Nadia Elkharadly: Covers

One of the easiest ways for a band or artist to reach out to or appeal to new fans is with covers.  It’s a no brainer really; you take a song that people who may have never heard you play a note, play it, and watch the reaction.  The response is pretty much the same every time; a slow glimmer of recognition, a lightbulb moment (hey! I know that song), and pretty soon you have the crowd singing right along with you.  It’s the ultimate inclusive force, and it’s a powerful tool for musicians.  I firmly believe up and coming bands should keep a cover or two in their set list, just to draw fans into them.  I, like everyone else on this planet who gives a shit about music, love a good cover tune.

Darrell Vickers: What Are Words Worth?

The Self-Serving Preamble:

I have spent my entire adult life splashing ludicrous amounts of ink onto 8½” by 11” sheets of paper in the fanciful hope that some semblance of remuneration would be forthcoming.  While the financial reciprocation for my humorous lucubrations has not always found me drinking Montrachet Grand Cru from the footwear of a Hollywood starlet, it has at least kept the bailiff from my door.

But the written word has not only been the meat on my table.   It has guided me, like a helpful usher, to the comfy seat of sanity in a crowded theatre of fools and also provided a sturdy shovel with which to dig through the defecatory deposits that life plops upon one daily.