Smash flops

I have been considering how many of the musicians I really like could adopt Pete Atkin’s ironic title… you can put it down to the strangeness of my musical tastes if you must, but for many of the musicians I really like, fame hasn’t really ever arrived. I have been thinking about the possibility of setting up an event in SL,  at which I could play all my favourites for the guests. Honestly, the people I introduce to Kings of Convenience, or Pete Atkin, or Arno Elias…all like them.
But I’d like to do more than that. I have been listening to Brian Protheroe’s City Song, which someone has put up on youtube, and which I really like. I loved Brian Protheroe when I was younger and bought an LP of Pinball second hand in Notting Hill. I love his voice, and I like his lyrics too. I’d love to create a scene in SL to go with the song…something to capture the essence of London, probably, a bridge across the Thames. I’d like to stream the music into a scene which lets you get into the song.

I can think of lots of songs I’d like to play this trick with. Pete Atkin’s Beware of the Beautiful Stranger Gilly Darbey’s Under the Rainbow. The Kings of Convenience Parallel Lines. Judy Tzuke’s Stay with me till dawn, Elliot Smith’s Between the Bars

It astonishes me that the companies who have come into SL to promote bands have been so circumspect and so real life with the way they have promoted the songs and artists. I’d like to be a bit more creative….

The youtube/viral phenomenon may yet make smash hits out of the people whose music I love… I don’t have strange tastes at all - mostly like singer/songwriters and maybe slightly mournful songs.  Brian Protheroe, incidentally, is an actor and about to star in the London version of the Lord of the Rings stage show, as Saruman.  In his youth he looked like Hugh Grant, but more handsome…