Imogen Heap ‘more popular than UK Prime Minister’
Recognition is always nice, and working for myself whilst I am often thanked by the people I work with/for, it’s not as if I get an annual review or ‘employee of the month’ award, so I was very chuffed with myself when I stumbled upon an article about ‘QDOS’, a system that measures an individual’s ‘digital status’ in the UK.
According to a recent QDOS report 9 out of 10 of the most digitally prolific personalities in the UK are musicians, and whilst you’d be forgiven for assuming someone such as Bono would be number one, you’d also be wrong! According to QDOS, the number one most digitally prolific person in the UK is non other than Imogen Heap!
(Tony Blair and Gordon Brown came in at numbers 12 and 25 respectively).
A QDOS score is comprised of four main components – popularity, impact, activity and individuality. Each component is scored separately and these are combined to form a total QDOS score. Popularity measures the number of people one engages with online and the size of their personal network, impact is based on the number of people who listen/read/view/comment when an individual blogs/posts online, activity comprises the total of one’s digital activity including shopping, blogging, banking, chatting etc, and individuality is how unique one is in the digital world based on their name, age and lifestyle.
So as Imogen’s webmaster and gate-keeper of all things online, I am patting myself on the back for a job well done! Although, I’m not the only person that deserves recognition here – there’s Imogen herself for always being up for trying something new, Mark Wood (Imogen’s manager) for letting us try things and always supporting us, and Tiffany ‘the axemaiden’ Le, our ‘myspace housekeeper’ who does a superb job managing Imogen’s MySpace profile and it’s 300,000+ friends.
Having spent the last 5 or 6 years working with Imogen and it’s great to see our efforts being recognised – I’m looking forward to retaining our ‘title’ in 2008!
Read the full article here.
In Dad We Trust!
My ‘little’ brother turns 18 at the end of the month and we’ve decided to put on a big party to celebrate. The plan is to hire a venue for late February (so Al is over 18 and can drink legally!) and put on a mixture of live music and food, along with some drinks and some DJ spun tunes.
As part of the live music four fifths of my band ‘Scrat’ will be performing. Myself, both my brothers (Stat & Al), Dicko and Steve will be making up the numbers, however there’s a slight line up change (and a name change) whilst Dave sits it out and prepares for his wedding and we’re going to be joined by a very special guest…..my Dad!
Now, Fishman (as we affectionately call him) has a history steeped in rock ‘n’ roll. He played in several bands when he was in his 20’s back in 1970 something, including the infamous ‘Mantis’ who were once paid by a promoter not to perform the second half of their set during a gig at a bingo hall! In fact, Dad confessed last night that Status Quo were ‘in his psyche’ – so he’s definitely the right man for the job!
Last night was our first rehearsal and I haven’t had so much fun for a long time. Not only was I playing music with both of my younger brothers, but my Dad was playing too! It was awesome! We decided to start off with a few covers and threw in some golden oldies that Fishman would know in the form of ‘Teenage Kicks’ (Undertones) , ‘Rockin’ All Over The World’ (Status Quo), and ‘Summer Of ‘69′ (Bryan Adams) – which we were informed (somewhat ironically) by Dad was the year that he left school – perfect!
To our collective surprise Dad picked things up really quickly considering he’d not played guitar for 20 + years (did I mention he was playing his custom built 70’s Fender Tele copy, fresh from the loft?!) and before long we were rocking! He even began to let rip with some Clapton-esque riffage over the end of ‘Summer Of ‘69′ and at one point had us all in tears after attempting a Pete Townshend style jump mid-song, which ended up with Dicko burst into laughter!
So that was our first rehearsal, it couldn’t have gone any better. I really can’t wait for Dad to get back from his week long holiday so that we can get back to rehearsing for the gig…this is going to be brilliant!
The end of ticket touting in the UK?
According to this Guardian Unlimited article the UK Government may actually be about to get serious about ticket touting (scalping for you US people) and put laws in place to stop it. I certainly hope that something is done about this problem sooner rather than later.
The touting issue is something that as a regular concert goer I feel very strongly about, and I feel it has been allowed to get completely out of control in recent years, particularly with the rise of online auction sites such as eBay, which despite all their claims of innocence are making the situation much worse whilst raking in millions of pounds in the process.
There are those who insist that they should be entitled to re-sell something they have bought at whatever price they want, just as they can with other items, however in this instance it has been proven that this isn’t a case of a few people re-selling tickets because they can’t attend an event – it has become a multi-million pound industry run by criminal gangs, endorsed by supposedly honourable organisations (such as eBay), and the only people losing out are the fans who want to see the acts (or sporting teams) they follow.
I don’t think the proposed ‘protected events’ idea which would mean that for certain events ticket re-selling would be banned goes far enough. Why should this ban only apply to events of so-called ‘national importance’? Surely it is just as important that a consumer isn’t ripped-off when trying to buy tickets for a concert by an unknown band as it is for example an England International football game, or a major tribute concert?
What we need is a complete ban on ticket touting, it should be made illegal to re-sell a ticket for any event unless it is sold for face value through a government run website. Such a website would mean that all sellers, re-sellers and buyers would have to register their contact details and could therefore be held accountable if they tried to re-sell above face value.
This kind of system would mean an end to ticket touting, something that everyone other than those profiting from it want to see.
Have you ever been the victim of a ticket tout? Ripped-off on eBay? Do you regularly buy tickets from touts or online re-sellers? Would you like to see touting banned? Or maybe you think re-selling should be allowed to continue un-monitored?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Not a bad way to start the New Year…
<object width=”425″ height=”355″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/sOtpKQ-dAlg&rel=1″></param><param name=”wmode” value=”transparent”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/sOtpKQ-dAlg&rel=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” wmode=”transparent” width=”425″ height=”355″></embed></object>
Aussie biker Robbie Maddison breaks the world motorcycle jump record, flying 322 feet at 94mph in Las Vegas. Eat your heart out Evel Knievel!
