The online make-over I agreed to do for Plush included a new Myspace layout.

I referenced the website header and mailing list template to create a marquee that includes the band’s logo, photo and a menu to drive traffic to the website.

I added a custom html box to include the band’s discography – linking to retailers for the albums and the website for lyrics to each song.

I also created a small banner advertising the US Lounge Members’ Area, helping to drive sign-ups on the site.

To ensure that all fan communications match the style and branding of the website, I built an html email template for the band to use when contacting their fans.

The template includes links to the primary sections on the band’s website as well as their social networks.

I set the system up to include segmentation by user location (so they can send targeted emails to fans in specific countries) as well as personalisation options.

To launch the new website, I helped the band send one mass email to all the fans on their old mailing list. This helped them clean the database up, remove any inactive email addresses and ensure that all the fans on their current list are engaged fans and part of the US Lounge Members’ Area.

At the end of 2009 Brandon Prevost offered me a big freelance job; building a new website and online estate for Plush. I have been a fan and friend of the band since the early days of Native Noise on UCT Radio in 2003.

When we first started discussions around the new website I still worked at Communion / Beatroute. It was actually thanks to Brandon that I found out about my current position at Warner Bros.

Plush.us is built on the WordPress platform along with all the latest tools to enhance usability and engagement. It has been a while since I’ve created a custom Worpdress theme from scratch and the platform has introduced a number of useful enhancements. I started with twenty ten as a base and dug deep into the code to make it produce the high-end website I had in mind.

My design for the site is very clean and simple, based on the album artwork by Pierre Coetzee. I used the colourful background image as a fixed full-screen background and styled all the content boxes to have the same black background and border as the logo on the album cover. The header includes the new logo and a photograph by Deborah Rossouw.

It took a lot of code to customise the twenty ten theme. I added an extra dynamic sidebar for widgets and resized the content area for two different page templates (one wide and one narrow). I added a new widget area to the home page that allows the band to upload a large banner. The banner zone is only visible on the home page and can easily be removed by removing any widgets from the zone.

All updates can be assigned to three categories which will determine where they appear on the site.

The home page displays a combination of official news updates and more personal blog posts written by the band, visitors can then click on a tab to isolate the content and only display one of the categories. The third category is for exclusive content in the members’ area. Any members-only posts are only visible to fans that join the US Lounge Members’ Area. The band will be able to use this area to reward their most dedicated fans with exclusive content.

I made quite a few modifications to make the US Lounge Members’ Area an easy user experience. I used a Facebook Connect plugin that allows fans to create an account with two clicks. I made extensive modifications to the plugin to ensure that any new members’ would also be added to the phplist powered mailing list. Using phpCurl and inspired by Jesse Heap‘s work on the dual registration plugin I was able to seamlessly pass the users’ details to phplist.

After ages wrestling with Facebook Connect and the Graph API it became clear that Facebook doesn’t share any useful information about the user’s country. As Plush have fans around the world it is important to determine where their members are based. The data made available from Facebook is very unpredictable. The current destination field could be “Cape Town, South Africa”, “Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa” or “Cape Town, Western Cape”. This format makes it a huge challenge to determine the user’s country. The solution I came up with was quite a task to implement. I created a new database table that lists every country in the world. If the last part of the user’s location matches one of these countries then that value is passed through. I then expanded the table to include states and provinces for a lot of countries. So if a user’s location is “Los Angeles, California”, the database will determine that they are based in the USA.

Aware that not everyone is comfortable with Facebook Connect’s one click login process, I added a manual sign-up option to the registration page. I used the phplist dual registration plugin to add phplist functionality to the default wordpress registration page. I also styled the page slightly to make it clear that the user was still on Plush’s website.

A collection of useful wordpress plugins help to make content really easy to manage.

TubePress syncs with Plush’s YouTube account and automatically imports any new YouTube videos to the videos page and the latest videos sidebar widget.

Bandsintown is a Facebook application that creates a tour dates tab on an artist’s fan page. The app also includes a wordpress plugin to list those dates on your website. With some additional styling I was able to integrate the band’s tour schedule into the shows page as well as a sidebar widget. Bandsintown also includes a myspace widget so Plush only have to update their facebook page to publish tour dates on their website and myspace profile simultaneously.

Twitter Widget Pro is a very simple WordPress plugin with enough classes to make styling a breeze. It was easy to add a list of Plush’s latest tweets to the sidebar.

FAlbum
The Plush photo gallery is powered by a the FAlbum plugin which allows WordPress sites to sync with a Flickr account to dynamically create galleries in the website. I created my own template to make the site fit into the website’s style. The band only needs to update their Flickr account to keep the website current.

Custom FAlbum widget.
I wanted to display the latest photographs in a sidebar widget. I wrote my own custom plugin to work alongside FAlbum to display the latest thumbnails. The plugin is very basic but allows the user to set the number of photographs to display and includes a few classes to make styling easier.

Google Analytics for WordPress makes it really simple to add Google Analytics to a wordpress site. Having created an analytics account for Plush, I only had to add the site ID to the plugin to start recording the site’s traffic.

Admin Bar Disabler proved to be a simple but useful plugin. As the site encourages user registration, a lot of visitors would see the WordPress admin bar at the top of the page. The options for subscribers are fairly limited and I didn’t want users to find the admin bar confusing. I used the plugin to disable the admin bar for all users unless they have admin rights.

I used the standard WordPress text widget to add some html for more sidebar modules, including a Facebook like box and a store widget linking to merch and music.

The cms features built into the twenty ten theme make this project far more valuable for the band. They are able to easily customise the menu, changing the order, adding or removing page links (including external sites). The header photo and background image can also be replaced within the site’s cms, it’s really easy for an admin to upload new images for these sections.

All in all, the new Plush.us is a very powerful artist website; maximising integration with the social web, simplifying updates and driving data acquisition through fan engagement. The project took a long time, but the challenge allowed me to expand my development skills and explore the latest technology. I’m very proud of the end result.

Live at IndigO2 for GLOW presented by Feed Me Music.
16 April 2011.

The Curious Incident

Luke Girvan

The Dirty Reds

Van Susans

While I’m building the new official Plush website the band wanted an updated holding page to promote the new single ‘Dancing in a Storm’.

I assembled a fairly basic page to include the new logo (designed by Pierre Coetzee) and a photograph by Deborah Rossouw.

The page includes a sign-up form linked to phplist as well as social network links and a Facebook like button. I embedded the new single ‘Dancing in a Storm’ using a soundcloud player and customised the meta data to optimize Facebook sharing. Pressing the like button will share the page on your wall along with the embedded soundcloud player, so the song will reach the maximum number of people possible.

I was also asked to include the upcoming tour dates, but I didn’t want to be stuck with the job of constantly updating a static list of dates. I added the bands in town Facebook application and used their simple javascript package to make sure the latest tour dates stay synced between the holding page, Facebook and Myspace pages.

The holding page effectively showcases the new Plush single and tour dates, while encouraging sign-ups and social sharing.

On the back of massive TV placements like House, The Sarah Connor Chronicles and One Tree Hill, Civil Twilight has been exploding in the US. Now London-based fans have a chance to catch their first UK performances. They’ll be playing the very intimate Barfly and Monto Water Rats. The band was amazing live when I last saw them six years ago. Trust me, seeing them in these small venues will be an opportunity you don’t want to miss out on.

They’ll be joined by Company of Thieves. I only got the album recently and I’m really impressed. Looking forward to seeing them live.

Get your tickets here:
Tuesday 8th June – Camden Barfly
Wednesday 9th June – Monto Water Rats

Find out more about both bands:
http://civiltwilightband.com
http://www.companyofthieves.net

5FM’s Saturday afternoon show, (Live)⁵ with Catherine between 5pm and 7pm, is taking a love of live local and international music to a new level. In April 2010 5FM, in association with Jose Cuervo, are launching the first (Live)⁵ album that will feature over 40 live recorded tracks from over two years of live broadcasts from both local and international bands that have been featured on the show.

For 5FM’s Catherine Grenfell, producer and host of the station’s (Live)⁵ show, the CD is a culmination of many years of hard work and unabridged passion. “If you’re a fan of live music and South African music – who could ask for a better job, than hosting and producing a show like (Live)⁵? We have had the most unbelievable bands and experiences on the show. The intimacy of the show for the studio audience and the platform from 5fm for the bands to play to a national audience has made this show such an amazing experience for me. This CD is for the bands, the studio audience and you, the people that buy CD’s and support South African Music.”

Some of the local artists to be included on the new CD include Seether, the Parlotones, HHP, Prime Circle, Goldfish, Gang of Instrumentals, JR and Locnville. International performances who have appeared on (Live)⁵ and who will also be featured in the CD include Joss Stone, Staind, OK Go and The Ataris.

The (Live)⁵ double CD will be on shelf and available to purchase from the first week of May 2010. Watch out for (Live)⁵ album launch events in your city where you can see Catherine and other 5FM DJ’s in action as well as your favourite local music acts. You can buy copies of the very first (Live)⁵ album at the launch events as well as win free merchandise with 5FM and Jose Cuervo.

TRACK LISTING:

CD1:
1. Prime Circle – Consider Me
2. Seether – Fine Again
3. Locnville – Sun in My Pocket
4. Zebra & Giraffe – Arm Yourself
5. OK Go – Here it Goes Again
6. Joss Stone – Super Duper Love (Are You Diggin’ On Me?)
7. Loyiso ft Obita – I Want You
8. Harris Tweed – The Taxi Song
9. Evolver – Go All The Way
10. HHP – Let Me Be (Walk on By)
11. JR – Show Dem
12. Flash Republic – Emergency
13. Farryl Purkiss – A Million Grains of Sand
14. City Bowl Misers – Uh Huh
15. Taxi Violence – Untie Yourself
16. Stealing Love Jones – Out There
17. Sugardrive – Ten Feet High
18. Fire Through The Window – Just Like You Are

CD2:
1. The Parlotones – Giant Mistake
2. Staind – Everything Changes
3. Goldfish – This is How it Goes
4. Louise Carver – Home
5. The Ataris – Boys of Summer
6. Crash Car Burn – Heroes
7. Heroes Wear Red – Beautiful Way
8. Springbok Nude Girls – Wolfmen (Live at the Astoria)
9. Jozi – What’s With The Attitude
10. Gang of Instrumentals – Woza December
11. Koldproduk – You You & You
12. Bang Bang – Two Way
13. Jamali – Knowing Me Knowing You
14. Tasha Baxter – Fade to Black
15. The One Night Stands – Seconds
16. Josie Field – Every Now & Then
17. Voodoo Child – Megalomanic Attack
18. Flat Stanley – Sunset Ribbon Red
19. Jacques – Get Right

Joe had a great press picture that would be perfect to use as a header image so I extended the wall in Photoshop and developed a fairly basic layout around that.

The website integrates seamlessly with other sites in his online profile. All photographs are directly imported from Flickr thanks to FAlbum. All videos are automatically imported from a YouTube playlist, thanks to the TubePress plugin. Tour dates are added to artistdata.com which pushes them to numerous sites including the official website. The header includes the official twitter feed and the sidebar also includes a customized facebook fan bagde.

The “listen” page uses an adapted version of the Tierra Audio Playlist Manager plugin, making it easy to add songs and edit the playlist. This was customised to include album artwork and links to purchase songs.

The site also uses phplist to manage mailing list subscriptions.

The origin is like something out of an indie film: 4 music fans decided that it was unacceptable that one of their friends would have to miss Woodstock 2 years ago and so they set out to create a music festival of their own in somebody’s garden. And that’s exactly what they did.

By calling in favours, a sound system was procured, and they managed to convince musicians to play for free. Including Tim Kroon of Heroes Wear Red and David Baudains of New Academics.

It may be small, but JawFest has all the features of any music festival. There are the bands, the beer, the braais, and even camping, so nobody needs to drive home after it’s over.

The party was deemed a success, and since then has happened several more times, on an irregular basis, but growing every time. The only publicity has been through Facebook, Twitter and by word-of-mouth.

JawFest has so far seen the likes of Myepic, Future Records and Holly & The Woods playing, mostly acoustically, on its very small stage. JawFest has also been proud to host SAMA nominated acts like Underbelly (playing their first unplugged show ever) and Lindsay McGuire. And the best part is, it’s all free. The next JawFest already has several artistes of this calibre already confirmed, although the organisers prefer to keep the line-up a secret to add to the mystique.

And on the subject of the line-up, this is what the organisers have to say: “It’s not just about bands, you know? We also want to encourage people who’ve never played in front of a crowd to step up and play a debut gig. In the ever changing music scene JawFest has become a way for new bands to showcase their talents or to hone their live skills in a relaxed and positive environment.”

The 6th JawFest will be happening in Midrand on the 24th of October this year. For more information visit www.facebook.com/jawfest. To make a submission to perform or for location details email cyril@nativenoise.co.za.

The title track just keeps blowing me away every time I hear it!
It really is a work of art and I love everything about this track.

Go give it a listen here:
http://www.newacademics.co.za/listen.htm
or on http://www.myspace.com/newacademics

Honestly it is genius!

The Apple
At the turn of the century
The skies were set ablaze by our saviour’s re-entry
As God sent his son down to earth
Saying; “Boy, it’s time you got back to work”
Touching down in the city of sirens
He went looking for a job, but nobody was hiring
As hunger slid its hands ’round his throat
Peace and love packed up their bags and eloped

In a suit on the seventh floor
Satan preaches to the board
Keeping the profits/prophets lining up
It’s always useful to moralise from air-conditioned paradise
The apple is never large enough

Jesus squatted down on a pavement in Hillbrow
Ring of thorns replaced with a razor-wire crown
The guilty rolling past where he skulked
In SUV’s that they filled up with their bulk
Anger surged through his frame with its hot flow
Picking up a half-brick he destroyed a car window
And grabbed a wallet from its place on the seat
Saying; “Forgive me father, but tonight I must eat”

In a suit on the seventh floor
Satan preaches to the board
Keeping the profits/prophets lining up
It’s always useful to moralise from air-conditioned paradise
The apple is never large enough

Around the corner from the scene
Two constables licked their fingers clean
Of wors and beans
Until their grooming rites were surpassed
By the screaming of the middle class
And breaking glass
All attention to the street
They saw a man flee through the stifling heat
In sandled feet
In a blur of sound and might
They cut him off just past the traffic lights
And read the lord his rights

Peering down from his steel and glass tower
Satan saw his chance for an increase in power
And secured the full weight of the law
Via a series of transfers and phone calls
When Jesus pleaded guilty at his court appearance
The magistrate decried him with gleeful vehemence;
“Since you seem to show no sign of remorse,
The maximum sentence is my only recourse”

In a suit on the seventh floor
Satan preaches to the board
Keeping the profits/prophets lining up
It’s always useful to moralise from air-conditioned paradise
The apple is never large enough

I have seen it happen often but will give some personal examples.

I run NativeNoise.co.za at a loss (my problem for not sorting it out properly). I take photos of bands and promote them for two main reasons:
1. The love of music
2. The knowledge that it is appreciated

The first is a personal thing, but the second often goes missed.
I have never asked for financial remuneration for what I do (it has been offered once or twice). All I expect is a credit, a thank you, a place on a guest list.

In 2004 Pestroy performed live on Native Noise. The recording that I made of ‘Categories’ was later added to the Split album with The Narrow. The song was listed as Categories (raw and unplugged on UCT Radio). The band did apologise to me later, but I was never credited for my involvement in that recording.

Overgraze used my photos to design a beautiful poster… All I would have asked was for line on the bottom corner; ‘photos courtesy of NativeNoise.co.za’

Recently I walked into Roxy’s and saw a poster for a new band named Dimestore. It looked oddly familiar because all the photographs used were taken by me. Again a simple tag at the bottom of the poster is all I ask for. They used the low-res versions from my website, I would have provided Hi-Res versions if they respected my rights.

I received a friend request from Dawn Treader. Their profile picture was from a show at the Mercury a few years ago. My little tag had been cropped off. I have seen this done with a lot of my other photos.

I add two small unobtrusive tags on my photos to claim my intellectual property. Is it too much to ask that they are left there?

Very recently I screwed myself out of a credit in the Beeld newspaper. Jip did a feature on Fevertree and, when setting it up, I sent through a number of my photos from My Coke Fest. I did ask the journalist to credit me. The article contained a number of live shots by Alet Pretorius who was credited. The press photo that they used was one that I took. Press photos are never credited because the label usually pays the photographer for all rights to the images. Thus working for the label and using my own photos took away my opportunity to be credited.

This is just a bitching session really, there’s little I can do about any of the aforementioned events. I am learning that people are not inherently ready to give credit where it is due, so I have to ask/demand it.

Bands! Just think about it before you use someone else’s work. Sure the photos are of you but that doesn’t give you the rights to them. How would you feel if people were sending MP3s of your music around the world without your band name attached?

I found myself rather spoilt for this year’s South African Music Awards. Despite not entering any artists for the event I was still able to attend the nominees ceremony. I was further privileged when a certain lovely lady (Ms. Monique Stander) asked me to accompany her to the event. As a judge of the ‘Best Alternative Album’, Monique was one of the few people I knew that could bring a guest. Such is the culture at Musketeer Records; the rest of my colleagues would also be in Sun City for the weekend.

Arriving at Sun City with little time to change and meet my date I was greeted by a number of indie label execs, a steady flow of shooters and snuff that had me sniffing like a coke-head all night. Making a fashionably late entrance I was flanked by two lovely ladies. Monique and Nadia certainly gave me some kind of celebrity profile.

Not all the awards at the SAMAs are announced at the main ceremony. The Friday night is dedicated to the more low-profile awards. I find that slightly insulting but I guess they can only fit so many categories into one night. I missed Fokofpolisiekar winning “Best Rock: Afrikaans” – Why exactly can Fokof not compete with Just Jinger or Cassette? I was able to see a very nervous Harris Tweed performance of Ode to Confusion. It was disappointing to see how many artists didn’t bother to make the Friday night; I think more awards were left on the stage than those given out.

The ridiculous amounts of free stuff started immediately after the announcements. The open bar and incredible buffet made Amore Vitone & Ray Dylan’s lip synching slightly easier to stomach. First Project put on a great pyrotechnics-enhanced show that left ash in my beer… free beer with ash in it is better than no beer at all.

The night spiralled into madness as we ended up in Traders pub. Art Mathews got up and jammed “Sugarman” with the local cover band. I love the irony of Sun City overflowing with musicians and we all end up watching a cover band! The evening progressed (or regressed) into far too many shooters, a photo shoot with Schwepps, chats to random people and me trekking up the hill to my room at 6am.

Schwepps & I had made a pact to hit the Valley of the Waves so I made the mission. Brett refused to answer his phone leaving me to wander around aimlessly until I found Fransois & Snake (Fokof). The slides proved to be a quality worthwhile hangover cure. On my way back to a much needed power-nap I found Monique, Nadia and Schwepps engrossed in a game of Bingo. Lady luck was on my side as I won on my first game. We played for a bit and each walked out with R20 in winnings… not bad for granny gambling.

Saturday evening rolled in and the yellow carpet rolled out. Waiting for Monique to arrive I bore witness to all the “celebrities” strutting their stuff. I recognized less than 30% of the so-called-stars that the cameras kicked up such a fuss about.

The actual awards ceremony was a similar experience; I was saddened by how much I’ve lost touch with the Kwaito & Hip-Hop scenes. Cassette came up with an incredible concept that won over the typical apathy to rock at the SAMAs. Soon after winning the best rock award they stormed the stage with The Soweto Gospel Choir and Vusi Mahlasela. The performance hardly included cassette’s song ‘Tracy’ but it did earn the first standing ovation of the evening.

With so many genres and categories it would be hard to shorten the show, but towards the end it definitely felt like it went on for too long. I was appalled to hear people booing (even if it was Danny K), looking around I realised that the most active audience members were at the back of the hall… the fans that actually paid to be there.

The SAMAs were a real eye-opener that put the tiny scale of English rock and pop into perspective. DJ Sbu could hardly get his acceptance speech out due to screaming fans. The entire Sun City was over-run by people wanting to get a glimpse of their favourite stars. I really wish we could see the same reaction for our established rock bands.

The after-party echoed the superficial ‘celebrity’ attitude that defined the weekend. There was a VIP room and a VVIP room. In some strange twist of fate I was granted access to the VVIP room. It was actually very boring so I simply abused the shorter bar queue to fetch drinks for everyone. Ms. South Africa and I had a moment where she was all alone and I was on the other side of a barrier with armfuls of drinks to deliver. By the time I got back to lay on the charm she was surrounded by less important people.

Like birds following a habitual migration pattern we ended up in Traders once again. The madness of Friday night had clearly taken its toll as most of our ever-growing crew was happier to sit around quietly feeling the pain. The hangovers didn’t stop anyone tho as we still ended up partying until after 5am.

I spent Sunday riding a few slides and chillin’ in the Cascades hotel pool with Schwepps, J and Justin (J’s mentally ill and entertaining guitarist). All the musos and industry people slowly left Sun City, leaving South Africa’s answer to Vegas quite a bit less glitzy.

A working Monday morning has never been more enjoyable. I woke up when I felt like it and spent the morning doing business from the comfort of the Valley of the Waves. After a very long and productive Musketeer meeting I left Sun City at 20:00. The drive back to Joburg in utter darkness was an appropriate bridge between the SAMAs and the real world.

I now know why they say, “What happens at Sun City stays in Sun City”. I can’t really remember what happened for the most part of the weekend.