The Time is Now!!!!!

So, today is a special day. The album is released and we play a headline show at the Louisiana. To say it is an exciting day is an understatement. As you can see from the attached pictures, the albums have turned up on time (due in part to a helpful DHL delivery man and a little run home at lunch time) and the certificates are done. We also have some nice little download cards which we will be selling at the show tonight (if CDs don't float your boat anymore). The cards are inspired by this nice little company. I would have used them had the link from bandcamp not insisted I buy from the US, pay 30 bucks shipping and wait 3 weeks (a bug in the moo site, not the band camp site).

So I've decided to do a weekend release special. The whole album is now streamable in high quality from our Bandcamp page here and you can buy the download including album artwork for half price, a mere £2.50. You can also buy the album for half price for the weekend only from here (also available for that price on the door tonight). This is just for the weekend I must stress so if you want it, come and get it while you can.

Now we really are reasy (sic) to rock. Bring on tonight.

Steve
xxx

Getting Close: Artwork Preview!!

So yes, it's pretty much all in the bag now. We have finished the share certificates and they are ready to be sent out with the CDs, which should be with us soon. They are currently being lovingly crafted by a big laser in France somewhere. To say we're excited is somewhat of an understatement. I've ummed and ahhed about previewing the album cover. It was up on Facebook yesterday as I wanted to host it somewhere to show a few people and a few other people saw it. The feed back was very positive and, therefore, in order to tantalise the tastebuds a bit more for the actual launch, here it is in all its gloriousness.

If it's not immediately obvious, the concept is that I am a preacher that no one is listening to. Hopefully it will make more sense when you hear the title track of the album. What I said about embarrassing situations in Broadmead shopping centre should also me more obvious. Clearly even though there weren't actually that many people there at the time (the marvels of modern technology) I still felt pretty stupid. This is obviously only part of the artwork, I will definitely leave the rest as a surprise. The download facility we are using at Bandcamp allows bonus files. So if you download the whole album for a fiver (or are lucky enough to be given a free download, either at the album launch or from one of our shareholders) you can download all the artwork that you can then print, cut and fold and add to a CD (if you feel so inclined). Obviously, if you're just an iTunes (or similar) user and get all your album covers via the CDDB service, it will be on there too.

So on to the album launch, which is bearing down on us like a large thing that bears down on unsuspecting folk. Everything is in place, the flyers and posters have been distributed, we got a nice little recommendation in Venue (not Venue Choice but then we are competing with the new Colston Hall launch) and the setlist is finalised. We have come across one potential little hitch. The attached picture should tell more than I can in words.

Isla O'Connor was born unto the world last Sunday. Isn't she a gem! Horrendously large congratulations to Michael and Emma. As you can see, however, this has rendered our guitarist rather full in the hands department. I was convinced that she would make a surprise guest appearance on the 26th but she decided to pop up three weeks earlier than expected. I am sure the man with the dancing fingers and the microphone aversion will do his best to make the show but little babies tend to be a bit more important than ageing rock stars. As a reminder (I am not sure whether I posted this before) but the line up for the launch is as follows:

8.40 - Cabaret Rat
9.30 - The Get Outs
10.15 - FIRSTOFTHEGIANTS

Tickets can be purchased in advance from Bristol Ticket Shop or on the door. Unless you're a shareholder in which case you get one free entry.

So yes, that's all for now folks. Not long now.

Steve FOTG

I Told Them About The Album Launch

The steam train that is the launch of our forthcoming album continues to chug on its musical tracks. Ugh, what a terrible metaphor, sorry to start a post like that. But yes, we are so very nearly there. All the album artwork and the master went to the duplcation company yesterday and in 10 working days we should have 500 jewel cased CDs and 500 packaged CDs ready to go to various record labels, blogs and magazines and so on. As you can see, we also have a poster for the album launch. Hopefully, if you live in Bristol, you will see one of these around somewhere as I have been putting them up all day. What fun I had. The poster gives a large clue to the album artwork although it is not what the final cover will look like. That will remain under wraps for the time being. Anyone that does live in Bristol should recognise the location and the lovely pink poster behind me.

We had the largest moment of indecision so far yesterday when, at the very last minute, the repro company asked if we wanted the CDs individually cellophane wrapped. Now personally I hate the plastic wrap around CDs that you often get in record stores. First of all, it doesn't allow you to have a nose around the CD and the inlay before you purchase and secondly, it's a complete pain in the arse to get in to. I still haven't found a sensible way of doing it without a scalpel blade. However, our resident designer (Michael, our guitarist) was convinced that having wrapping would present a professional image to our share holders. So I polled 4 share holders (the 4 people who I knew would be available on email at the time) and the two that regularly buy CDs said no and the other two said they couldn't care less. All that time I was thinking from an image point of view. Then it dawned on me that the plastic required to wrap 500 CD cases is actually quite a lot. I do so hate wasting plastic, this is why we have a whole cupboard full of plastic containers waiting to be taken to the recycling. So, in the end, I made the executive decision not to have plastic wrapping. I do apologise if that impairs your listening experience but please be mindful of the fact that it was purely an environmental decision.

One quick word on something I'm building a bit of a passion for lately. It has come to my attention that a lot of people, when they receive the CD, are likely to burn it to MP3s then put the CD away and never (or rarely) get it out again. Well I hope they burn it before they do that anyway. I would therefore like to request that those that do this, burn it in as high quality as the space on their mp3 players will allow. If you use itunes this means going to Edit>Preferences>Import Settings then selecting MP3 Encoder from the drop down list and then, ideally, use Custom and encode it at 320kbs. I challenge people to encode at this rate then use the standard 128kbs rate and compare the two. You will be astounded, I guarantee it. In this age of making music more instantaneous and accessible, it is very important that we do not compromise on quality as a result.

Now please excuse me while I watch the end of Captain Corelli's Mandolin (spoiler alert, ze Germans just killed all the Italians, ouch) and finish my glass of Merlot in preparation for my 13 mile run tomorrow. It's hard being a rock star.

Arrivederci

Stephen

Photo Sessions and Economics 101

First of all, an update on the progress of the album. We have the second batch of mixers from mix-master Rob and we're just about there. One song to be tweaked then we're on to mastering. With this in mind, we bounded in to town on Sunday to do a photo shoot for the album cover. Without giving too much away, we were standing in the middle of broadmead with a tripod and many passers by looking on in curiosity. For those that know broadmead shopping precinct (not the new Cabot's Circus) you may imagine just how uncomfortable this was. Still, we came out unscathed (with all equipment intact and in our possession) and got the shots we needed. The theme for the album cover is similar to the Hypochondriac CD single cover (above). Well, it's not the theme I suppose, we haven't done another cover of me sitting in a mock doctor's surgery. But you'll notice the similarities when you see it. I was putting the wording together for the inlay last night and it is quite hard trying to think of meaningful things to say on the inside of a CD case. I am not sure that many people buy CDs anymore, let alone read inlay cards. Personally I love to and it's one of the reasons why I will always buy a physical product over a digital release any day. At the end of the day, as well as the music, someone (much like I did) has sat down for a few hours and worked out what to write in the cover. Whilst you could clearly include all this sentiment in a digital release, it doesn't feel quite as 'valid' as something that ends up in print.

So the next step is for manufacture of how ever many CDs we chose to manufacture. This leads me on to my next point about economies of scale, in this case within the CD duplication market. There are a number of option available to small bands/labels when releasing music. By far the cheapest is to go for a digital release. It's very easy and very cheap to get music on to all the major digital distributors these days. But based on my previous comments it should be obvious why we have not opted for this route alone (we will have a digital release). The second option is to be 100% 'DIY'. Get a very limited run of CD-Rs produced (or burn them yourselves) and make quirky home made packaging yourself. If done properly it can be stunning and will give the purchaser a real sense of owning a piece of artwork. Rowena from Santa Dog is the absolute queen of DIY packaging. It obviously helps that she is an artist and has an amazing amount of patience for making things. Just check out the amazing bags she makes http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5429379. Whilst we have a graphic designer for a guitarist, none of us really have an aptitude for making 'arty stuff', and when done badly DIY packaging can do terrible detriment to the integrity of the product contained within.

The third option is to use professional duplication services, a lot of which are adapting to offer relatively good deals for small manufacturing runs (perfect for independent labels). Which brings me on to my current bugbear, economies of scale. Economies of scale, for those that don't know, means the larger the quantity of something you produce, the cheaper it becomes. Economies of scale arise from high fixed start up cost (imagine creating a mold for a model of the Eiffel tower) but low ongoing costs (the cost of pouring plaster of Paris in to the mold). The more models of the Eiffel tower you make from the original mold, the lower your average cost per model becomes and the more profit you can make for each model. This concept applies equally to CD manufacture when there is a start up cost involved and is very important when the profit made from a CD is so reliant on the cost of production relative to the price of sale. In this case, the start up is the manufacture of the glass master disc. Once this has been produced, the master disc is used to create any number of further copies. The option that confronts us when making our manufacturing decision is whether to produce 500 or 1,000 CDs. 500 CDs is probably a good number (the original number used in my share holder example). That's 100 odd for the shareholders, perhaps another 100 used as promo then 300 left to distribute at gigs and hopefully sell. CDs come in boxes which are quite cumbersome and with CD jewel cases, only fit around 100 to a box. So the last thing you want is boxes and boxes of unwanted CDs lying around. It's both discouraging from an egotistical point of view and down right jarring from a space point of view. So it is important to try and gauge your market well and manufacture the correct amount.

The question to raise then would clearly be 'why consider making 1,000 CDs?'. Well here is my gripe. To glass master, there is a one off start up cost of around £125 for orders of less than 1,000 units. The cost per unit to print on the CD is around 25p. So to produce 500 CDs, there is cost to the customer of £125 + 500 x £0.25 = £250. For 1,000 CDs the start up cost falls away and the cost is solely 25p per unit. It doesn't take a calculator to realise that 1,000 CDs cost £250. Yes, you read that correctly, manufacturing 1,000 CDs cost exactly the same as manufacturing 500. Doesn't seem right does it? It gets worse. Most professional print runs are restricted to a minimum order of 1,000 units (presumably, again, to do with high start up costs). So if you order 500 CDs with a colour inlay card and CD tray insert, you actually pay for 1,000 inlays and inserts. What do they do with the other 500? Throw them away, that's what. So far, there is no price differential between 500 and 1,000 CDs. The only part of the process which is different is the clear plastic jewel cases, which are per unit with no initial fixed costs, around 12p a unit. So the only price differential between 500 and 1,000 CDs is 500 x £0.12 = £60. Given this information I find it very hard to believe why anyone would order a run of 500 CDs instead of 1,000. Which doesn't seem terribly fair to me.

Being a stubborn person I asked the manufacturers for a quote for 500 fully finished CDs in cases with 4 page inlay and CD tray backing, plus 500 'raw' CDs and inlays/booklets. The quote was produced and not entirely surprisingly was exactly the same as a run of 500 fully finished CDs. It does seem a little odd that this is never given as an option when you ask for quotes (effectively you can get 500 unpackaged units for free). I am fairly sure few people have ever asked for it as it took a while to explain to the sales team.

Why not just pay £60 for fully packaged CDs you may ask, it's not that much extra? Well, firstly, space. The jewel cases are the bit which take up most room, as anyone who has bought a large number of CDs on spindles will vouch. Secondly, when sending out CDs as promos, it is a good idea if you can get the package in to a standard first class envelope instead of a jiffy bag. The difference in cost between a first class stamp plus a standard A5 envelope compared to a large first class stamp plus a jiffy bag is around 60p. If you're sending out 100-200 promos, that's a decent saving. The raw CDs can be packaged with the inlay in to slip cases and sent in a standard envelope with a standard first (or even second) class stamp. Jewel cases need jiffy bags and fall in to the 'large' package category. So that will leave another 300 to 400 'raw' CDs and inlays which can be used in the future if stocks sell out (just buy some CD cases and get packing). So that's what I did, and very pleased with myself I am too. So pleased I thought I'd write about it!

Thus concludes today's lesson in the economics of music production 101. I must now write to our shareholders as they may think that we have run away with all their money by now.

Until next time.

Steve FOTG

Progress, progress and more progress

Last weekend we worked with neverendingly enthusiastic and downright brilliant Mr Robbie Williams. No, not that Robbie Williams, that would be stupid and expensive and he probably doesn't know anything about pro tools or even own a studio. It was the Robbie Williams at the desk in the attached photo. Rob runs a studio from his house in Bedminster and we decided to go there 3 years ago to record our first single (Obsessive Compulsive) because Rob had always managed to get us sounding amazing at the Louisiana. Having an engineer that knows what you sound like and knows what you want to achieve is invaluable when recording. You can work so much more efficiently, and we really needed efficient working at the weekend. Our task was to finish the album, seven songs in 2 days. Hard work by anyone's standard but we managed it with two 12 hour days with regular breaks chatting with the chickens in the back yard. I can't wait to hear the finished results when I return from holiday.

We have settled on the date and venue for the launch show, which means that the album will have to be completed by this date (otherwise there will be little point launching it). We shall be at our spiritual Bristol home of the Louisiana on 26th September with the premier Bristol party band The Get Outs and one man band dark pop sensation Matt Prosac aka Cabaret Rat. Check out their tunes here:

http://www.myspace.com/cabaretrat

http://www.myspace.com/thegetouts

Obviously all share holders will get free entry to the show. We're also going to sell the album for a fiver on the night which will include a free download code for people to give to their friends. Talking of shareholders, we're doing well but we're not quite there. We have officially sold 70 of the 100 shares. We have 23 shares allocated but have not received money for. I don't think this is much of an issue, it's just a bit embarrassing chasing people for cash. So really we've only got 7 left, which is pretty pleasing. We have definitely covered the cost of all the recording and mixing and hopefully some of the duplication. But if anyone wants one of those remaining 7 shares please get in contact.

I've also had a few more ideas in terms of what we offer shareholder, partly because of the very frustrating economies of scale in music duplication, meaning we will initially have 1,000 copies of the album instead of the expected 500 and partly for actual logical reasons. I recently read an interesting article by Andrew Dubber, who is quite big in the whole 'electronic music marketing' industry, about how best to distribute promo copies of music. It led me to the concept of giving shareholders more than they need music wise so that they can pass it on to other people. This won't particularly help generate revenue but will help spread the FOTG message. So all shareholders who own more than one share will get two copies of the album, on the proviso that they give one to a friend or family member who they think might like it and haven't heard of FOTG. All single share holding share holders will receive a free download code for the following site:

http://firstofthegiants.bandcamp.com/

The code will allow one unique download of the whole album. Again, it would be put to best use if given to a friend (obviously the CD can just be ripped to iTunes so would be pointless for the shareholder to have). It's all about targeted marketing. Promo can be so hit and miss some times. Throw enough shit at the wall (I am not saying our album is shit, it's just an analogy) and some of it will stick. Andrew Dubber's point was that you shouldn't underestimate the power of giving someone who isn't used to receiving free CDs, a free CD (compared to someone who gets 100s of free CDs a week). So that's the plan anyway, we'll see if it works.

Obviously we will do the usual bombardment of online and physical music magazines. I find this process very mundane to be honest. I have built up a reasonable contacts book by now so I don't have to do that ground work. But the process of printing labels, writing press releases and packing envelopes really isn't the most entertaining thing I can think of. Then of course there is the chasing up that needs to be done. But then reviews can tend to make or break a record. Having none obviously doesn't help matters! So it's all a necessary evil if you like.

So thus concludes today's lesson in online music marketing and recording works of art in a short space of time. Homework's due in on Monday.

Steve P

xxx

All Around The World

We've made it to Canada and we've made it in to Venue. That's proper international that is!

We've struck a chord (probably a made-up one knowing us)

Firstly, apologies for the lame title of this post, there are probably only 6 people that get the joke. Three of them are in the band with me and the other three have been in the band with me.

Thanks to a friend of a friend we've had a bit of coverage and some nice comments from people who don't even know us. Check Steve Clayton's Geek in Disguise blog. Thanks very much to Steve and the nice comments in response to his blog. This has generated some interest and we're now up to around 60 or so confirmed purchases (a few people still to pay in there so please get on to paypal or mail me for bank details, which is the preferred payment method).

I wanted to pick up on a point that someone made in response to Steve's blog post and was also made to me by a friend in the 'music industry'. Basically, there are a good handful of sites that offer very similar finance means. Slice the Pie is the one that was mentioned and the first one I was aware of a while back, but there are definitely others. As I understand it you sell yourself as a band and investors buy shares in you. I believe you have to get past a certain stage before you're actually considered for serious investment. The investment is also much more extensive than we are offering because it allows you return from (and presumably some say in, as a shareholder) the band's future.

I was initially very positive about this means of selling a band. I like the fact that there isn't a single person deciding who is most eligible for investment. I am sure it does have its flaws however. Presumably investment generates popularity in itself, so it almost becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Are people really going to trawl the site for bands with limited or no investment so far, or will they follow the 'smart money' so to speak? Anyway, a friend of mine's girlfriend secured significant finance for her album via this site with no label or media support, so it must be a good thing for some people.

The reasons I chose not to use a ready made site for this exercise are three-fold. Firstly, I am not entirely convinced how much effort it takes for a band to enter the site and put themselves on the market. Whilst this isn't (and shouldn't be) a criteria for it being a successful marketing tool, I like to think that if people see you putting in a bit of effort and ingenuity, then they are more likely to take you seriously and support you. I have thought this for the last 5 years I've been playing in FOTG, in terms of the gigs we play at, the ones we promote and the CDs we produce. If you put in some effort then people seem more prepared to invest some time listening to you.

The second reason is that we don't want immediate world domination so want to do things on a smaller, more personal 'DIY' scale. Yes, of course we want the album to sell well and, by proxy, our shareholders to do well from the investment. But we also want the people that invest in us and the people that buy our album to have a little sense that they were involved in something a bit special. Judging from the feedback we've received so far this seems to be the case. I mentioned to a friend the other day who asked how it was going that I was most surprised with the people that had bought more than one share. Hopefully this is because of the way we have pitched the idea and the fact that it has captured some imagination more so than if we had just used a conventional music investment site.

The third reason is that I once met an individual associated with one of these sites. I will give this person the benefit of the doubt, in that we were both relatively well oiled and I am sure, otherwise, he has a great personality. But we had quite a frustrating discussion about the music business and how it really wasn't anything to do with the quality of the music, it was down to one thing and that was marketability. Also, DIY record labels were dismissed as pointless. Whilst I am prepared to admit that there is a massive part of the music industry that is a cynical musical conveyor belt, I will not concede that "good music will out" and "if you want to do it right, do it yourself" are not good mantras to live by. Plus DIY record labels were the largest growth area of the industry this year. So yes, this little discussion rather soured what I thought, on the face of it, to be a good idea.

A quick note on the share certificates and MP3s. We are currently working on the certificates and would like to get these finished first so they can be sent with a link to the files in a nice email package. We should have them done in about a week or so but if you're really desperate to get your hands on the MP3s then please drop me a line and I will send them through.

Have a good week y'all and keep on doing it yourself (not like that though!).

Steve FOTG

Share our band......

The share offer is underway.

An invite to 100 of our family and friends has been sent. So far 45 of the 100 shares on offer have been purchased. Hopefully we haven't missed anyone out who might want a share. Please feel free to let us know if we have.

In order to present a modicum of seriousness to the offer, we have written a share prospectus document highlighting the terms and conditions of the offer (much the same as in our last blog entry but a bit more belt and braces). I'd love to say it took an hour but it actually took two whole evenings. So it better bloody be worth it.

The share offer will be open to everyone from 1 July. There will be a small feature in the music section of Venue magazine before then. If you are interested in receiving a copy of the prospectus document in advance of this date then please contact us on:

itoldthemabouttheshares@firstofthegiants.co.uk

Rock and roll

FOTG
xxxx

The Ultimate Sell Out

We are currently in the process of recording our album. We have three tracks completed now: Mr Robinson, an ode to men loving other men, available to listen to on our Myspace; The Elephant In The Room, a 2 minute math rock epic; and Mirror Mirror which is our tribute to The Knack (we did it before Wheatabix!). We also have an album title, 'I Told Them About The World', which I thought was suitably egocentric of us. We are due back at Ruby Studios in July to record the final seven tracks and then we will move on to mastering, artwork, promo and reproduction. I am hoping that we are in a position to have a launch night in September before the birth of the first FOTG offspring (FIRSTOFTHEBABIES if you will).

I often spend many a restless night lying in bed thinking about how best to market the album. I find it is the best time to do some thinking, probably mainly because it's the only time of the day I am not working, watching the TV, or posting on Choke/Facebook/Twitter (yes, I really am that sad). We've spoken to some independent record labels but, as sterling a job as these labels do, they want young 20 somethings prepared to jump in a van and promote the record for months on end on the toilet circuit. Given our love for nice hotels and plasma TVs and our advancing years (except for Adam who is still a youngster) this isn't really practical for us. What we want is something that generates some promotion and also gives a little back to the people that have supported us for the last five years (who are invariably the first people to buy any CDs we produce).

A few years ago I stumbled across a band (who I've completely forgotten the name of, but that's not really relevant) who were setting up a record label. To finance the record label they offered an opportunity to buy a share in the business. I liked the idea because it eliminate the middle men, who take around 98% of the revenue from most album sales and also gives fans some feelings of ownership of the fortunes of the band they're supporting. The shortfall of the idea was that it required significant investment, 100s if not 1,000s of pounds, which doesn't open the idea to the every day CD buyer. So I've borrowed (stolen) the best bits of their idea but amended it a bit for our purposes. We will, therefore, be selling shares in our forthcoming album!! You can literally own a part of FIRSTOFTHEGIANTS.

How it works?

There will be 100 shares available to purchase, each share will initially be on sale for £5. Each share must be purchased with an advance copy of the album at a preferential price of £5 (so £10 in total). We will own 100 shares each per band member so there will be 500 shares in existence. One person can purchase a maximum of 5 shares for £30 (this will only include one copy of the album though).

There will be 500 CDs manufactured initially (more if demand requires it) and the remaining 400 albums will be sold at £10, online and at future shows and for 79p a track on iTunes. Each share can be redeemed at any point (following the actual physical release of the album) either by selling it back to us or by trading it with other people. The share price will be affected by the number of sales following the initial 100 made to shareholders. So if we sell 200 albums in total (100 on top of the initial share and album sale), we will make 100 x £10 = £1,000. This revenue will increase the share price by £1,000 / 500 = £2 per share, so each share will be worth £7. The following spreadsheet illustrates how the share price will be affected by future sales:

Shareholder_example.xls

So if we sell 350 CDs in total, the share price will be £10 and all shareholders will make £5 on the initial share price, covering the cost of the CD! If we sell 1,000 copies of the album, the share price will be £23, giving a profit of £18 per share. If the album sells as many as Michael Jackson's Thriller (109 million copies) each share will be worth £2.18m. I'd go as far as saying that the album is better than Thriller, so who knows?

What does the shareholder get out of it?

Well the obvious answer is that each shareholder gets a preferential album price of £5 and will, hopefully, make that back also (so a free album!). However, in addition to this benefit, shareholders will be entitled to a number of other 'perks'

• Shareholder certificate
• 3 high quality MP3 of the currently recorded songs and limited edition artwork
• Their name on the finalised album artwork
• Free entry to the album launch show
• Regular sales updates via email (and text message if desired)
• First call on future share offers
• Overwhelming glow of helping out an independent record label and band
  

Entry to the album release party alone is worth £5, so all in all, a complete and utter bargain!

What do we get out of it?

Well, for a start, the revenue generated from pre-sale of 100 copies of the album and the shares will provide the funding we need to finish the recording and production of the album. We then hope that owning a share in the album will encourage people to recommend it to their friends (this obviously isn't a requirement of purchasing a share, you can just sit back and do nothing if that is your want). Hopefully, the process in itself will generate a bit of publicity too. If the exercise is successful we will follow the same process for the Christmas single and future releases. As already mentioned, the shareholders for the album will be the first to be offered the opportunity to purchase future shares.

So there you go. FIRSTOFTHEGIANTS are officially for sale!

Shares will be released for purchase on 1 June 2009 via Paypal. You can follow the progress of the album from recording to manufacturing (and general musings on the failings of Arsenal Football Club) on our twitter feed at:

Twitter

If you would like further information and to register your interest or if you have any ideas or suggestions then please email us at:

itoldthemabouttheshares@firstofthegiants.co.uk

Thanks for listening.

Steve and the rest of FIRSTOFTHEGIANTS

Day 44 - Back on the case

Facebook members: 284

So an 8 day holiday turned in to a considerably longer hiatus from the blog. I must confess that I lost the impetus thinking of powdery hills and vin chaude (I don't actually like that stuff, I mean lager obviously). But I am back now, ready to step on the accelerator pedal in the Christmas number one driving seat!

So my first incredible innovation in our continuing quest is to join this Twitter thing. If you'd like to follow us then you can do so by going to this link and clicking 'follow' (I think):

http://twitter.com/firstofthegiant

I am not sure I really get how it's any different to Facebook but it's in the Guardian so it must be really big with all the middle class pseudo-socialists. At the moment I am following Stephen Fry because the newspaper I read about it in said he was the most popular twitterer (twit?). Nothing he has said so far has been very interesting. I am actually enjoying Ashton Kutcher more. Hopefully he'll upload some pics of Demi in compromising positions. Actually, what am I talking about? Why would I want to see that exactly?

First practice in a few weeks next week and we'll get the rest of the song down. May be I'll film it and upload it somewhere. That would, of course, require me to work out how to do shit like that which is pretty unlikely.

Auf Wiedersehen for now

Day 28 to Day 43 - Hiatus

Facebook members: 284

Away on research. It was very Christmassy, check it!

Day 27 - Dreams and Nightmares

Facebook members: 273

I realised I haven't posted all the lyrics. Here is the second verse:

Mistletoe and wine don't work at all
I need sleeping pills to spend some time with you
Your snowy disposition just leaves me cold
You're the anti Father Christmas, it's true

It was going to be Rohypnol instead of sleeping pills but it implied that it would be the narrator (it's not autobiographical obviously) trying to date rape his/her girlfriend/boyfriend when that's not what it means at all. It's about needing narcotics to put up with someone. It's a cheery old song, that's for sure.

I had another dream last night (again, not in the sense of Martin Luther King), it was very very odd. We were playing a festival, sort of like Ashton Court but not and we were on last (which should have been the prime slot). Just as we were about to go on, everyone started leaving. Then they came back because it was a sort of a joke to leave but I had forgotten how to play all the songs, or was too drunk, or something. It was all a disaster and I was crying uncontrollably like a baby. Then I kept waking up and thinking it was just a dream, then going back to sleep and wishing it was all a dream. But what does it all mean? Probably that I don't want people to walk out of our gigs! I should be some kind of paid dream analyst.

Let's hope for no more crazy dreams this evening!

Day 26 - Rocking around the Christmas tree

Facebook members: 272

We're not going to get to 300 by the end of the month are we? Nooooooooooooooooo!!!!!! Oh well. It's not important because we pretty much did the song today. It currently ticks most of the boxes. Let's revisit the list:

Step 10 - Father Christmas
Step 9 - Pop
Step 8 - Snow
Step 7 - Love
Step 6 - The Brass Section
Step 5 - The Video
Step 4 - Choral Arrangement
Step 3 - Key changes
Step 2 - The Lyric 'Christmas'
Step 1 - Tubular Bells

We have Father Christmas twice. It's quite poppy although it's probably a bit more rocky than poppy. Snow gets a yes in terms of the lyric 'Your snowy disposition just leaves me cold'. 'Love'? Well it's about not loving someone anymore. Step 6 and 5 are both not there yet but for understandable reasons. The brass section will go on with the recording and obviously we haven't thought about the video yet. There is an agreed section towards the end of the song set aside for the choir although I am still not sure where we're going to get a choir from. 'Christmas' lyric is in the chorus and there are most definitely tubular bells and sleigh bells. So really, all that is missing is the key change. It just doesn't fit and, for that, I am eternally sorry. Will it make the difference between a number one and no number one? I very much doubt it.

Exciting times!

Day 25 - Absence

Facebook members: 271

I established today that I can't post blogs from my ipod. This meant that I wasn't able to post a blog yesterday (not that I had anything of any interest to talk about) and it also means that I am not going to post while I am holiday next week. Did I mention I was going on holiday next week? Snowboarding? Yeah?

4 days to go. That's proper Mexico.

Day 24 - Stupid Beer Cans

Facebook members: 270

So they did have the Adidas bag I wanted. It rules, check it!

So just after I bought it, I went to the supermarket and bought some food and beer (Stella 4% to be precise). For the second time in as many weeks one of the cans opened itself in the bag. So a 2 inch pool of tasty beer resided at the bottom of my new bag. Thank you very much Famile Artois, very nice.

What the hell has this got to do with a Christmas song? Absolutely nothing, that's what.

Day 23 - Crossing the picket line

Facebook members: 269

Yeah, I didn't post anything last night, not really a surprise. I did, however, have a rather nice burger at the Wild Wood on Park Row. I recommend trying it. Well, we managed a few more members so I am prepared to cease my industrial action. I am still waiting until we get to 300 before I send out a mass mail. Hopefully we can do that before I go on holiday.

So, the chorus. I've got the words and I've got the tune but I am struggling with the key to play the whole song in. I had the chorus in G but then it was too high to do the lead line. So I've knocked it down to E and the verse is too bloody low. I've also just remembered that I need to leave room for a key change, which traditionally goes up. I don't know, this song writing stuff is a minefield I tell you.

Right, I am off to get my haircut and buy a new Adidas bag. I bet they haven't got what I want. Toodle pip.

Day 22 - On Strike

Facebook members: 264

Due to the lack of a single new member yesterday I decided not to write a blog entry out of protest. As a result I have now managed to ascertain who my one reader is following an enquiry as to where the day's post was.

Now we have had a couple more members I will write a post this evening but I am going out in a bit so it will probably actually be tomorrow morning. Then I am going on holiday next Friday and I won't be able to post every day as there is no internet in our chalet, everything's falling apart. No Internet?!! It's a total outrage. The worst thing is, I booked the bloody place. How could I book somewhere so out of touch with the modern world? And I still haven't got an iPhone. Can you start a sentence with 'And'?

I am rambling now clearly. Back in a few hours.

Day 21 - Soaring Chorus

Facebook members: 264

I wrote the chorus, I wrote the chorus, la la la la la la la. Yeah! I lost my writers' block about 30 minutes after yesterday's blog. It wasn't a block really let's face it. More of a temporary absence of inspiration. I think I like it but I need to hear it with the whole band first. I did go with the 'It's Christmas' theme based on the fact that it was in my ten steps so I thought it would be a bit hypocritical not to include it. Here are the lyrics:

It's Christmas time
Don't kid yourself that I miss you at all
It's Christmas time
You take everything but you only give
When you're down
You go down, down, down
You go down, down, down

The underlying meaning is a bit rude but I think it is veiled enough to maintain its family appeal.

I am going to start a new feature called 'bands I currently don't like'.

Band I currently don't like # 1 = The Script

Why is this band popular? I asked Louise this the other day and we established that it must be because they sound American, like Maroon 5. I am not sure why this is a good thing. I generally like the Irish accent but sometimes it does have a habit of coming across as American. Actually, I am listening to them now on some Channel 4 program and I've just realised the lead singer actually sounds like Sting. Well Sting wants to be an American anyway so I guess that makes sense. But this, this song, I mean seriously, this song! It doesn't have anything of any discerning quality. I......JUST.....DON'T......GET........IT.

But it's alright, because David Guest is on and I love David Guest. He is one of the few people in the world that make me feel grateful for having my hair line. Nice one David! May you grace my screens every day.

Day 20 - Writer's Block

Facebook members: 264

I can't write the chorus, I can't write the chorus, la la la la la la la. Arse. Everything I sing ends up either 'Its Christmas' or 'Merry Christmas'. I don't think this is the way forward somehow. I don't think it helps that I am currently watching Leaving Las Vegas, Elisabeth Shue in full affect! Man this is one depressing film. When you have children and they start turning in to binge drinking street urchins, just sit them down in front of this film with 2 bottles of tequila. They'll either kill themselves or never drink again. It certainly put me off my glass of Christmassy Pinot Noir (see, there was a tenuous link there). At some stage I am going to give up talking about Christmassy things and this is just going to turn in to a narcissistic, boring blog, like the millions of other deluded people who think that other people give a crap what they think. Aren't I positive this evening?! It's this film I tell you.

An important question was raised yesterday. Is this a Christmas song, a FIRSTOFTHEGIANTS song or a FIRSTOFTHEGIANTS Christmas song? One could say that we are in the realms of semantics, but I think it is an important question. I would really like it to be the latter of the three and, in some respects, there is little point in us doing it if it is not. But then is that what people really want? We're not a signed band for one reason or another. One of those reasons, I suppose, is that I don't have the capacity to write a Christmas number one. Of course, I don't believe that to be the reason, I think it's more likely that we don't look right, or sound right at any precise time when it has been important. It must, of course, be a Christmas song so that rules out the middle option. So option one or three? I think we will just have to wait and see.

Bottle of vodka in the shower anyone?

Day 19 - Success

Facebook members: 261

So, the song is go. We started it and it seemed to work. I think it's going to be a long process to be quite honest, we did about 4 bars. It does sound a bit miserable though. I think I will have to write an ultra happy verse or break-down to offset some of the negativity of the start. We have also established that it's quite hard to make tubular bell sounds with a guitar and a delay pedal. So the question is, do we record a backing track or just wing it for the live performances.

I had a dream (not in the Martin Luther King sense, in the actual sense) about the video the other day. The annoying thing is, it was one of those dreams that you remember having but don't remember the actual specifics of. One thing I do know is it was definitely good. But that doesn't really help us at the moment.

We're pushing towards the big 300, at which stage I will send out a mail to our members and see if we can push the membership up a bit more. It's a great start for the first month but we need to keep the momentum going to make an impact on things and get the hype going a bit.

So yes, positive positive. In a while.

Day 18 - First Verse

Facebook members: 256

I didn't finish the chorus today after all. I was far too busy watching webcams of snow falling in France. I suspect this is becoming far too much of an obsession. Oh well, there are probably worse things you could be obsessed with. I did finish the lyrics to the first verse though. I can't decide whether they area bit naff or not:

Last Christmas I gave you my heart
But you threw it all away
You took my pills and junk
And threw them all out

They say that now's the time for giving
But you've taken everything
You're the anti Father Christmas
And it hurts

I don't know. I don't normally publish lyrics so it looks kind of odd writing them down like that, especially when it's not in the context of the song, you can't even tell the intonation on the words. But, if truth be told, I was looking for something vaguely interesting to write about. I like using the opening lyrics to Last Christmas because it's the only Christmas song we've ever played in the band plus it means I don't have to think up anything original. I wonder if there are copyright issues. It's a homage rather than a direct rip-off. Mr Panayiotou doesn't need the cash anyway and I'll just get my dad's hairdresser (George's uncle) to have a word and get it all agreed. The pill reference links back to a number of our other songs.

Hopefully we'll give it a jam tomorrow and see how it sounds. Fingers crossed the heaters are working. Until then.

Day 17 - Day Off

Facebook members: 255

Two blogs in one day clearly doesn't work.

So to get back on track I shall return this evening with more intensely amusing insight in to everything to do with writing a Christmas number one. I might have a chorus by the end of the day so that will be a much more appropriate update.

Until then, check out a really rather good Christmas song with lots of shouting:

www.myspace.com/wordsfromreuben

Safety nice.

Day 16 - BLOG FAIL!

Facebook members: 251

Oops, I got a little typsy after work last night and forgot to do the blog. Still, you'll be pleased to know that I did manage to have a nice curry from the lovely Kathmandu. That's a restaurant, not the actual place, that would be stupid.

Anyway, think number ones. I don't like the number one at the moment very much. People are spouting a lot of crap about Lady GaGa being the next Kylie or Madonna. I can't see it myself, I just don't think it's very good pop. Judge for yourself:

Lady GaGa (29 million hits, WTF?!):

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=M65zI9LH-as

Madonna:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=GbOfn9LUk3E

Kylie:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Rfr9bhSmfXc

Here's a little sense on the whole thing:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jan/16/florence-and-the-machine-popandrock

Right, I am off to buy some more snowboarding equipment that I don't need. Have a nice weekend.

Day 15 - Grass Shoots

Facebook members: 250

Well we've done the 10 steps so that means I should be ready to write the song and what do you know, I've started it. I was writing it in my head in the pub, which I am sure was really entertaining for Louise. It has an intro which fulfils one of the steps and a basic chord pattern and possibly even some lyrics. I think it might be quite good. Now to get enough of it down by Monday to see what we can come up with.

We booked a show at the Thekla in March yesterday supporting Red Light Company. They're getting played on the radio quite a lot lately. Apparently they're a bit like U2 and Editors. Bizarrely, two bands we've also been compared to in the past, but I can't see it myself. I guess that means we'll be well suited to playing with them. May be an important record executive will attend the show and sign us up for millions of pounds. Then I can ditch the Christmas single idea altogether. ONLY JOKING! Still, it will be nice to play a different venue with the new line up as all our shows so far have been at the Louis. As much as we love the place, variety is the spice of life!

Anyway, the zzzzzzzs are calling and I've been up every night this week writing this thing, so time to call it a day. Peace oooooooooouttttttttttttt!!!!!!!

Day 14 - Festivals

Facebook members: 244

Festivals are great things. I can't imaging anything better than playing on an outdoor stage to a good crowd of people. Not that I've ever done it. We played the last ever day of the Ashton Court Festival on the main stage. The only problem was, they had only just opened the gates so most people were waiting outside while we were on. I still feel upset about that. I had a massive amount of love for that festival, it was truly one of the best in the country and certainly the best for the price. Of the 8 years I attended all I ever wanted to do was play. But like anything, when you finally get your wish, it never lives up to your expectation. I wish they'd bring it back, I really do. If I won the lottery tomorrow, I would have no qualms about investing enough to bring back the festival. I wouldn't even care whether I lost all the money.

But small independent festivals are becoming obsolete these days. The cost of policing, insuring and conforming to health and safety are prohibitively large, so only the most profitable events survive which will always involve the biggest artists and the most expensive tickets. I am not sure that's what a festival should be about. We need to start thinking about applying to festivals now, which seems rather odd in the middle of January. Even then it's very hard to get selected for these festivals. I just don't know what criteria we have to satisfy. How does one person ascertain whether a band would be a good festival band or not? It's all beyond me to be honest. Then we have the issue of the 'credit crunch'. How many festivals will meet an untimely end this year because people can't afford to go out anymore?

Anyway, the final part of my ten part list beckons.

Step 10 - Father Christmas

How could we have a Christmas song without the big man himself. As we all know, Santa is a big fat drunk who steals all the alcohol in the house and abuses animals. So it's certain that he has to appear in our song. That is all.

So, in conclusion, the ten steps to a Christmas number one are as follows:

Step 10 - Father Christmas
Step 9 - Pop
Step 8 - Snow
Step 7 - Love
Step 6 - The Brass Section
Step 5 - The Video
Step 4 - Choral Arrangement
Step 3 - Key changes
Step 2 - The Lyric 'Christmas'
Step 1 - Tubular Bells

Sounds good to me. We're a cert.

Tomorrow!

Day 13 - The Buck Stops

Facebook members: 242

Ah balls, we're running out of momentum. Not sure how to approach this really. The last thing I want to do is hassle people in the group to the extent that they want to leave the group. That said, if every one of our 242 members invited 100 people and 10 of them joined we would have another 2,420 members. I am good at maths me, I did that all in my head. Wowee! I think I will wait until we get to 300 before I ask everyone to do a little work. It seems like a nice number and there's a film of the same name about killing lots of people so it must be brilliant.

I am currently watching the Metallica film. I saw it originally at the Watershed cinema and that's the only time I've seen it in full. I've seen bits of it on More4 and the like several times. Every time I see it I remember what a colossal prick Lars Ulrich is. At the moment he is selling his art collection. At first I thought he painted them himself (they're that bad), but no, apparently not. Hopefully they missed the bit where the gallery burnt down and he found out the paintings weren't insured. Oh no, he just sold one for $2m. Ugh. I'll never be like that after I make millions off the back of this episode.

We're nearly at the end of the line on the steps to a Christmas number one. The penultimate step is what everyone needs.

Step 9 - Pop

Not much you need to say about this. A bit of pop makes the world go round. Whilst I can envisage that we want to maintain our identity within the song that we write it must be fundamentally pop orientated with a great tune, a good vocal hook and something to sing along too. Anyone can write loud, inpenetrable music, but good pop songs are the holy grail for any song writer (I think anyway). Of course pop can be loud as much as it can be quiet and cheesy. Have you got the pop? Have we got the pop? Only time will tell.

Perhaps we should speak to Kid Carpet. FOTG, out.

Day 12 - Presales

Facebook members: 238

The question is, are we going to make 5oo members by the end of January? There are nearly 2,000 unreplied invitation which is the major problem. So many people just ignore Facebook Groups (my missus being the prime example). We clearly need to do a bit more on the promotion front. As soon as we hit 300 I will send out another begging email for everyone to a big invite of their address book. Let's hope that the Burger King campaign to persuade everyone to start culling their friends in return for a free burger doesn't work:

Lose friends, gain weight

We got a little further in terms of distribution today. There is every chance that the CD will be a physical product that is distributed to proper shops (but like I said, that relies on their being music shops left by then) and also pushed to the front of iTunes. We were also discussing the possibilities of pre-ordering the CD. There may be a way in which we sell the CD on pre-order but set the official release date to the Christmas week so that all the pre-order sales count during that week. This could be a very practical solution although clearly it won't work until we have an actual product to sell on pre-order. I haven't really started thinking about writing the song (I am still writing other songs so that we can keep renewing our set) but I guess now would be a good time to think about it. I have exams coming up soon so this would be ideal procrastination material!

Step 8 - Snow

Did I do this one already? I just had a read through and I don't think I have. Oh yes, scrub that, I have, but not in the ten steps. So yes, let's include it in the ten steps. Snow is the one thing that our Christmases lack lately. I can't remember the last time we had a prolonged period of snow since I was a wee lad. We definitely had periods of weeks where there would be snow that we could go and sledge in. Anyway, what would a Christmas song be without referencing the white stuff (not Colombian marching powder)? Visually we need snow, lyrically we need snow. We all need snow. Funnily enough, an FOTG song already mentions snow. It's called Obsessive Compulsive and the line is 'The snow stops with the worrying'. It relates to a reoccurring dream I have before we go skiing that there will be no snow. Very odd it is I tell you. But the snow won't stop this Christmas, that's for sure.

Actually, it would be quite nice if it snowed in St Foy a bit! Ta ta for now.

Day 11 - The Sunday Lull

Facebook members: 220

Playing a gig on Saturday is great when it goes well. No need to worry about going to work the next day. Invariably, people tend to make it out more easily than if it were a mid week date. The problem is that the next day is Sunday, which is always a bit of a come down at the best of times. If you have a very good gig then the route back to reality is that much harder. Musician to jo schmo in one easy step. So we beat the post gig lull with a very nice lunch (the largest, rarest burger you have ever seen, it was practically still mooing) and a trip to the cinema. The trip to the cinema to see a very 'base humour' film was light hearted and fun. It also presented step number 7 on a plate. But more on that later.

So we slowed down a bit today but we did break the 200 mark. Hopefully this is just because no one goes on Facebook on Sunday. Yeah, that's right, no one goes on Facebook on Sunday. They're all out doing real life things like going out to lunch and to the cinema. They've probably got their iPhones though. This is a modern world, after all, as the modfather told us.

Step 7 - Love

Love is the all important constant in a large number of hit records, and Christmas songs are no exception. Love lost, love gained, quite love, loud love, you name it, it's all about the ladies. I don't tend to write love songs though, that's the problem. May be I can write an ironic one, who knows. Mind you, I am told that yesterday, during our song 'one spare piece', I sang the title lyrics 'Cos I am not much use without you, I am one spare piece without you' and it went down particularly well with a couple in the audience. Ironically, it's not really a love song at all, it's about being completely self reliant on someone, it's not really very romantic. So yeah, something to consider anyway.

Enjoy the ultimate come down tomorrow everyone. Until then.

Day 10 - It's too late

Facebook members: 199

Well, we nearly made 200. Never mind, we'll get there tomorrow. We just had a top gig with Countryside and The Get Outs. Nearly a sell out too which meant I was able to pay everyone. We also gave away a bunch of CDs with the 365 flyer in them so hopefully some more people will get involved.

It's pretty late and I am pretty tired so this is going to be a quick one.

Step 6 - The Brass Section

This is Michael's suggestion. Nice to have some input. We need a brass section. I am thinking proper Sally Army style. I've never written any brass music though. I guess it must be similar to writing strings with an underlying bass section then a lead thing going on over the top. Who knows, I am sure I'll work it out.

Anyway, my finger's really hurting from being so very rock and roll, so it's off to bed for me.

Bonsoir!

Day 9 - The Video

Facebook members: 163

I am currently imbibing myself with the first alcohol since New Year's Day, therefore my impetus to write stuff is diminishing. Not drinking has the quite satisfying effect of making the alcohol that you do drink that much more effective. Anyway, I digress. Another day of 50% growth in the membership numbers. If this were to continue for the whole year we would have this number of members by Christmas day:

4.86 x 10^73

There are a few technicality issues with that. Mainly that it is 7.25 x 10^61 times bigger than the entire population of the planet. I don't think we need that many members to get to number one. It is promising stuff though. Realistically, if we can make 1,000 members by the end of January I think we have a serious chance of making top 10. I really mean that!

I have been making some enquiries as to what we do with the physical product when we get to release date. Ideally, we need some distribution to make the CD (and potentially Christmas orientated picture disk) available in the shops (if there are any music retail shops left by then). We also need some help with radio contacts. All these things are really not easy for an independent label to achieve and it is the main dividing factor between the small and large record labels, power and money. What we really need is to combine resources with other smaller labels. We'll see what happens on that front.

So, back to the list. Where were we? Ah yes, step 5.

Step 5 - The Video

I've already mentioned the video for Last Christmas. The video for Band Aid is also pretty iconic. Viral marketing seems to be so important at the moment., especially when making things that shouldn't really be famous, famous. Thing is, we've only ever made one video before. I am pretty comfortable writing songs and I like being involved in artwork and stuff but the last video I made was total sh1t. Basically, our first band was called Freshly Cut Sandwiches (I know, I know, you have to learn from these things) and we had to make a video that was to be projected on to a big screen when we played a gig. I knew that there was a shop in our home town right at the top of the high street which has one of those newsagents style signs that said 'Freshly Cut Sandwiches' on it. So we started at the bottom of the high street and filmed all the way to the top, with the final shot being in the window of this shop. To cut a sh1t story short, the sign wasn't there when we got to the end. We ran the video anyway. It was as good as you can imagine.

So yes, we'd like to do something better than that if possible. If anyone has any good ideas or is good at filming stuff then please let me know.

Right, I am off down the pub. Until tomorrow.

Day 8 - Choral Musings

Facebook members: 104

Wow. Wow. Er......wow! We increased the membership by over 50% today. This is working a little bit better than I ever expected.

We have a new poster/flyer (above obviously) which will be debuting on the tables at the Louis on Saturday. It looks nice and Christmassy and reminds me that I am going snowboarding 3 weeks tomorrow.

Lets crack on with the steps bit as a few good ideas were brought up today by my friends at the Choke forum.

Step 4 - Choral Arrangement

When I first started thinking about this I was assuming we wanted to go down the school choir route. Exactly how we would persuade a school to sing on our record I hadn't quite concluded. Hanging around outside the school gates is probably not the best way to go about it.

But some good ideas came up which seem like potential alternatives. First we considered the Band Aid style route. Get a bunch of the local Bristol celebrities in to sing different bits of the song. The problem with this is that the most famous person in Bristol at the moment is Justin Lee Collins, and he's not coming within 30 feet of our recording studio. I'd like to have some friends involved just to make it a bit of a laugh though and hopefully they can use their own fan base to help us along. This is definitely something we will do.

The more realistic idea is to get random people involved. Sort of the antithesis of X Factor if you like. Any one can do it, we don't give a f*ck if you can sing or not. There are two potentially workable options. Either we get people to record a bit of the song through their PC and send it in (sort of like a YouTube medley). This has the advantage that it has a ready made video and we could go down the YouTube viral route. The other solution (which I really like the sound of) is that we put on a show, turn the microphones round the other way and get people to belt out the chorus. Being that our current regular venue has a 24 track hard disk recorder behind the desk makes this a distinct possibility.

Obviously we need to write the track first and see how these ideas fit in.

So, ideas and people signing up, a lot going on today which has made me feel rather positive about the whole thing.

HOORAY!

Day 7 - 575,933 to go

Facebook members: 67

Well hasn't today been productive. We've nearly doubled the number of members in the group which is super. I am pretty pleased with that for 6 days. Hopefully we can get some kind of exponential trend going as more people invite more people. Sort of like a really nice, friendly chain mail.

Today I established some interesting numbers:

Billboard link

2008 "X Factor" winner Alexandra Burke had her U.K. Christmas No. 1 single confirmed yesterday (Dec. 21), as her version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" (Syco Music/Sony BMG) debuted at the top with sales of 576,000 units to become the fastest-selling single by a female solo artist in British chart history.

OK, it was the fastest selling female solo single ever, but then we have to assume that X-factor will not relent in their pursuit of monopolising the Christmas number one spot. This obviously makes our task more pertinent, if not tantamount to achieving a Christmas miracle. The plus side is that the number two single sold only 81,000 copies and that was mainly because of the sanctimonious Jeff Buckley fans getting all self-righteous about the X-factor song (er.....what about Leornard Cohen who wrote the bloody thing, he only made it to 37).

So what's the answer? Three people have independently suggested that I might want to enter X-factor to promote the single. It's unlikely that my massive ego could take a pasting from the waste-banded one. But in reality, I'd just be another one of the 1,000s of mediocre entries who don't even get to see the main judges, not terribly amusing and not terribly good. I guess I'd have to come up with a quirk. I am not sure 'My main goal is to beat your single to the number one spot' will be that well received though.

Back to the list:

Step 3 - Key changes

A nod to my boss for bringing this one up. I didn't have it down on my list intially but thinking about it, this has got to be an essential item. Key changes don't necessarily have to be as naff as they sound. It's not going to be a Westlife song after all and we're not going to be sitting on stalls so that we can rise for the change. Tim Wheeler from Ash is a big fan of the key change and anything that's OK with him is OK with me.

At last it's warmed up a bit, time to go out for a change. Adieu xxx.

Day 6 - 1000 to 1 long shot

Facebook members: 39

I've just found an email from William Hill in my inbox. They're offering 1000-1 with a maximum bet of £10. I am not sure whether this means that only I can place the bet or whether a number of separate people can place a £10 bet. I assume they want to limit their exposure to £10,000. How they came up with these odds is anyone's guess. I assume it is just arbitrary for any idiot that applies for a special bet that has no real probability of occurring. If you want to apply for the bet then email radams [at] williamhill [dot] co [dot] uk (replacing the at and the dot obviously).

Still, it got me thinking. If I really believed that we could achieve our goal, then that effectively gives us a free £10,000 budget. What can you get for £10,000? You really only need about a grand for recording and reproduction. Get some student to do the video for free, then you're left with £9,000 for press and promotion. It sounds like a lot but would probably buy you about 2 half page adverts in the NME or something. Not enough really.

I think I'll take the bet anyway. It adds something to the campaign I think.

So, returning to the ten steps to a guaranteed Christmas number one.

Step 2 - The Lyric 'Christmas'

I think we can all agree that having a Christmas song without the word Christmas appearing in it at least once would be pretty damn pointless. A bit like a laptop with a mouse button that doesn't work (sorry, inside joke, the button on this laptop doesn't work).

But does the word Christmas appear ironically or with sincerity? This is something that is troubling me actually. A couple of good Christmas songs recently have been quite cynical. I am not sure I want to go down that route. As those who know me will testify, I am definitely not a cynical person.

A quick shout to Matt who thinks my website sucks and that the idea is a bit stupid. Thanks for the support mate!

Day 5 - Tubular Bells?

Facebook members: 35

The rehearsal room wasn't too cold after all. We had two heaters on and I had a massive fleece. Bizarrely, I felt somewhat like Noel Gallagher whilst playing the guitar. Fortunately, I avoided writing any pseudo Beatle numbers whilst I was at it and my brother wasn't there to punch in the face. We did get a new tune done (not in the slightest bit Christmassy though) which we may debut on Saturday if I can finish the lyrics and it sound checks OK. We've actually got to the stage where we can pick and choose what tracks to play, which is a refreshing change from banging out the same set for nearly two years.

I regret calling the website www.365daystoachristmasnumberone.com as it's a complete pain in the arse typing it. I am an idiot, it's official.

So, on to the important subject of 10 steps to a guaranteed Christmas number one single as promised yesterday.

Step 1 - Tubular Bells

This is a complete essential. You can not do without tubular bells on a Christmas track. Have a listed to Stay by East 17 (a bona fida classic in my opinion). Initial investigation has concluded that purchasing said tubular bells would be somewhat beyond our current budget:

Wow, they're quite expensive!

We therefore need to vet the studio we decide to record in for the appropriate Christmas orientated instruments. I can not stress how important this is.

Right, off to think Christmas thoughts. Until tomorrow.

Day 4 - Crap it's cold

The temperature in this country has reached an unacceptably low level. So much so that you don't actually want to go out. Instead I stayed in and thought about all the great ways that we can get to number one at Christmas. I came up with a grand total of one. Hand out some flyers. Brilliant huh?! I am right up there in the promoting hall of fame for that one.

It snowed a bit today and it made me think that we need snow in the video. Not fake snow, real proper snow like in the Last Christmas video. I think flying (or getting the train in my case) to a ski resort may break our budget of approximately £700 for everything (recording, repro, promotion etc.). Still, who needs an excuse to go to a ski resort? Not me, no sir, which is why I am going to one in less than four weeks time, oh yeah! May be if I write the song before then I can film a video out on the slopes, on my own, with goggles on.

Rehearsal in an unheated portacabin should be a hell of a laugh tomorrow. May be it will put everyone in the Christmas song writing mood. More likely it will put everyone in the 'fuck off down the pub' mood (or to bed, we are getting quite old and all). How very rock and roll!

If anyone's watching T4 act unsigned, Hip Parade are going to win. I called the last one and I've called this one. I have a knack you see. Trust me.

Tomorrow: How to write a Christmas Number One in 10 steps.

Day 3 - Website Finished

Well we've had a few more joiners to the Group, which is nice. They're not all in my FB friends either which is even nicer and proves that maybe some other people might care a bit about the task in hand. Amusingly, none of the rest of the band have joined yet but it's rehearsal on Monday and I'll threaten them with the sack.

Today was mostly spent using my very basic HTML skills to knock up a front page for the website (check the link on this post and to the side). It's a little old school but I kind of like it like that. I did, however, work out (with a little help from the Choke forum) how to make the days count down to Christmas day which is rather cool. No doubt it's probably a day wrong but I think that is rather immaterial in the grand scheme of things (no one's going to miss Christmas day) and I can't actually be bothered to check.

No word from William Hill yet, but it is the weekend.

The question is whether or not I can keep the blog up for a whole 356 days. I suspect that is rather unlikely but if I have something interesting to say then I will say it.

FA Cup highlights in a minute. Until tomorrow.

Day 2 - Odds?

Well it's a pretty good start so far. Thanks to those that have joined the Facebook group and thanks also for forwarding on to your friends too. Hopefully we can get some kind of pyramid affect going. No thanks go to Louise who, when asked if she's joined, said 'oh, something about getting to number one, I don't join groups'. Well thanks for the support sweetie!

What's perturbing me at the moment is that it is completely impossible to establish exactly how many sales one needs to make it in to the charts. I am sure this used to be common knowledge but for some reason the UK Music Chart have decided that this infomation should be classified and should not be published. Why on earth would they do that? Who knows? Seriously, does anyone actually know?

So anyway, we now have a website at www.365daystoachristmasnum

berone.com. I suspect I should have come up with something a little more catchy but there you go. Sites with 365 and days in the title are popular (probably because it's a year and all). Also, I say website, what I mean is domain name. We don't have a website as yet and that will have to wait until my chief designer turns on his computer.

I was thinking about what could be in it for other people who have no real interest in me or my band, apart from the obvious amusement factor and 'sticking one to the man'. Well I have contacted William Hill to see if they will offer odds on achieving a number one. Presumably these will be massive for an unknown so there could be some potential there. Updates to follow.

Anyway, back to planning world domination.

Steve P

Day 1 - Let's Get Started

When was the last time we had a classic Christmas number one?

Those particularly astute individuals wil note that it is not 365 days until 25 December 2009. This is not terribly important. I did conceive my idea over a week ago so it was about 365 days then! The important point is that I have set a year to partake in an experiment which relies entirely on people joining in for a bit of fun, otherwise it will die on its arse which is the most likely outcome.

This isn't a rant at X Factor per se, that's a whole other discussion. What struck me this year was the inevitability of the Christmas number one. I remember when the number one spot at Christmas was an exciting annual event. This year the books were pretty much closed. This has been the same for the last two years. The thing that really struck me, looking at the charts on Christmas day, was the position of the Wombats song, 'Is This Christmas'. It only just broke top 40 but it was a great track. It had the sleigh bells and everything!

So even if you write a great song there is no guarantee of success without the promotion behind it. So really, this is an attempt to break the cycle of money dictating what music is successful. People keep telling me how powerful a tool the internet is, so let's see if it actually works. Can the internet strike a winning blow for music and prove that the industry can function as we would all hope?

So what's the plan? The plan is to write and record a great Christmas song. That I can do, well I can write and record it, whether it's great or not we will have to wait and see. Then it's down to how many people I can amuse enough to join this group and fork out 79p just so we can fight a winning blow for the independents!

So the single will be available via iTunes and possibly as a physical release if I can find someone silly enough to distribute it. If I am feeling really adventurous then there will be a video. It's not for charity or anything. Hell, if I am going to sell some music then my band is going to benefit from it!

Oh yes, I was obviously assuming that you realised I am in a band. Well, I am in a band. An indie rock band called FIRSTOFTHEGIANTS. I also run a very small indie record label called LittleThink on which the single will be released. I intend to update this group regularly (depending on whether people are actually interested enough), leading up to the big release date.

So there it is. It's all a bit silly really but, you never know, it might just work and, as they say oop north, you don't get owt for nowt.