Independent Artist Aid on Myspace

Mercy Corps work in regions affected by the Asian Tsunami continues, and Independent Artist Aid is proud to continue supporting the charity workers' efforts to assist survivors in rebuilding their lives and their communities.

To see what they have been doing with your donations, click here.

We are now on myspace, where we hope a wider public will buy some more CDs to help fund this important work. And of course we hope that all the myspacers dig our tunes too.

If you're on myspace, please add us to your friends list:

http://www.myspace.com/independentartistaid

Thanks.

One Year On

A year on from the Tsunami disaster, work goes on in the affected regions.

The Mercy Corps has achieved an amazing amount, and there is still much to do:

From the hours after the disaster, we have known that recovery across the tsunami zone will take years, not months. We continue to work with communities to achieve strong, sustainable results.

It is important to remember that the Aceh and Sri Lanka recoveries are taking place in the context of long-standing civil conflicts. In Aceh, the tsunami has helped bring the two sides closer together. In Sri Lanka, it remains to be seen whether the recovery process will help ease tensions between the Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims.

Mercy Corps' recovery programs in Aceh and Sri Lanka are designed to bring people together, emphasizing their many shared goals over their past differences. In both places, the peace process and the tsunami recovery are totally interdependent: you cannot have success in one without progress in the other.

We want the legacy of our work to be not just a healthier and more prosperous region, but a more peaceful one as well.

A year has passed and so much has been accomplished - but much work remains. As the anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami nears, please consider a generous gift to let hard-working survivors know you're still standing with them.
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And of course what better way of donating than buying a copy of Hope Never Dies?? All the profits go to the Mercy Corps ongoing Tsunami Relief program.

There's an opportunity to refresh your memory on Christmas Day when the special programme originally broadcast by Radio Six International at Easter is repeated at 16:00GMT.

And Woodstock Taylor's track Happening, from the CD, has been nominated as Record Of The Year by the station. Currently it's at #6 in the chart; to help it win, click here.

just a rumour

There is a rumour that a follow-up to Hope Never Dies may be on the way to help raise funds for the Mercy Corps Hurricane Relief appeal.

We hope to bring you more about that soon.

Happening still happening

Woodstock's song Happening is currently sitting at #3 in the Record Of The Year Chart at Radio Six International, who have been consistent supporters of our efforts on behalf of Independent Artist Aid. If you want to help it along, click on the link above and follow the voting instructions.

All votes gratefully received. It won't help save the world, but it would be a selfless act that could add vital ballast to Woody's self-esteem.

Woodstock Taylor & jps* Make the Radio Six International Random Playlist!

Dear Friends,

I am pleased to tell you that I checked Radio Six's Random Playlist and I was not only pleased to see that Woodstock Taylor made the list this week, but so did I!

Just wanted to share!

If you haven't purchased the Hope Never Dies album, please do so! It is certainly never too late!

jps*

Six Months On

Six months ago the Asian Tsunami struck, killing a quarter of a million and radically affecting the lives and livelihoods of a far higher number of people throughout the affected region and beyond.

Today all the talk is of Africa and of how at next week's G8 summit here in Scotland the leaders of the world's eight richest countries might be able to do something about a situation there that currently amounts to economic genocide by neglect.

In news terms, the Tsunami is last season's model. "I gave already." "I thought they had more money than they needed." "Well, that's all sorted out now." "Nobody's dying there any more - the Africans need help more urgently."

The reality is that although the short-term relief goals have largely been met, the longterm rebuilding of Tsunami-ravaged regions - and psyches - will take years. The quick fix of the initial public outpouring of aid donations was just that - a quick fix.

Mercy Corps is sticking with it - and their Asian Tsunami Relief Appeal has now extended its brief to include Somalia.

The African crisis is real and it's fervently to be hoped that the men who can do something about it use their power wisely.

It doesn't have to be an either/or situation, however. It could be - should be - AND. The smallest donations still make a difference when they are put together.

Make Poverty History - please!!! But don't forget about others who still need your help.

Join Make Poverty History - make a difference now.

Read more about the Mercy Corps efforts on behalf of Tsunami survivors.

Buy a copy of Independent Artist Aid - Hope Never Dies and enjoy some great music knowing that all profits are going to help the continuing process of rebuilding normal lives for the ordinary people who survived this extraordinary catastrophe.

"Neptune Retrograde" got playlisted again!

Nepture Retrograde is now featured in the playlist on INDIE-UNSIGNED, an independent music webcaster located in Toronto, Canada.

He wrote a very nice review for me too!

Frankie Ho - Neptune Logic

"Neptune Retrograde" Track of the Week

Frankie Ho's song, "Neptune Retrograde", song #4 on Independent Artist Aid - Hope Never Dies, will be featured as GarageBand.com's Ambient Track of the Week starting Monday, the 9th of May, 2005. It is currently at #4 in the Ambient chart at Garageband (a former #1).

As well as a front-page spot on GarageBand.com's Ambient page, the track will also be highlighted at Klipsch.com who have a partnership agreement to promote GarageBand's leading tracks on their site.

Congratulations to Frankie on this success.

Front Page News

Leading music website Garageband.com has got behind Independent Artist Aid with a portal-to-portal link from its front page.

Although Independent Artist Aid is in no way an official Garageband.com venture, it is nevertheless something that came about because all of the participants in Hope Never Dies first "met" at Garageband - either through the messageboards there or via the site's blind review process. Some are still active in the GB community while others have moved on, but the opportunity for all of us to find each other was provided in the first instance by Garageband. Which in my opinion is the kind of thing that online music communities should be doing.

Thanks to everyone who posted at the Garageband BBS in favour of an official acknowledgement of our project, and also to the many who contacted me privately about it. And big thanks to Ali Partovi, Garageband's CEO, for listening and making it happen.

Everything helps here. And whatever you read in the papers or see on TV about the Tsunami survivors having enough aid money now, please don't believe a word of it. There's SO much still to do over there and if we can put a tiny drop of cash towards helping some traumatised fellow-humans to get their lives back on track, let's do it. And what better way to benefit everyone than by supporting independent music at the same time??

Radio Six playlist Robin Frederick

Radio Six International have playlisted Robin Frederick's song Water Falls Down from tonight.

It's the second song from Independent Artist Aid - Hope Never Dies to make the regular rotation of this small independent station: Woodstock Taylor's Happening is in the final week of a 10-week stint on the playlist.

Last month Radio Six transmitted a feature-length special on Hope Never Dies, airing all the tracks between a small amount of commentary.

Good Energy from Geetan

Enigmatic, energetic Manchester (UK) based artist Geetan has posted a page about Independent Artist Aid on his website, Geetan.com.

A friend made through the pages of the DIY musicians' resource MWS Media (check it out) and at Garageband.com, we're proud to list Geetan among the friends of IAA. Thanks!!

New Earthquake in Tsunami region

A massive earthquake off the coast of Indonesia has killed hundreds of people and triggered tsunami alerts around the Indian Ocean.


picture from BBCi
Read BBCi news story

Mercy Corps, which responded quickly to aid survivors of December’s tsunami, has over 200 staff in the region ready to provide rapid assistance. The organization has offices in Banda Aceh and Meulaboh, two cities on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
Mercy Corps is monitoring the situation, and is prepared to act quickly to deliver lifesaving aid, if needed.

Mercy Corps prepared to take immediate action... (read more)

Did you hear it?

If you missed the Radio Six International special just now, all is not lost.

Don't forget you can stream the whole of Hope Never Dies from Indienetunes.com.

Most importantly, don't forget to buy a copy while you're there.

There's an update on WHY at the Mercy Corps site.

International Artist Aid

Don't forget to tune into Radio Six International's special programme on Hope Never Dies which starts very shortly...



Radio Six International is a private (not for profit) experimental Internet and shortwave station run from Scotland by radio enthusiasts (some of whom moonlight for the BBC on their days off from Radio 6. That's how much they love radio - they just can't get enough...). Tune in and you will hear an interesting mixture of easy listening, lounge, exotica, oldies and contemporary music with a little light music, classical, country, and jazz. With a loyal and vocal listenership in around 100 countries, the station has a policy of championing new and unsigned acts alongside seasoned stars such as Janis Ian, The Electric Prunes, Thunderclap Newman and Tony Hatch.

A special full-length feature programme on Independent Artist Aid airs at 0250 British Summertime....0150 GMT on Easter Sunday, March 27 (that's 2050 EST/1750 PST Saturday March 26 in the USA, 0350 CEST Easter Sunday in Vienna, 0950 Easter Sunday in Hong Kong and 1150 Easter Sunday in Melbourne). In about half an hour from now, in other words.

Enjoy!!

Radio playlist

Dear all, well in fact this is a very old news hehe :P

My IAA-HND track Neptune Retrograde was featured in a radio playlist quite a while ago before we got this CD going, just would love to share with you too!

The station is called Sounds Like Radio which is run by another GB member. My track was featured in the Fresh #2 playlist. Actually quite a lot of the tracks featured in this station's playlists are written by GB artists.

Frankie

Banners

If you scroll down the Media Resources page at Independentartistaid.tk you will find all manner of buttons, flyers and banners, in numerous shapes and sizes, to help us spread the word about Hope Never Dies, as well as help with how to post images in case you need it.

This one, which measures 400x80px, was designed by Frank of Aussie band isenho (song #12... Shining Star).



New stuff gets added to that page from time to time, so it's worth checking every now and then.