News Archive 2006

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7th November 2006

Special Guestbook Visitor: Those of you who check the SpenceMusic Guestbook will already have noticed a message from Chloe Chisholm, daughter of Colin Chisholm, one of Brian's best friends and follow band member in Bilbo Baggins and Chisholm and Spence. Firstly, I would like to thank Chloe for leaving a message. If she can so can you.

In the message she says that she appeared as a boy in the live version of MacGregor's Trap at the Edinburgh Festival many, many years ago (link to picture). Since then she has grown up - lots, as you can see from the picture.

Chloe now has her own singing career which she is developing in London, following a move from her native Edinburgh. You can find out more information, including listen to samples of her music, via Chloe's MySpace presence.

17th September 2006

Welcome Back: It's been a while since my last update to this web site. So why the wait? No real reason, except Sue (she who must be obeyed) fell off the step ladder damaging her leg. As a result she has had me running around waiting on her hand and foot. Although the leg is not fully healed I have enough time off to quickly update the web site.

Navigation Change: Yes, I have changed the navigation bar back to text links. The flash buttons were causing me trouble, so you were probably also experiencing problems. In addition, I have upgraded my web software to a newer version and hopefully I will introduce a new long around the new year. This will also give me time to catch up on the changes within the software.

Spence on TV: Those of you who are signed up to receive the Spence Music Newsletter will already be aware that Brian is part of "The Boland Show" on the Overseas Property TV channel which can be found on Sky 287. Brian and Danny Litchfield (Brian's writing partner) write and perform an intro and outro musical signature for guests on the show - similar to Four Poofs and a Piano on the Jonathan Ross Show from BBC TV 1.

If any of you readers have access to Sky (unlike me) please can you record The Boland Show, 10 o'clock (I assume European time) on Fridays and send me a copy?

Guestbook: The Guestbook is now back on line. I took it down whilst I investigated a problem I was having with the Spence Music web site and someone had suggested to me (my web hosting company) that it may be linked to hyperlink inserted into one of the guestbook messages. I could not find any such hyperlink and when I changed the navigation bar from flash links to text the problem went away. Problem solved, even if not understood.

4th May 2006

Guestbook: The guestbook is back. After discovering that the site was being affected by a link from within the Guestbook I was advised to upgrade the Guestbook software and this would stop the spammers mentioned in the last update. I looked into the new software and I thought it would sort out alot of the problems I had experienced with spammers. So now the Guestbook is back.

The process for posting a message on the Guestbook is really easy.

• Go to the Guestbook (see link to the left)
• Click on "Add a message"
• Complete name, message, e-mail address and then select the number indicated from the drop-down. Press the "Continue" button.
• Enter the letters given on the screen. Press the "Continue" button and a e-mail will be sent to the e-mail address given above.
• Upon receipt of the e-mail click on the hyperlink given. Another e-mail will then be sent to SpenceMusic to tell me know about your message.
• When I receive the e-mail I then have the option to either approve the message for the Guestbook or not, depending on content.

The benefits are:

• Both the number drop-down and letters entry protects against automatic e-mail generators.
• The e-mail sent to the message originator protects against false e-mail addresses which spammers use.
• The e-mail also ensures that the e-mail address given is that of the message originator and the e-mail address holder are one and the same.
• No more deleting spam messages designed to post links to web page addresses for medication, penis enlargements, porn, etc. Sorry for those that want these items, however, I'm sure you will be able to find them if you really want to.
  

23rd April 2006

Site Maintenance: I guess I was not thinking clearly last weekend when I updated some pages and news. Although I put links in the news to MacGregor's Trap I failed to place buttons within the navigation bar. This has now been corrected.

In addition, I have spent hours (come on, sympathetic ah!) ensuring that all links work, all text is readable and the correct colour, size, etc. So if you spot anything wrong please, PLEASE tell me.

Guestbook: Some of you may have noticed that the Guestbook is down. I'm in no hurry to resolve this as it was continually the playground for spammers leaving messages that had no relation to Brian Spence, Spence Music, Bilbo, etc. I was deleting around 20 messages a day and got really held up by it. The Guestbook will return one day, when I have built up the strength to start deleting messages again. In the meantime, if you have a message for myself or Brian click on the e-mail button in the navigation section, write your message and send it. If your e-mail is for Brian I will forward it on. There is no guarantee that he will reply to you.

17th April 2006

New MacGregor's Trap Images: As promised in my last update, I have added the additional pictures that Dominic Marshall, director of MacGregor's Trap, sent to me. Three of them have been added to "MacGregor's Trap - The Show" (Link) and the forth being added onto Dominic's own article "The Making of MacGregor's Trap" (Link).

Link Errors: Following on from the last update I am finding more link errors on the SpenceMusic site. This happened after I thought I would amend my file structure, which is a good idea if you check all the links affected by it. I thought I had, obviously not well enough. This update should correct those that I know about (mainly to do with Brian and Debbie's wedding which has moved into the Articles section). However, if you find any link errors, or any other errors for that matter, please let me know.

The Eurovision War: Perhaps it is just as well that Brian and Danny Litchfield did not win through to the final of the UK's Search For A (Eurovision) Song. I read that one country, Serbia, is poised to fight for national independance following a Montenegrin panel of judges tactically voting against the Serbian entry. The UK and a few other countries may treat Eurovision as a joke but this story just shows how serious Eurovision really is.

You can read more of this story by clicking on the following link to the BBC News web site. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4824692.stm

Ouch!: Sue and I went to see Brian and Debbie perform at The Army and Navy pub in Plaistow last Saturday night. The stage was tucked into an small corner with a lower ceiling beam about three inches (around 7 centimetres) above Brian's head. On the last song of the evening Brian took off his guitar and jumped frantically in front of and behind this beam. However, he must have forgotten about it, as he started another jumping session his head came in contact with this beam and I could hear the audience give a collective "ooh!". Fortunately, Brian was not hurt although I suspect he will not be doing that song again in a hurry.

12th March 2006

Jeanie Skye: Last summer Brian asked me if I could remove all references to Jeanie Skye from Spence Music as he was submitting it into a competition run by the Scottish Executive for new music. I was happy to do this as I did not want to ruin any chances Brian may have of winning a competition for new music by having any references to a musical that was a few years old.

For those of you who do not know about Jeanie Skye, it was a spin-off project from MacGregor's Trap, a rock musical Brian wrote based on the book "Kidnapped" by Robert Louis Stevenson. Jeanie Skye took the same theme and characters but changed the focus from David Balfour to Jeanie, David's mother.

Brian's luck being what it is of late (see Search for a Song - Eurovision Update below) the competition did not reach a stage where the entries were actually judged. As a result I will be reviewing the SpenceMusic website and updating the pages where appropriate.

New MacGregor's Trap Images: Speaking of MacGregor's Trap (see Jeanie Skye above) Dominic Marshall, director of the 1995 Edinburgh Fringe stage version of MacTrap sent me some more photographs, taken by Brian's brother Stuart Spence, from the show. I will include these pictures on SpenceMusic by the next update, however, if you can not wait until then you can see these images on Dominic's own website http://www.dominicmarshall.co.uk/. The pictures can be found on his production page. http://www.dominicmarshall.co.uk/productions.htm

New Link: Following on from the MacTrap images story, I have also added Dominic Marshall's website to the Links page.

Link Error: Every time a bad link is used by a visitor an e-mail gets sent to me telling me about it. It is quite rare that such an event happens as I try and ensure that none exist. However, one visitor to Spence Music did find a duff link, which resulted in an email to me. The link was on the news page for 2004 (June 3rd to be precise) taking the visitor to a new page for interviews. This link has now been resolved. If this was you, sorry, you can go to the interviews page by click this link. Interviews

If you come across any other errors please feel free to let me know by emailing me.

20th February

Search for a Song - Eurovision Update: Brian and Danny were unsuccessful with their attempt to become the UK entry for the Eurovision Song Contest this year. The judges comments about each entry can be heard at the end of each of the short-listed songs on the BBC's Search For A Song webpage. Why not go to the site, listen to all the songs and see if you agree with their opinions. The winner, I Wanna Man written by Toby Jarvis, will take part in NEXT year's Making Your Mind Up event.

The process would appear that songwriters who submit a song via the Search For A Song compete for a spot in another competition, Making Your Mind Up. Where the other songs in this stage come from is anybody's guess. If you know the answer I would be happy to hear from you. Am I being cynical or are the chances of song entry, submitted through Search For A Song, winning through to the Eurovision stacked against them? Who picks the other songs in Making Your Mind Up?

15th February 2006

Why It's Been Quiet From Me: I was going away for a weekend and thought I would buy an mp3 player. Unfortunately the mp3 player required me to update my operation system to a more modern version, which I did. In doing this all my software suddenly stopped working, including the web site program that I use, email, etc. I started to reinstall everything and when I got to the the printer the pc started repeatedly crashing. So I reinstalled Windows and then the software again. When I got to the printer the pc started crashing again. So I thought I would wait until I had sorted out the printer problem before reinstalling everything again. Hence why it's been quiet from me. Bloody technology!

Birthday Wishes: It was Brian's birthday on 7th February, becoming 53 years old. Happy birthday you old codger! I can say this as I am younger than Brian, although I need to be careful if I want to BECOME as old as Brian.

Search for a Song - Eurovision: A while back I spotted that BBC Radio 2 were running a competition to find the 2006 UK entry for Eurovision. I mentioned this to Brian who started working with Danny Litchfield to produce a track for possible inclusion in the UK heats called "River To Heaven". This song was short-listed into the last 10 tracks of possible contenders. As at the writing of this we are still waiting to find out if the judges are going to choose it or one of the other entries. You can listen to Brian and Danny's song on the following link, along with the other contenders. Search For A Song

As those of you that follow this annual event that is Eurovision the British either do well or don't, no middle ground. In recent years politics have entered the arena more than normal (it appears that voters tend to vote with countries that they immediately identify with, i.e. Scandanavian countries tend to vote of other Scandanavian countries, etc.) and the UK have done worse than normal, possibly due to their involvement in Iraq. So, even if Brian and Danny's song does become the UK's Song for Europe, which I hope it will, I would not expect it to do very well in the final competition.

5th January 2006

Happy New Year: Welcome back to Spence Music and I hope you all had good new year celebrations with no trauma and family arguments.

New Picture: In the early part of December Brian sent me the picture you see on the right. It is Brian and Debbie's new publicity picture for them as "Wonderful World" a duo playing in and around east London. If you would like to see them perform, mainly covers I should point out, click on the "Live Dates" button in the navigation section.

Site Refresh: As you can see I have refreshed the look of the Spence Music web site as part of my annual review. I hope you like it. I have reintroduced the navigation buttons after a couple of years without them as I found they were slowing down the pages from loading. As broadband is becoming more popular I thought I would revert to the buttons and see how it goes. What do you think?

Brian and Debbie's wedding page has now moved from the navigation bar to the Articles section. If you want to read it now click on the following link for pictures and a laugh. The Wedding.

Another thing I would like to reintroduce is a "Fans of Brian Spence" page. This would be similar to the Friends page but listing fans of Brian Spence such as YOU. If you would like you name to be added to this site as a fan of Brian's send me a brief description about yourself and if I get a few I will create a page.

More News

Looking for more news? Wondering where the old news has gone? Why not visit the news archive for more news, but older?

News from 2005

News from 2004

News from 2003

News from 2002

 

Page Last Updated: 4th March 2010

© Morley Enterprises 2001-2011. This site, SpenceMusic, is a personal site and is not affiliate with Brian Spence, Bilbo, Bilbo Baggins, Cheeky Bufalloes, Chisholm & Spence, The Wish or anyone else for that matter. Any copyright infringement is accidental. The pictures and music on this site are there for information only. They are not there for any commercial purpose. Therefore, if anyone representing the artist(s) or record company(ies) want me to remove these items please mail me and I will remove them immediately! This site, SpenceMusic, and Morley Enterprises are not responsible for the content of any other websites that are linked from here. So there.