Read Online This Could Be Rock 'N' Roll by Tim Roux - Free Book Online

a lot,” they inevitably say, which is a bit like “You’ve got a big one.”
    “I’ve been around a while,” I reply.
    “Which is your best one, then?”
    That’s where the trouble starts. I’m a painfully honest guy and I have to answer an honest question as honestly as possible.
    “It depends …..”
    At which point I mumble an account of the pros and cons of each album until the guy picks one at random and staggers off before I get to the end. I need a greatest hits.
    Obviously I am up on a whole series of download sites from iTunes to EZ Folk to iLike and I work hard at getting any mates left standing to send in their reviews. I haven’t bothered with Amazon but I probably should, not for the sales as much as for the credibility.
    MySpace is my other home as it is for most musicians because you get the autoplays of whatever you load up there, and you can embed YouTube videos, list gigs, publicise new albums etc.. My MySpace site is as packed full of goodies as I can make it, including a blog. I am also on FaceBook and Twitter but I’m not sure what they do except waste my time. If you are really famous I can imagine that they work, but someone like me mostly attracts a pile of solicitations asking me to try their whizzo technique to get followed by lots more people - how to keep a fool happy. I certainly load up gig clips on YouTube and someone has kindly built me a couple of videos from stills.
    I used to send out CDs for review but that is total waste of time and money. Most of the so-called reviewers don’t bother reviewing them and those who do are mostly congenital idiots.
    After that there is the advertising at the pub or club - that’s the most useful because you are seen to be around. Then you can try to get the local radio stations like BBC Radio Humber, KCFM, WHCFM and Viking to mention you from time-to-time or, if you want to catch them comatose you can go for Kingstown Radio which broadcasts into Hull hospitals. They don’t play my stuff. They probably reckon that their listeners are suffering enough and that they may face massive law suits should any of their listeners snuff it mid-dirge.
    The ‘award-winning’ (who isn’t nowadays?) Hull Daily Mail covers most events and will announce your latest album. If you are considered posh you can get a profile in The Journal which is designed for nobs and sods. The most active site is the ‘award-winning’ ThisisUll which is packed full of aspiring journalists and amateur observers who are actually passionate about what is going on. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be that passionate about my music but perhaps I simply haven’t reached out to them enough.
    One of Hull’s wackier musical characters is Glenn Williams, a fine bluegrass singer-songwriter. It’s not really what I go for - I am more into country & western (‘City of Refuge’ by Rachel Harrington being my current rave) - but he does do a damn fine job. Check out his ‘Winds Of Time’ album. He calls his stuff ‘Ullbilly and ‘Ullgrass, but I don’t hold that against him.
     
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    I am covered in blood. It’s running in rivulets down my face from both cheeks, my top lip, my chin and my neck. No, they haven’t been re-enacting some driller-killer movie in our ground floor flat - I’ve just been trying yet again to wet-shave. I simply can’t do it but my electric razor isn’t working this morning however hard I shake it or even kick it. I scored a superb drop goal with it through the bedroom window a few minutes ago. I’ll go and pick it up from the garden shortly to see if it has changed its mind.
    Cathy and I are actually going out together while Jade suffers on the couch in the sitting room. I feel really guilty to be leaving her there.
    Despite the looming recession, it’s been a great week for house sales. I’ve closed four deals this week and my boss is ecstatic. “I knew it would be your turn eventually, Jake, if we waited long enough.” He says he