It's not every day you check your email and find a message from someone whose singing and songwriting you have admired for many years, asking you to take a look at their Web site. Too late for the last issue, Jez Lowe emailed and asked me to take a look at his Web sites - one official and one unofficial. I did so and I've even been back to check that they are being updated. After all, there are few things more online-time-wasting than finding a site telling you what's on about 18 months ago!
Fortunately, both of Jez's sites are well worth visiting. One is run by a fan for fans, the other is run by his record company and no doubt hopes to sell a few CDs along the way. Both follow the cardinal rule of Web site design - keep things simple. The unofficial site has the useful option of Frames or No Frames, which can be important, depending on your choice of browser and service provider. From there on in what you mainly find out is that there is little chance of catching Jez in concert in this country this year unless you are up North for a couple of weeks in October. Which is a shame. Still, there is plenty of information, particularly on the official site, such as band news, including the departure of bass-player Jez Luton from the band to pursue his solo career, biographies and reviews.
I have written before of Show of Hands' site, a particularly good use of Web space because it holds an abundance of free material - text, graphics and sound - as well as enticements to come and buy. A little while ago I received emails from Gerard O'Farrell and Vaughan Pearce, who I would guess qualify as being the Unshown Hands, telling me about the new Fivetrees site for Thought Gang - the artists formerly known as Whisky Before Breakfast - but at the time of sending this article off to Sam (by email of course) the site has not yet appeared.
So all I can say is that by the time you are reading this it will probably be pretty nifty, if the other sites developed by Fivetrees are anything to go by. Phil Beer has his own pages, which include his more than impressive discography and a rather sultry studio shot which the crazier boys among us might want to use as wallpaper. If you are an independent musician it would probably be worth your while taking a look at Gerard's Fivetrees site itself, which adopts a cottage industry approach to "marketing and promotion in the world of music and performance".
And why not, when even the big boys are giving stuff away. For example, the Bob Dylan site promoted by CBS - which seems to have gone back for the purposes of the gravel-throated one's best album since "Blood on the Tracks" to calling itself Columbia - includes a database of the golden-penned one's lyrics, which are available for nothing but an Internet subscription, a little patience and the cost of a local phone call. These days, more and more CDs have a Web address hidden away in their liner notes. You will find the URL of the Green Linnet label on the latest albums by Cherish the Ladies, Wolfstone or Reeltime, and if you visit the site you will find odd bits of news about the label's artists, tours and new release information. On the same label, The House Band's latest CD also gives Adastra's URL, where you will find brief biographical details of the many bands on the agency's roster along with their tour information.
I still often receive emails or read newsgroup postings where people ask for information on a particular artist or group. The best place to start is one of the many search engines now available on the Web. Among the more well known are Yahoo, Lycos and Alta Vista, but your browser and your service provider will probably have a link to their favoured site. I usually start with Yahoo, which has a UK-only facility - nothing jingoistic you understand but it usually narrows down the number of hits, which can save time - and offers a quick link to another engine if it can't find what you are after. A search engine is basically a searchable database of all sites on the Web. It is created and updated by sending a robot (honest!) to trawl the Web, reading the first few lines of each site and returning a week or two later. If you have your own site, it is a good idea to include a line such as: <meta name="keywords" content="folk music, Ram Club, Claygate, Bytes, Folk on Line, Folk on Tap"> at the top of your home page. It won't appear to viewers of the page, but can speed up the time it takes for your site to be noticed by the search engines. Not always though, because there is no general agreement on the use of meta-language. Which is a bit like when Sid Kipper tunes his guitar and says: "Close enough for folk." I do like it when science is inexact.
Do keep the emails coming - it's heartwarming to know I'm not the only person who reads this page - and I'm open to suggestions if there are any topics anyone would like covered here other than just spreading the word about your Web sites or letting you know of my latest discoveries. Incidentally, the URLs for my Ram Club and Folk on Line pages have changed slightly, so please reset your bookmarks!
I am conscious of having used a little more jargon than usual, and though most of it is no doubt now available in the recently published "New Oxford Dictionary of English", here is a short glossary.
Browser
The software you use to view WWW pages. You are probably using Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape (opponents in the so-called browser wars) although service providers such as Compuserve often produce their own. I use MSIE, despite the bad press regularly heaped upon Bill Gates, because my system and Netscape just don't seem to get along.
Frames
A slightly fancy method of Web site presentation, usually allowing the main menu to stay on top or at the side of your screen for easy access. Not supported (able to be converted into a viewable screen) by all browsers...
No Frames
...which is why more considerate webmasters offer this as an option.
Service provider
This is the company that sells you, usually by monthly subscription and via a dialup connection, Internet access along with quick links to services such as news, travel, search engines, forums and email. I use Ukonline, as you will tell from my email address, though it is now part of Easynet.
URL
Uniform resource locator - the address of a file or site written in a way that can be understood by both server (computer) and browser.
Wallpaper
In Windows terminology, the picture or pattern used as a background on your PC's desktop. Apple Macs just call it a Desktop pattern.