Farewell, Music Scene Investigation…

It’s funny how things happen, isn’t it? One Sunday afternoon, I was sat in my studio, dicking about as per usual when I get an email from my good friend, Dave Spiers, he of GForce Software fame. He told me that one of his developers, Jon Hodgson, had had to pull out of being a guest panellist on a podcast and needed a stand in. He asked if Dave knew anyone and Dave suggested me, probably because he knew I liked to talk a lot. So Dave introduced me to Jon, Jon introduced me to Ian and later that evening, there I was, in full audio visual “glory”, offering my opinion on three pieces of music I had never heard before in my life, written and performed by unsigned, indie acts. I had a blast and it seems Ian Husbands and Rich Wildman, the guys behind the show, liked me too, because I was repeatedly asked back on a number of occasions (11 in total). And each time I enjoyed as much, if not more than the first.

Music Scene Investigation (or MSI, for short) was, until a couple of weeks ago, an innovative, popular and worthy place for new, emerging talent to submit their work to be critiqued by people who knew what they were talking about. So, one wonders why they asked me, but hey, it was a gig and I seemed to fool them all! 😉 The basic premise of the venture was that each week, two regular panellists would be joined by a rotating 3rd guest and they would be played each of the songs in turn, having never heard the songs before, and then offer up their opinion on each, based on that one and only listen. At the end of the show, they would confer with each other and declare one as ‘Song of the Week’. Every month, all the winning songs from that month would be voted for by the public to find a winner.

Simple stuff, and yet hugely effective in terms of getting artists exposure and, maybe more importantly, advice and guidance on their work.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, I got an email from Ian, asking if I’d do that week’s show, and I instantly accepted, as I always did, but only to learn of the fact that this could be the last ever review show. I was deeply saddened by this news but it appeared that things were getting tougher to do and a sabbatical was needed to regroup and draw up new plans. And so, in 2016, MSI will return with ReVision, with a new focus and snappier scheduling.

But I will miss my involvement, particularly as I’ve made friends with a number of people via this work and had a lot of fun in the process. So I would just like to take this opportunity to thank Rich, Ian, Andrea and Tom, all of whom made me very welcome over the years, and I want to wish them all the best in 2016 with their new venture and I hope that I can be part of that too.

In the meantime, here is my last appearance on the show. If you also feel so inclined, you can vote for me as Guest Panellist of the Year RIGHT HERE! 🙂

And, if you can bear it, here is a playlist of all 11 of my appearances!