Rock N’ Role City

Gigs

Empire; Band Of The Land
(Heat 2 @ Sumo)

The Bands

The Fased, The Heroes, Mas Fina

The Penny Hangers and Roxum

Standing still in the small, darkened downstairs gig room at Sumo, me and Nicola stood. Waiting patiently with a drink in hand, surrounded by like minded people, all looking forward, all waiting in anticipation for the sound of the first cords to rip through Sumo’s dingy air.

Then it hits you, first it’s the bass that wallow’s and throb’s, moving the lightest of hairs on both your neck and arms, triggering the tingle that appears at the base of your spine. Followed swiftly by the hip moving rifts that your body finds hard to deny and the tell tale foot tapping that promptly moves into the well known head nod. Finally comes the much needed vocals and catchy chorus lyrics, allowing the lips to fleetingly move, briefly allowing even spectators to be part of the music, part of the atmosphere, part of Leicester’s music scene.

Heat two of ‘Band Of The Land’ down at Sumo on the 26th March 2009 filled me with the confidence and optimism of OSOM’s success in helping the many talented bands and musicians of Leicestershire.

The night was kicked off superbly with The Fased taking to the stage for the first set followed by The Heros, Mas Fina, The Penney Hangers and finishing the night with Roxum.

A battle of bands, a clash of tightens and the underdogs Mas Fina taking a well deserved win with their new take on modern music, superb vocals and amazing scratch artist mixing it up. Mas Finas music is definitely worth listening to and a band showing great potential for the future, one I would love to see again. However I was a little disappointed with the similarity of rifts, tempo and overall predictable movement within their songs.

Runner-up moving in to the play off heats to take a second bite of the cherry was The Penny Hangers who looked very comfortable on stage and produced a great tight indie set, one to be proud of and a pleasure to watch.

The band I enjoyed the most had to be Roxum with their unique style of energetic, up-tempo, catchy melodies and funky alternative style. These guys were an absolute joy to watch, clearly displaying their dedication to music.

Social Networking

I am always tittering away behind the scenes on the social networking side of OSOM, and this week has been no different.
MySpace friends have continued to swiftly grow to a respectable 1600+ and the Facebook group ‘Keeping Leicester Alive With Music’ has expanded to 140+ members. Bebo, god I need help with this one lol, still to find a friend, I’m not throwing in the towel just yet but I would not say no to some Bebo advice!
I’m still trying to find a willing artist to profile through a Squidoo lenses so have made minimal progress with that.

Venues

I was contacted by the new owner of ‘The Tavern’ pub on Narborough Road in Leicester, who has shown a keen interest in local music playing or even practicing on their premises. I will be going down soon to check out the size and space within ‘The Tavern’ and to find out more about her idea’s and working with the local music.

Thanks again for reading, all the best and rock on!

Adam

OSOM

Social Music Networking

So Where Are We Right Now ?

This week and the last have been some what crazy to say the least, long days, even longer nights and no playing on the X-box! But I could not be happier with the results and the amount of support that the OSOM venture is creating along the way.

The past two weeks have been all about creating the interest through social networking, updates, groups and blogs, letting all you guys (and girls) know what OSOM is all about and slowly but surely all the pieces of the puzzle are coming together.

So What Has Happened In Two Weeks?

Twitter

OSOM is now a fully fledged tweeter, and like thousands of others I have struggled to find something interesting to say every 10 seconds. Never the less I do tweet and try to put things up of interest, things relevant to OSOM or about the local music.

If you are one of those people that would like the up-to-date OSOM tweet on a daily bases, or are just wondering ‘what the hell is a tweet on Twitter have no fear, click the link below to view the OSOM revolution on Twitter.

Join OSOM on Twitter

Bebo

OSOM on Bebo, well that’s a bit of an embarrassing one, I have never used the site until this week and I am afraid to say a complete ‘Bebo Nub’! I do still update the profile, add pictures and learn a little more about the Bebo way each time I use the site. I will let you all know when I get my first friend, might have a victory pint lol.

If you would like to be the FIRST person to add OSOM as a friend on Bebo or would just like to look at the profile, again just click on the link bellow to join in the support or maybe even just give me advice about Bebo (any would be helpful) lol.

Join OSOM on Bebo

MySpace

MySpace is one of OSOM’s greatest achievements within this 2 week span, totting up over 1000 friends, given and received hundreds of comments and had ample amounts of emails of support. For those who have taken the time to email me their words of support, thank you, I have kept all of them for when it feels like I hit a brick wall and I need that helpful kick up the ass!

As with all the OSOM profiles MySpace is updated regularly and has the latest information, even a twitter box for instant updates.

MySpace is still one of those invaluable places to be, simple details and a place to play your latest tracks to a huge audience. If you want to join the OSOM MySpace Team click the link below.

Join OSOM on MySpace

Facebook

OSOM has been on Facebook longer than any other networking site and is also the only place you will find a dedicated OSOM group supporting local music.The group is called ‘Keeping Leicester Alive With Music’ its free to join and open to anybody who is interested and takes a new found fondness in the local music around them. The group is small, but growing daily and again is updated daily.

If you wish to jump on the OSOM steam train then one of the best places to do so is here on Facebook, just click on the like below and hop on board for the latest up

dates.

Join OSOM on Facebook

Gigs

Empire; Band Of The Land

(Heat one @ The Shed)

The Bands

The Working Project, Formal Warning, The Skarats,

Wayward Trippers, Astromaniacs

I was left hanging on the edge of my seat, waiting to find out who had won!

The five amazing bands that played the stage that night deserved a larger turnout, but with a good atmosphere every band managed to exceed their 20 minute set time, and kept Richard (the event organiser) on his toes.

Every band played superbly and deserved their 20 minute set on the stage, but there was to be only one winner, ‘Formal Warning’ who put and an energetic, entertaining and dazzling aerial display.

Runner up, was ‘Wayward Trippers’ with their great acoustic set and amazing vocalist Alex Brodella deserving a second shot and going through to the semi-final for the chance to play in the finals.

But there was one band that grabbed my attention, the young but incredibly talented, four piece ‘Astromaniacs’ from Countesthorpe College. I was impressed with the professionalism and dedication to their music.

If you have never been to a music competition ‘Band Of The Land’ and others like it are the best places to listen to the raw musical talent that run through Leicestershire.

What To Expect Next

O my god this is a hard one to answer because there are so many things happening all of the time.

If I hade to put my finger on 2 or 3 things then they would be;

1. Create and publish the first ever OSOM Squidoo Lenses

2. Find more friends on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and most importantly Bebo (as I don’t have any friends lol)

3. More ideas for the OSOM web page design.

It’s All About Little Old Me This Time

Well well here we are again, I would like to start by saying thank you to all of the people that have taken the time to read ‘The Music you Never Knew Was There’, if you haven’t its archived so there is no excuse ha ha.



Well I better start by elaborating on the vague introduction in my previous blog.
For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Adam Breedon; I’m 24, I live in Leicester and am happily engaged to my lovely fiancé Nicola a.k.a the biggest love in my life but also the biggest pain in my ass (she knows I love her.)


I had the idea for OSOM (or ‘my idea’ as it was called back then) in November of 2008, before the closure of ‘The Charlotte’ in Leicester and I made a promise to myself to read at least 3 books a month. These books then fuelled my hunger to create a music database unlike any other. After getting slightly addicted to reading (which for a dyslexic person doesn’t happen often) I finally settled on a name/acronym I was happy with, I then began creating logos and purchasing web space.

The first logo was created using 38 separate layers in Photoshop and was the best thing since sliced bread, until everyone I showed, criticised it 'too childish, can’t understand it, what does it say', so it was back to the drawing board or computer screen in my case.


Criticism tends to get me down, but I feel I have more of a point to prove, a bigger goal to achieve. So I take it on board and create something bigger, something better.

On attempt number 5 (I think) the OSOM logo was finalised, something I was happy with, something I was proud of. By this time the Leicester Mercury announced on the 15 January 2009 The Charlottes troubles and the possibility of its closure.



It was time to put the small OSOM wheels into motion, to help create the interest in the Leicester’s music scene.


OSOM then introduced ‘Keeping Leicester Alive With Music’ a small FaceBook group, that has been kept up-to-date with news and my progress, but it didn’t go as well as I thought it would. I think it was more to do with me not knowing what the hell I was doing. I mean Facebook can be so bloody annoying sometimes, add this, add that, send a present, throw a snowball arrrrrrrrr (sorry rant over with promise).
So having caught the social networking bug I went back to my old roots MySpace and within 2 weeks I hit the 1000 friends mark. I have listened to more music than ever before and have discovered more about local bands than I ever knew before.
Well that’s that and here we are to the present day banging the OSOM idea home day after day, looking forward to the completion of the OSOM website.


I would just like to add aswell, this is not a money spin, I don’t earn anything from this and nobody pays me (think I'm mental). I will be looking for sources of income through things such as add sense to better the webpage and future plans and ideas that OSOM will bring to the table.


Now I've fed you all with the boring bits I promise NEVER to do it again ha ha

Thanks again for reading, all the best and rock on!

Adam
OSOM
Social Music Networking

If you wish to show your support please do, you can find me on:

MySpace
FaceBook
Twitter
Bebo

Join the OSOM group;

FaceBook Group (Keeping Leicester Alive With Music)


Or even email: adam@osom.co.uk

The Music You Never Knew Was There

I have been trying to write the first ever OSOM blog for about a week so here goes.

I hope you all enjoy.

Adam

Leicester as a city is just like any other, we have the local drunks that loiter about on the streets causing no harm, the business men and women in their suits travelling from A to B, the groups of chavs talking about what ever it is chavs talk about, the grungy moshers with their masses of facial hair and long locks.

But what is it that makes Leicester a special city?

For me it sure as hell isn’t the government, the councils or the new John Lewis department store. It lies deeper in the cultures of the city, the art and the artists, the plays and the thespians, but for me it’s the music and the musicians that lay almost dormant unless you know where to look.

Now this is where I should fill your head with facts and figures to reinforce what I’m saying but I wont, instead I will fill your heads with just two (as of March 2009).

• Leicester has bean voted one of the top 5 musical cities in the county
• Leicester is home to 200 + bands and artists

I can almost hear the sharp gasp of air at the thought of 200+ bands with in the city and shire, shortly followed by ‘well where are they then’ and the answer to the question, right beneath your nose, all you have to do is look.

This is why I have created and started the OSOM venture, to bring more of a public awareness to the huge amount of talented musicians the city has to offer the country, and even the world. To harness all the information about local resources, then to supply a refined, simplified easy to use v

ersion for the public, the bands, venues, for all who wish to see and know about local music.

OSOM will work closely with the bands and artists, work with the public and media to bring Leicester back to the forefront of the music industry.

OSOM

(Our Sound Our Music)

Right well I’m not going to bore you all with my enthusiasm anymore (I will save that fore another blog)

I hope I have filled you with the inspiration to go and see a local bands and to be blown away by the shear professionalism and quality of music.

I promise you will not be disappointed!

If you wish to show your support please do, you can find me on:

• MySpace
  
• FaceBook

Join the OSOM group;

• FaceBook Group (Keeping Leicester Alive With Music)

Or even email: adam@osom.co.uk