hull’s ‘Freedom Festival’ where they played a set of about 5 songs and got the whole of Queens Park (about 2000 people) to shout ‘F*** the BNP’ and whilst the sentiment is nice I wasn’t sure that a park full of families was the place for shouting it…perhaps ‘We don’t like the BNP’ would have been more appropriate.

Last night after the usual mix of good and awful support acts the King Blues took stage…lead singer Jonny Fox launched into the first song dancing around madly with his ukulele whilst the rest of the band joined in.

The band continued through an energetic set including ‘Underneath this lamppost light’, ‘Mr Music Man’ and ‘Let’s hang the landlord’ mixed with passionate speaking about how the people have the power…ringing true to the anti-facist vibe of the band. They also played some new songs including ‘Headbutt’ which has been on their Myspace fo a while now, like headbutt all the new songs took a more heavy punky feel about them.

All in all a fantastic gig…the passion and energy from the band really made the gig!

I stumbled across a video of them playing their new single ‘This Addiction’ on the Letterman show so thought I’d hop onto Spotify to listen to the new album…I ordered it as a result and have had a chance to give it a good listen.

The album ‘This Addiction’ comes in 3 formats, the CD, the CD with bonus tracks and live DVD and a 7″ vinyl. I opted for the CD/DVD tempted by the bonus tracks and live DVD and it was a fantastic choice!

First the album itself! The sound of Alkaline Trio is pretty simple drums, bass, guitar punk rock with the lead vocalist sounding similar to the lead singer of Bad Religion. The album opens with the single ‘This Addiction’ which has a crunchy punk-rock feel about it with some beautiful bass notes. As the album continues the catchy pop-punk continues, as do the beautiful bass notes…some of my favourite tracks on the album include ‘Off The Map’ and ‘The American Scream’ (and of course ‘This Addiction’).

Secondly the bonus tracks and DVD are well worth paying for. The bonus tracks are simply some nice acoustic versions of tracks off the album and the DVD shows the talent of the 3 band members….I always find it fascinating to watch bands play but that’s mainly from being a bit of a music geek!

Overall I’m finding the simplicity of Alkaline Trio’s approach to pop-punk a refreshing walk in the park compared to the complicated, over produced bands that seem to be taking the place of simple punk-rock. The tracks are nice and catchy and I personally think the bonus tracks and DVD are worth the extra £2 but that depends if you’re a music geek or not!

So ‘This Addiction’ isn’t going to be for everyone but if you like the likes of Blink 182 and Bad Religion chances are you’ll love it!

Alongside this the campaign organiser has set up a website called ‘Invade the Airwaves’ just in case you’re confused about what the campaign is about…it also has a ‘in the press’ section detailing 2 local BBC stations who’ve featured the campaign and a host of Christian sites talking about it…not quite the media storm that the Christmas Rage Against the Machine project got.

On the website they even have an ‘FAQ’ for those people confused by the entire concept (I’m sure it’s simple!) and as part of this there is the following statement:

Two things really. Firstly, the evident power of social media (namely Facebook) to bring about such a powerful campaign with outstanding results that Rage Against The Machine delivered at Christmas 2009. Secondly, a huge personal dissatisfaction that such an angry song featuring the ‘F’ word at the end several times, was the talk of the nation at a time when the focal point of the Christmas period should be peace

Now whilst the author is right that Christmas should be about peace he has clearly not realised what the RATM song was about.  Killing in the name was written about the racist policemen in the area where the band were based, it isn’t an anthem for violence but one for justice, it’s an anti-war song and anti-hypocrisy and whilst screaming ‘F*** you I won’t do what you tell me’ wouldn’t be my personal approach I find that the message in the song represents a lot of the things Jesus stood for.

I’ve been invited to the campaign to get Delirious? to number 1 twice and both times I’ve clicked ‘Reject’ (I am attending a Nestle free Easter though!) and the reason for this is simply it’s not a good idea…Christian music is generally so awful it’s better off kept off the airwaves….alongside this I don’t believe for 5 seconds Jesus would remotely care about it, He never aimed for popularity…in fact he managed to hack off his own people so much they wanted him crucified.

So Delirious? for Easter number 1? I hope not…let’s have the new Scouting for Girls song instead!

I’ve been going to gigs since I was 17 and it’s the first gig I’ve been to with seats and so even upon entering the venue there was a very different vibe about this gig, City Hall in Sheffield is a lovely venue quite a contrast from the sticky floored O2 Academy in Sheffield I last went to in November to see Bowling for Soup.

The crowd were warmed up by musician Charlie Winston who, whilst being a very talented musician didn’t quite do it for me…not sure why….however this didn’t take any anticipation away from the arrival of Newton.

With some light background music Newton Faulkner casually strolled onto the stage, picked up his guitar and burst into ‘Intro’ and ‘Badman’ from his album ‘Rebuilt by Humans’ before continuing to go through the majority of songs from both his albums with a few quirky sections such as a short cover of ‘you spin me right round’ and concluded the gig with his famous 1 man cover of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and ‘I’m not giving up just yet’.

Throughout the gig there was something very refreshing about the gig, Newton joked, made some comments, explained what he was doing and even tuned his own guitars giving the impression that even though he is really well known he is still a pretty humble man.

For me as a music geek my favourite thing about the gig was the transparency. All but 1 song was played by Newton all on his own combining guitaring, tapping his guitar in a variety of places and using a series of pedals to play strings, synths and a variety of other noises (oh and he used a cassette at one point!). To accompany this one man band was a couple of cameras positioned so you could see him doing everything showing that Newton Faulkner is truly a musical genius!

All in all one of the best gig’s I’ve been to and Newton Faulkner is well worth going to see!

I had a few things I wanted to blog yesterday so I’ll pan them out over the next few days however last night I went to ‘South Cave’s Got Talent’ which was a fund-raiser for Lucy heading off on mission…there was a good turnout of people both to watch and to perform a variety of talents, I had also been asked to be the sound/video geek for the evening so thoroughly enjoyed playing with P.A’s and actually made my electro-acoustic sound nice through the PA system (perhaps part of that was because I wasn’t playing it!).

It’s always interesting to see people from church doing things you never expected and there always seems to be a sense of humour in people you’d never seen before or a talent you just never expected and church things like this always seem to be good fun.

It also reminded me that I need to get into some open-mike nights and the-like because whilst I didn’t perform last night I keep desiring to have a go sometime and with a lot of my spare time spent mixing a potential album at the moment I think I need to get some music out there!

However as many are aware a few weeks back Owl City hit the UK number 1 spot with ‘Fireflies’ and so this time I headed to Spotify to listen for real…I then purchased Fireflies on iTunes (getting even more excited upon noting that Matt Thiessen of Relient K featured on the track) and consequently purchased their ‘Of June’ EP and ‘Ocean Eyes’ album (on which Fireflies featured).

In the last few weeks since Ocean Eyes arrived I have been listening to it constantly and driving Jo nuts by putting it on the iPod all the time but it is a good album.

Whilst Owl City and Relient K don’t sound alike (other than the occasional appearance of Matt Thiessen) Owl City remind me of HelloGoodbye in many ways. Ocean Eyes is a catchy pop album with a really good feel good factor. The vocals are pretty clean and not over produced and I’ve found myself having uncontrollable urges to listen to individual tracks….my personal favourite ‘Saltwater Room’ has been listened to 28 times on my iTunes alone (and once more again as I type this).

The album is fantastic and I recommend it….it’s clever, funny, catchy and leaves you singing the songs over and over again! (Oh and Adam Young who IS Owl City is a Christian too!)

On a personal note it’s quite interesting to see the journey these tracks have been on, 3 years ago I’d have never dreamed of recording vocals but now I’m quite happy toying with vocals and listening to the stuff I’ve written.

However the mixing stage which I’m in at the moment is probably my least favourite part of writing/recording…whereas with drums and guitars I roughly know how long it’ll take me  to record all the different parts mixing is totally different. There’s not a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ mix of a song and so getting a balance I like can take hours. For example in the last 3 hours I’ve managed to mix one track which I’ve exported into iTunes and I’m already noticing a couple of bits I need to change.

The aim is to mix everything and try and release it through bandcamp.com and possibly itunes in April…let’s see what happens!

‘checking out the new David Crowder album on Spotify…whilst it’s good the majority of the lyrics seem a little meaningless’

Now whilst this tweet seems negative let me clarify that I do actually quite like David Crowder as a musician however as a worship song writer he is very hit or miss however it was a hit that led me onto Spotify yesterday.

During the retreat day on Monday I got his song ‘How he loves us’ stuck in my head and it continued to stick yesterday so I purchased it on iTunes and whilst I remain unimpressed at the rest of his new ‘Church music’ album this song seems to stand out. Here’s some lyrics;

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

Oh how he loves us

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
And Heaven meets earth like an unforseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way he loves us

There’s something about these lyrics that stick out…Crowder uses the word jealousy in a positive way and there’s something deeply profound and different about these lyrics which I hope you’ll agree.

Anyway I mainly wanted to post those few thoughts and mainly those lyrics for your enjoyment…if you don’t know the song here’s the audio from YouTube

Note: After writing I have discovered the song is actually a cover by John Mark McMillan (site), the Crowder take is awesome and the lyrics are still profound!

Dave has insisted for years that any screamy music is wrong and shouldn’t even be considered music yet as the numerous genre’s available to us prove there are many ways that people express themselves musically.

I remember reading in Philip Yancey’s book ‘Prayer’ about a man who goes to a house and the door is opened by a lady and inside this house the man can hear terrible screaming and crying out from upstairs, asking if everything is ok the lady replies ‘it’s fine, that’s my son…he’s praying’

How do we pray? Do we say things quietly to God or do we ever scream at Him? (If you don’t scream in frustration why not?).

If worship is about the way in which we connect with our creator then expressing angst, pain, suffering, feelings of abandonment and expressions of desperation must be part of that worship.

So, in drawing together Dave’s comments on screamy music, some thoughts on how we lament to God (2/3 Psalms are lament!) and adding into the mix my challenge of the way in which we worship I want to present you with a song called ‘Replace Me’ by Family Force Five. The chorus is simply amazing with the lyrics ‘desperation, needing you, every last breath I scream for you, shatter me into a million pieces, make me knew. Crush me, tear me, break me, mould me, make me what you want me to be, I am yours for you to use, oh take and replace me with you’ (There could never be the same amount of emotion in this song without it being screamed!). Enjoy and don’t forget to comment with your thoughts.

As I write this blog the interview with the lead singer of Rage has finished and the song is just beginning, I have my stereo turned up loud in celebration and my heart is recovering from the racing it did in the lead up to the results…I have never been so excited about a chart show.

This whole campaign has got me hooked, usually these Facebook campaigns are a load of nonsense but this week has truly shown the power of social networking, sales figures suggest that Rage have outsold Joe by 50,000 which is a pretty big gap (how accurate these are I don’t know but link).

The real achievement of this campaign though is not just the beating of Simon Cowel (who described the whole campaign as bullying…hypocrite!) but the benefit for charity. The Facebook group alone has raised over £50,000 for Shelter and Rage Against The Machine have said they will donate their royalties between Shelter and another charity who help young people learn instruments who can’t afford to.

To go back to the Simon Cowel aspect it’s great to have a Christmas number 1 by some talented musicians rather than a kareoke act puppetered by Simon Cowel…I’m sure Joe can sing but it would be nice to see some talent in the charts…perhaps someone who writes their own songs. I’ve loved reading Simon Cowel’s anger this week at the campaign as he’s watched his ‘secure’ number one slip from beneath him.

I think this’ll be the last X factor Christmas number 1 because now the public have seen what can be done by a grass roots campaign (as Rage say) I think we’ll see more shocks to the charts.

I don’t know how to finish this blog really…I’m off to play the Rage song on CD and head off to a youth group Christmas party…I’m excited and proud of what the online community can achieve when we unite against something…may it continue!