A while back I was kindly invited to the East Mids Meet Up. Obviously, I couldn't turn down the offer to have a bit of fun and meet some new bloggers. As time went on and it was nearing the date I was getting more and more excited especially when the further details came through. Manhattan 34 was the randevu on Saturday 13th August.
When I got their I was thrilled to see some new faces. We had several companies that came and offered us their services. Angel Eyes, Danique Hairdressing, Blogosphere Magazine, Cool As Publicity, Rothley Wine Estate and a few others were there.
According to my plus one the wine from Rothley Wine Estate was lovely - I would have like to try it but unfortunately I can't legally drink it. We were blessed with cake and some wonderful live music throughout the day. My friend Gabby from Cool As Publicity did a small presentation for all of us about how to deal with PR companies as a blogger and gave us all some very useful tips.
A massive thank you to the lovely ladies who helped organise it as well as the brands that contributed! X
The women from Blogosphere Magazine were absolutely lovely. They did a little chat for us bloggers unfortunately I didn't get much of a chance to hear it as I was getting my hair done. Luckily, I has spoken to the girls before hand so I didn't miss too much! Blogosphere is a magazine 'for bloggers by bloggers' and Issue 10 is soon to come out. It is very difficult to get your hands on one of these gorgeous magazines but fortunate for me, they were selling them so I got Issue 8 & 9 for £8. I'm currently reading them and loving every aspect!
Angel Eyes Review
We were emailed on the morning to inform us that if we would like our eyelashes done that there should be no mascara. Nooooo! Mascara is the one product I can't leave the house without. I pulled myself together and kept my sunglasses on until I arrived. Since my eyes felt so bare without my beloved Rimmel London Wake Me Up, I jumped at the chance to get mine done first.
Throughout my whole session I could sense everyone coming up and checking them out, cameras snapping, etc. I didn't know what was going on - I still don't. It was rather funny however, don't ask me why.
I have never tried false lashes before, I'm scared I will do it wrong so this was a completely new experience for me. I loved it! To start off, I has these pads put under my eyes with some sort of moisturiser on. Whilst talking to the woman I found out that these particular pads get rid of dark circles and bags, leaving your eyes looking fresh. For a pair it would normally coat £10 and they are one of Angel Eyes most popular products.
I was given the chance to have the Express Socialite Lashes which only took about 20-30 minutes. However you can choose from a natural, classic, glamorous or an ultra glamorous look. The process can take from 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours. thee can cost between £65 and £20. It's also recommended that you go for a 20 minute top up every 2-3 weeks.
It is NOT recommended to pull out the lashes. Your eyelashes shed shed approximately every 90 days and by pulling out these false lashes you can damage your natural ones. So it's best to just leave them to fall out naturally.
I loved having my lashes done by Angel Lashes, I barely felt it. They separate your eyelashes and glue the false single one to it. They feel and look natural which means I can go without mascara for a few weeks. A certain percentage of the public have had bad previous experiences with the application of lashes like this but Angel Eyes are a professional company that do the most amazing job!
Danique Hairdressing Review
Recently, Danique Hairdressing have starred on TOWIE and have had a major career boost so I snapped up the opportunity to get my hair done by them. The ladies were lovely, really friendly and did a beautiful job of my hair. I think they would do an even better job now that my hair has shortened and become less heavy.
In the space of 20 minutes my hair had gone from a crimped frizzy look because of my plait to gorgeous soft curls. I was also given several offer for the next time I visit including £15 off.
I would definitely recommend Danique Hairdressing to anyone wanting a good experience. If you're thinking about going now, mention my name because I get a discount ;) Haha, but seriously, I think if you had a special event coming up, they'd be great to go to.
Goodie Bags
I would like to say a quick thank you to Matalan and any other company that got involved with the goodie bags. They were lovely and I love everything in them - my sister even pinched a few things. Anyway, here's what I received:
Dreaming In Colour Productions 1st Birthday Party
After the East Mids Meet Up I was invited by Cool As Publicity to the Dreaming In Colour Productions 1st birthday party. I was offered the opportunity to interview the manager, Elisabeth Barker-Carley for you all as well as myself. Dreaming In Colour Productions are a music management company that help organise tours, manage bands, etc. They have a range of rehearsal rooms as well as a band camp out for acts to crash the night. Additionally, they deal with music promotions and event organising. If you want to go into the music management route then this interview is a must read.
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Our office is in Humberstone Gate, we have a recording
studio, and we found a board room table and just took it. It’s the top of a
really old building and the beams are really high up so we built a mezzanine
level. We have beds and hammocks up there that we just as a hostel for touring
bands.
Who have you worked
with in the past, anyone worth mentioning?
Yeah, In April we worked with Nathan Grisdale, who is like
an internet sensation. I got the phone call and checked out his social media
stats, I thought someone was having me on. I thought ‘why is someone of this
status wanting to speak to me?’
He had over two million views on his YouTube for each video.
We have a guest book and his manager has left us the nicest review.
We not only booked the tour for them we help promote every
one of their shows around the country.
The London show was a sell out within
hours, it was insane.
That was the biggest thing we have done to date.
Then this management company called Thirty Century Management,
who manage Shikari, Allusondrugs and people like that.
We were bugging Allusondrugs for ages to give us a shot and
they did.
Ian, the manager, invited me to go for a drink to talk about
future business. I almost fell off my chair!
It’s really starting to get there. We are looking at booking
Creeper as well who have just exploded over the scene.
Nathan Grisdale was the big one, we have had so much off the
back of that.
Who would you like to
work with in the future?
When you run a business you are always told to look into the
future and have aims and goals but I don’t know.
Was there anyone when
you were younger you thought, I would like to work with them?
I have an absolute obsession with Gwen Stefani, if she
walked through the door I would do anything! Charlie Simpson is like the main
one I want to work with.
Have you heard the seven people therapy? Where anywhere in
the world you are connected to seven people, we have a white board in the
office and Charlie’s name went up on it for a while, I took it down as it got
embarrassing when people kept asking about it. Not Busted but his solo work is
amazing, I adore it.
I met him last year when I was stage managing at take down
festival. I was running the second stage and he was playing the main stage. I
tried every which way to meet him but he wasn’t on site all day long. All of
these incredible artists were on and I really didn’t care, I was just like, ‘Is
Charlie on yet?’
What does your job
require you to do?
I have four companies I now own, they all link in with each
other but it’s nicer to have them all separate in little boxes. I oversee all
the live music we have going on in Leicester, we have on average five shows a
week.
Sometimes we are
busier, we have had eight shows in three days, a few weeks ago, and my team
hated me for it.
I manage a few bands as well, I have to check in with them,
sort out their social media. Get their strategies and stuff and implement them.
Then there is our tour booking side of things, the bands we
manage we obviously send out on tour but we have other bands come to us, they
pay us to book them decent tours. It takes the headache away from them to organise
it. There are a lot of spread sheets involved.
Mainly my day though consists of meetings, I am in meetings
all the time with people.
We are starting to put more shows on in London, Birmingham
and Nottingham which means more conference calls. I don’t personally get to
book in as much music as I used to or go to many shows but I have an amazing
team who can handle all that so I can secure the bigger contracts.
I went to a venue the other day to get two dates out of them
and walked out with their whole music contract, I came out of the meeting
thinking, ‘how have I done this?’
You get artists and
bands come to you, do you ever have to go
to them?
In the beginning, Yes.
How did you do that?
I went to University in Birmingham, I rarely came home, and
when I came home everyone had moved on. People and groups I knew before had
split up, I pretty much knew no one. I went out every single night of the week
for three months to open mics, shows, by myself. I started making friends and
getting invited to their places. It was all about building your network of
contacts.
Before the company even formed or had a name, I had these
really crap business cards that had my Hotmail address on and just my name and
phone number. It was like, ‘Call me sometime!’
The first band I really ever worked with I bullied them for
three months I would not leave them alone. I said, ‘Look let me tour manage
you? I will help you out with dates, I will work as your booking agent for
free! Just let me come on tour with you.’
Initially they were
hesitant, but I broke them down and through them I met other people.
You have to take the risk, I got a lot of ‘No's’ before I got
the ‘yes’’, but now I am having to turn people away which is cool. We are now
on the mailing list for the agency group, Instead of us begging them to let us
have the shows we get them sent through to us.
It’s a reputation game.
Do you need specific
qualifications to go into the industry?
No, not at all.
I have been putting events on since I was about thirteen
years old. Mainly to annoy my headmaster, I
figured the more charity events I
did they could not say no.
It’s what I tell my interns, its only stuff you can learn
from experience.
I tell them ‘Go and do something.’
They do it and then I say, ‘Why haven’t you done everything
else instead of just that one thing?’
They say, ’But you didn’t say that!’
But to me its common
sense.
I have to think back to when I started and I wouldn’t have
known, so the only way to learn about the music industry is to dive in. You
have to do as much work experience as you can and intern all over the place,
eventually you will just pick it up.
I find myself answering questions and then at the end of it
I think, I didn’t even know that I knew that! I blag it, my whole life I blag
it, I am waiting for someone to come and trip me up!
What stands out on a
job application for you?
When we hire interns we put out a job application, so Beth
and Jaz are my right and left arm.
Beth came to me through work experience, I had no one else
so thought, yeah come on in, and she is now my best friend.
Jaz is going to be my maid of honor at my wedding.
We do job applications but I don’t really read peoples CV’s,
I skim through them but it’s mainly grammar that I look for.
If things are misspelt or the wrong there or there is used I
can’t ignore it.
The majority of our communication is through emails or Facebook
that if you get it wrong you don’t know who you are speaking to or who you
could accidentally piss off by using the wrong thing.
We ask our applicants to fill out a questionnaire, we have
ridiculous things on it like, ‘And where would you find gaffer tape in an
emergency?’
There are a few serious questions like ‘How do you set up a
mic stand’, stuff that they don’t necessary need to know but if they give it a
go, even if it’s wrong I will invite them in.
It’s when people leave things blank and don’t even try!
The very last question is, ‘Finally, what is your zombie
plan?’
If people leave that blank I think ‘You are obviously a
boring person!’
Grace from this latest load of internship put the best
answer she put, ‘Just die first!’ I loved her for it and asked her to talk me
through it. She said she would just get it over with and die first while everyone
else ran away!
I thought ‘I want you on my team!’
I don’t always look for qualifications, I look for someone
who has a sense of humour, if you don’t
have that in this industry you will get
eaten alive.
Its hard work, if people start moaning they are tired I let
them go. If are tired all the time you are never going to be able to run a
festival. I have pulled a twenty six hour shift before and was still fine
afterwards.
So work ethic and sense of humour are all you need!
Is there any advice
you want to give to people who want to go into the industry or work with you?
Literally, just never give up. You are going to get so many
no’s and rejections and it will kill you.
I have had about four breakdowns in the past three years! It
gets so much, but if you have the ability to pull yourself out of it and give
yourself a slap in the face, to carry on and host the night even though inside
you are dying you can do it!
Its will power!
You have to find someone who inspires you and think they
didn’t give up, if they can do it then so can I.
Shep Gordon is my inspiration,
I think of what he would do in a situation and focus on him.
Ted Talks as well, I have that app on my phone, which helps!
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She was absolutely lovely to talk to! I had so much fun and got a lot of useful information for this next upcoming year when writing my CV.
That is all this time. So!
Until next time...
Sophie xx
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