A quick note to say that I’ve teamed up with my friend of many years, Daragh Downes, to populate the Five Grand Stereo blog with some articles about our favourite artists and music.

Over the coming weeks we’ll be publishing a lot more, but for now you can enjoy the following:

• a look at the making of David Bowie’s classic Hunky Dory album

• a revisiting of the Beatle's’ Revolver album and the role Geoff Emerick played in its development

• a discussion about whether or not Geoff Emerick was the ‘real’ Beatles producer

• a discussion on the breakup of The Beatles

• a review of the recent Liam Gallagher and John Squire mashup.

There’s talk of it developing into a podcast…more on which later.

I was asked by The Guardian to contribute to their ‘Experience’ section recently, with a piece on the hearing condition I suffered from, hyperacusis. You can read it online here.

As you may know I run a tech / app reviews business, Style Factory.

I’m pleased to have recently launched a French version of the site, at www.stylefactoryproductions.com/fr/

Currently in BETA mode, the new site contains French versions of some of Style Factory’s most popular articles, including the company’s

• Shopify review: Shopify Avis

• Wix review: Wix Avis

• Shopify versiss Wix comparison: Wix ou Shopify

• Shopify fees guide: Prix Shopify

• How to make an online store tutorial: Comment créer une boutique en ligne

• Wix vs WordPress comparison: Wix ou WordPress

• Squarespace review: Avis Squarespace

• Shopify versus WordPress comparison: Shopify ou WordPress

Any feedback on the new content very welcome.

As you probably know Five Grand Stereo is where I do the bulk of my music-making these days. Just a quick note to let you know that there’s a deluxe download version of the band’s album out now, which contains

• the album in two formats: CD quality (WAVs) and MP3

• two exclusive bonus CD-quality bonus tracks: a live performance of ‘Clip Joint’ and a studio recording of ‘Baby’s in The Band’ (neither are available on Spotify or other major streaming services)

• ten exclusive, hi-resolution live images

• album cover

• liberetto and lyrics

You can find out more on the Five Grand Stereo store section.

I was delighted to learn that my old friend Diarmaid Mac Mathúna — and founder of Irish grammar checking tool Gaelgram —  launched a new website recently.

Diarmaid is a Dublin-based communications professional with a particular interest in data-driven communications and marketing.

I’ve known Diarmaid for years. He’s an interesting and interested guy, so the blog on his new site promises to be a good read.

Covering everything from Irish charities to black holes to where to get cycling clothing in Ireland, the blog has something for everyone, and helpfully, even provides advice on how to pronounce Diarmaid Mac Mathúna…

You can check out the new site and blog at https://diarmaidmacm.ie/

I’m really pleased to have soft-launched my latest design project, which is an independent online guide to Dublin public transport.

The guide, which is located at www.dublinpublictransport.ie, aims to provide a portal containing all the information you need to travel around Dublin by bus, train or tram.

A key part of the site is the new Dublin train map that I designed with the help of my good friend Richard Hart at Grey Dog Design. My aim with this was to provide a high-quality map that shows all Dublin train and tram lines in one place in an easy-to-understand format — one that wouldn’t be out of place in a major European capital.

A very important objective of the map design was to ensure it included easy-to-understand wheelchair accessibility information — the existing maps are poor in this regard. The map gives at-a-glance information regarding the suitability of stations for wheelchair users (and other individuals with a mobility impairment).

Additionally, the map provides clear information regarding which stations provide bike and car parking — again, something which is not really present on existing maps.

The Dublin Public Transport site also contains comprehensive information about

• Dublin trains

• Dublin trams

• Dublin buses

• Dublin airport bus services

The site is currently in BETA format, so if you have any feedback on it, do let me know :)

As some of you may know, my alter ego writes / publishes website builder and e-commerce reviews over at Style Factory...a couple of new and revised ones went live recently:

• Wix review

• Jimdo review

• Shopify review

• Bigcommerce vs Shopify

• Wordpress vs Wix

• Wix vs Shopify

I suspect most readers of these posts are more interested in music than e-commerce and web design, but just in case there are any nerds out there reading this, the above links are for you.... 

Well, this may be slightly off-topic, and not remotely musical in nature...but somehow I've found the time to write a book. About SEO.

It's called "Super Simple SEO: How to make Google love your website", and it aims to demystify the whole topic.

Written in a friendly, jargon-free way, the book is written for website owners who need to get to grips with SEO without spending a fortune on consultants or online courses.

You can check out 'Super Simple SEO' here.

Update: there are a couple of additional SEO pieces I've written recently for Style Factory which may be of interest:

• Shopify SEO

• Squarespace SEO (if you’re a Squarespace user be sure to check out our Squarespace plugins while you’re at it)

If you’re new to SEO, you might find this useful guide to help you learn SEO from Mongools helpful too.

A lot of people come across me because my name pops up when they are researching hyperacusis - a hearing problem where everyday noises seem excessively loud.

I suffered from hyperacusis in the mid-2000s and, when I released some of my music, the media picked up on the fact that I had experienced the condition. Despite this press coverage being some years old, I still get quite a lot of people contacting me about hyperacusis as a result of it - specifically because I was treated successfully for it. 

As such I thought it would be be helpful if I put together some resources which explained my experience and treatment. 

There are three new sections on the site on hyperacusis:

• My experience of hyperacusis
• FAQs about hyperacusis
• Where to get help with hyperacusis

If you are suffering from hyperacusis (or think you might be), I hope you find these resources useful, but please note:

• I am not a medical professional
• information given on this site is not medical advice
• before acting on any of the information on this site you should discuss the matter with your GP or other qualified medical professional
• I can't take any responsibility for any problems you may experience as a result of acting on any information provided on this site.

A mini documentary about the making of Chris Singleton's first album, 'Twisted CIty'. Features tracks from the album, commentary and a host of unseen photographs from album photoshoots (and a few bad haircuts to boot). Download the album free at http://www.chrissingletonmusic.com

A very quick note to say that December 18 sees my band's 'David Bowie' EP released and available on all major streaming platforms.

You can find out more about the David Bowie EP here.

You can read a piece on the making of David Bowie’s ‘Hunky Dory’ album on the Five Grand Stereo website too.

You can watch the quite amusing results here. First you hear the ungodly sound of us singing alone at the start of the video, and then at the end you'll get to hear the track with all our ahem, bits put together.

Chris Singleton, Ben Woollacott and Michael Kirkland attempt to sing some very high notes on a track called 'This Stuff'.

Here is a clip from a new track I'm working on, This Stuff. Michael is playing my weird old keyboard from (I think) the early 80s. An 'Orla'. It makes a lot of farty noises but every now and then you can coax something rather nice out of it.

Anyhoo, enjoy - video below.

Recording session for Chris Singleton's third album - this time, we whip an organ out for a track called 'This Stuff'.

There's something rather sneaky going on in Britain at the moment: an attempt to cod the population into believing that its most controversial, divisive prime minister ever was a unifying figure that everybody supported (or should have supported) and whose policies “saved the nation.”

An array of tactics are being employed to convince us that Thatcher was essentially a Churchill Mark II: the state-funeral-on-the-sly; the recall of parliament; a torrent of newspaper headlines pronouncing her Britain's greatest ever PM; vast numbers of Thatcherite talking heads queuing up to commend her legacy to pliant TV news anchors; and, of course, a royal presence at her funeral. It’s nearly as bad as when we had to endure months of catching buses sporting huge pictures of Maggie’s hairdo photoshopped onto Meryl Streep’s head.

However slickly presented, however, the messages about Thatcher being put about by her cheerleaders are at odds with reality.

She was not unifying; I doubt that more vitriol has been directed at any other post-war British prime minister (even Bush-loving, Iraq-bombing Blair), dead or alive.

She was not universally popular: she won her elections with a smaller share of the vote than all previous post-war Tory prime ministers, and at every general election she contested, around 60% of the country was consistently voting for other, mainly left-liberal, parties (her electoral success had much to do with a split left and the UK's questionable voting system).

As for her policies – both the ones she implemented in office and the ones she influenced afterwards – you will find many who will line up to question the merits of privatising such basic utilities as water, transport and energy, and plenty of economists see her 1986 'big bang' financial market deregulation (and the subsequent adoption of Thatchernomics by New Labour) as laying the foundations for the financial crisis that is doing all our heads, wallets and spare bedrooms in today.

Despite all this, it is unlikely that from listening to politicians, watching TV or reading your preferred daily rag you will get any real sense of the fact that in truth, a huge tranche (majority?) of the UK population disapproved of what Maggie did to her country, and that she was not just disliked but hated by millions.

You also won’t find many journalists lingering that long on her support for murdering despots like Pinochet; or her backing of the apartheid regime in South Africa. Yet in our supposed age of austerity, no expense is being spared by an otherwise penny-pinching state to ensure that this woman goes down in history as a secular, unifying saint; and no effort is being spared by the, ahem, impartial media we enjoy in the UK in ramming this sainthood down our throats.

Against this backdrop of enforced-Thatcher-respecting, the rise of Judy Garland's Ding Dong! the Witch is Dead up the charts may seem trite or tasteless, but it is actually very significant.

Yes, it is rather rude – and, perhaps, a touch sexist – to compare the UK’s first ever female prime minister to a witch. Yes, it disrespects the dead (and, some would argue, witches). But however crude this musical protest might appear, as the track has approached the top of the charts, it has become a pointed countermelody to an overplayed tune which insists that Margaret Thatcher was the saviour of the nation. It sticks two fingers up, in a nicely British (and, appropriately, collective) way, to the notion that Thatcher was a unifying figure and a force for good.

The many British people who view Thatcher in a negative light do not have £10m handy to organise elaborate ceremonial events designed to make a political point. They can't recall parliament at public expense to reminisce on their experience of Maggie. They don’t control the airwaves. They don’t happen to run newspapers. They can’t rely on a royal showing up at an anti-Thatcher party (not even a Z-list one, like Princess Michael of Kent). But delightfully, they’ve still managed to find a way to forcefully question the Thatcher myth being sold to them.

With its lyrics referencing lullaby leagues, lollipop guilds and munchkins, the chart success of Ding Dong! may feel like a somewhat childish, minor victory, but ­it’s actually hugely important, because it forces a largely Thatcher-supporting media to report on a widespread and deeply-felt unhappiness with Thatcherism; and crucially, the success of the song can’t simply be dismissed as being the work of just a few troublesome crusties from North London (despite my own best efforts in cajoling my friends to buy my music, there just aren’t enough of these types to propel you into the charts). 

I sometimes do a bit of music promo work for a lovely music PR firm full of lovely people called Prescription PR.

Whilst doing so, one particular Prescription client caught my ear, the very talented Lettie. Her music didn't just appeal to me though - The Irish Times, Bloomberg, MSN, the Press Association and a truckload of other publications were blown away, and Cafe Nero liked her song 'Mister Lighter' so much that they playlisted it in all their UK stores. Absolute Radio and Radio 2 have been spinning her tracks too.

Anyway I got chatting to Lettie and she has kindly agreed to do a set to open my forthcoming London gig on 17 October at The Wilmington Arms - another reason to come along :)

To find out a little bit more about Lettie, I'd suggest watching some of her quirky videos at http://www.lettiemusic.com/film.html and reading Tony Clayton Lea's Irish Times review. 

Directed by Andrew Marshall from the album 'Good Fortune, Bad Weather' (21 May 2012)

A quick note about a couple of upcoming gigs - I'm playing a shows in London, UK and in Rzeszów, Poland soon. As ever it would be wonderful to have your support - gig details below (I'll be following this post up with a note about who the special guests are too).

17 October 2012 - London, The Wilmington Arms

A full-band show at London's Wilmington Arms venue on Rosebery Avenue. Tickets are limited so please buy in advance here. Tickets are £9 when bought in advance online or £10 on the door.

• The show starts at 8pm.
• The venue address is 69 Rosebery Avenue  Clerkenwell, City of London EC1R 4RL.
• The nearest tube is Angel (a ten minute walk away) or alternatively catch a 19, 38 or 341 bus. 

BUY TICKET NOW

20 October 2012, Rzeszów, University of Rzeszów

A full-band show in Poland at the University of Rzeszów - Sala Koncertowa Instytutu Muzyki Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego, ul. Dąbrowskiego 83.

Doors at 6pm. For ticket reservations, please call +48 17 8721214 (9am - 12pm)

You can purchase tickets in advance at the booking office located at Uniwersytet Rzeszowski, Instytut Filologii Angielskiej, al. Rejtana 16b (building A3), room 112 (9am-12pm)

Tickets are 30zl each.

So Two Door Cinema Club’s album has leaked. The band’s singer Alex Trimble has written fans a message about this, and, like David Lowery’s recent rant at an intern  regarding the topic of illegal downloading, it’s been doing the rounds online. I much prefer Trimble’s more gentle, thoughtful (and pleaful) take on the situation than Lowery’s; but regardless of tone, both pieces add to the sense of a music industry in deep crisis and a bunch of suffering musicians getting ripped off by their listeners.

However I’ve got a hunch that the music industry’s probably doing fine…and, in a sense, probably generating as much, if not more, dosh than ever before.

I think of the music industry as something different to the record industry. The record industry – individuals and companies manufacturing and selling records – is generally screwed, because the digital revolution has led to a situation where recorded music has been reduced to a set of ridiculously-easy-to-copy files. However, the same digital revolution has also led to an enormous explosion in the number of bands that are actually in a position to record, distribute and promote music; this means that the music industry – which I think of as all the people, products and services generating revenue as a result of music-making, not just CDs and MP3s – has a much bigger customer base than ever before. This customer base is not the music-purchasing public though – it’s the musicians who, in most cases, are no longer the people generating income from music, but the people financing this industry.

There have always been thousands of bands all over the world that have wanted to make records. However, until about a decade ago, when advances in technology started to put ridiculously good recording equipment in the hands of musicians, release-quality recorded music was expensive to produce and very difficult to distribute, meaning that only bands with a significant budget (those who were signed or had investors) generally got to put out records. However, these days, every Tom, Dick and Harry has an album up their sleeve, because they a) simply bought a laptop and an audio interface and recorded it on that, or b) availed of studio time that is now much cheaper than it used to be (due to studios having to compete with the aforementioned laptop and audio interface). As for distribution, getting an album into the ears of a (theoretically) global audience is now incredibly cheap and easy thanks to the likes of iTunes, Spotify and so on. 

What does this mean? A huge increase in the number of bands releasing albums. However, most bands – understandably – are reluctant to pour their hearts and souls into recording an opus only for it to only ever be played by their mums. So they start to buy services that might give the album a chance to reach the great unwashed. Graphic design. Manufacture. Photography. Web design. Web hosting. E-newsletter design. Public relations. Radio pluggers. Printing of posters. Distribution of posters. Online advertising. Digital distribution. Venue hire. Smoke machine. Hairy sound guy…the list goes on. Generally speaking, all the above services come with a price tag, and thanks to the explosion in the number of bands releasing music independently, a big “DIY-release” market has developed as a result, packed full of companies, consultants and freelancers catering to the 'needs' of the DIY musician (not to mention a whole load of pro-audio equipment vendors selling gear that promises to make your record sound like it was recorded at Abbey Road).

And here is where the opportunity for musicians to get ripped off really lies. For the vast majority of self-releasing musicians, the whole ‘some bastard downloaded my album for free’ argument is a bit of a sideshow. (In fact, independent musicians are generally delighted when somebody downloads their album illegally, because it hints at the fact that somebody somewhere actually likes their music). No, the opportunity to get properly robbed arrives when bands start to purchase the ‘DIY-release’ style services I mentioned earlier.

The problem is – and I speak from personal experience here – that bands are not like normal customers of goods and services. For most musicians – certainly those without children – their music is their baby. They don’t think rationally about it. They love it so much that they are prepared to spend whatever it takes (or whatever they have) to help it succeed in that big bad music-filled world out there. They ignore the fact that people are not buying music in the droves that they used to, and that there are probably more artists flogging music than ever before. The idea of a return on an investment doesn’t figure in their thinking at all, and many artists releasing albums now don’t have any management, meaning there is nobody in the background to say ‘whoa, don’t spend all that cash on putting together a triple disc limited edition vinyl press of your concept album about beans’.

This generally results in musicians making four big mistakes: 

1. They don't set a strict-enough budget or consider the fact that they need to actually sell X number of records to make their money back

2. They don’t shop around for the best deals on the things they do need (if they actually know, of course, what these things are)

3. They invest in things they absolutely don’t need (over-the-top packaging; posters; narcotics for the A&Rs who are unlikely to attend the launch party anyway)

4. They hire unscrupulous, snake-oil-salesmen who operate out of a glorified shed in a field north of London promising fame and fortune to artists in the form of a £1,500 per month ‘reputation management’ arrangement

I’ve made many of these mistakes in my time; but in hindsight I don’t think I would have made them had I grasped the importance of the ‘record industry’ / ‘music industry’ distinction I discussed earlier. If musicians understand that the record industry is dying on its arse, and that the notion of people paying for recordings is becoming increasingly quaint (whatever we feel about the moral implications of that), it forces them to think more creatively about how to monetise their music rather than simply hoping millions of people will buy their next album. And if artists understand that the ‘music industry’ is increasingly about servicing a market of DIY-musicians with products and services that may or may not result in album sales, it might encourage them to think in a more business-like way, decide what actually might generate a return on an investment, work with the right people or agencies and crucially, avoid the snake-oil salesmen – or at the very least, ask some probing questions about the snake oil.