Spreading the Word – www.lesvalentine.com

A quieter 7 days on the gig front have given us plenty of time this week to ensure a few more people are aware of the ‘Les Valentine’ name. We have made contact with two new Brighton based music promoters with a view to playing in new venues to new audiences. This is extremely important as the music industry is extremely competitive and, in a pond where catching a fish is difficult, a bigger net should come in useful. (See that. That’s a metaphor that is. I knew the English A-Level would come in handy one day.*) 

With the same thing in mind, we have also worked very hard this week to contact members of the press and continue the expansion of our online presence. It is very possible that soon we will be featured in Brighton‘s local newspaper ‘The Argus’ in their download of the week section. We could also soon be a feature of another Brighton publication’s online expansion, as the music editor of ‘Latest 7′ has expressed an interest in including a regular column about Les Valentine on their website. 

Speaking of websites, we have made further improvements to our own recently as well, with a new ‘Fun’ page including a colouring competition and our very own variation on noughts and crosses…..go to http://www.lesvalentine.com/fun.html to experience this potentially life changing experience for yourself (just don’t blame us if you get caught wasting time on it at work….). 

Last (and  least), letters and e-mails of sympathy for Steve over the next few days would be greatly appreciated, as an unfortunate clash of heads during a football match today has seen the development of a semi-impressive black eye. Don’t worry though, he’s in fine fettle if looking a little bit thuggish, and he will be more than able to take part in our busy week this week. 

With a face like Steve’s, this week would be a good week to play mainly on the radio…. (http://www.lesvalentine.com/news.html) 

*in case anyone’s confused, we’re not literally trying to get heard by fish. Nothing against fish as a species, it would just be better to be heard by record companies. 

Beat The Mix Update – text ‘mix 339′ to 83070 

Our reign at the top of the weekly Beat The Mix chart (www.beatthemix.com) came to an end this week, as we failed to win the weekly vote for the first time since joining the competition 6 weeks ago. We would absolutely love to return to the top when the next results are announced on Thursday (and we are back on the chart’s home radio station, Juice 107.2 FM, again that night so it would be especially good to go in leading the chart again). 

So please text ‘Mix 339′ to 83070 to take us back to the top and help us keep challenging for a win in the overall competition. Every vote is very much appreciated, thanks.  

This Week’s Gigwatch

 Tune in to Brighton‘s Juice 107.2 FM/www.juicebrighton.com on Thursday at around 9pm and again on Radio Reverb (97.2 FM/www.radioreverb.com) on Friday at half five.  

A very, very important gig for us also happens this week as we will be making our first appearance at Brighton‘s Komedia. One of the city’s premiere entertainment outlets, Komedia is a well respected venue featuring the cutting edge of music and comedy in Brighton. Being asked to play there as part of the Brighton Stripped showcase (www.myspace.com/brightonstripped) is a brilliant opportunity for us so it would be great if we could get a decent number of people there!

  With entry at just £2 and a full line up of good music in a fantastic venue and bar, it will be a really good day and could represent our first step into some of Brighton’s best known music events. 

Dates for the diary (e-mail us or go to www.myspace.com/lesvalentinemusic for more info on gigs)

 1st November – RADIO – Juice 107.2 FM, Brighton/www.juicebrighton.com

2nd November – RADIO – Radio Reverb, Brighton 97.2 FM/www.radioreverb.com

3rd November – GIG – Komedia, Brighton – £2 entry, 2pm

7th November – GIG – The Joogleberry Playhouse – £6 entry

11th November – GIG – East Slope, University of Sussex

14th November – GIG – The Pavilion Tavern/Pav Tav, Brighton

29^th February – GIG – The Sanctuary Cafe, Hove – £4 entry

10th February – AUDITION – Nationwide talent competition, www.liveandunsigned.uk.com

9th April – Steve’s Birthday

19th April – John’s Birthday

And remember – SPREAD THE WORD!If you like our music, tell people about it. Copy our CDs for friends who you think would be interested, bring people to gigs. The hardest part really is getting heard, so if you can help in any way, please do. As always, your support is very much appreciated.

Thank you,Les Valentine 

lesvalentine.com

Go to www.lesvalentine.com or write to lesvalentine@hotmail.co.uk to join the mailing list and receive this update straight to your inbox!

 

It’s been a really good week for Les Valentine this week, with two fantastically received gigs and our website finally going live! So a huge welcome for all those who joined our mailing list after our shows at East Slope Bar and the Mint Cafe.

 

The gig last Sunday at East Slope was a great success for us, with a fantastic audience who seemed to really enjoy watching us. We agreed following the gig that, for us, it was the best performance we had put on yet so we hope we can continue to move in the right direction. If you are one of the people who took CDs, signed up to the mailing list, voted for us or talked to us afterwards, we owe you a massive thank you.

 

The same goes for everyone who saw us play a truly unique gig at the Mint Cafe. It was unique because we played in front of a very small number of people with no microphones or leads, just us and our guitars. It was the definition of an intimate gig, giving us a rare opportunity to chat with everyone watching after (and even during) the show. It went very well, aided by a brilliant audience who seemed to really enjoy themselves. We did too!

 

Other than that, this week has seen the launch of our new website, www.lesvalentine.com! If you haven’t had the chance to take a look yet, please have a browse and let us know what you think. Any ideas would be well received, so feel free to come back to us with any suggestions.

 

The website is now up largely due to the efforts of Jo Walters, so thanks for that Jo! There are a few bits and pieces still to go up – for example, the gallery is not fully functional yet – but it should all be right for next week’s update!

 

 

Beat The Mix Update – text ‘mix 339’ to 83070

 

We owe everyone who’s voted for us another thank you this week, as we have stretched our run at the top of the Beat The Mix chart to five weeks in a row! By the end of the week our ITV local appearance will be available to view online, so we will let you know where you can find it next week.

 

The exposure the competition at www.beatthemix.co.uk has afforded us so far has been immense and it couldn’t have been done without your help so we are extremely grateful. To keep supporting us, remember to keep texting ‘Mix 339’ to 83070. We are currently in third place in the overall competition, every vote counts and we are slowly but surely narrowing the lead of the two bands ahead of us. They entered the competition right back at the beginning so they have a head start but with your help we can reel them in!

 

 

This Week’s Gigwatch

 

Due to the unfortunate cancellation of our gig at the Sanctuary Cafe this Friday (apparently the venue has no ceiling due to a behind schedule refurb) there are no gigs this week. As a result we have a bit of a break from the gigging over the next couple of weeks.

 

But fret not, for when we come back we come back in style with gigs at two of Brighton’s premier venues. Brighton’s Komedia is a fantastic and well respected theatre and we will be playing there on 2nd November in the afternoon, while the Wednesday after that we will be supporting, among others, one of Brighton’s premier acts in the quirky form of the Bobby Magees downstairs at the Joogleberry Playhouse.

 

Put it in your diaries now, and as mailing list members we’ll make sure you receive an extra treat aWe just have to think of what it might be first! Don’t forget to bring your friends!

 

Dates for the diary (e-mail us or go to www.myspace.com/lesvalentinemusic for more info on gigs)

3rd November – GIG – Komedia, Brighton (£2 entry)

7th November – GIG – The Joogleberry Playhouse (£6 entry)

11th November – GIG – East Slope, University of Sussex

14th November – GIG – The Pavilion Tavern/Pav Tav, Brighton

29^th February – GIG – The Sanctuary Cafe, Hove (£4 entry)

10th February – AUDITION – Nationwide talent competition, www.liveandunsigned.uk.com

9th April – Steve’s Birthday

19th April – John’s Birthday

And remember – SPREAD THE WORD!

If you like our music, tell people about it. Copy our CDs for friends who you think would be interested, bring people to gigs. The hardest part really is getting heard, so if you can help in any way, please do. As always, your support is very much appreciated.

Thank you,

Les Valentine

 

A bit of a gamble and a performance for ITV

Go to www.lesvalentine.com or write to lesvalentine@hotmail.co.uk to join the mailing list and receive this update straight to your inbox!

Another rearrangement of our interview with ITV local this week meant Les Valentine had a very busy Friday. During the day we were filming our portion of the Beat The Mix show for ITV local, and in the evening we played our first gig in a casino. It was an excellent day for us, and it will be very interesting to see the results when the show becomes available online in a week or so.

We arrived at the Studio in Lancing at around midday expecting to be sitting and waiting for long periods of time while the room was set up before we could sound-check. We were very wrong as it only took a few minutes for the sound engineer to put together everything we needed and, seeing as we were the first band to arrive, we were almost ready to go.

Our sound-check to set up the audio consisted of a run through of the song ‘Nervous’ to make sure everything was set up right for recording, followed by a speedy run to the reception downstairs for drinks to cure the dry throats we discovered we had during that rehearsal. Let’s just say we were glad they weren’t recording it!

After downing a bottle of Lucozade each (we had to hide the bottles from view for filming, for commercial reasons) we did two takes of ‘Nervous’ followed by two takes of ‘Gordon’, before heading downstairs to do our interview.

Last week when we were interviewed on the radio, we found it relatively easy to forget where we were and have a great chat with the presenter Ace. Introducing cameras to the occasion however made it all very different. We are intrigued to see how they edit together the results of the interview, but talking naturally in front of a camera is a real challenge and we would be the first to admit we froze up a bit. Let’s just hope we get plenty of practice at it in the future.

After travelling home and laughing at the most grimace worthy sections of our interview, we prepared ourselves for our evening gig at the Grosvenor Casino. It was a very interesting venue for a gig but the reception we had was great and quite a few people turned up to see us play so a massive thanks to them! We didn’t realise, however, that in order to enter the Casino you had to sign up as a member. So apologies to anyone who now goes on to spiral into gambling as a result of coming to see us play. We didn’t mean it!

In other news this week, our brilliant website/media/general good ideas correspondent Joanna Walters has been working on a template for our website which should be launched by the time you receive the next e-mail. For a preview of the site exclusively available to members of our mailing list (and a chance to listen to our full radio interview which was unfortunately cut short by the Reverb Nation website I directed everyone to last week) go to www.unistuffinabox.co.uk/lesvalentine.

Have a click around and let us know what you think, it’s not quite ready yet as a lot of the sections need to be re-written, but the aesthetic, designed to match our myspace and demo CD should remain fairly similar. By next week, it should all have been moved to its new home at www.lesvalentine.com!

Beat The Mix Update – text ‘mix 339’ to 83070

Once again we owe a massive thanks to those who voted for us in this week’s best the mix chart. We were top for a record-breaking fourth week, meaning we were played again on Juice 107.2’s Damo & Ace show. Ace in particular had some fantastic things to say about us following our appearance on the show the previous week, so we were extremely grateful, as always, for the exposure and the compliments we received.

Please keep voting for us at www.beatthemix.co.uk by texting ‘Mix 339’ to 83070’, it would be an incredible achievement if we could keep catching up the competition leaders each week as we are at the moment, but we can’t do it without your help. So keep those texting fingers nimble, because if we keep doing what we’re doing (or even getting better) we’re in with a great chance of finishing at the top of that leader board!

Thanks!

This Week’s Gigwatch

We return this week to the University of Sussex’s East Slope Bar following our successful Laid Back & Latte gig on campus a couple of weeks ago. That takes place tonight (14th) so if you read this in time, come along for student beer prices and free entry.

Our other two gigs this week are on Wednesday and Thursday as part of Brighton’s brand new Fresh Meat Festival. We will be on from 10pm-12pm each night, at The Joogleberry Playhouse and Mint Cafe in Brighton respectively. Apart from anything else, this will our first appearance as part of any sort of festival, and a challenge to our repertoire. Come along and see if we can stretch it to fill 2 hours! Entry is free and the venues are both excellent places to come along, have some chilled out drinks and perhaps a late supper.

See you soon!

Dates for the diary (e-mail us or go to www.myspace.com/lesvalentinemusic for more info on gigs)

14th October – GIG – East Slope, University of Sussex

17th October – GIG – The Joogleberry Playhouse, Brighton (part of the Brighton Fresh Meat Festival)

18th October – GIG – The Mint Cafe, Brighton (part of the Brighton Fresh Meat Festival)

26th October – GIG – Sanctuary Cafe, Hove (£4 entry)

3rd November – GIG – Komedia, Brighton (£2 entry)

7th November – GIG – The Joogleberry Playhouse (£6 entry)

11th November – GIG – East Slope, University of Sussex

14th November – GIG – The Pavilion Tavern/Pav Tav, Brighton

10th February – AUDITION – Nationwide talent competition, www.liveandunsigned.uk.com

9th April – Steve’s Birthday

19th April – John’s Birthday

And remember – SPREAD THE WORD!

If you like our music, tell people about it. Copy our CDs for friends who you think would be interested, bring people to gigs. The hardest part really is getting heard, so if you can help in any way, please do. As always, your support is very much appreciated.

Thank you,

Les Valentine

Video killed the radio star – see www.beatthemix.co.uk, www.reverbnation.com/lesvalentine or www.myspace.com/lesvalentinemusic

Video Killed the Radio Star

 

Go to www.myspace.com/lesvalentinemusic or write to lesvalentine@hotmail.co.uk to join the mailing list to receive this update straight to your inbox!

 

Filming was supposed to take place this week for Les Valentine’s appearance on the ITV Local ‘Beat The Mix’ programme, but due to scheduling conflicts we had to change our day off work to this week! So THIS Tuesday will see us head over to Lancing to Soundlocker Studios to appear in front of cameras for the first time! Look out world!

 

We certainly didn’t mind the postponement given that instead we were invited into the Studio at Juice 107.2 to play live and be interviewed by Ace of The Damo and Ace Show. It happened on Thursday night and in all we were on air either playing or chatting for just over 20 minutes. It was a great experience for the two of us, and some vital exposure outside of our own efforts to expand our fan base

 

If you didn’t manage to catch it, you can hear & download our section of the show by playing the track titled ‘Les Valentine on Juice 107.2 – 4^th October’ at http://www.reverbnation.com/lesvalentine.

 

This was the first time we had been on the radio live, and we think we gave a decent account of ourselves for people who hadn’t heard us before. Ace was kind enough to ask easy to answer questions and bobbed his head along approvingly when we played, so all in all it went very well!

 

In other news, Les Valentine also played another gig at The Sky Bar in Brighton this week, playing between the great Adam Kane and the excellent Liss Eddie & Friends (we have their card if you’re looking for a band for any upcoming occasion…and we can vouch for them quality wise too!). Gigs are coming in thick and fast at the moment as you can see below. In the last 7 days, we have added shows at Sussex University, Brighton’s Grosvenor Casino and our re-scheduled Komedia gig to our (and hopefully your) diaries.

 

Long may it continue!

 

Beat The Mix Update – text ‘mix 339’ to 83070

 

Another week at the top of the www.beatthemix.co.uk weekly chart this week marks Les Valentine out as the first act to get a hat-trick, winners three weeks in a row thanks to your help! We are extremely grateful for every single vote so please keep those fingers texting ‘Mix 339’ to 83070 and lend your support so hopefully we can make it four!

 

The Beat The Mix Chart has already opened many doors for Les Valentine in just three weeks. We were involved with a well received outdoor gig in Brighton, as well as being featured on the radio a number of times up to and including our live appearance this week. Next comes an appearance on the aforementioned ITV local programme, and an intriguing special prize for winning 3 weeks in a row – we will find out what that is this Thursday so watch this space!

 

The overall prize for the competition (you can see them all on the website) includes the release of our very own single by Crash Records and the possibility of entering talks for an album. On top of that we get to spread our music even further with a massive headline gig. At this point, the best thing we can do is play or be played to as many people as possible, so the possibility of winning overall is a massive driver for us to keep the votes coming in.

 

So please text ‘Mix 339’ to 83070 (again if you have already, and thank you!). It only costs 50p but for us it could be worth so much more. Adding it up, one vote a week would cost £2 a month, not a massive amount by any stretch of the imagination, and if you can’t do that then any single vote whenever you feel like it will be gratefully accepted.

 

Don’t worry, we will be voting as well, but every vote counts and it could just be yours that wins it for us!

 

Dates for the diary (e-mail us or go to www.myspace.com/lesvalentinemusic for more info on gigs)

 

9th October – FILMING – Beat The Mix show with ITV Local

 

12th October – GIG – The Grosvenor Casino, Brighton Seafront

 

14th October – GIG – East Slope, University of Sussex

 

26th October – GIG – Sanctuary Cafe, Hove

 

3rd November – GIG – Komedia, Brighton

 

11^th November – GIG – East Slope, University of Sussex

 

10^th February – AUDITION – Nationwide talent competition, www.liveandunsigned.uk.com

 

9th April – Steve’s Birthday

 

19th April – John’s Birthday

 

And remember – SPREAD THE WORD!

 

If you like our music, tell people about it. Copy our CDs for friends who you think would be interested, bring people to gigs. The hardest part really is getting heard, so if you can help in any way, please do. As always, your support is very much appreciated.

 

Thank you,

 

Les Valentine

Freshers Week – www.beatthemix.co.uk and www.myspace.com/lesvalentinemusic

Go to www.myspace.com/lesvalentinemusic or write to lesvalentine@hotmail.com to join the mailing list

A massive welcome to all of the newest members of the Les Valentine mailing list, it’s a pleasure to have you on board and thanks for signing up to receive our updates!

A great deal of our new recruits are now with us due to a successful night at the University of Sussex Freshers’ Week Event, Laid Back & Latte. We had a set of just under half an hour to win over the sold out audience and it seemed to work, with a sizable number signing up to receive our newsletter and over 200 CDs given out!

Thanks to everyone who came and chatted to us as well, it was a great night for us and we always enjoy getting feedback from audiences. The sound team at the University were excellent, which helped us a lot, and people seemed to really get into our set – there was even some spontaneous hand-clapping to the song “I’ve Been Waiting Far Too Long” (which Steve nearly accidentally stopped by drawing attention to it and seemingly embarrassing the people who started it).

The gig also saw the debut of our new look CDs, duplicated by a local company called CopyDog (www.copydog.co.uk) who, despite being given a tight deadline, got 500 of our demos copied in time for the gig! I think it’s fair to say that the new CDs look great, much better than the ones manufactured at Steve’s house using a laptop, i-Tunes and a small, unreliable printer….

We will be back at the University again soon for those who want to see us again, playing at East Slope’s Sunday music night on the 14th October. We look forward to seeing a few of you there, and hope you manage to get some friends along and help us spread the word on Les Valentine.

Away from the gig on Thursday night, there is also news about new songs from Les Valentine. Having played essentially the same five or six songs for a number of months now, we thought it was time for a change and finally got around to practicing and fleshing out 3 new songs soon to played at a show near you (for those of you who live in Brighton). These songs as yet don’t have titles so we can’t tell you what they are, you’ll just have to mosey over to one of our gigs to hear them soon!

We plan to return to Ford Lane Studios by the end of the year to record some new tracks as well, taking the number of tracks on our CD to around 8 or 9. As a larger CD, we are considering charging £1 or £2 for the CDs which should be available in the New Year, just enough to cover production costs.

However, for members of the mailing list who come along to gigs for a new CD will get their CDs free, as a thank you for your continued support.

Beat The Mix Update – text ‘mix 339’ to 83070

It was also another successful week for us in the chart at www.beathemix.co.uk, once more coming first in the weekly chart and moving up to third in the overall rankings! A huge thanks again for anyone who’s voted for us over the last couple of weeks, and please keep voting whenever you can and whenever you remember to because now we could be in with a real chance of winning the overall competition, with your help.

Originally, we were hoping to just win one of the weekly competitions to get ourselves heard, but now we are counting on your support to keep us advancing in the overall vote as the prizes for this are incredible:

GRAND PRIZE

• Two day recording session at the state of the art music complex Soundlocker studios
• Track released on CRASH records and entry into talks for signing album deal
• Two day music video shoot and production with Regions TV
• Professional one day photo shoot with Image Catcher
• Headline sell out gig at prestigious venue
• Episode dedicated to the overall winner on BEATtheMIX’s very own ITV Local programme (www.itvlocal.com)
• Extensive local radio and press coverage
• A selection of top musical equipment kindly donated by Solutions Inc and Beyerdynamic

It would be an astounding coup for Les Valentine to win this competition, so if you could spare a vote or two until the results are announced in January we would be extremely grateful.

One or two people have said they will vote for us each week as the competition goes on which will be a great help, and if it’s possible for you to do something similar please, please do. For example, it would cost you just 50p to text each time you read one of these newsletters, but if your support helps to win the competition for us it would be absolutely priceless.

Don’t worry, we will be voting as well, but every vote counts and it could just be yours that wins it for us!

Les Valentine Reviews of the Week:

‘Excellent songs and great vocals, worth checking out!’ – Paul at indiereview.net

Dates for the diary (e-mail us or go to www.myspace.com/lesvalentinemusic for more info on gigs)

2nd October – GIG – The Sky Bar, Brighton

14th October – GIG – East Slope, University of Sussex

26th October – GIG – Sanctuary Cafe, Hove

11^th November – GIG – East Slope, University of Sussex

9th April – Steve’s Birthday

19th April – John’s Birthday

And remember – SPREAD THE WORD!

If you like our music, tell people about it. Copy our CDs for friends who you think would be interested, bring people to gigs. The hardest part really is getting heard, so if you can help in any way, please do. As always, your support is very much appreciated.

Thank you,

Les Valentine

Top of the Charts at www.beatthemix.co.uk – see also www.myspace.com/lesvalentinemusic

First of all, we want to say a massive thank your for anyone and everyone who voted for Les Valentine in the chart at www.beatthemix.co.uk this week. As you already know if you’ve been able to keep up to date, we won the weekly chart in our first week in the competition putting us straight into the overall Top 10 on the site. Go to the website to keep an eye on the voting as it goes on, and feel free to continue texting ‘Mix 339’ to 83070 whenever the mood takes you….

 

Staying in the top 10 of the chart until Saturday evening also won us a place playing on the Beat The Mix stage at their Brighton event today, which was covered in the local press. Katie, the lady who has been our contact at the website, also said that there will be other promotions and gigs in the future, all of which could go some way to raising Les Valentine’s profile if we continue to do well in the competition.

 

We have already won some great prizes after this week’s success, including being played on local radio station Juice 107.2. Go to www.juicebrighton.com tomorrow night (Monday) at 9pm and click on Listen Live to hear what they have to say about our song ‘Nervous’. We will also be featured and interviewed on ITV’s Local Broadband internet channel in October, so watch this space!

 

Other than voting too many times, this week we have spent a lot of time burning our new CDs and folding the new inserts to make sure we have enough for upcoming gigs. We’re giving away a fair number of CDs at each show, and on Thursday we are playing as part of the University of Sussex Fresher’s Week programme. We remember from our time as students that, given the opportunity to take something free, it was physically impossible to turn it down, so we’re hoping to offload quite a number at the gig and grab some brand new fans while they’re fresh!

 

You will also be pleased to know that we have been working on some new music, ready for unveiling at our upcoming performances. We were planning to play one or two at our gig at the Komedia on Saturday, but unfortunately the promoters Brighton Stripped have been the victim of a booking error at the venue so our appearance there will have to be postponed. We will let you know when it’s been rearranged.

 

Les Valentine Reviews of the Week:

 

‘happy melodic riffs, acoustic style and harmonies’ – beatthemix.co.uk

 

Dates for the diary

27th September – GIG – Laid Back and Latte, University of Sussex

26th October – GIG – Sanctuary Cafe, Hove

9th April – Steve’s Birthday

19th April – John’s Birthday

And remember – SPREAD THE WORD!

If you like our music, tell people about it. Copy our CDs for friends who you think would be interested, bring people to gigs. The hardest part really is getting heard, so if you can help in any way, please do. As always, your support is very much appreciated.

Thank you,

Les Valentine

New Recordings & an Online competition – www.beatthemix.co.uk and www.myspace.com/lesvalentinemusic

www.myspace.com/lesvalentinemusic

Tuesday & Wednesday of the past week saw Les Valentine go into a recording studio for the first time. We emerged with four tracks from the original EP made brand new and shiny under the watchful eye and skilled production of Rob Quickenden at Ford Lane Studios.

The new tracks can be heard on our MySpace page (www.myspace.com/lesvalentinemusic) and are a marked improvement on our previous home made efforts, particularly with the inclusion of a live drum kit, bass guitar and excellently recorded vocals. Rob was also very quick to make suggestions and point out possible improvements for the songs we recorded, lending an objective ear and some great ideas which improved the final product.

The solid practice put in prior the recordings proved vital as this enabled the track to be recorded in relatively few takes, making the whole process much more efficient. Due to the limited amount of time we only had one day to play and record the music, thus allowing Rob to polish and work his magic on the Wednesday.

The recordings were available from last night (Sunday 16th) when Les Valentine headlined a new acoustic night at the Pitcher and Piano in Brighton. As usual the CDs were given away to anyone who wanted one, and we are pleased to say quite a number of people took one home. To go with the new CD there is also an exciting much smarter sleeve designed by our web site, media & marketing consultant Joanna Walters – BA (Hons).

One of the most important things for an unsigned band is to make themselves heard absolutely everywhere they can, hence we are working hard at expanding our online presence and making sure our music is heard by the maximum number of people (8). Our new songs, profiles and this very newsletter/blog are now available on number of sites – try searching on Google for ‘Les Valentine’ and see what comes up!

The online profiles and new tracks have already paid dividends as one of the best known venues in Brighton, Komedia, have invited us to play there. We will be there at the end of September as part of their acoustic programme, simply on the strength of the online work. Hopefully a sign of things to come.

Another of the sites we are featured on – www.beatthemix.co.uk – run both a weekly and six monthly contest with excellent prizes for unsigned artists. We have entered too late to have a realistic chance of winning the six month prize but the weekly prize includes radio exposure and the chance to have our name and song featured on the website’s front page (and more). Text votes cost only 50p, and every vote is entered into a draw for an i-Pod Nano.

So please text ‘mix 339’ to 83070 to lend us your support and it will certainly be much appreciated! Thank you!

Dates for the diary

27th September – GIG – Laid Back and Latte, University of Sussex

26th October – GIG – Sanctuary Cafe, Hove

9th April – Steve’s Birthday

19th April – John’s Birthday

And remember – SPREAD THE WORD!

If you like our music, tell people about it. Copy our CDs for friends who you think would be interested, bring people to gigs. The hardest part really is getting heard, so if you can help in any way, please do. As always, your support is very much appreciated.

Thank you,

Les Valentine

Practice Makes Better – www.myspace.com/lesvalentinemusic

This week Les Valentine are heading to the studio to re-record our 5 track demo to the highest possible standard (within our budget at least). In preparation, there have been relentless rehearsals, fine tuning and honing of our music.

Recording will present a completely different challenge to the live shows, as instead of our usual acoustic set up we will be playing all the instruments between the two of us (not at the same time!). Also unlike our gigs, we won’t have the advantage of winning over the audience or skimming over small mistakes with a cheeky smile or ‘witty’ joke. This time, perfection is the goal and it needs to be achieved.

To get heard by the ‘right’ people you have to have a product that can create lots of interest. As an unsigned band there’s a hell of a lot of competition to make a career from your music. Therefore maximum effort is needed at the rehearsal stage because the margin for error is so small. Feedback from record labels has already highlighted that in order to get signed you need more than a good live show, fan base or demo to get noticed. You need the whole package and more. This is why we are working so hard to get it right.

Between us, we will be playing guitar, drums, bass guitar, piano and various other bits and bobs, and with only two days in the studio we need to get each track recorded with a minimum of fuss. Hence being locked away for the weekend making sure we get everything right first time, or close to it.

When recording with a limited amount of time you are, essentially, playing against the clock but also trying to get it right. Professional groups have the resources to create their recordings over a much longer time period and thus have much looser deadlines. They also have the luxury of being shipped off to exotic locations to get the creative juices flowing. We are going to Bognor Regis.

The sooner we get our music laid down, the sooner the sound engineer can start polishing and tweaking. The smallest of touches or effects can make the all important difference between a home-made demo and the professional sound we crave. This is why unsigned bands are forced to spend so much money on recording. The end product will be something that we can send off to record companies, managing agents and local media. It is also something that we can be truly proud of, a tangible fruit of our labour that makes all the hard work worthwhile!

In other news, we have also been working hard this week to enhance our online presence so watch this space (myspace.com/lesvalentinemusic) and we will keep you updated as to where we can be found on the interweb.

Finally, we have also been booked for new gig at a new acoustic night at the Pitcher & Piano in Brighton. Come along next Sunday night, 16^th September, and enjoy a night of chilled out music at a brand new weekly Brighton event!

Dates for the diary

11th-12th September – We are booked into Ford Lane Studios to re-record our demo properly.

13th September – Our new CD of the newly recorded songs will be available, FREE!

16^th September – GIG – Pitcher & Piano, Brighton (potentially the launch gig for the CD!)

27th September – GIG – Laid Back and Latte, University of Sussex

26th October – GIG – Sanctuary Cafe, Hove

9th April – Steve’s Birthday

19th April – John’s Birthday

And remember – SPREAD THE WORD!

If you like our music, tell people about it. Copy our CDs for friends who you think would be interested, bring people to gigs. The hardest part really is getting heard, so if you can help in any way, please do. As always, your support is very much appreciated.

Thank you,

Les Valentine

Building a Fan Base – www.myspace.com/lesvalentinemusic

One of the most difficult things when starting out as an unsigned band is trying to build a fan base. Most new acts playing locally at the moment tend to have a dedicated following of between 5 and 10 people who will come to gigs regularly (sometimes even less), usually made up of friends and family. It is certainly not easy to get people along to see live music every time, especially if several bookings land together in the calendar.

      Les Valentine have been very fortunate in consistently getting around 15-25 people or more to come to shows, whatever the venue, on stage time and period since the last one. There are obviously an excellent core of people who come to almost every venue for us, and, crucially, another group of people who also come when they can ensuring between them we keep the numbers up.

      For live music promoters it’s very important that the acts they book bring people to their venues, so conversely if musicians want to be asked back to play again it’s vital they get people along. Often promoters or sound engineers count, almost to the person, how many people their bookings bring along, which is why we are always very grateful to every single individual who turns up. In this respect we feel that this week we have taken a bit of a step forward. 

     On Monday (27^th) we played a gig in the fantastic underground bar at the Joogleberry Playhouse. It was the first time we had ever played there and we can’t recommend it enough to other bands and music lovers. The atmosphere is intimate, lighting and sound excellent and the audience genuinely turn up to see and enjoy live music. 

     The gig was played and afterwards we gave out a number of CDs, signed people up to the mailing list and chatted to one or two people about our next gig, Thursday at the Pav Tav. We went home pleased that at least a few new people had heard of us and taken CDs home and began looking forward to Thursday. 

    Then,due to the environment which saw the audience engaging directly with the performers, a satisfying thing happened – two of the people who had never heard us before added themselves to our ‘Les Valentine News Room’ group on Facebook and said they would come on Thursday. Then, come Thursday, they actually turned up to see us play again. 

    We know what you’re thinking. Two isn’t exactly a huge number of people, and you’d be right. But what it represents is that we are starting to interest people who have no prior links to us other than hearing our songs, which is very important to any new band. In short, we must be doing something right. 

    In a couple of weeks we go into the recording studio to re-record our demo so that it might be taken more seriously than the current demo we recorded in a bedroom. Now we can practise for that and get ready in the knowledge that, if we keep doing what we’re doing and learning how to do it better, we will get people interested in us. Exciting, isn’t it?

 Dates for the diary

11th-12th September – We are booked into Ford Lane Studios to re-record our demo properly.

13th September – Our new CD of the newly recorded songs will be available, FREE!

27th September – GIG – Laid Back and Latte, University of Sussex

26th October – GIG – Sanctuary Cafe, Hove

9th April – Steve’s Birthday

19th April – John’s Birthday

And remember – SPREAD THE WORD!

If you like our music, tell people about it. Copy our CDs for friends who you think would be interested, bring people to gigs. The hardest part really is getting heard, so if you can help in any way, please do. As always, your support is very much appreciated as evidenced above.

Thank you,

Les Valentine