This following is quoted from the Frome FM website:

On September 9th FromeFM will be taking part in the 9 Album project to help raise money for and awareness of the emergency services and related charities.

The 9 Album project is the brainchild of Trowbridge musician Phil Cooper. Phil aims to write 9 songs in 9 days and record them all in 1 day – on September 9th 2009, starting at 9.00am. The 9 album will then be made available for download at 9.00pm.

The money raised by sales of the downloads will be donated to the charities that support the emergency services.

At 9.00pm on September 9th, FromeFm will run a live programme, starting at 9.00pm, within which one of the 9 tracks will be played every 9 minutes. 9 FromeFM presenters will introduce the tracks and, in between, feature an aspect of the work of one of the emergency services or a charity that supports them.

A few days ago Phil Cooper came into the FromeFM studio and recorded an interview with us in which he describes how the 9 album project will work and what it hopes to achieve. He also talks about his band The Haiku and the 9 Album tour that he has organised to support the project. Phil will be playing tracks from the project at The Piano Bar in Frome on Thursday September 24th

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Right, I’ve been sat on 8 tour dates for a while now and I’ve been thinking. Rather than book a normal 9th date, I’m thinking of wrapping up the tour with an online steaming concert, so that everyone has a chance to see the tour. What are people’s thoughts?

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Numero Uno, a song from Start From Scratch is todays “Catch of the day” on website TunaTheDay.com to promote the 9 album.  The plan is that I’ll be back on there after the 9th with one of the 9 tracks.

Much respect to Site Owner, Ade, for helping out.

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There’s an article about the project in today’s Western Daily Press.

Click here to see the article

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Over the past few days I’ve been speaking to various radio stations and newspapers/magazines and there’s been an amazing reaction to the project.  A few of them are really entering the spirit and one radio station has even offered something very cool and “9-based” (I’ll tell you more once it’s all been sorted).   Needless to say, I’m a happy bunny!

On Saturday, I’m going to be on Somer Valley FM, in Midsomer Norton (which is home to one of my favourite venues – The Wunderbar – we’re playing there tomorrow!) to talk about the project and play a live song from Start From Scratch.  I’ll be on somewhen between 2pm-3pm. You can listen live at http://www.somervalleyfm.co.uk

I’ll be speaking to more people over the coming weeks,  so no doubt I’ll have even more stuff to tell you soon.  Keep your eye on the blog for the latest.

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Just confirmed another tour date for Birmingham, and one for Oxford is nearly confirmed.  Then it’s just one date to go!  Wheeeeeeee!

21st Sept – The Living Room, Birmingham
27th Sept – The Living Room, Oxford (TBC)

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Everyone is being brilliant about all this.  Today, a good friend of mine has offered to take the 9th Sept off work so that he can make a cover for the project on the same day!  Nice one Gary, you’re a legend!

I’ve also been busy booking for a 9 date tour for this album, and so far I’ve got 6 dates sorted.  They are:

19th Sept – The Village Pump, Trowbridge

20th Sept – The Seven Stars, Bristol

22nd Sept – The Doghouse, Loughborough

23rd Sept – Katie Fitzgerald’s, Stourbridge

24th Sept – The Piano Bar, Frome

29th Sept – The Edge Cafe, Portsmouth

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Thank you to everyone who has contacted me about this idea, all your support has convinved me it’s worth doing! I’ve developed the idea a little more, with help and suggestions from friends, and the challenge now looks like this:

• I will record 9 brand new songs on 9th Sept 2009
• I will start recording at 9am and the album will be available to download at 9pm (that gives pretty much 1 hour 20 minutes to record, mix and master each song)
• All the songs will be written in the first 9 days of September
• If I can get some charities on board, all the money made will go to charities that support the UK emergency services
• On the day, there will be a live webcam running, so you can keep up with the progress of the album.

(there’s still a possiblity that the start and end times will become 9.09)

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Here’s a thought for you.

I’ve been toying around with the idea of doing some quick release recordings for a while. That is, recording and releasing songs in very quick succession.

It occured to me that on the 9th September this year, the date will be 09/09/09 and that got me thinking. Would I be able to record and release a nine song album by 9pm that day? I’d start recording at 9am, and aim to have the whole thing mastered and ready to download by 9pm.

I’d be really interested to hear your feedback on that idea, because it’s geniunely something I’m considering doing. So please leave a comment or send me an email using the contact form.

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Tags: About the project