Page 27 - Black Velvet Issue 86

BV86 pg27:BV86 pg27 06/09/2015 02:58 Page 1

BlackVelvetMagazine.Com - 27

to over the years but I think from a label/busi-
ness perspective I'd like to meet Richard Bran-
son. Thinking back to his early days with the
Virgin record label I'd like to ask him about how
he developed that, the good fortune which I
understand he had with the legendary Mike
Oldfield 'Tubular Bells' release and whether he
has advice from his experiences and actions
back then that remain valid in what is a very
different music world today.

Advice to others that may want to follow in
your footsteps?
Name, Age & Location: and suitcase. If I'm not on tour my working Running a record label can be a thankless task
Mark Appleton, 53, Manchester, UK week is less dynamic but perhaps a little more at times so first of all make sure you really, re-
sane and stable. Overall, the work is basically ally want to do it. Get ready for plenty of
What do you do - or what do you aim to do? the same but I do my best to balance touring, knocks along the way so develop a thick skin
I'm Managing Director and Label Manager at label, management and normal life which isn't & be utterly determined to succeed. Neverthe-
Rocksector Records, independent record easy. less, although there's no longer a lot of money
label. I also work as Tour Manager for former- in it, it can be incredibly rewarding if you sur-
Iron Maiden frontman Blaze Bayley & Manager Best purchase that’s helped your career so vive and get it something like right, and cer-
of British bands Absolva & Obzidian, plus Se- far? tainly a lot more fun than working a normal job
cret Rule from Italy. A decent van. in an office, shop, factory, warehouse etc.
Without access to capital or suitable borrowing
How long have you been doing it for - and
Have you had any professional training or it's probably not possible to develop properly
what made you choose this career? taken part in any courses to improve your so make sure you think through your cashflow
The label was established in 2007 and the career along the way? very carefully and plan accordingly.
other work spun off from that. I'd been helping No. I researched the hell out of what I wanted
promote bands since around 2000 but as a to do and then learned the hard way. Where do you go from here? Plans for the
guitarist since aged 10, music in general was future?
my hobby and passion. I was fortunate enough Highlight(s) of your career so far? We released 7 albums in four months this year
to be able to convert my hobby and passion Signing Tygers Of Pan Tang to the label espe- (February - May 2015) - that's a lot for an in-
into my career & business which is something cially given their heritage. Also, I'm proud of my dependent label of our size. Normally during
I'd been driven towards for several years prior. tour manager work with Blaze Bayley. the past few years we've released around 8 al-
bums per year and to continue at that kind of
What does a general working day or week
If you could meet one of your inspirations rate is more our objective for the future, espe-
usually consist of? and ask them one question, who would you cially as I'm very keen to develop and perfect
There is no kind of model week really. The like to meet and what question would you the tour manager work alongside.
schedule firstly depends on whether I'm on ask?
tour or not. If I'm on tour, in addition to the tour Given the nature of what I do, I'm lucky to have Website for more info:
manager work, my label 'office' is in my laptop met quite a few musicians that I've looked up www.rocksector.com

f f It’s not just bands that work hard, some fans do too! Every issue we shine the spotlight on a
fansite. If you devote your time to working on a website to promote a band, let us know
a a about it... and we may feature you!

n n Your Name: takes me about 2 to 3 hours daily to update
the site, which includes searching for news,
Francine Ferreira
watching videos and reading interviews
s s Fansite Name: and translating them to Portuguese.
All Time Low Brasil
i i Why and when did you decide to start Does the band know about it? What
'claims to fame' has your site had?
your fansite? Coolest thing to happen to you because
t t Me and my friends were fans of some of the site? times in music sites in Brazil and also in a
bands that All Time Low was touring with in
Yes! This is the main reason we sometimes
the beginning of their career, and we al- take an extra hour of my day to focus on very famous teen magazine here named
e e ways liked them but didn't want to become the website, because the boys are the most Capricho.
awesome band ever with us. They not only
‘addicted’ to their music, because we knew
we would have to create a fansite, but know about the website, but they always Tell our readers why they should visit
when they released ‘So Wrong, It's Right’, answer any questions we may have, give your site. What's it got?
we just thought the band simply couldn't not us interviews and the two times the band Well, our fansite is the first one that was
f f have a fansite, so we worked for about a has been to Brazil they gave us full access ever dedicated to All Time Low, however it
year to collect a good amount of informa-
to backstage, interviews and all. This is al-
is completely in Portuguese. Many fans
tion and opened the fansite, which has ready a huge deal for us, but I think the from other countries still visit it and trans-
o o been online since 2008. coolest thing that has ever happen is when late the news to their own language be-
we've done the "An All Time Low Tribute"
cause we do try our best to keep it updated
How long does it take you to keep the website and album, in which Brazilian daily. We have everything a fan - especially
c c site updated? How much time do you bands recored their own versions of ATL the ones who speak portuguese - would
songs and we made a physical copy of it
put into it?
like to know about an artist in one unique
u u All Time Low is a touring band, which for the band, and they not only loved it and place. Curiosities, lyrics of songs, interview
thanked us, tweeted and everything, but
means we don't have much news about
archive, videos, etc.
them while they’re on tour, so it's quite easy they also mentioned our fansite in an inter-
s s to keep the fansite updated throughout the view for MTV Brazil. Since the beginning of Website link/URL:
year. However, in promo times I'd say it
the website I think it was mentioned several
www.alltimelow.com.br
FANSITE FOCUS / BV CV