Comments on: CHARLES HOLGATE AND THE PUBLICITY GAME

By: retiredgrimeist

retiredgrimeist — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 11:01:21 +0000

blackdown will of course not say anything about ammunition, as hes a scene insider, who works very closely with all the people involved here and any criticism of anyone mentioned would no doubt be negative for him, so hes never going to really say anything that honest about what he feels (and of course charles would make sure he promoted that not exactly great dusk/blackdown album! theyre all from ‘the scene’!). blackdown obv knows his stuff but he can never really be a proper music journalist due to his close ties with everyone. other people sticking up for charles prob are just mates with him, so theyre of course going to do the same. youre never going to get honesty when theres so much politics involved, esp from a scene as insular as this one. its a good record though, so it could have done better i think. what happened most likely is that charles probably just fucked up and didnt bother doing much with the album in the uk, then tried to backpeddle when found guilty. he probably thought no one would find out. it happens in PR. this just happens to have been made public. which might be tacky, yes, but its still an eye opener.

By: decem

decem — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:44:58 +0000

I thought of this article as very interesting. Although it can be a dangerous move to put someone into the spotlight like this, this post has been a real eye-opener to me as far as music industry business works.
I agree with Saul saying that maybe mr. Holgate was in a bad place personally and for that reason you shouldn’t put this up for the public to read, but the timespan in which this affair took place is way too long for it to be an excuse. And even then, we’re all human and things like this can be sorted out even after a long period of time, at least when both parties can communicate properly.

Most of the time these things happen behind closed doors and up ‘n coming producers just don’t know about it. Writing a post like this gives people a good insight about music promotion and what to look out for, so they can make a better informed decision of their own.

By: viktor vaughn

viktor vaughn — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:11:44 +0000

+1 on the tacky comment. Not sure the public finger pointing will accomplish much for either side.

That journo Beccy Lindon comes across as a real TWAT though. Homegirl writes about terrible ‘indie’ bands/music (and poorly). Yeah Beccy I did ‘google you’, and your writing is amateur hour / unreadable drivel.

The Ammo / Rinse / Tempa conglomerate does make for a boring scene these days in London. If anything, this post highlights just how regimented London’s supposedly ‘underground’ scene really is.

FWD, as a night, has been better lately (thanks to cross-breeding with funky, grime etc., but it still feels pretty ‘inside’ and establishment. Kind of like a dubstep fraternity.

PS- Get some real DJs on Rinse. Producers talking and playing tunes is AIR. No one on Rinse can mix these days (except Spyro, good looks), to just chat loads of shit while putting on one record after another (blackdown you’re guilty of this), is boring as f#ck. What happened to real-deal mixing on the radio? Dead art form? Get more people like Grevious Angel, Bok Bok, Spyro, H.U.D. etc. into the mix. Those are DJs.

By: saul t sack

saul t sack — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:58:31 +0000

lot of industry people sounding off here

im not in the industry but this is my opinion

holgate reps who he works for. at the least i hope ammo contacts rupture and attempts to smooth things out for the sake of creative relations. i doubt you’ll see your payments to holgate again, because thats how stammering flakes tend to work, but at the least, everyone has to do their part to clean up the wreckage the guy left. uk/american/wherever music scenes may seem big but in actuality, the world is very small. this comment log proves it.

the last thing i want to say is this.

this was educational and fun to read, but, public air-outs are sort of a double-edged sword. this seems like it should be between rupture and ammo. putting holgate’s name out there, even as a warning, is tacky. imagine if the guy got flaky cuz he disappeared into a drug haze or emotional problems. keep it private. the creative community has to work hand-in-hand to sort things out. not fingerpoint.

PEACE, SHOUTOUTS TO MY FAMILY AND GOD

By: schnoidl

schnoidl — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:06:52 +0000

if you ever meet Jace you’ll see he’s one of the most easy going guys ever. he’s not someone who goes around slagging people. if I read he wants to throw mud on some publicist, without reading further I’d assume it’s well justified. No doubt this Holgate guy will be spinning his version of it to the people he talks to, which will hopefully will result in some of them checking out the post, and along the way get to see what the guy on the other side of the story is about, and make up their own minds. and maybe even check out the tracks in question.

By: haircut says what? » No surrender, no delete!

haircut says what? » No surrender, no delete! — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:47:12 +0000

[...] a new addition to the suckers. Do I get points for using only one descriptive term? Anyway, I read this post a while back, but last night I FINALLY got to hear the record in question, and am coming down of [...]

By: ESSENTIAL music industry INFORMATION! « Generation Bass

ESSENTIAL music industry INFORMATION! « Generation Bass — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:59:39 +0000

[...] “I’d like to explain how Charles Holgate aka MC Nomad, an independent publicist best known f… [...]

By: Roo

Roo — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:08:23 +0000

x-post, Hint has expressed my sentiments so much more succintly

By: Roo

Roo — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:06:56 +0000

Without wanting to reiterate much of what Matt Shadetek (and /rupture) has already said, collated responses are what you pay a publicist for. Charles Holgate may well have contacted journalists about ‘Uproot’, but over the past 6 months he’s provided no evidence of this. Beccy Lindon saying she received the album but didn’t want to cover it doesn’t explain away Mr Holgate’s lack of professionalism (to put it mildly) when dealing with /rupture and The Agriculture – there should be records of everyone contacted, whether they wanted to cover the release or not. As someone who has had a lot of contact with publicists over the years, I’d agree that accepting money for work that you cannot prove you have actually done is tantamount to theft.

By: hint

hint — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:05:09 +0000

If you’re paying a publicist, you expect them to report back that “nobody felt like giving the mix any coverage”. They’re supposed to chase up the mailout and report back reactions, good or bad. Their relationship with writers should be good enough that they can get honest reactions. This doesn’t seem to have happened in this case.