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PLEASE NOTE
If you want us to listen to your music there’s no need to email us. Just send us your current favourite track any Monday-Thursday via Send Us A Track on this blog. Several members of Team Freshnet will listen to it and if one or more of us loves it, we’ll add it to our public Listening Post. Unfortunately we can’t consider music sent on CD or by email – but for tips and suggestions on sending CDs to other radio shows in the UK, see the article How To Send CDs To Radio. To contact individual members of Team Freshnet, please email or tweet us using the contact details below…
Al Mobbs: al@freshonthenet.co.uk, @almobbs
Andy Von Pip: andy@freshonthenet.co.uk, @vonpip
Chris Bye: chrisb@freshonthenet.co.uk, @chrisnbye
Chris Chadwick: chrisc@freshonthenet.co.uk, @newblack
Debs McCoy: debs@freshonthenet.co.uk, @TheDebsMcCoy
Emma Segal: emma@freshonthenet.co.uk, @emmalsegal
Howard Gorman: howard@freshonthenet.co.uk, @HowardGorman
James Robins: james@freshonthenet.co.uk
Jim Craigen: jim@freshonthenet.co.uk, @BigJimCambo
Johnno Casson: johnno@freshonthenet.co.uk, @snippetcuts
Mar de Miguel: mar@freshonthenet.co.uk, @jungleindierock
Massimo Zeppetelli: mass@freshonthenet.co.uk, @zassimo
Nico Franks: nico@freshonthenet.co.uk, @NicoFranks
Rich Johnstone: rich@freshonthenet.co.uk
Ruth Barnes: ruth@freshonthenet.co.uk, @ruthbarnesmusic
Sam Lee: sam@freshonthenet.co.uk, @samleesamlee
Simon Poole: simonp@freshonthenet.co.uk, @SR_Poolie
Tom Robinson: tom@freshonthenet.co.uk, @freshnet
Dear Tom Robinson
My vinyl edition of War Babies: Hope & Glory has just about given up the ghost. Is there any chance we might see it re-issued in – CD form? Download? Who do we need to Twitter to get it released? Here’s hoping: Old Friend is STILL brilliant after all these years. Thanks, Rod
@Rodgray Couldn’t be simpler – you can download it for free in high quality at http://soundcloud.com/tomrobinson/sets/warbaby – thanks for your kind words about the record!
dear tom,
from when it came out until today i listen to Power in the Darkness and to all the other great songs on your first record. i have trb2 aswell, but the first record is a timeless masterpiece. now i’m 53, but i’m sure i’ll listen to it when i’m (64)… 75!
all the best from Munich,
Alexis (m)
Hi Tom,
Good to meet you at the Tooting Lido gig on Saturday and to have you get up and do a few numbers with us. We should do it again sometime.
Best wishes from all the band,
Chris
Hi Chris
Really enjoyed the selection of 60s faves that Fluke played at the South London Swimming Club party last Friday at Tooting Bec Lido. Thanks so much for letting me get up and sing “Gimme Some Lovin” and “It’s All Over Now” with you. See you there next year!
Tom x
Photo courtesy of fluketheband.blogspot.co.uk: click pic to zoom
Tom pleasure to meet you at AIM Indie Conference – As discussed I’m pleased the effort put into the BBC Introducing Platform is starting to Work – Please give Feedback on two artists who have uploaded their stuff there Arbitors from Northampton: http://player.believe.fr/player/3610151107908/6/black/0/0/0/en/ and Lowlife from Deepest South Wales who have done the charity Cover I Mentioned: http://soundcloud.com/gary-law1/one-guitar-lowlife-version, Thanx
Hi Dean – likewise a pleasure. The best way of getting a tune to me and Team Freshnet is via this blog – at the top of the page it says “To send us a track click here“.
If any of us likes it enough, we publish it on the blog that weekend. If the public like it enough, we review it in our Fresh Faves. And if I like it enough I go and find it on the BBC Introducing Uploader and play it on the radio. Simple as that.
HI Tom
My names is Yves Jean, Im a musician from New York City and Haiti.
I check out your show Mixtape here in the states and love it!
I love what you do with new music and some unknown acts.
Ive played Europe a few times . I really want to break into the UK Market.
I wanted to introduce to you my style of music that I write with my band, Its a mixture
of Alternative Rock, Haitian and Electronic.
I just released my fourth album and I would love to send the album and get your thoughts on it.
Please let me know.
Thanks
Yves
Hello Yves Jean – see 9 above…
The best way of getting a tune to me and Team Freshnet is via this blog – at the top of the page it says “To send us a track click here“.
All the best,
Tom
Tom I must apologize for my ignorance. I sent this email prior to reading the criteria to sending music. I’ve sent the music and hopefully you will enjoy it.
Thanks
Yves
Hello Tom,
I have been a life long fan of the music of the Tom Robinson Band and how I wish that there was a music scene like that of the late 70s/80s. One of my personal favourites is blue murder and think that music is such a powerful medium to carry political messages. I have written some new lyrics to the blue murder music and I would like to explore the possibility of using these lyrics with the blue murder music and wonder if you would be interested in such a project. Best wishes Robert
Hi Tom. Was a pleasure to have lunch with you at the indie con the other week. Your advice is golden and the seminar was incredibly inspiring. Hnestly it was worth it just for that lunch! I popped a song up on the fresh on the net soundcloud, but i really want to know what you think. hope you’re well and all the best. JT x
I have been a fan of Tom Robinson, both as a musician/songwriter and as a humanitarian, for over 35 years. (Sorry Tom, it really has been that long!). I am a jazz multi-instrumentalist, playing saxophones, clarinets, and various other instruments. I still love the original TRB, and still regularly listen to TRB Greatest Hits, and Power in the Darkness. I would love to be able to attend one of your songwriting workshops. Please could you send me some details of any that you may be doing. Many thanks, Richard Goffin-Lecar.
Hey,
I’m trying to get in contact with Tom Robinson – really urgently – for an interview. could someone email me back at laurie.penny@gmail.com?
Thanks and solidarity x
Cast your mind back….Brockwell park, rock against racism, tough for me also…I was the snot nosed oik that you gave your speech notes to, even had you sign them, just rediscovered them in a box of treasures..thanks again, brought back wonderful memories of a bygone era!
Hi Tom
Just a quick Hello from me and Michelle… Hope you and your family are all well. Ours are fine…
Do you still keep in touch via the old Castaway connection ? If so. Sign us in :)
Any chance of you playing live anytime soon near Manchester ? My son Manages the old Green Room venue in Manchester ( opposite The Ritz ) can always fix you up !
All the best
Simon and Michelle E- B
Xx
Dear Mr Tom Robinson,
I hope this letter finds you well.
We are going to open a special ‘Rainbow bookshelf’ on Umeå City Library, the 24th of September 2012. It will be a shelf with books, films and magazines with LGBT-content.
It is a way to work against homophobia and discrimination, and to make the library more welcoming for gay people.
You are popular in Sweden and your song ‘Glad to be Gay’ is very popular, especially for everyone in the LGBT community. We would be very grateful if you could write us a short greeting for the opening ceremony of the shelf, a greeting we can read on the opening and also use when we promote the bookshelf.
If it is possible, please write a greeting to my e-mail address.
Yours Sincerely
Christer Edeholt
Umeå City Library
Sweden
Hi Tom,
I’m not sure if you received my reply to your message regarding freshonthenet that you posted via soundcloud yesterday.Is there any way that you can please let me know?
I’ve also written a few words regarding the subject if you would kindly inform me where to send it.
with many thanks and wishing you well,
Steff
Hi Tom ,,would you ever consider playing a gig in Belfast again
Dear Tom,
I thought you might appreciate this short video piece I made as a video installation for my father’s sculpture show. My dad has loved your music for decades, and in particular, “1967 (Seems So Long Ago)” has long been a favorite of his because it speaks to his personal experiences. He hails from Southend-on-Sea, and since much of his sculpture deals with both pleasant and unpleasant childhood memories, we felt we had to include the song as a key part of the accompanying video installation.
It is here on Vimeo if you should like to see it. There is also a gallery on Facebook of some of the sculpture pieces. I hope you enjoy them.
Gallery Photos – https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.168273516642768.40881.100003803638266&type=3
Sincerely,
- Jack Criddle
Hello Tom,
I uploaded a song yesterday called (keep it moving), to fresh on the net drob box. But now i cant see it, will it be pending to be listened to etc.
Sorry i just cant seem to find where it will be, all thats changed is it has duplicated on my soundcloud. Im not sure if i have done this right.
I would appreciate any reply, thanks for your time.
Kind regards
Stuart.
Hi Tom, I worked at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh in the early 90′s when you had your run there. I have never forgotten it. In My Life has stuck with me for 20 years (your version). I find myself randomly singing it and then think of Bilbao and the rest of what was an awesome gig. I got to see you about 5 times that summer and it was awesome. You also gave me a lift home one night I was stuck so thank you for that! I live in Brisbane now. Any chance you might tour here? Also, are you on facebook?
just wanted to say i read up a lot about you and i really appreciate what your doing for music
Thanks for the play Tom. As you may have already guessed this is Mark from the pocket gods. I started up this new band as I wanted to try something different from the usual indie lo-fi pop, which as much as I love it is not pushing any musical boundaries. I just thought If I started sending these tunes out as PG tracks then they would get lost in the ether (not by BBC 6 Introudcing or Freshent I may add who correctly judge music on its artistic merits and not on its baggage) – it’s also intersting to note that this is ethmo are going on to our local BBC Introducing show on Friday (Three Counties Radio) which is great, but wonder if I would have been invited on If I’d sent these tracks as the pocket gods. (the PGs were last on the show 4 years ago despite upteem fab plays on Tom’s show).
I guess I’m still trying to make interesting relevant music and worried that it won’t get heard because of my age – I’m 42 and probably too old to get played on Radio 1 as an unsgined band? Anybody else out there have any thoughts on these matters.
x
I’m all for people reinventing themselves as required, and am not surprise about what you say about the local Introducing show. You could have a lot of fun creating an entirely online identity for TIE.
But I wouldn’t worry about age. All that counts in the end is the quality of your ideas. Think Devo or Daft Punk – they could pass you in the street and you’d have no idea who they were, but you’d know one of their tunes at fifty paces :-)
I’d second what Tom says about that age thing Mark. It really is about the music first. That said if you make music that sounds dated it probably won’t get played! Try thinking about it from the point of view of the radio station or DJ and producer choosing your music. Why would you choose certain music? Who is the listenership you are aiming at? And is the band you are playing interesting? Do they have a story? Arguably it should not be about statistics but having a healthy online following would suggest that your music in interesting and that people want to listen to it.
If you write a killer track that is popular then it will get played. And I do mean gob smackingly good.
Mark,I can only echo Tom and Al’s comments.
I practise a process of ‘be creative first,money/coverage/airplay etc second’ and things always come your way.
I am not saying forget the marketing side of things but the main thing is always the ideas/songs/music first (you can always involve your fan base in the song development process too if you are canny).
You cannot change your age so don’t worry about it.
You can change your future output though- put your time & effort into writing the songs & music you want to make.
Once you have that killer track you’d be surprised how many people want to give coverage to what you do-irrelevant of age.
You can then think about Al’s point and more besides.
Radio 1 is fundamentally a youth station (certainly in the day) but it will and does play music by anyone if its brilliant and as Al says-right for a DJ/Show(particularly night time output).I know because it played Snippet and I ain’t no spring chicken(age withheld to protect the faint of heart;).A former label mate of mine gets his music played anywhere and everywhere and he’s 40-DJ Shadow.
He also happens to make brilliant music and again-that is the key.
Be creative with it,have fun,keep on keeping on.
Johnno
Thanks Tom Al and Johnno for your comments all much appreciated and taken on board
will keep on keeping on!
Hi Tom,
Would you possible be able to drop me an e-mail to george@genika.co.uk at your earliest convenience.
It’s regarding a private royalties matter (in your favour!!), the e-mail link on this page doesn’t allow me to send for some reason.
Kind regards,
George
Hi Tom and lovely Team Freshnet,
I uploaded a new track on your dropbox, I hope it wasn’t too soon since my first inclusion with Friends In Time in the introducing mixtape in september.
I hope you are well and you like the new track too
Emile x
Hi Tom
I’m write a story each week on my website of the story behind the song, and have been asked to feature War Baby. Is there anywhere in print/audio I can read/hear the inspiration for the song. All I know is it’s about the divide between East and West Germany, but would like to learn the whole shebang please. Even a direct story to my email address would be appreciated.
Look forward to hearing it.
Regards
Jon
Thanks to Tom Robinson i found my old love listening to the radio from BBC now in digital days. Great that show of yours. Go on like this. I just discovered it as a podcast on the BBC’s web-page. Love it. Thumbs up.
Hi Tom do you have any suggestion for bringing an afrocuban jazz quintet into the world music festival cicuit. I’ve been playing since I was fourteen, countless styles and I’m a graduate of the Hatford Conservatory but I can’t seem to have results knocking on doors. What do you suggest,( Quinteto Galbis)Thank you kindly for your time.
Hi Tom,
Hope that you’re well and in good spirits young man. A few months back I was on my way down to the Ardennes when I heard your excellent program about ‘Good Manners’. I digress it made really good listening and I wholly concurr with all your observations. A basic salutation can make ones day. There’s not enough of it about. Well take care and drop us a line one of these days. Whenenver I visit Ypres I recall the day we drove around there with great affection.
God bless Martin
They just played still loving you on our Belgian national radiostation Radio1.
Makes me think of you and all the fine music you gave us.
Hope you are well
all my best
a radiocolleague from Belgium
chris
Hi Tom + team Freshnet.
Apologies for communicating about this via the comments section, but my browser doesn’t seem to recognise the email link.
We sent a track to the Freshnet dropbox, it was the last batch, #50.
Of 31 in total ours was the only one not chosen for the listening post and I just wondered if there was any particular reason?
Naturally we thought and felt it was good enough musically for inclusion.. – was there some problem with any lyrical content?
I’m aware that perhaps this might be a cause for omission.
Of course, if it wasn’t chosen by simply on the grounds of like or not like or like least, then fair enough, but if there was some problem content wise, it would be most helpful for us to know for future reference.
Thanks in advance for any illumination you can provide.
Best regards
Barrie Jones + ‘BE’.
Hi Barrie – trouble is we actually get 100-150 tracks sent in every week, not 31. (The total number of submissions is only seen by moderatorson Soundcloud.) So you were one of about 120 artists who sent in perfectly decent tunes, but didn’t get rated among the 30 that we absolutely fell in love with that week. I’ll write a blog post explaining in more detail how the process works…
could you please explain how i access the “listening Post” for this weeks songs, cant find any link..thanks
Didn’t go live till nearly 3pm today Rob – we raised the bar a bit this week, so there was more than the usual amount of soulsearching to decide which 26 tracks to finally include. Sorry you had to wait – hopefully you should be able to spot it now :-)
Brilliant, inspired idea Tom. I first got involved with LIVE music promotion in the 70′s at my Oxford College. Re-engaged about 15 years ago after the day job kinda got in the way and took over! Volunteered at GENERATOR(NE) for a while. Now semi-retired, and retiring completely from the day job soon, I’ve become a DJ at our local community station @LionheartRadio and always feature new artists. I’d love to be able to access the FOTN Dropbox myself to include on my show #School’sOut. Might this be possible?
@UKCHAZ
Hi Tom, im so sorry that i have sent you Reap debut single ‘You Not Me’ twice.
We are not releasing the track until may 26th on itunes and we didnt want it to be public on our soundcloud until then so i created a new account for this, i hope this is ok
Kind Regards
Kelvin Cushman
Hi Tom; just wanted to connect with you & had to thank you personally for spinning my recordings from hotdisc on your station!..*I believe you’re the Tom robinson UK..(Singer/Songwiter who charted “War Baby” & written w/ the likes of Elton John,Peter Gabrial & others..Pretty amazing stuff.. (Hey,I’m just a guy up in the woods of Maine(USA trying to make a dent in the biz in a modest way & I keep seeing your name/Kingstown Radio..giving me pretty great reviews(hotdisc) & hopefully we’re picking up a few fans in the Yorkshire area.. Thanks again Tom..
Have a wonderfuul day & drop me line when you get a chance & continued success with your music..May single will be”PARTY DOLL”(remake)hope you dig it!
Ace Diamond aka (Rich Gowell)
Allagash Country Records
Hi Tom
Just Wanted to thank you and your Fresh On The Net folks for picking “Martians Don’t Surf!” for The BBC Introducing Mixtape show!!….We really appreciate it!!
Have a Great Time!!
BG and The Blue Giant Zeta Puppies
Hello,
You might not recall but last year you very kindly donated some wonderfull signed photo’s for me to use as raffle prizes for our quiz night to raise money for Ninelands Primary School, in Garforth (Leeds). The whole event was a wonderful success and we managed to raise just under £1,000.
This year we are hoping to do even better so I was wondering if you would be willing and able to provide a prize or two for this year’s event? All donations are greatly appreciated.
Best regards
Darren Walker
Chairman, Friends of Ninelands (Ninelands Primary School PTA)
11 Brunswick Gardens
Garforth
Leeds
LS25 1HF
Hey You the Freshnet Crew!
Fresh Faves Archive has been a blank page for quite a few weeks now.
FYI: I usually view via android mobile or Win 7 on the desktop.
I’m sure you are aware but just thought I would drop a line in case you weren’t!
Ape Love to the Fresh Crew Dan B-) xo
Hi Freshnet team ! I keep clicking on the Listening Post link on the home page but it never takes me there ! I can’t seem to find the listening post at all now ! Am I missing something ? Or maybe going about things the wrong way ? Cheers !
forget my last post, as I am forgetting that this is actually Thursday & not Friday, anyone know a good shrink ?
Hiya Team Freshnet,
just feel that after all the support we’ve had from yourselves that you deserve some explanation on our inactivity.
We’ve had life’s horrible health things to deal with (family,not us two),and we’re now out the other side,thank god.Anyway loving the new look site,and I see Debs is now on board,good choice!
Regards
Rod and Kris
Dear Tom:
I also still love your first álbum! After all these years I still enjoy it and I also think it’s a masterpiece. I would love to have an autograph from you. Do you think it’s posible?
Thanks in advance!! Joan.