A little friendly advice if you please

[stuartmaxwell 81]

Cheers. I thought this sort of unsolicited e-mail would be too good to be true, but couldn't quite work out how they'd benefit unless they were going to try and get us signed (and rip us off like you've suggested) - but that would mean they thought were good enough to get signed, which was still encouraging. I'm a trainee lawyer, so I would pick through any offer very carefully before signing up to anything.

you are a trainee lawyer??? Are you kidding me??? I work closely with lawyers on a daily basis and from your frequent posting and general wallyness you really don't seem to have that "smart cookie" image at all. The fact that you didn't spot this as a scam exemplifies this.

Good luck with the career though.

p.s. stop bleating on about saving the Aberdeen Music scene, if you spent as much time on doing things proactively/on the ground as you do posting pish and annoying people on here you might actually make a difference. You are preaching to a bunch of people who have been involved in scenes for more than a few minutes. Keep trying but less preaching please.

[Huw 23]

how did scouting for girls get signed then? in mine, and a lot people's opinions they are complete nonsense, yet whenever i turn on the radio all i hear is that boy banging on about how some bird is 'lovely'. great stuff.

so surely there is some sort of interest for labels in music that a lot of people think is twaddle? maybe i'm wrong and they gigged intensely for three years and worked their way up to a big label, i just don't see it. heaps of these 'the ....' bands seem to appear out of nowhere.

[AKA the brando 4]

you are a trainee lawyer??? Are you kidding me??? I work closely with lawyers on a daily basis and from your frequent posting and general wallyness you really don't seem to have that "smart cookie" image at all. The fact that you didn't spot this as a scam exemplifies this.

Good luck with the career though.

p.s. stop bleating on about saving the Aberdeen Music scene, if you spent as much time on doing things proactively/on the ground as you do posting pish and annoying people on here you might actually make a difference. You are preaching to a bunch of people who have been involved in scenes for more than a few minutes. Keep trying but less preaching please.

has calumunderkills slept with his sister or something?

[Lemonade 1787]

The thing that makes me suspicious is that he hasn't mentioned your band or any of your songs by name, which makes it look like a stock cut n paste email. He's probably sending hundreds of copies of exactly the same message every day.

As for the Underkills, well I haven't actually listened to you yet. I'm going to go do that today, see what all this fuss is about....

[Guest calumunderkills]

The thing that makes me suspicious is that he hasn't mentioned your band or any of your songs by name, which makes it look like a stock cut n paste email. He's probably sending hundreds of copies of exactly the same message every day.

As for the Underkills, well I haven't actually listened to you yet. I'm going to go do that today, see what all this fuss is about....

Well, they did mention one of our songs by name, but it could very easily still be a quick copy'n'paste job!

I wouldn't bother listening to the Underkills - they're utter shite

[stuartmaxwell 81]

anyone remember Identity?

[Scootray 1047]

Christ, I remember our first gig in Aberdeen was at Drakes, waaaaaaay back in 2004. They were on after us, and christ, they thought they were playing Wembly!

We soon saw to them however, when we were last on the bill at a Young and Live thingy at Thainstone. Ha!

[Stichman 43]

anyone remember Identity?

I think so, were they from Peterhead or the Broch? They used to rip into the state of modern music at gigs? Wide?

[mistersticks 11]

yes i wouldn't bother with this, i know how you feel though, you want to believe it...but you kind of know there's something fishy about it. you'd really be looking for an A&R person to contact you for it to be legit. David O'Hagan from Mercury records got in touch with us saying he liked our tunes and stuff, and we got a pretty nifty gig in Edinburgh out of the affair, but even with that, we're not much better off, and he was genuine in his email, so i think your message is a bit of a long shot.

however you should look David O'Hagan up on myspace, he'd probaly take an interest in you, at the very least you might get a gig out of it!

[Lemonade 1787]

Stayover were contacted by a guy from EMI (or one of it's subsiduaries) when they were at their peak.

[stuartmaxwell 81]

probably that nugget from EMI who phones me every few months to ask "who is doing well" at the moment. no idea how he got my number and is constantly told that he shouldnt phone me as I have very little interest in helping him.

Copy Ha Ho is usually the only name suggested

[Guest calumunderkills]

The response from Shadow Atlantica...

"

Hi Calum, Basically we work on behalf of major and independent record labels and would love to promote you. Basically what we do is every month we make a compilation CD featuring 10 unsigned artists and send it to 31 major and independent record labels we have strong links with or have previously worked for, Each of the ten unsigned artists featured on the cd will have a portfolio with a bio, pics and full contact details and this is also sent to all 31 record companies along with the CD. Ive discussed this with my colleague and we would love to feature your track. Ok you asked for further details?

All you have to do is send us a copy of your track and is it ok if we use your pics and bio from Myspace for the Portfolio?

if you can send us 20 that will cover the postage to all 31 labels and printing costs, we will pay the rest for you. I Will give you our postal address to send it to.

Once we receive your post we will begin work on your portfolio, We are sending the finished compilation off to our clients on Monday next week so if you could send your post to us ASAP that would be great. We will also send you a copy of the finished compilation when all is complete.

Please get back to me to confirm everything is grand then we can put this into motion. Thanks.

David C A&R Shadow Atlantica

"

Hmmmm, they want 20 up front...

[Guest calumunderkills]

"

Hi Calum, Basically we work on behalf of major and independent record labels and would love to promote you. Basically what we do is every month we make a compilation CD featuring 10 unsigned artists and send it to 31 major and independent record labels we have strong links with or have previously worked for, Each of the ten unsigned artists featured on the cd will have a portfolio with a bio, pics and full contact details and this is also sent to all 31 record companies along with the CD. Ive discussed this with my colleague and we would love to feature your track. Ok you asked for further details?

All you have to do is send us a copy of your track and is it ok if we use your pics and bio from Myspace for the Portfolio?

if you can send us 20 that will cover the postage to all 31 labels and printing costs, we will pay the rest for you. I Will give you our postal address to send it to.

Once we receive your post we will begin work on your portfolio, We are sending the finished compilation off to our clients on Monday next week so if you could send your post to us ASAP that would be great. We will also send you a copy of the finished compilation when all is complete.

Please get back to me to confirm everything is grand then we can put this into motion. Thanks.

David C A&R Shadow Atlantica

"

Hmmmm, they want 20 up front...

Oh - and the quality of pics from myspace is not good enough for promotional material. And we have no 'bio' as such on myspace

[Lemonade 1787]

Once we receive your 20 we will do nothing with your track, except perhaps post it out to some bedroom record label, and keep your 20. You will not hear from us again, until we contact you in three months to tell you Sony are interested and ask you for 100 to set up a meeting with them....

[Surfer_Rosa 783]

As a general rule of thumb if they are asking for money, it's a scam.

[The Milner 1276]

Stayover were contacted by a guy from EMI (or one of it's subsiduaries) when they were at their peak.

not quite, we were offered something but not from anything to do with emi as far as i was aware.

[Guest calumunderkills]

tbh, i can't imagine why they would want 20 for posting a wee CD, scam.

Posting a wee CD 31 times apparently. Scam nonetheless

[Sam 45 156]

I'm sure everyone round here has had the e-mail from Jimmy Smith at Parlophone, or whatever his name is again.

I think you should pay the 20 quid because once you have done it your band will be hugely famous.

[Guest calumunderkills]

I'm sure everyone round here has had the e-mail from Jimmy Smith at Parlophone, or whatever his name is again.

I think you should pay the 20 quid because once you have done it your band will be hugely famous.

If I give you 20 will you get me a number 1 hit? That is clearly all I want in this life

[Sam 45 156]

If I give you 20 will you get me a number 1 hit? That is clearly all I want in this life

Deal....

[TheTickingTime-Bomb 10]

I'm sure everyone round here has had the e-mail from Jimmy Smith at Parlophone, or whatever his name is again.

Is he a fake?