Richie Ashwin

Richie Ashwin is an emerging South-East  recording artist and producer who’s currently building a name within the UK R&B scene.  He combines his natural audio skills with a keen visual eye that see's him shoot and direct his own music videos.

After some much needed self-reflection and artistic honing over the past year Richie Ashwin has returned to introduce to us his fresh, new musical identity.  






His take on urban music is pieced together with his commentary on social mores.  Tales of dreams, love, lust and heartbreak which are delivered in his seemingly casual but actually acute writing style combined with atmospheric videos that should see him emerge as a force in 2013.  Case in point is the new single 'Hold Your Breath' which will also be the lead track on his forthcoming EP.

His soft, soulful almost plaintive vocal accompanied by simple but effective guitar tell a harrowing and hopeful story.  What sets it apart from his contemporaries is the gritty flow he launches into in the final third of the song which is nicely mirrored in the moody self-directed video.

This single should see him come to the fore in the near future with its almost cross genre feel and hey...the girlies are gonna love Richie Ashwin!

Culture City Television

Ralph's always said it's not just about the artists who make the music but also the venues and people who showcase and promote that music.  So I bring you a new venture that came to my attention when I saw a YouTube link on Twitter for an acoustic performance of 'The Power of Love' by none other than Brian 'Nasher' Nash of Frankie Goes To Hollywood.  It's an intimate and therefor all the more poignant  rendition of the old Frankie classic love song and it's brought to us courtesy of Culture City Television, the brainchild of  Joe Campbell, a Liverpool University student with a passion for music and film.

Ralph asked Joe how the concept came about.....



Joe: "The idea of Culture City Television sort of came out of what I was doing at college, just merging my love of music and film together through recording college bands, being in a few bands myself and always being that annoying lad at the front of a gig with a massive camera! When I started uni this year I realised it might be a good time to make a proper go of it and include some of  like minded passionate people that are in my class."


Ralph: So how how have things gone on from there?




Joe: "Our first shoot was with the amazing Ali Ingle, a few days after he won the award of 'Liverpool's Male Artist of The Year". Since then Ali has been signed we've had a great selection of people coming on including Brian Nash, The Fire Beneath the Sea, Yarbo and many more!" 



"We officially went live with our first video on the 1st of January 2013, already we've had over a hundred bands/artists ask to come on, its great to see such a small company evolve so quickly." 

Ralph: How do you see things evolving?




Joe: "As for future plans, we've got a lot of them, we've just started working with a paper based listing magazine in Liverpool called 'LOW DOWN', this magazine gives out 10,000 free copies a month and features every artist you can think of, we hopefully will be working with them to incorporate our content in the magazine through what I think is a great piece of technology called layar."






Ralph: I'm a Jack Russell, please explain.....


Joe: "If you don't know already what layar is, its basically the whole QR bar-codes technology with smart phones (that I don't think really took off as well as it should have) but instead of scanning a bar-code you scan the picture in the magazine.





Your phone then allows you to go to our video relating to that picture. So for example if we were to interview Noel Gallagher the we would take a still of the interview and then put it in the magazine, then through layar you could scan the picture and get our interview!" 

Ralph: Any plans to interact with fans of CCTV?



Joe: "We plan on putting on a big gig in the future, and maybe making it annual, seasonal or even monthly, these gigs would consist of the best bands we've had on and would filmed perfectly through a live stream to the internet allowing us to sell out the venue plus sell online tickets."





So there you have it, what could be one of the fastest expanding social media ventures since the birth of Twitter just over seven years ago, from an idea spawned from the imagination of a lad at a gig with a massive camera.  It's a fantastic concept and deserves the support of bands, artists and their fans alike.  Ralph will keep you appraised of upcoming events and new videos.....watch this space!