The fifth Irish Showcase comes to one of London's most prestigious venues, The Luminaire, on Thursday March 11th 2010.  Event organiser Jay Mistry says, "There are many great bands in Ireland who need help in getting noticed by the music industry (and music fans) outside of Dublin and Belfast. Many of these bands come over to London with no real idea of where to play or how to get the right industry people to their gig. "The idea of the showcase is simple." says Jay, whose main job is royalty tracking via his Musical Sleuth company. "I've done well out of my part of the music industry and have many contacts, so it was time to give a little back.

"On March 11th we have Kyle John Suckling, who truly has a voice and songs to die for, he is an amazing talent. We also have A Plastic Rose who were the first unsigned band to have BBC Radio 1 airplay across the schedule. Jo Whiley, Edith Bowman, Nihal, Hew Stevens and Tom Robinson all playing their debut single 'All You Know And Love Will Die'. Lastly, we have the eclectic Reader's Wives. I've seen them live in Dublin last year and they blew me away with their sound and shall we say very interesting lyrics. It's going to be a very lively night."

Tickets for the showcase can be bought from the Luminaire website or contact Jay for industry guest list. Doors open 7.30pm, show at 8.30pm.

Contact: Jay Mistry
The Irish Showcase at The Luminaire
311 Kilburn High Road
London NW6 7JR
e-mail: jay@irishshowcase.com
http://www.theluminaire.co.uk
http://www.irishshowcase.com
http://www.kylejohnsuckling.com
http://www.aplasticrose.com
http://www.readerswivesband.com

London Beatles Day is celebrating its 20th Anniversary this spring with an extra special Beatles Day on Sunday 21st March 201 at the Park Inn (formerly known as the Bonnington Hotel) on Southampton Row, London WC1. As well as a large selection of memorabilia, records, CDs, books, posters, badges and photographs on sale, confirmed guests for the event include Hunter Davies, Victor Spinetti, Tony Bramwell and former Quarryman Rod Davis. London Beatles Day has been attracting Beatles fans from all over the globe ever since, originally 2 shows a year were staged but due to increased demand this was increased to the current 4 shows per year.

London Beatles Day
http://www.britishbeatlesfanclub.co.uk/events.html

Our new monthly City Showcase Sessions had a great launch at The Apple Store, Regent Street with producer Steve Levine and his new act Patch William on February 23rd. Our next session at The Apple Store is on March 23rd with special guests Toploader performing and answering questions. After a sabbatical of five, years Toploader will be giving an exclusive to City Showcase, first at the Apple Store and then at Dean Street Studios during the City Showcase May festival. Following a Q&A Toploader will performer old favourites as well as exclusive tracks from their forthcoming release later this year. The session will start at 7pm so arrive early to secure your seats.

During our main event in May, Tony Christie will be interviewed onstage by David Stark, more info to follow. City Showcase 2010 will take place in London on May 6-8th,  and intends to shine a light on yet more emerging artistry as well as  give creative and career advice to budding musicians. City Showcase has a great record of spotting tomorrow's emerging talent today:  Keane, Razorlight, Amy Winehouse, Scouting for Girls and NDubz all performed at the festival before they became the household names we know today. Artists wanting to apply should go to the sites below.

City Showcase 2010
http://www.cityshowcase.com
or register via Sonicbids
http://www.sonicbids.com

Natural Songs in co-operation with, and sponsored by, Universal Music Publishing (MD Universal Music Publishing Austria + Switzerland Rainer Bischof will attend) and co-sponsored by Sonicbids, invites professional songwriters from Europe/USA and other countries to join an international 5 day Songwriting Camp in Innsbruck/Seefeld. The featured speakers and coaches are Alex Forbes and Robert Singerman.

Alex is a hit songwriter from NYC who is also a professional songwriting and lyric coach and teacher. She's had many Billboard charting singles and has placed her rockpop and dance songs on albums by artists such as Alisha, Push Play, Taylor Dayne and Joey Lawrence. She's also generated many film and tv placements, international chart success off-Broadway cuts and is known as one of the "go to" songwriters for collaborations and songs. She teaches in the graduate program at NYU and has spoken on many panels at songwriting and music conferences.

Robert's helped create success in genres such as new wave/alternative rocknew Jazz and World music and has been involved with artists in a bookingmanagement or consulting relationship from hip hop to bebopheavy metal to dance and avant garde to traditional. He's helped found record labels(RoadrunnerUS)is a NARAS memberhas been a music supervisormusic/tv producer and has spoken at conferences worldwide. He's represented Suzanne Vega, Violent Femmes, Smithereens, R.E.M., Gipsy Kings and James Brown among many others. He directed the French Music Export Office and the European Music Offices US and is now focused on making songs truly international through lyric translations.

Our plan at the Camp is to join creative forcescome together in a relaxed atmosphere and beautiful natural surroundings in order to create songs for the national and international marketas well as for ongoing productions. The camp will be located in a house that has been especially adapted for that purpose amidst some of the most picturesque Alpine scenery. We will provide workstations (AppleLogic Audio) for the writing teams to record a demo of their ideas and songs. There is also the possibility of recording your creative work on your own laptop. We plan to produce a CD sampler - The Camp Volume 1, featuring the songs from the five-day camp that are sufficiently recorded for publishing demos. The sampler will reflect the variety of participating songwriters in an authentic and personal way. It will also contain video and documentary material in HD quality that includes information on camp activities and information about the attendees. The recording work will be done in professional studiosduring and after the camp.

Full board and lodging for 6 or 7 days and nights is provided. Breakfastlunch and dinner will be served in the main house. Veganv/egetarian or other diets are available. The apartments and the main house provide free high speed internet access. The camp is located about 25 km west from Innsbruckin the surroundings of Seefeldone of the most traditional and well-known winter and summer holiday destinations of the Tyrol/Austria. The seminar costs 635.- Euros incl. 20% VAT with an early registration discount available with full payment by February 15th of 85 Euros or a cost of 550 Euros. There is also a contest until February 15th for one free registration for Sonicbids members. Click SongLink link below for full PDF

Contact: Siegfried Walch
Natural Songs
Innrain 113
6020 Innsbruck
Austria
Cell: +43 (0)650 41 29 355
e-mail: thecamp01@yahoo.com
or siegfried@naturalsongs.com
http://www.naturalsongs.com
http://www.songlink.com/TheCamp.pdf

London's Institute of Contemporary Music Performance (ICMP) and Shure have launched the 2010 Shure Songwriting Award. Previously known as the Shure Creative Award and supported by Amy McDonald and K.T. Tunstall, the competition will be judged this year by the sensational singer/songwriter, Paloma Faith. With the release of her first single 'Stone Cold Sober' being brought forward a month early after UK radio leapt on it with such enthusiasm, she is proving herself to be a major new star, having followed up with hits "New York", and her album title track " Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?". The fourth single, entitled "Upside Down", will be released in the UK on March 15th.

The contest is open to all young singer/songwriters looking to emulate Paloma and make a career out of their talent. First prize is a unique opportunity to attend, free of charge, the fantastic one-year Professional Diploma in Songwriting course at the ICMP, Europe's leading school of modern music, worth over £5,000! And in addition, two runners up will win some amazing Shure gear. To enter, all you have to do is upload a video of yourself playing an original song to the award website before April 2nd 2010. A combination of an expert panel of judges plus public voting will select a top 8 and then Paloma will be making her selection for this year's winner!

Commenting on the award, Paloma said: "I'm really excited to be involved with the judging of the Shure Songwriting Award with the ICMP. I think that competitions like this are important to help nurture and support new talent!" This could be your chance - it could be your song chosen this year! For further details on entry guidelines, terms and conditions or for further information visit the award website or contact the ICMP directly at:

ICMP / Shure Award
http://www.icmp.co.uk
http://www.shuresongwritingaward.com

Chris Difford of Squeeze writes, "Another trip to Italy is in order this time with the newly installed studio that will add so much to our writer's week. This very exclusive event is being held from April 11th to the 18th, flights are cheap as chips right now on Ryanair to Perugia. This writer's week will conculde with a concert in the town theatre, which will be I hope like being in heaven. It's a week you won't forget and all for 600 Euros."

Contact: Chris Difford
e-mail: marshmellow@btinternet.com
http://www.chrisdifford.com