Gender inequality at Indietracks: There I fixed it

Following on from yesterday's internet entertainment and also today's discussions on the Anorak forum, I thought I'd use the spreadsheet I made up of the past few Indietrackses as a force for good.

I have compiled a fantasy Indietracks lineup featuring all bands that have played there before, but carefully selected so as to be completely balanced by gender.

First a brief note as to what I mean by 'balanced by gender'. Rather than all acts being 50% male and 50% female, I've tried to figure what the make up would be if males and females were randomly distributed. So there are some all male bands and some all female bands. Considering we want about 55 acts to play in total, the mix would be as follows:-

All male	9 bands
Mixed mostly male	14 bands
50:50 bands	10 bands
Mixed mostly female	14 bands
All female	9 bands

With this in mind the lineup would be as follows:-

Disasteradio, Emmy The Great, Foxes!, Frances McKee, Helene, Kevin McGrother, King of Cats, Labrador, Loyal Trooper, MJ Hibbett (solo), Oxo Foxo, Roy Moller, Ste McCabe, Allo Darlin (2008 lineup of Elizabeth and Virginia), Berlin Brides, Burning Hearts, Everybody Was In The French Resistance.. Now, Lets Whisper (2008 lineup including Elizabeth Morris), Marshmallow, Kisses, Modular, Paisley and Charlie, Poppy & Friends, The Cannanes, The Lovely Eggs, The Middles Ones, Zipper, Gordon McIntyre (2012 lineup), Haiku Salut, The Just Joans (2008 platform lineup Dave, Katie, Rowan), Betty and the Werewolves, Teenage Fanclub, The Specific Heats, Art Brut, Butcher Boy, Cola Jet Set, Friends, La Casa Azul, Rose Elinor Dougall, Stereo Total, Tender Trap, The History of Apple Pie, The Red Shoe Diaries, The Smittens, Hong Kong in the 60s, Very Yours Truly, Stars of Aviation, The School, A fine Day for Sailing, A Little Orchestra, Withered Hand, The Loves, Little My.

This gives the following gender stats:-

Total female performers	90
Total male performers	90
%female performers	50.00%
%male performers	50.00%
All male	9 bands
Mixed mostly male	13 bands
50:50 bands	11 bands
Mixed mostly female	10 bands
All female	9 bands

Which is close enough to ideal.

You're welcome.

**UPDATE**
The list of bands was a little half-arsed, so here's the lineup by stage

FRIDAY
MJ Hibbett (solo)
Allo Darlin (2008 lineup of Elizabeth and Virginia)
Tender Trap

SATURDAY
Main Stage
Butcher Boy
Betty and the Werewolves
Everybody Was In The French Resistance.. Now
The Loves (2011 festival lineup with dancing girls)
A Little Orchestra
A fine Day for Sailing
The School

Indoor Stage
Emmy The Great
The Lovely Eggs
Hong Kong in the 60s
Gordon McIntyre (2012 lineup)
Little My
The Red Shoe Diaries
Berlin Brides
Haiku Salut

Church Stage
Helene
Roy Moller
The Just Joans (2008 platform lineup Dave, Katie, Rowan)
Labrador
Ste McCabe
Friends
Very Yours Truly

Train
Oxo Foxo
Paisley and Charlie
Loyal Trooper

SUNDAY
Main Stage
The Smittens
Rose Elinor Dougall
Teenage Fanclub
La Casa Azul
The Specific Heats
Stars of Aviation
Cola Jet Set

Indoor Stage
Art Brut
Stereo Total
Poppy & Friends
Withered Hand
The Middles Ones
Zipper
The History of Apple Pie

Church Stage
Lets Whisper (2008 lineup including Elizabeth Morris)
Disasteradio
Marshmallow Kisses
Burning Hearts
Modular
The Cannanes
Foxes!

Train
King of Cats
Frances McKee
Kevin McGrother

My videos of Indietracks 2012

I went to a music festival the other weekend, Indietracks 2012. Its like twee indiepop and steam trains at the same time, and this it had parrots and owls too.

Anyhoo, at these things I usually shoot a few videos, I'd like to present them all to you here in one blogpost.

This is a short 4 minute taster of the whole weekend


This is Darren Hayman and The secondary Modern playing a cover of The Bee Gees' I started a Joke
 

 This is The Just Joans playing a cover of Kenickie's Come Out 2Nite
 

 This is Fulhast playing Prison Pizza
 

 This is Allo Darlin' playing a cover of The Just Joans' If You Don't Pull

And this is Elizabeth from Allo Darlin's encore, their classic Tallulah



And for those of you with plenty of time on your hands this is a 30 min compilation of the weekend.


On reflection, I should have titled it up with the name of all the bands. That would have taken an hour or so, and I was in a rush to get it online first, not sure why.

I think with these videos for me it is a popularity contest, can I get more views on YouTube than I did the other year. The quality isn't great, but it's good enough for YouTube, and what do you expect with a Canon IXUS 50 from 2005 (it used to be cutting edge, I could have been a contender...). For the past few years there's been folk mincing about at Indietracks with professional cameras, whole film crews, and I'm never sure what happens to the footage, a five minute local news item perhaps, or a limited release indie movie, who knows.

This year a band called The Birthday Kiss had a video up pretty quickly here, although I've got to say, eight seconds in the commentary contains what could be a tribute to the end of my 2008 video. Good research there chaps, appreciated.

Privatisation for better or worse

There was a letter in the Guardian on Saturday, some anti-cuts group pleading to stop the government privatising public services. I read it when I was in the pub, drunk on my own on a Saturday afternoon and a particular line stuck in my head.

If the plans go ahead, companies will be able to make a profit from services previously run by the state and local authorities, while taxpayers subsidise them. This approach has not worked well for passengers on our railways or for many sickness benefit claimants assessed by the private company Atos.

Cos of course everyone knows that the railways have gotten worse since they were privatised.

I recently went to a music festival called Indietracks, at a railway museum in the Midlands, I go every year, its great, you get to play with steam trains and see the same familiar faces every year.

One of my favourite acts is The Sweet Nothings, a four-piece lead by Pete Green, they have songs about indiepop, football, politics and one special song about the railways called Hey Dr Beeching.

At Indietracks I was a bit miffed atHey Dr Beeching and Pete Green, cos the final verse is about how Pete Green dreams about going back in time and killing people who he disagrees with, like the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, former British prime minister Maggie Thatcher and from the song Dr Beeching. I was a bit miffed cos in Norway a few weeks before, some gentleman had similarly taken upon himself to try to execute an entire generation of politicians he disagreed with.
It just seemed a bit distasteful.

Anyhoo, in the preamble to the song Pete Green described how the evil Tory government of the 1960s had employed Dr Beeching to downsize the UK rail network, and close down more than 4000 miles of railway line.

That happened whilst the railways were under state control, not privatised.

Wikipedia’s great, let me remind you, there have been public railways in the UK for over 180 years and for much of that they’ve been run by private companies. Although there were first calls for the nationalisation of the rail network in 1840, it wasn’t until the first world war that they were nationalised. The state controlled them from 1914 to 1921 when they were returned to private companies, that is, after seven years.

They remained in private hands for another 2 years until 1947 when they were nationalised again, and remained so until 1994 when they were privatised a second time, that’s another 47 years.

Anyhoo, this got me thinking, maybe the anti-cuts people who’d written to the Guardian were right, that privisation of the railways had adversely affected the passengers more than the nationalisation of them had, or maybe it had benefited the passengers. I dunno, I’d have to research the matter a bit more. Maybe try to dig up ticket prices and see how they’ve changed depending on ownership, that would be a cool graph to demonstrate the benefits to passengers, if not to taxpayers.

Sadly it was too much hassle to find train fare information stretching back a hundred years, without popping along to the London Transport Museum and leaf through the old timetables and fares. Although wikipedia did have a graph which is useful.
One of the clearest things one can take from this graph is the long steady decline in passenger journeys after the railways were nationalised in 1947. Sure there was a rise in numbers after the depths of 1980, but it wasn’t until after privatisation that numbers climbed back to the heady heights of the 1920s and 2010.

Clearly, passengers voted with their feet and freely chose to use trains for more journeys when they were in private hands, somewhat contradicting the anti-cuts letter in the Guardian.

Not necessarily so though, as this graph only shows passenger journeys, not passenger miles. It could be that due to privatisation longer rail journeys have been broken down into many shorter journeys to make up the numbers. But in the light of Beeching’s axing of shorter rural lines, this seems unlikely.

In closing, I would like to ask what would convince the anti-cuts letter-writers that they are wrong and privatisation has benefited rail passengers?

The Plan - The continuing journey

Its been about a fortnight since I set off on my latest music career. You'll have read the first blogpost about it here, and undoubtedly will have watched some of the videos.

Here's the viewing stats

• Wake Up Boo - 61 views
• Keep the circle around - 21 views
• 100,000 Fireflies - 24 views
• Tiny Tears - 15 views
• If you don't Pull - 8

Its the law of the jungle round here, survival of the fittest, and so the weakest video gets eliminated from my setlist.

I've finally gotten myself a power supply for my wee Marshall amp, so I've plugged in my guitar, turned up the tone, and rerecorded the set, and added two new songs.

Have a listen and let me know what you think.

Until next time, enjoy!
The Greedy Ugly People
Dear Stephen Hawking
Tiny Tears
100,000 Fireflies
Keep the circle around
Wake Up Boo

The Plan - The Voyage Begins

Its been the best part of a month since I did that blogpost about my plan to get from here with no musical career to somehow getting to play next year's Indietracks.

I have made progress, this is the first step, the first series of videos.

I've recorded five songs, uploaded them to YouTube for your delectation, the songs are the following covers:-

• If You Don't Pull
• Tiny Tears
• 100,000 Fireflies
• Wake Up Boo
• Keep the Circle Around

and by a process of survival of the fittest, after a week, I shall eliminate the least popular from the set and replace it with more songs, be it covers or originals. I plan to re-record the more popular songs, better, with guitar plugged in, with different instruments, arrangements, effects and backing singing.

Its like evolution, the weakest is eliminated whilst the more successful change and adapt.

So without further faffing about here are the videos.





Comments and abuse welcome.

Indietracks 2010 videos

And here's a running list of all the Indietracks 2010 videos I can find on YouTube

Allo Darlin
Kiss Your Lips (psychodave0)
1 of 3 (eolrindebara)
2 of 3 (eolrindebara)
3 of 3 (eolrindebara)
My Heart is a Drummer (zondasights)
Tallulah (Galazoaimatos)
Lets go Swimming (ScaredToDanceClub)
Silver Dollars (ScaredToDanceClub)
My Heart is a Drummer (timothyahall)

Antarctica Takes It
Dunno (briantheoyster)

Ballboy
What's a girl to do (monkeyheads)
I've got pictures of you in your underwear (vegetubleman)
1 of 3 (eolrindebara)
2 of 3 (eolrindebara)
3 of 3 (eolrindebara)
dunno (vegetubleman)
Sex is Boring (pranceydog)
Indian Summer (pranceydog)
I don't have to stand here fighting with you about the size of my dick (pranceydog)
Essential Wear for Future Trips to Space (pranceydog)

Be Like Pablo
The Post-It Song (hipmat)
Julianne (eolrindebara)

Betty and The Werewolves
David Cassidy (acoustic) (randomname83)
1 of 4 (eolrindebara)
2 of 4 (eolrindebara)
3 of 4 (eolrindebara)
4 of 4 (eolrindebara)
Dunno (zondasights)

The Blanche Hudson Weekend
dunno (Galazoaimatos)
1 of 4 (eolrindebara)
2 of 4 (eolrindebara)
3 of 4 (eolrindebara)
4 of 4 (eolrindebara)
Crying Shame (thesage38)

Boy Genius
dunno (neonpike)
Scatterbrain (thedyingfly)
dunno (neonpike)
Ramona Saves the Day (thedyingfly)
dunno (vegetubleman)

The Calles
dunno (vegetubleman)

The Cannanes
Misery (antonyahall)

The Cavalcade
dunno (Galazoaimatos)
1 of 2 (eolrindebara)
2 of 2 (eolrindebara)

Clint (Play People)
1 of 9 (peterjh100)
2 of 9 (peterjh100)
3 of 9 (peterjh100)
4 of 9 (peterjh100)
5 of 9 (peterjh100)
6 of 9 (peterjh100)
7 of 9 (peterjh100)
8 of 9 (peterjh100)
9 of 9 (peterjh100)
dunno (eolrindebara)

David Tattersall
Dunno (neonpike)
Dunno (neonpike)
Dunno (neonpike)

Everybody was in the French Resistance... Now
With or without you (Galazoaimatos)
1 of 3 (zondasights)
2 of 3 (zondasights)
3 of 3 (zondasights)

The Felt Tips
dunno (alexbummer)

Foxes!
1 of 2 (eolrindebara)
2 of 2 (eolrindebara)

The Give It Ups
1 of 3 (eolrindebara)
2 of 3 (eolrindebara)
3 of 3 (eolrindebara)

Gordon McIntyre
1 of 6 (eolrindebara)
2 of 6 (eolrindebara)
3 of 6 (eolrindebara)
4 of 6 (eolrindebara)
5 of 6 (eolrindebara)
6 of 6 (eolrindebara)
Leave the earth behind you and take a walk into the sunshine (pranceydog)
Public Park (pranceydog)
I lost you but I found country music (pranceydog)
Independent Popular Music (pranceydog)

The Hillfields
dunno (eolrindebara)
Dunno (zondasights)

Internet Forever
dunno (hipmat)
dunno (pranceydog)

Jam on Bread
1 of 4 (zondasights)
2 of 4 (zondasights)
3 of 4 (zondasights)
4 of 4 (zondasights)

The Just Joans
I won't Survive (illandancient)
Why are we so lonely, steven (vegetubleman)
Wee Helen Got Married (timothyahall)

La La Love You
Sabes que te quiero (vegetubleman)

Linda Guilala
Dunno (zondasights)
dunno (rotherhams)

The Loves
1 of 2 (rotherhams)
2 of 2 (rotherhams)

The Millipedes
untitled (neonpike)
Zombies (neonpike)

MJ Hibbett and The Validators
1 of 4 (eolrindebara)
2 of 4 (eolrindebara)
3 of 4 (eolrindebara)
4 of 4 (eolrindebara)
My Boss Was in an Indie Band Once (ScaredToDanceClub)

Onward Chariots
dunno (neonpike)
dunno (neonpike)

The Orchids
dunno (Galazoaimatos)

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Come Saturday (hipmat)
Heaven's gonna happen now (tillernet)
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (psychodave0)
1 of 2 (eolrindebara)
2 of 2 (eolrindebara)
Gentle Sons (Scared To Dance)
Come Saturday (suziecreamcheese1967)

The Parallelograms
dunno (Galazoaimatos)
2 of 3 (eolrindebara)
1 of 5 (zondasights)
2 of 5 (zondasights)
3 of 5 (zondasights)
4 of 5 (zondasights)
5 of 5 (zondasights)

The Pooh Sticks
On Tape (thedyingfly)
Susan Sleepwalking (thedyingfly)
Who Loves You (thedyingfly)
Heroes & Villains (thedyingfly)
Cool in a crisis (thedyingfly)
dunno (eolrindebara)
dunno (rotherhams)

The Primitives
1 of 3 (eolrindebara)
2 of 3 (eolrindebara)
Dunno (zondasights)
dunno (rotherhams)

Red Shoe Diaries
dunno (eolrindebara)
dunno (discobloguons)

Sarandon
Good Working Practise (neonpike)
dunno (neonpike)
Massive Haircut (neonpike)
Their German Disco (neonpike)
dunno (neonpike)

Secret Shine
Dunno (eolrindebara)

Shrag
Mark E Smith (timothyahall)

Slow Club
Giving up on Love (Niceaction)
dunno (Galazoaimatos)
Wild Blue Milk (ScaredToDanceClub)

The Smittens
1 of 9 (zondasights)
2 of 9 (zondasights)
dunno (vegetubleman)
What Do We Do Now (timothyahall)

Standard Fare
Wow (timothyahall)

Stars in Coma
1 of 4 (zondasights)
2 of 4 (zondasights)
3 of 4 (zondasights)
4 of 4 (zondasights)

The Sunny Street
What is Love (thesage38)
Penguin Pool (emmapropella)
1 of 3 (eolrindebara)
2 of 3 (eolrindebara)
3 of 3 (eolrindebara)

Tender Trap
1 of 3 (eolrindebara)
2 of 3 (eolrindebara)
3 of 3 (eolrindebara)
Do you want a boyfriend? (thedyingfly)
Dansette Dansette (thedyingfly)
1 of 3 (zondasights)
2 of 3 (zondasights)
3 of 3 (zondasights)
dunno (rotherhams)

Veronica Falls
1 of 3 (eolrindebara)
2 of 3 (eolrindebara)
3 of 3 (eolrindebara)
Beachy Head (alexbummer)
Starry Eyes (alexbummer)

Yokoko
Alex Party cover (YokokoLIVE)
Cold Black Heart (YokokoLIVE)

Other Indietracks videos
Winkball
Mark Zonda
HDIF
HDIF 1 of 3 (eolrindebara)
HDIF 2 of 3 (eolrindebara)
HDIF 3 of 3 (eolrindebara)
Story of Sarah Records
Super Summer indiePop Photo Montage (psychodave0)
Have you ever heard a digital accordian (suziecreamcheese1967)

The Just Joans - Indietracks

Eeeep!!! Last weekend was Indietracks 2010, everyone's favourite indiepop music festival based at a railway museum in the Midlands.

And here's a video I took of The Just Joans playing their song I Won't Survive



Usually I record loads of video and string it all together to try and encapsulate the whole festival experience, but alas this year I was unable to.

Still, The Just Joans are great aren't they.

Videos of Indietracks bands 2010 - part 1

There's only a few days left to buy earlybird tickets of Indietracks, earlybird tickets being slightly cheaper then regular tickets, and Indietracks being an indie music festival at a railway museum near Derby on the 23rd to 25th of July.

As with last year, I haven't seen or heard many of the bands playing at this year's Indietracks music festival. So, to help me, and you to chose which bands to check out, I'm putting together a list of all the bands and their videos from YouTube, trying to find three videos for each band.

Its going to take me ages, but, well, this is what I do.

Bands with videos on YouTube

'Allo, Darlin'




Ballboy




Betty and the Werewolves




The Just Joans




Mexican Kids at Home




MJ Hibbett and The Validators




Veronica Falls




Bands I haven't yet found videos for

Be Like Pablo
The Blanche Hudson Weekend
Boy Genius
Burning Hearts
The Callas
The Cannanes
Cineplexx
David Tattersall
The Felt Tips
Foxes!
The Give It Ups
The Hillfields
Jam on Bread
Internet Forever
La La Love You
Lime Chalks
Linda Guilala
Love is All
The Loves
The Middle Ones
The Millipedes
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Paisley and Charlie
The Pooh Sticks
The Primitives
Printed Circuit
Onward Chariots
Pale Sunday
Sarandon
Secret Shine
Shrag
The Smittens
The Specific Heats
Springfactory
Standard Fare
Stars of Aviation
Stars in Coma
The Sunny Street
This Many Boyfriends
Urbantramper
White Town
Winston Echo
Yokoko

Any better offers of videos cheerfully accepted, its going to take me ages to get all the bands.