We've been away in the East. We had a great time so thanks to everyone who's been a part of that. We played a few shows out there and I've found some videos of them on you tube so for those of you that couldn't make it here they are:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op1d0Dsqbcs&feature=player_embedded

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAIq0MaqOLc&feature=player_embedded

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE2y6loXw7o&feature=player_embedded

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wszqf7X8Ww&feature=player_embedded

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Scp8i2JON8&feature=player_embedded

I went to the meeting of artists at Air Studios on 24th September. It was great to see that so many people turned out to discuss and come to an agreement on the file sharing issue even Lily Allen was there.

Amazingly after 3 hours of talk everyone agreed on the statement below. I agreed to sign because the decision to restrict bandwidth was better in my opinion than cutting people off.

Adj


We the undersigned wish to express our support for Lily Allen in her campaign to alert music lovers to the threat that illegal downloading presents to our industry and to condemn the vitriol that has been directed at her in recent days.

Our meeting also voted overwhelmingly to support a three-strike sanction on those who persistently download illegal files, sanctions to consist of a warning letter, a stronger warning letter and a final sanction of the restriction of the infringer’s bandwidth to a level which would render file-sharing of media files impractical while leaving basic email and web access functional.

Signed:

Tim Rice-Oxley (Keane)
Jamie Turner
Adriano Buffone (Raygun)
Allan Bradbury
Helienne Lindvall
Tony Crean
Andrew Laidlaw (Lucksoul)
Isard Haasakker
Tony Morrelli (The Fire Escapes)
Jean-Baptiste Pilon (The Fire Escapes)
Mark Headley (The Fire Escapes)
Hal Ritson (The Young Punx)
Billy Bragg
Ben Ward
Karl Harrison
Howard Jones
Tjinder Singh (Cornershop)
Phil Simpson
Athleen
Steve Jones
John Reynolds
Sandie Shaw
David Rowntree (Blur)
Ed O’Brien (Radiohead)
Alan Sharland (The Hoosiers)
Martin Skarendahl (The Hoosiers)
Steven Hogarth (Marillion)
Mark Kelly (Marillion)
Guy Chambers
Patrick Wolf
Sam Duckworth (Get Cape Wear Cape Fly)
Jamie Allen
Toby Sebastian
James Kelly
Beryl Marsden
George Jones
Ross Millard (The Futureheads)
Stax Dempsey
Rona Sentinar
Fran Healy (Travis)
Karl Addy
Nathan Taylor (The Young Punx)
Josh Allegro
Ali Howard (Luckysoul)
David Arnold
Lucy Pullin (The Fire Escapes)
Annie Lennox
Lily Allen (Not a Member of the FAC)
George Michael

This week I've read file sharing blogs by Lilly Allen, Pixie Lott and even Elton John threw his hat in the ring too. Firstly I'd like to say that although this is a worthy subject it has all started because Lord Mandelson has outlaid some plans for what Labour will do if they win the next election. This ultimately is benign as I think we all know that they're never going to win the next election. It's also worth mentioning that no one especially an artist is gonna solve this problem in a 500 word blog on myspace....not even me!


The fundamental issue here is that people no longer think they have to pay for music. Anyone who knows economics knows that supply in the music industry far out-weighs demand and as a result the price has been driven right down. Combine this with the consumers desire to have thousands of songs in their pockets and with piracy now as simple as it is, how are artists like me going to earn a living?


I've been on all sides of the fence on this one, when I grew up I worked in HMV and then when I became a student and file sharing was taking off I downloaded with the best of them. Now here I am signed to a major label having released Raygun's debut single. Last week I received a message on Twitter from a fan asking where they could get our single 'Just Because' for free. I had to smile because this person obviously didn't even know they were doing anything wrong. They had no idea that we had spent 6 months recording our album and spent thousands of recoupable pounds on the video, that we'd already given away one song for free on our myspace and that by asking for another song for free they were essentially getting a fifth of our album for free. Their perception is that music is free and there is nothing wrong in asking for it for free. The question is what, if anything, can we do about that?


Lilly Allen and Elton John are backing Lord Mandelson's calls for ISP's to terminate known file sharers net connections. I fundamentally disagree with this point. It suggests that the music industry has it's house in order and that ISPs need to deal with the music industry's problems. This is the sort of thinking that led to the file sharing boom that started at the end of the 90s. It will primarily punish music lovers for following music. We've all been young and downloaded music without paying or copied a mate's CD. Surely music will suffer if up and coming artists are cut off from the internet for illegally downloading? That said just because we're musicians or music lovers doesn't mean we're above the law. It is un-necessary to copy the music to check it out. In today's world you can go to Myspace or YouTube to do that.


I think the industry needs to get real and accept that MP3s are going to be free within 10 years. This leaves 3 options for generating finance:


1. Subscription: Where the consumer pays a monthly fee to have as much music as they want, alla Spotify or Nokia's 'Comes With Music' package. With the invention of Spotify the idea of owning music is now something of the past. But such is the people's desire for free music that the average rating for Spotify's iPhone App was 2/5 stars because they made iPhone users pay the £10 subscription to use an app which essentially lets you listen to as much music as you like wherever you are. That's not just paying for music its paying for a service too. Clearly paying for music is not what the public wants and as Paul Weller said 'The public gets what the public wants'.


2. Sponsorship: Where for example Groove Armada became the official band of Bacardi and were comissioned to write around an albums worth of music that Bacardi gave away with their promotions. This is a great idea but it only works for established artists as no brand wants to launch a new band. They've got their hands full marketing their own products.


3. Royalty rates charged by the PRS and other collection agencies are increased. This means that sites like YouTube and Myspace pay more to host music. In a world where the uses of music have increased unfathomably in the last 10 years and are at the highest they've ever been (ringtones/Social Networking Websites/YouTube/Spotify/Internet Radio Stations etc) why aren't royalty rates at their highest ever?


What needs to happen is the royalty collection agencies need to get their act together and come up with some fresh ways of generating revenue that reaches the artist. Last month saw the PRS and Youtube sort out their differences and come to an agreement on royalties for music videos viewed in the UK. This is good news but more needs to be done. Some young artists that aren't in the public eye are getting thousands of plays a day on myspace. Where is the royalty that's being generated from these plays going? Myspace are hosting advertising on these artists pages so the revenue is there but why is it not making its way down to the artist? As I understand it this is where the Featured Artists Coalition comes in. They are working to get these royalties back to the artist and I applaud their efforts.


As an artist it has become apparent that the only collateral I have is my band's brand image. It's clear that big brands will do anything to get as close as they can to what they think is 'cool'. As artists we must realize that this is where our biggest strength is.


I'll finish by saying great music is not made by part-timers. Creating and delivering great music is a full time job. As a result musicians have to pay the bills and put food on the table and so need to get paid for creating the music that people use when they're at parties or listening to the radio or on Myspace or YouTube etc. Trying to reverse the publics opinion on the value of music is idealistic. Raising royalty rates is realistic and achievable and the PRS, in their deal with YouTube, proved it. It is up to musicians to remember that they are the creators and therefore they have the power. It begins and ends with them.




Adj

Raygun make it on to Kanye West's blog

If you are in or around Hull this weekend, head over to Viking FM’s festival on Saturday where Raygun will be live on stage at 7.30pm. Head to the Queens Gardens. More info here or tune into 96.9FM or online at www.vikingfm.co.uk

Watch this behind the scenes footage of Raygun at the MTV World Stage in Kuala Lumpur.

Raygun have teamed up with clothing giants FC:UK for an exclusive series of blogs. From this Wed (Sept 9) and for the next two weeks the band will be making some noise on fcsesssions.com to give you a blow by blow account of their week with all the highs and lows it brings and in turn an insight into what life as a musicians really means.

Head over to FC:UK now to find out more and get involved.

We've been outwardly quiet here at Raygun towers but that doesn't mean we've not been doing anything. Firstly we've been writing. I'm not saying if anything is going to come of it cos it's too early to say but it feels good to be being creative again. It has reminded me why I got into all this in the first place.


(You'll have to excuse me if this blog seems disjointed but I'm watching 'A Few Good Men' whilst writing it - I like court room dramas for some stupid reason).


Anyway where was I - writing - oh yes. Well creativity is a bit odd. My friend said it's like a tap in an old house. When you turn it on out comes all the shitty water then after it's run for a while you get the clear fresh stuff. I think I agree with this metaphor even if it's a bit of a shit image. He should've likened it to the spit of a llama or something - then we'd all think he was wise - right? Er no. Forget that.


I'm a editor when I write anyway. We met Steve Lillywhite once and in-between stories about Bono and John Lennon he called us 'analysts', I'm not sure he's right cos an analyst just looks and reports he doesn't do anything with it. An editor takes the best bits of everybody's work and puts them in his publication - that's the best way to describe what I do.


(Tom Cruise just said 'Fuck' I heard him)


The new philosophy is speed. Ray and I have decided that we're not gonna wait around. We normally spend a lot of time making things (like demos) just perfect, whilst contemplating our navels. This time however we're all about quantity. Quality can come later. I've just realised I'm giving away all the secrets so I'm stopping there.


(I've just seen an advert for a Baywatch style show set on Brighton beach - not cool.)


bye!


Adj x


P.S. A question for you readers:


What bands/artists do you like besides Raygun? I'm especially interested in up and coming ones.


And....What was the last record you bought?

If you missed Raygun live at V festival this weekend, in addition to their Absolute stage performance they also played an extra show at the Secret Stage tent. Check it out here

Today we have 2 shows. 1 in Brighton at Coalition supporting Alphabeat and 1 small club show in London at the West Rocks club night in Shepherds Bush. If you're at a loose end tonight you should come to West Rocks. Its a really low key night where you can get right up close to the bands. We're on at 11 ish and its only £5 to get in. We'll be there with a mojito in hand providing sustenance for you to dance the night away. It's open till 3 too so it's a great night out for little money.

It's at:

Shepherds Bush bar
Shepherds Building
Charecroft Way
Shepherds Bush
W14 ODA

As for the rest of the week, we're off to V Fest. We'll be on at 2.30pm on the Virgin Media union stage on Saturday at Chelmsford and Sunday at Stafford. Make sure you catch us. We'll be filming behind the scenes for those of you who don't have VIP tix and we'll put it up after the weekend.

I'll blog more later and I'll also be editing together some behind the scenes footage of the Malaysia trip so keep your eyes open for that.

Laterz

Adj x

A short blog for now cos it's about 20 mins b4 we go on stage. Today we had a press conference, I felt like a footballer. Ray stalked the stage like a diva and we couldn't resist mocking him on the spot. He saw the funny side. Treat 'em mean keep em keen that's what I say!

We're off to the show now but later there's drinks with Kasabian and Pixie Lott who by the way
were all very nice to us.

Laterz!

Adj

Today was mostly spent doing press. We had a great time meeting journos and press from all around Malaysia. Although it's depressing to know that we really can talk a lot of shit when given the chance. Then again that's not really news is it?!

As far as Kuala Lumpur goes we haven't had the chance to see too much of the city but we managed to get over to the China Town market today. In all honesty we were just glad to get out. Ray did some Malaysian national dance - it looked like a cockney knees up but it was harmless I can assure you!

I think I'm actually insane now. I introduced myself to a journalist as Sam today. I'm not sure why I did it but it happened. I think Sam was secretly honored. Ben is looking forward to going on the water slides.

Tomorrow we play. Kasabian seem nice, they're not dying by the way. I'm looking forward to their set. I'm looking forward to our set too, it's not everyday you get to play a gig in a swimming pool to 15,000 people!

The neck is much better thanks for asking!

Adj

We're here! Or are we there? No I'm here and you're there. Or am I there and you're here? Anyway it was an interesting journey, everything was running to plan until the final hour of the flight when I awoke from a pleasant slumber and had a stretch, this resulted in a large pain in my neck and shoulder and an inability to look up or down or right. I went to the hospital and got some cracking pain killers and one of those surgical masks (very Hoxton). Amusingly I can't hold my head up straight (it leans slightly to the left) so I just look like a moody twat all the time! This was not the start I had planned for.


The pain killers are fun though, they make me feel a bit emotional - I watched Juno on TV last night and wept at the end. At least i hope it was the pain killers or else I'm just a pansy. Then again most guitarists are pansies!


Anyway today I feel marginally better and we're currently between the morning photo shoot and the afternoon soundcheck. The stage looks pretty cool - what I can see of it anyway. I'll get a photo and post it here in a bit.


I'll post something more interesting than this later but for now you can have a picture of me rocking the surgical mask.



Adj x







Also Richard Pryor's Anthology '68-'91 is amusing me muchly.

Send to a friend and add to your page. Click here.

I've spent a lot of my weekend watching you tube. I blame Cody High school for this because he posted a link to a video on my last blog and that turned out to be like crack to me. It resulted in me getting very into watching conspiracy theory videos about the Illuminati. They passed the time excellently. When I got over my fear of the end of the world I decided to go out and watch Moon, which by the way is excellent. Highly recommended, I'll say no more.

It's a busy week for us this week, it being single release week. Lots of interviews today and tomorrow and then a gig at the Water Rats on Thursday - I expect to see you all down the front.

Yesterday we worked up a little surprise cover for attendees of the show we're playing at G-A-Y on Saturday. I'm not gonna reveal what it is but it was sounding good yesterday and as long as we still remember it on Saturday night at 1am after several fizzy lemonades all will be good. Now then, G-A-Y?! Do real gay people actually go to G-A-Y? Or is it just straight people wanting to have a night out going gay clubbing? I guess I'll find out on Saturday.

Next week we're off to Malaysia. We're playing a show on MTV Asia with Kasabian and All American Rejects. It's a hard life i know but someone's got to do it.

Oh and I nearly forgot to say that this week on Friday we'll be in Westfield shopping centre in Shepherds Bush playing a couple of sets at 3pm and 7pm so if you want to see exactly what kind of a mess we're in then come and say hi!

See you there!

Adj

P.S. i just realised we've put up a video game on our myspace, it's particularly good because I get to crash the car and kill Ray whenever I want, it's even got blood!

To precede the release of Raygun’s debut single ‘Just Because’ on Sunday, get in the mood with some 4play action as C4 profile the band this Friday night at 12.45am

Click here to pre-order ‘Just Because’ from iTunes and instores on Monday.