LEARN TO WEAR THE SUIT by Jaimie Vernon

In recent weeks I’ve seen many artists on social media whining for the millionth time about how to sell their wares/songs/nubile posteriors up the music industry food chain in the guise of a record deal or publishing deal or both. It’s not unexpected given the recent wholesale destruction of the live music scene globally due to the pandemic. Artists are finally starting to look under the couch cushions or Mom’s purse for loose change as a means of survival.

Cameron Carpenter – 10 CC – Vinyl Season One

Well I had to wait for the DVD to be released but I have finally seen Season One of Vinyl. I first heard about the HBO series a couple of years ago as Nigel Grainge and I grabbed lunch at the Imperial Pub after his keynote address at Indie Week. We were catching up on each other’s careers as we had not seen each other or worked together for years. At MCA I was the Marketing Manager for Nigel’s label Ensign and looked after everyone from The Waterboys and World Party to Sinead O’Connor, The Blue Aeroplanes and Stump. I immediately liked Nigel on first meeting and he taught me a lot about marketing and the music industry (as well as Arsenal). Before he started Ensign Records he worked at Phonogram in London and signed Thin Lizzy, 10 CC and The Boomtown Rats. He is a true music man.

Cameron Carpenter – 10 CC – Faceoff

My god Facebook can be an ugly little sandbox to play in. It seems populated by narcissistic bullies who feel it is their right to yell as loudly as possible about what their beliefs are and try to shame you into seeing things their way. There is no compromise, there is no fear of repercussions, and there is little or no consideration of other’s feelings. If it was a bar I walked in to I wouldn’t even order a drink.

Justin Smallbridge: Radio, Records, and England

In 1975, my radio listening was shifting from CHLO and the AM stations. I was being influenced by the pronouncements of my peers. It never occurred to me at the time that they didn’t know anything more than I did. They seemed so sure . . . like a grammar school friend who, in 9^th grade, dismissed David Bowie and everything he’d done because his older sisters had told him Bowie was gay. Because this friend of mine was to play the saxophone, and — as was a lot more common in southwestern Ontario and other places in 1975 — he was proudly homophobic, he was outraged that Bowie was depicted with a sax on the cover of Pin-Ups. I still liked Bowie. I just didn’t mention that to the guy who hated him.

Cameron Carpenter: The ABC’s Of Rock –B2

Billy Bryans

It was a sad week on the Canadian music scene as Billy Bryans finally succumbed to the disease that had been haunting him for years. Best remembered as the drummer for The Parachute Club and their iconic single “Rise Up”, Bryans was much, much more to the local industry that he helped re-define.

Segarini: Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Change is inevitable – except from a vending machine. ~Robert C. Gallagher

We all know that change is the only constant in this life, which makes it so surprising to me that so many of us absolutely loathe change of any kind.

I still think milk tasted better in glass bottles, Swanson’s TV dinners tasted better when they first started out in aluminum trays, McDonald’s hamburgers were way more tasty when they were 15 cents, and why on Earth did Canada Dry quit making their Collins Mix, possibly the most refreshing and tasty soda pop of all time. Even Squirt, the next best soda, has disappeared from grocery store shelves. Why? Apparently we didn’t want those things anymore, or not enough of us did, or…somebody decided it was time for a change. Mostly, we shrug change off and carry on, or at least we used to. Now, however, we can all speak out about any and every thing that wets our pants. Music, television, movies, comic books, even Facebook, nothing is sacred, and none are immune to change