The music business has changed, totally and utterly changed. The internet is at the heart of it but has it changed for the better? It’s better for the listener but whether it’s good for bands/artists is a moot point. I’m not decided yet but what I can say with some certainty is that it’s not going to change back so we’ll just have to make the best of it.

It’s certainly easier to get your songs heard these days; you can post tracks on your website or social media sites such as Myspace, Facebook and Youtube and you can sell them through iTunes and Amazon. As a listener if you hear about a new band from a friend, on the radio, in a newspaper or magazine or see them on TV then as long as you have a connection to the internet you can be listening to or buying their tunes in minutes.

The Simmertones: working hard to get their music ‘out there’

The world is a totally connected and smaller place now. Radio stations stream their shows online, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and your website give you a worldwide reach and a much bigger potential audience. Devon and Brisbane are 1000s of miles apart physically but online they might as well be next to each other.

So, this all sounds great, what’s the problem? Well, despite it being easy to get music “out there”, I think we need to work a lot harder these days as it’s easy for everyone to make their music available, not just us.

The rate of change is challenging too – a few years ago, Myspace was all the rage; a single place to interact with fans, friends, bands, etc, and we used this along with the band’s website and email mailing list.

Now it’s Facebook but that’s not as efficient for bands, but we use it as Myspace is a lonely, lonely place. We don’t even get spam from it any more! We also have our own Youtube channel where we host our videos. Did I mention we have videos? Check them out if you have a minute. If you’d told me a few years back we would have done a music video I would have laughed at you as that was just for signed, bigger bands but… times change!

This leads us to my last point and what is perhaps the biggest problem for bands these days; all bands, whatever level they’re at.

In my opening paragraph I first wrote “record buying public” rather than “listener” but does that apply anymore? The internet and other technologies have made it easier for people to get your music for free. Some do it maliciously, knowing that they’re avoiding buying your songs, the songs that you’ve spent money recording, producing, mastering and pressing. Others do it more innocently, thinking that they’re helping you spread the word or that giving a copy to a friend or hosting it on a filesharing ‘site is okay; “It doesn’t hurt, they’re selling loads, what does one copy matter?”

Actually yes, it does matter; it’s our intellectual and artistic property! We want people to hear it, sure, but on our terms. We want to be able to decide when we can afford to give something away for nothing. We aren’t in the position where we can write it off and recoup costs on a stadium tour or by selling a pile of t-shirts. Next year maybe…

Ok, rant over but I hope you get my drift. If we all share music without a thought for the bands and singers then maybe we won’t have those band and singers around; support them by listening to them legally whenever possible. Share the things the bands want you to share!

The Simmertones have their home in a small corner of the web at www.thesimmertones.co.uk and can also be found on Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. Drop by, have a listen and let them know if you like what you hear.

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Donovan was Britain’s Bob Dylan. Emerging from the folk scene, he came to fame in early 1965 with a series of live performances on the pop TV series, Ready Steady Go!, and his popularity spread to the USA and other countries.

One of the leading British recording artists of his day, he produced a series of hit albums and singles between 1965 and 1970. He became a friend of leading pop musicians including Joan Baez, Brian Jones, Bruce Springsteen, and was one of the few artists to collaborate on songs with the Beatles. He influenced both John Lennon and Paul McCartney when he taught them his finger-picking guitar style in 1968.

However, in 1964 he spent the summer in Torquay. He worked at the Phyllis Court Hotel and the Conway Court Hotel in the day and began busking, ‘smoking pot, drinking and playing at various bars and on the beach’. He also started a more serious study of the guitar and learning traditional folk and blues songs. Donovan bought his trademark fisherman’s cap in Brixham, where he played in the Rising Sun. 

Donovan was interviewed about his time in Torquay for Beat Instrumental in May 1965.

While in Torquay, Donovan wrote his first hit, Catch the Wind, which reached #4 in the UK and #23 in the United States in 1965. It has since been covered by, among others, Bruce Springsteen, Cher, Glen Campbell, Peter Fonda, Sammy Hagar, Susanna Hoffs, and Joan Baez. 

Here’s Catch the Wind:

Mac Macleod is a folk and blues musician and an early influence on Donovan. They spent the summer of 1964 living in a bedsit in Abbey Road. 

Later, MacLeod was the lead singer and bassist in a band in Denmark (inspired by Cream) which he named Hurdy Gurdy, the inspiration for Donovan’s The Hurdy Gurdy Man – which reached #4 in the UK charts and #5 in the US.

Donovan had written the song before going to India with The Beatles where he taught John Lennon and Paul McCartney the finger pick styles he had learned from MacLeod. These resulted in songs like Julia and Blackbird on the White Album.  (Donovan has also stated that while in India an extra verse was added to the song by George Harrison that wasn’t part of the radio single.) This is Hurdy Gurdy Man:

As a really good resource, try Marmalade Skies: The Home of British Psychedelia. It covers record releases, and month-by-month news from 1966 to 1975. Of particular interest is the list of live gigs which show how many bands performed in Torquay, including Pink Floyd, Slade, Thin Lizzy, Bowie, Hawkwind, Status Quo and many more.

Towards the mid-seventies, South Devon College – on its Newton Road site – was also on the circuit.

(Image: © Copyright Stephen McKay / CC BY-SA 2.0)

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Here’s a few bands and performers that have originated in Torquay over the years.

First of all, this is She’s Gone, a 1965 one-off single by Torquay’s Jonston McPhilbry. It’s described as a ‘mod-friendly hybrid of jazz and English beat” and a ‘good example of jazz styled freakbeat.

Check out John Snell’s site. John first started playing guitar in 1963 at the age of 17 when a friend at Audley Park offered to teach him Apache by the Shadows. He joined the Last Tik Band (formerly The Telstars of Torquay) in 1964. This was followed by the Torquay-based soul band The Indiana Highway. A later band was Subdued Hubub, pictured at the Shiphay Manor Club 1970-73, while the Hip Hooray Band played between 1974-1980.

Much missed are the legendary Riff Power Band, who regularly appeared in the Pelican in the late 70s (now a block of flats opposite the police station). Riff Power is still performing in the Jackie Lynton Band (the light blue cowboy shirt) in

Cheers to Rob M for sending me a CD featuring the classics: Porno Madness, Ripper Boys Rule, Dance Craze, Pogo on the Plebb, and Mojo Working.

This is Headlode, originally called Full On Hate Machine, performing at two of Torquay’s Lost Pubs: The Railway in 1996

and The Parrot 2 in 1997

Their song Welcome to Edith’s was about the Edith Morgan Unit: ‘A nice place where you can shout, you come in but you don’t come out.’

The most famous Scrumpy and Western band of them all, The Wurzels, have produced 28 albums in a 40 year career.

John ‘Jai’ Howe was a Wurzel (1985 to the late 1980s; 2002 to 2007). Born in Torquay, and brought up in Hele, Jai died in 2008 aged 60. He’s the one with dark hair at the back.

One band that I can’t remember was Five Knots Max, described by fans as ‘perhaps the most important musical export from Torquay’. Peter has been in touch to say that this ’80’s prog retro new wave rock’ band had a cult following around the Bay and had a number one single and album in Poland with Deathbed Charlie in 1984.

According to Peter: “Paul Coward, the very temporary bassist with Motorhead, auditioned for the band but didn’t get the gig after proclaiming that the band ‘Treated their rods like ****!’ I only became aware of them after hearing them play at the Crown & Sceptre in St Marychurch at the folk night they had every Thursday. Amazingly they got to play a few songs even though they were about as ‘Folk’ as The Sex Pistols were to Country and Western.

“Still they struck a chord (‘scuse the pun) with me and over the next 18 months I went to a couple more of their gigs. In fact, on one occasion I was the only person in the audience. Anyway they caught the eye of the guy who ran Soundz record shops in the Bay. He put them in contact with one of his record company friends who saw some potential and the rest is history. They released an album in the UK on an indie label but it tanked – but amazingly enough it got picked up in Poland of all places and the band were huge – if so very fleetingly”.

From another fan, Alfie: “When it was a good night they were up there with the best, but on a bad night, when the drummer had had a few, they could be awful, which in some ways made them to me more exciting. I recorded a few of their gigs on cassette which I had a listen to recently, and they still stand up well. God knows where they all are now, although I once saw the guitarist serving cream teas at The Tudor Cafe in Babbacombe in the early 90s. I only remember this as he had very long nails. I also still have THE album. They can’t have sold many as it looks like it was handmade and coloured in using felt tips! Mine is one of the rare unsigned copies. Rock on the Max!!”

If anyone has any more information on Five Knots Max, let us know…

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What a weekend for arts (starting Saturday, June 20). The contemporary dance troupe Task Force, led by Stephan Koplowitz, begin stepping their way around the historic South Devon with their Liquid Landscapes tour. Over on arts+culture there’s a run down of the venues, plus a diary of South Devon artist Helen Snell‘s involvement with the Mayflower Steps performance. But that’s not all

At the CCANW, Hadlon Forest there’s the Skylines Festival Day today (June 20). Check out arts+culture for more. And there are animated workshops as part of Exeter Festival and in association with Animated Exeter, tomorrow (Sunday, June 21). Check out D+CFilm for more.

Also on D+CFilm, there’s a Quails music video (by filmmaker Darren Jones) to celebrate the Teignmouth band’s Turkish Tour.

(and if you’re heading north – that’s North Devon, remember North Devon Festival’s Art Trek. Arts+Culture has some behind-the-scenes insights from Stella Levy as she organises the last few days up to the event).

posted by Cptn

(image: the Primitive Hut – part of Skylines at the CCANW)

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Devon Eccentric Colin Shaddick (no it’s official – he came third in this year’s competition), dropped us a poetic line to explain a bit about the origins of his award-winning eccentricity. You could get more of an insight at the Salon del Eccentrica, an Eccentric evening at the Broomhill Art Hotel, Barnstaple on Thursday, June 18 at 7.30pm.

Eccentric! Who, Me?

Maybe this is how it all started?

Imagined kazoo solo.
One hooded and very blue day
when I was at a most sensitive stage,
I was struggling
to wring some temperate words

from the chilly language

that shot to-and-fro,

above my rattling head.

I decided to try out

a few investigational expressions of my own.

I needed to make my mark:

draw a line in the sand.

I waited for a fleeting lull

in the daily hubbub

that continually clanged

from the pots and pans

in the steamy kitchen.

I made my entrance

and Mother turned towards me,

her arms now motionless

and her reddened elbows quivered

just above the popping soapsuds

and waited for the off.

I smiled, and determined to show off my verbal skills,

began my tirade…

They were not well-received words.

I was not allowed to continue with my experiment.

My father hurriedly interjected

and promised he would give me a thick ear…

in a minute.

I had no memory of him giving me anything, before.

I was totally flabbergasted

when he said he’d give me something -

and so speedily too.

I so wanted him to give me something.

I then pictured myself with one thick ear…

and decided it would look quite daft.

I told him that I thought it would look daft,

but he took no notice

and he up and gave me one anyway.

But it wasn’t within the minute!

No.

He said he’d give me one…

in a minute.

It took much longer than a minute.

By the time my thick ear arrived,

a good twenty minutes or so had passed!

Can incidents like the one I’ve just described above,

have a lasting affect on a person’s life?

Time moved on and I slipped inaudibly along with it…

Then, one day it happened –

I think I said something like,

Eccentric…Eccentric!

Who, me?

I’d never given much thought to eccentricity, really…

that is until they said I was eccentric.

They, were the British Broadcasting Corporation.

An eccentric was the last thing I’d contemplated being.

After all, as far as I was concerned

it wasn’t me who was heading in the wrong direction!

Vivid pictures then began to flow through my mind:

eccentrics as mad, frizzy-haired inventors,

or mumbling white-coated professors

ensconced in leaded-light, oak-panelled lodgings …

Stereotype images like that.

So, how did I get into this situation?
I vividly remember my dad treating me like an outsider,
but my mum often said she thought I was an artist

and that poetry was the most noble art.

So, when I left school and flew the uncomfortable nest,

I knuckled-down and made a new start.

I bought myself a Moleskine notebook… in black.

The sort that all the best poets

painters and composers are said to use.

It had an elastic band to hold it tightly shut…

(for when I wasn’t ready for the muse.)

With tried and tested equipment like that

how on earth could any decent publisher refuse?

But I’d get this recurring dream.
“Oh,” I’d be saying out loud.
“If I held the post of ‘Chair of Professor of Poetry’

at a famous old university,

I’d kiss goodbye to adversity.”

I’d be repeating this phrase over and over.

But, I’d be as happy as old Larry.

What a great way

to spend each and every busy-buzzing day.

I’d just tarry… there,

reading piles of good books, (and my guitar mags)

and every so often, quietly gaze down

from my dusty old window

at the pigeons pecking and puffing themselves up

on a perfectly manicured lawn,

in the quaint and quiet quadrangle.

I’d chat to the poetry students

in a fatherly-like way.

(They have scant knowledge

about anything in the real world,

you know.)

“This is the way poetry’s done,”

I would say to each one,

then show them a selection of

my very popular

self-published pamphlets.

They would probably pipe-up and say,

“Caw that’s brilliant, that is, sir.”

Then I’d rock back on my heels

and say to them: “Off you go then.

Order yourselves some copies from Mr Jenkins,

in the lovely old library downstairs,

and give ’em a good read.

But, no cheating though.

Make up some of your own stuff.”

They would then say,

“Oh, sir, pleeease!”

Then I’d relent and say:

“Well, go on then,

but change the words about a bit.”

I’d tap out my pipe on the pitted stone window ledge

and chuckle to myself, muttering quietly:

“Huh, bloody kids, who’d ’ave ’em?”

Then I’d sing a little song.
Who drew

the very thin line

between sanity and madness? (X3)

Who drew,
who… drew… it?

‘Aren’t all eccentrics bonkers, though,

and think of nothing other than their pet subjects,

and even if they attempted to repair the most simple of things

they’d turn out to be bodgings?

‘Their heads are in the clouds.’

That’s what people say.

Then again,

I do tend to engage my brain before my mouth

and some people have to wait ages

to get an answer.

Sometimes it can be as long as…

say, a goose would take

to complete its hazardous journey south.

I don’t always mean to be rude,

but you should understand

that I like a lot of solitude.

It’s not that I’m particularly shy,

it’s just because…that’s why.

‘An eccentric slice of a British way of life’,

that’s how I was described…

and all because I wrote Japanese-type verse

called haiku.

They thought it rather strange that I sometimes compose

when I’m riding on my baiku.

They wanted me on Radio 4.

I was to talk to Clare Balding about my poetic style,

and while I was explaining it, she would interject a bit.

It was something new for their programme, Ramblings.

Ramblings is a broadcast where everything depends

on supposedly interesting folk and their amblings.

That’s how the final die was cast.

Normality, for me, had breathed its last.

I was now officially ‘Eccentric’

and the BBC had nailed me to their mast.

Whatever happens in the future

as a result of this whirl of eccentricity…

will be secondary.

But that crowning moment

at the ‘Eccentric Club’ will always remain

with me and be the best,

because it’s where I got my title:

‘The Great British Eccentric 2009.’

I’d passed their test.

It now gives me the opportunity

to get so many dark secrets off my chest.
And did you know that…

If you say the word

kazoo, backwards,

it reads, oozak?

It then sounds more

like a question:

‘Oozak?’

That’s probably why

they never called

it that.

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It was the Laser Poetry that caught our eye from an immensely eye catching, not to say tongue twisting, ecopoetics event called Skylines that’s taking place at the CCANW until the end of the month, with a big festival day on June 20.

Organiser Elizabeth-Jane Burnett told arts+culture: “The type of poetry I write and read falls largely into the ‘contemporary experimentalist/linguistically innovative’ bracket, so while I’ve always written in response to the landscape in this part of Devon, I’ve not used very traditional methods to do so.”

The whole event is set to engage people in the poetry and the environment, with innovated workshops, like the laser tag games out in the forest which apparently encourages young people to think about, and respond to their environment and language in new and exciting ways.

There’s a Primitive Hut installation and on June 20 poets will be coming from the US, France, and across the UK, to participate in an academic forum in the morning, workshops and a multimedia screening in the afternoon, and poetry readings in the evening.

“There will be something for all the family, with a kite making workshop for children, and music from local band The Chill Acoustic,” said Elizabeth-Jane.

Read the full story on arts+culture

• Skylines is taking place at the CCANW until June 28, with the festival day on June 20

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Katie Marie spends a week tackling spiders in her studio without resorting to her famous brews

How fantastic is all this lovely sunshine? It’s almost been worth putting up with all that yucky rain for this wonderful week of wonderful sunny stuff… we want more!

This week has been much less hectic for me and I’ve had time to do really basic stuff that most of the time I take for granted, like sitting down and eating a proper meal rather than buying crappy overpriced food from a petrol station and eating it super quick on the way to a gig!

But the best-est thing for me is that I finally have time to spend in my studio… which if you’re a fellow songwriting person like me you’ll understand me when I say that it’s more than just a room with some recording equipment, it’s your own creative space where you can shut the door and just get totally lost in music (paradise in other words), which I’ve been seriously missing.

As I’ve been gigging so much lately, yesterday was the first day I’d ventured in my studio for about a week – and in the space of seven days my biggest rivals had already started to take over. I’ll give you a clue what I’m talking about, they’ve got eight legs, spin biiiiggg webs and can make the biggest bulkiest blokes scream like a four-year-old girl… yep, the spiders had begun their mission in taking back the studio!

My studio is made up of two ex-stable rooms and were literally just shells with not much in them – with the exception of a ga-zillion spiders, most of which I had politly asked to move to the stables over the way. But a few of them refused and didn’t take kindly to my recent re-decorating efforts. So they had all set up webs in the most ‘orrible of places, such as the front door so as soon as I go wandering in I get a face full of web – yuck! But we’ve all sat down and had a good old chat and come to an arrangement about where they can hang out.

The next few weeks I’ll be spending as much time as possible working on my new album, which has been put on the back-burner for far too long, due to having to focus far too much of my efforts on boring grown-up stuff (such as paying bills), but as I’m back to doing music full time and my studio is all finished up I can really get stuck in again and *finally* get it finished up!

The aim is to have it all ready for my next German Tour (which is in October) and most of the tracks are all recorded and finished, but as there’s been a bit of a gap between when I originally started putting it all together I’ve written a few new tunes which I’d like to add. I can’t wait to have a finished CD and start promoting it!

The radio show is still loads and loads of fun and I look forward to it every single Saturday. This week could be highly amusing as I have to fit a four-piece band into the tiny weeny Soundart studios – could be interesting! Papa Fernando are popping into the studio to play a few tunes live on air – so do tune in if you can as it’s sure to be a laugh!

One shocking thing that happened to me this week… are you sitting down? I’ve gone off tea (**gasp!!**) I know! I’ve no idea what is going on, but I think I’ve only had one cup of tea in over seven days, baring in mind that I usually can drink anywhere between three and seven cups a day!! I just don’t fancy it at all. “So what on earth are you drinking instead Katie??” I hear you cry.

Well… this:

Which in case you don’t know, is essentially fake coffee – it tastes like coffee, but isn’t coffee… kinda like coffee for kids (lol) which is really weird as I *hate* coffee and I’m not grown up enough to drink the stuff. So will I ever go back to the utterly brilliant, super-dooper hot drink that is tea? I’ll letcha know next week!!

• Check out Katie Marie on MySpace, or on her website.

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Things do get pretty heated in the political arena but it’s not often a candidate is described as a ‘greasy-haired twat’. More’s the pity, we reckon.

That’s exactly how a campaign leaflet distributed on behalf of Anna Pascoe, Lib Dem candidate for Cornwall Council elections, described Mebyon Kernow candidate Stuart Cullimore.

Apparently it was not an authorised leaflet, but “some kind of prank that’s back-fired”.

Of course, looking like the singer from a Mud tribute band shouldn’t say anything about your ability to do a job but just remember what happened to Tricky Dicky when he went on telly looking like Fred Flintstone’s sozzled father, eh?

Luckily we’d never accept that kinda mud slinging (and indeed Mud singing) in Devon. Oh, except for Linda Gilroy accusing council leader Vivien Pengelly of ‘completely losing the plot’ the other day.

And, um, Tudor Evans calling the BNP Euro candidate ‘a giant knob’ on Twitter last week.

But, y’know, other than that…

(image: Stuart Cullimore)

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Bath-based band Slovakia moved up three places this month to take the number one spot on the Radio Free South West monthly people’s vote chart with their track Part of The Factory.

The Starkadders shimmied in at number two spot with their track Broken Hill. You can catch The Stackadders live at The London Inn, Ottery St Mary on June 6, and then at Lapstock Festival, near Crediton on June 27.

‘Guitar wizard’ (according to The Independent) James Hollingsworth takes the number three spot with his track Quieter Lifetime.

James Hollingsworth takes the number three spot with his track Quieter Lifetime. James is influenced by Roy Harper and John Martyn amongst others. James was described by The Independent as a ‘guitar wizard’.

Thank you for voting! Thank you for listening!

Tune in to Radio Free South West.

TOP 10 SONGS, MAY 2009
1. Slovakia – Part of the Factory – Slovakia
2. The Starkadders – Broken Hill – Black Witch
3. James Hollingsworth – Quieter Lifetime – Precession Of The Albums
4. David Nicholas Hill – The Bluest Stars – Demo
5. Take Back The Planet – No Hero – E.P
6. Kellie Cox – I Wait – Pathos and Exaltation Part 1
7. Some Beans – Dark Days – Pop Noise Sampler
8. The Legendary Ten Seconds – Near But Far – The Legendary Ten Seconds
9. Noise Annoys Simon – Only Being Real – Pop Noise Sampler
10. Catherine & the Owl – a.t&tea – I

posted by Stuart

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The PRSD caught up with Plymouth-based alt-rockers Crazy Arm ahead of the release of their debut elpee Born To Ruin and the Broken by the Wheel single. Here’s what frontman Darren Johns had to say for himself.

Describe the band in under 140 characters so we can Tweet about you.

Hard-twang, punk rock country boys doing their level best to marry the earthy lilt of Murder By Death with the hardcore blast of Hüsker Dü.

You’ve got an extensive summer tour, with only a few spare nights and have had five UK tours, how important is touring and live performances?

All important. Playing live is the first point of communication. It’s the only time a band is vulnerable, which is why so many bands don’t last the duration. Everything else – albums, singles, videos – is past tense by the time anyone hears or sees it, and is easy to perfect.

How do you keep that energy when you’re recording?

Focus. Studios are pretty static places so you need to draw inspiration from a different well. Thankfully, we’re all pretty used to it now, and the studio where we recorded the album (Peter Miles’ Holne Bridge Studio, Ashburton, on the edge of the moors) is an amazing place. Huge vegan curries, night-time Seinfeld sessions and leaps into the nearby river also helped keep spirits up.

You mention Ennio Morricone and Kurt Vonnegut in your influences – does that show through anywhere in your music?

We love the eerie drama and cinematic imagery of Morricone but we’ve only utilised it to a very small degree. The Vonnegut thing is more a personal influence as he’s probably my fave writer/satirist. I think that anything you hold close to you rubs off somewhere along the line.

Your debut album ‘Born To Ruin’ is out on June 8 – what can we expect?

To be pleasantly surprised, hopefully. Loud stuff, quiet stuff, acoustic stuff, melodic stuff, rock stuff, punk stuff, country stuff, folk-rock stuff, socio-political stuff. Lots of stuff.

How did you come to the decision to release the limited vinyl edition of Broken By The Wheel?

We were forced into it by our tyrannical publisher. He knew the label (Seven Inch Records) and kept on at us to get our shit together and do a single with them. So we went along with it and it’s been really great. Our album deal with Xtra Mile came along a few weeks later so they ended up doing the digital side of the single release.

What’s coming up after June?

July. Comedy was my Plan B. We’re hoping to do a mainland European tour in August but I haven’t heard anything about that for a couple weeks. It looks like we’re playing a few festivals in summer and we intend to release Still To Keep as a single in September, which means recording a couple new songs for B-sides, maybe turn it into a four-song EP? After that, more UK tours, try and get some good support slots, start planning the next album… We’ve got enough new songs for it.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Please don’t give the BNP any room to campaign in the European elections. They’re neo-Nazis and they need to be stamped out .

Please support Dave Mahoney – a friend of ours who’s facing imprisonment and a huge fine (on ludicrously trumped-up charges) for his part in an anti-Republican demonstration in the USA.

Please go vegan and keep an eye on the police. Many thanks.

Posted by Cptn

Interview questions answered by Darren Johns (vocals/guitars/words). Other band members are: Jon Dailey (bass); Simon Marsh (drums); Daniel Couling (guitar/vocals/keys).

• Watch the Broken by the Wheel on D+CFilm, where it’s the Something For the Weekend Music Video, with an interview with filmmaker Chris Southern of GET Crucial Productions

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PRSD contributor singer/songwriter Katie Marie, who writes the Not Bad For A Girl column, is in a ‘Local Record of the Week’ competition of Palm FM’s morning show. Vote for her now.

The winner gets their tune played every day for a whole week on the Torquay-based station.

Katie Marie told the PRSD: “I’m up against four other pretty well know bands, so I need all the help I can get!”

The competition is taking place on John Hogarth’s site, and you can vote for her right now

Remember to catch up with Katie Marie’s Not Bad for a Girl every Thursday on the People’s Republic of South Devon.

posted by Cptn

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Morwellham Quay is hosting the Taste of the Tamar event this weekend, profits from which will be going towards the Children’s Hospice South West’s Precious Lives appeal to build a third hospice in Cornwall.

Things to do other than eat include browsing stalls of local craft goodies, listening to Calstock Rubber Band and shaking paws with the famous Mr Foley.

Admission to the event is free. Car parking is £3. More information on the Taste of the Tamar site.

Hmm… the opportunity to stuff myself silly and raise money for a worthy cause? Bring on the ‘Andsome bangers…

posted by Heather Smith

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