Hi there!
It's been a busy month for me.
I am doing loads of work for Bar Lane Studios and I am now a resident of the Phoenix centre which is now my office located at York St John's University. The space is for business incubation and for me it's a way to not only focus on getting the print version of Soundsphere (more on that in a moment...) out there using great contacts and a dedicated space, but also to expand on my freelance work and to raise my personal profile. Big thanks to Creative York for getting me into that space!
Now, on to the matter of Soundsphere magazine (still located, for now at www.spheremag.co.uk). We are changing the name to reflect the development and progression of the business into the print market. Our publication has always been more about music (but we won't ignore culture and the arts) and we hope that our dedicated online readership will support the change of Sphere Magazine Online / spheremag into Soundsphere Magazine. For those who are wondering, we also wanted to move away from the other Sphere magazines out there to avoid any confusion or major trademarking issues as we head into print. We are looking at an August (late) deadline now. We'll get this thing done! Promise.
The team are headed to Sonisphere (how fitting?) this weekend having recently been over to Download and done a fantastic job - hats of as always to the team of Giles Moorhouse, Helen Gilroy and Adam Peeroo who will be taking Knebworth by storm this weekend, I hope! There will be the usual epic amount of review coverage for bands and interviews with Gary Numan and 65daysofstatic taking place.
What will I be doing? Why am I not there as Editor? I should be doing more work, you say? Agreed. I am ridiculously lazy, but this weekend (well, Sunday August 1) I will be running the Jane Tomlinson 10K (for Jane's charity) and I am pretty nervous. As I have cerebral palsy, I have never (as you might imagine) attempted to run / hobble at speed to anywhere, let alone six miles around the lovely city of York. It's for a good cause and fortunately, my little sister will be there to run it with me. We have raised over 1,000 pounds in a week, so I better finish, eh?
In other news, copywriting work is going well. I mean, I am really proud to be working for Treasures Revealed in West Yorkshire now - it's certainly one of my more challenging jobs. It's a lot of fun to write about diverse cultures and religious beliefs and this job allows me to do that. The last work I did for that project was to report on their AGM where representatives discussed how the whole thing was developing and moving forward. The delegates came to talk about their faith and beliefs and it was interesting for me personal as I gained a real understanding of Islam and its similarities and differences in relation to Christianity. Exciting stuff!
Regarding my role as Enterprise UK Ambassador. It's an honour and priviledge for me to be asked to undertake this role and despite constant changes that are being made within the framework of Yorkshire Forward, I am very proud to still be able to call myself an Enterprise champion. The talk that I gave in Bradford just after the last time that I wrote on this 'ere blog was pretty nerve-wracking to say the least - I didn't stick to my powerpoint and rambled on (albeit very enthusiastically) about my career as a journalist and role as Editor of Soundsphere. The feedback was pretty great and people praised my 'infectious' level of passion and drive - which was nice.
I have also been nominated by the York Press to be a part of their business awards. I will be going for the young entrepreneur of the year title against some fantastic businesses including The Creative Condition (run by good friend Mike Leigh Cooper) and fellow Phoenix residents Snapshot Media. It's going to be a lot of fun - I will keep you posted!
I think that's most of what's been going on. I have, of course been doing reports for York LINk, Digifish's work has slowed for the moment which is a shame but when you are a rockstar like Director Paul Banks (guitar, Shed Seven) and currently on tour doing the summer festival circuit, then I suppose it's fair enough!
I'll keep moving forward with the knowledge that I can sleep when I am dead and start worrying about getting through that 10k, and getting my team to Sonisphere festival safely - accreditation for big festivals is the most fun thing about this job...really.
Thanks ever so much to all who have supported the publication so far and to those who are enjoying my work.
Keep in touch with me via the site, Twitter and Facebook which you can get to via my links page!
Dom
As usual, I leave you with a couple of alternative rock gems...
The first is a BBC introducing session for some friends of mine, Testtone3 - a fantastic band. Here they are performing 'Turn It Around' live.
The second is a brand new favourite for the mag, an Aussie act called Violent Soho have produced a good ol' grunge tune that recalls the glory days of Nirvana, The Pixies and Smashing Pumpkins. The tune itself is not meant to cause offense to Christians in any way - I just think that it rocks!
It's been a busy month for me.
I am doing loads of work for Bar Lane Studios and I am now a resident of the Phoenix centre which is now my office located at York St John's University. The space is for business incubation and for me it's a way to not only focus on getting the print version of Soundsphere (more on that in a moment...) out there using great contacts and a dedicated space, but also to expand on my freelance work and to raise my personal profile. Big thanks to Creative York for getting me into that space!
Now, on to the matter of Soundsphere magazine (still located, for now at www.spheremag.co.uk). We are changing the name to reflect the development and progression of the business into the print market. Our publication has always been more about music (but we won't ignore culture and the arts) and we hope that our dedicated online readership will support the change of Sphere Magazine Online / spheremag into Soundsphere Magazine. For those who are wondering, we also wanted to move away from the other Sphere magazines out there to avoid any confusion or major trademarking issues as we head into print. We are looking at an August (late) deadline now. We'll get this thing done! Promise.
The team are headed to Sonisphere (how fitting?) this weekend having recently been over to Download and done a fantastic job - hats of as always to the team of Giles Moorhouse, Helen Gilroy and Adam Peeroo who will be taking Knebworth by storm this weekend, I hope! There will be the usual epic amount of review coverage for bands and interviews with Gary Numan and 65daysofstatic taking place.
What will I be doing? Why am I not there as Editor? I should be doing more work, you say? Agreed. I am ridiculously lazy, but this weekend (well, Sunday August 1) I will be running the Jane Tomlinson 10K (for Jane's charity) and I am pretty nervous. As I have cerebral palsy, I have never (as you might imagine) attempted to run / hobble at speed to anywhere, let alone six miles around the lovely city of York. It's for a good cause and fortunately, my little sister will be there to run it with me. We have raised over 1,000 pounds in a week, so I better finish, eh?
In other news, copywriting work is going well. I mean, I am really proud to be working for Treasures Revealed in West Yorkshire now - it's certainly one of my more challenging jobs. It's a lot of fun to write about diverse cultures and religious beliefs and this job allows me to do that. The last work I did for that project was to report on their AGM where representatives discussed how the whole thing was developing and moving forward. The delegates came to talk about their faith and beliefs and it was interesting for me personal as I gained a real understanding of Islam and its similarities and differences in relation to Christianity. Exciting stuff!
Regarding my role as Enterprise UK Ambassador. It's an honour and priviledge for me to be asked to undertake this role and despite constant changes that are being made within the framework of Yorkshire Forward, I am very proud to still be able to call myself an Enterprise champion. The talk that I gave in Bradford just after the last time that I wrote on this 'ere blog was pretty nerve-wracking to say the least - I didn't stick to my powerpoint and rambled on (albeit very enthusiastically) about my career as a journalist and role as Editor of Soundsphere. The feedback was pretty great and people praised my 'infectious' level of passion and drive - which was nice.
I have also been nominated by the York Press to be a part of their business awards. I will be going for the young entrepreneur of the year title against some fantastic businesses including The Creative Condition (run by good friend Mike Leigh Cooper) and fellow Phoenix residents Snapshot Media. It's going to be a lot of fun - I will keep you posted!
I think that's most of what's been going on. I have, of course been doing reports for York LINk, Digifish's work has slowed for the moment which is a shame but when you are a rockstar like Director Paul Banks (guitar, Shed Seven) and currently on tour doing the summer festival circuit, then I suppose it's fair enough!
I'll keep moving forward with the knowledge that I can sleep when I am dead and start worrying about getting through that 10k, and getting my team to Sonisphere festival safely - accreditation for big festivals is the most fun thing about this job...really.
Thanks ever so much to all who have supported the publication so far and to those who are enjoying my work.
Keep in touch with me via the site, Twitter and Facebook which you can get to via my links page!
Dom
As usual, I leave you with a couple of alternative rock gems...
The first is a BBC introducing session for some friends of mine, Testtone3 - a fantastic band. Here they are performing 'Turn It Around' live.
The second is a brand new favourite for the mag, an Aussie act called Violent Soho have produced a good ol' grunge tune that recalls the glory days of Nirvana, The Pixies and Smashing Pumpkins. The tune itself is not meant to cause offense to Christians in any way - I just think that it rocks!
