Nothing really except they influenced my mindset as a songwriter.

Prince : There are two songs When Doves Cry and The Most Beautiful Girl in The World

These two songs are groundbreaking. When Doves Cry is a very powerful song. The music is almost exclusively drums. There is a light sprinkle of Keyboards but it’s essentially a Vocal and Drum track. It made me realize that all you need to make a good song is feel. Drums and Vocals is all you need and IF you don’t have something with just that you ain’t got shit.

The Most Beautiful Girl in The World is amazing as the Hook and Verse are exactly the same melody, yet the way he orchestrates it, you would not know. He uses all the same instruments but there is a rhythmic cascading guitar line on the chorus, pretty much the only difference. It’s bold and made me realize that there are no rules, if it works leave it.

John Lennon Dig a Pony.

The phrase “Dig a Pony” is meaningless; John said he used it because is sounded good. I mean fine but most would tuck it away but its front and center. He told Paul to keep the line “The Movement You need is on your Shoulder” from Hey Jude as it was the best line. I realized that you don’t have to be clever to get the point across. Use words that make you feel the spirit of the song.

Thank You John and Prince.

Respect and Much Love to you both.

George

I wrote a song yesterday called I Got It Bad. The hook was elusive. I had one line but needed four. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle, you have to fill in the blanks. One by one I got them and minutes later the final piece came and shazam, bingo, I felt I hit the jackpot at Caesar’s. The process can take seconds or weeks. “Crush” took a year before I cracked it; the music was so good I had to get a hook that would do it justice and there was no compromise, I either did it or keep hunting till its done. I actually had three hooks but never felt any of them were right, until one day, just as I gave up, I went for a break and it came as I was sitting there forlorn. Without trying my sub conscience popped it out for trying so hard.

Yesterday I got lucky and it happened in minutes, but I already had the first line. You go through an intense rollercoaster of emotions. Like a word on the tip of your tongue tantalizing close or out of reach waiting to be discovered. It’s a beautiful puzzle waiting to be solved and the explosive eureka feeling when you find it is like no other feeling in the world and I guess that’s why I do it.

The hunt goes on and on folks..

It may seem small to most but to Sunstone it means the world. We went from 100 to 400 followers in 1 month. Thank you for your support. We hope to bring a little joy into peoples lives. Thank you for letting us in!

I was there in 1994 with my band BFT signed to Cerberus Digital Jukebox. We had one of the first deals incorporating mp3s. We were a test case for MCPS union (along with Ant & Dec)

I predicted it would take off in 10 years..it actually took 17years before Spotify was born and subsequently gave our music away for virtually nothing..oh dear!

For the first time I feel a musician is back in business and can earn money for their work without the need for a middle man. Thank you Jesse from House of NFT leading the way.

We have hope again and with a little faith a future for us all.

When other vloggers make a compilation video about your new album without solicitation, that means a lot to me. Thank you Blackmary Music

Andy Sojka

• 

• 

I got into music after I heard Level 42 Early Tapes. The reason Early Tapes happened was because of one guy- Andy Sojka.

In 1979 Andy Sojka, who has died of multiple myeloma aged 48, formed, produced and recorded the five-strong music group, Atmosfear. The first fruit of the liaison was their single, Dancing In Outer Space. Thus did he pioneer a new British dance music.

Dancing In Outer Space fused disco, funk, jazz and psychedelic production. It sold 100,000 copies – and the tune survives, still played and frequently sampled.

Educated at Kingsbury high school, north London, in the late 1970s, Sojka opened All Ears, a dance music shop in Harlesden. It quickly became a focus for the 12in 45rpm dance single boom, which had begun in the United States. Many of the customers at All Ears were DJs buying American imports and the British releases that followed.Advertisementhttps://90ab91b47317a2eb13036d1108cad466.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html

After Dancing In Outer Space, in 1980 Sojka discovered and named Level 42, and signed them to his Elite label, producing their first single, Love Meeting Love, and The Early Tapes album.

In the 1980s, Elite Records became a home for the new independent British dance music, and releases by DSM (Danny D), Beverley Skeete, Projection, Atmosfear, Sahara and many others featured regularly in the dance music charts. With his music championed by the late Larry Levan at the Paradise Garage, Andy became a cult figure in New York.

Between 1986-88 he worked with Garry Hughes, producing two experimental world music crossover albums. In 1987, a rhythm and blues label was formed. Its first release was Keni Stevens’s Blue Moods, a classic album of British soul music.

In the mid-90s Andy established three new labels, Jump Cut, Meta4, and Chemical Discs, whose catalogue included such notable works as Atmosfear’s Trance Plants (1994) and Jangala Spirits (1997). His last major project was Altered Slates (1998), made with the US group, Masters at Work, the U2 producer Francois Kevorkian, and Dimitri from France. In 1999, he began writing Groove World, an album by Atmosfear due for release later this year.

Sojka is survived by his wife, Karen, and two children.

• Andy Sojka, record producer, born July 10 1951; died February 12 2000.

If you want The One and only NFT Master of latest track – I Don’t Give AF you can Buy it Here

George

I just this minute watched Phil Collins on YT sing In The Air Tonight on The Tonite Show. I remember my big brother bought it on 7″ and wore it out.

First I thought about Phil Collins. When I was in my original band BFT, my Drummer Dave Youngs who put me on to Brand X and I discovered Phil was a excellent and much respected drummer.

Then I thought of Lenny White who played on the groundbreaking album Bitches Brew with Miles Davis. In the late 90s I worked for a record company called Silva Screen, they had a spin off label called HipBop which featured many jazz artists including Lenny White.I attended a master class with Lenny White before I saw him play at the Blue Note in Hoxton…(my old haunting ground). Lenny said about drumming , “every drummer has his on signature” and he got up and walked across the room. “My walk is different from your walk, your walk is your signature.”

Then penny dropped as when I saw the Roots drummer (Questlove) play that famous fill (excuse the pun!) on In The Air Tonight. He played the fill but it had a slight swagger… Questlove applying his “signature”, his “walk”.

And that one Questlove fill triggered an entire chain of thought. The mind is incredible. What has taken me 10 minutes to write flashed the cerebrum in an instant, at the speed of light.

I have a theory, it just popped into my head, what makes a good sci-fi is the mystery. The question un-answered- really cooks your noodle. The mystery will haunt you, it will keep you engaged it will keep you a fan. The mystery is personal to the individual, you can make up whatever you want but underneath it all you know you will never be right. The question mark will follow you round forever and that’s what make the franchise golden ; immortal. Until of course you explain the mystery…( If you gonna kill the golden goose may as well make a cheap buck right?)

Aliens was a great mystery even after the dreaded third sequel but what really undid all the great work was Prometheus..”Oh let’s explain where they come from , let’s remove the question mark”..Great well done YOU KILLED IT.

NEXT

STAR WARS

“Let’s explain the FORCE”..WHAT?! Yeah replace mystery with bollox science..”midichlorians..yeah a count “..great JOB – KILLED! (Oh and kill Luke for good measure..) EXCELLENT!

Planet Of The Apes

“Where did the Apes come from? How is it humans are slaves? How is it Apes can Talk.”

Problem solved we’ll make two movies answering all the questions so there’s no mystery left – Excellent Franchise DEAD!