Preparing for a Radio or Newspaper Interview

Only one week until the start of my "Celebrating the Divas of Jazz" tour!  The first gig is Stratford Jazz at The Chapel in Stratford upon Avon on Sunday 6th February.

Last week I appeared on two radio shows.  The first was an interview with John Hellings for BBC Hereford and adjoining regions and the second was with Ruth Fisher for the Good Groove Show on Solar Radio.  Listening back I realised that I might have done better if I'd prepared a bit.  I spent a lot of time searching for things to say and interspersing my sentences with "you know" - one of my pet hates!  Here are the sorts of questions I should have been prepared to answer:

How did you start out?
Which artists are you influenced by?
Who have you worked with?
Who would you like to work with?
What's been the highlight of your career?
What are you currently working on?
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
What's on your wish list?
What are your plans for the future?
When/where are you performing next?
(And remember to plug website, facebook, twitter etc!)

I suppose I know most of the answers to these but put on the spot and not having  thought about them recently meant my answers ended up a bit garbled.  So next time I will be prepared!

I've got a rehearsal with my band this week.  Can't wait!  And I've still got to decide what to wear for my first gig.  Swithering at the moment between either a black or a red dress...




About to be interviewed at Solar Radio studio



Organising a UK Jazz Tour - Update

I've just realised that I've been a little lax lately with the blog posts.  So thought I'd update you and let you know how I've been doing with my "homework"...

• Contracts/email confirmations have been received and signed for all dates.
• Received 80% of the funding grant awarded by Jazz Services. (The final 20% to be sent on the completion of the tour and my return of assessment reports/forms for each gig.)
• Flyers and posters printed and sent out to all venues for February dates.  Publicity material for March dates to be sent out in the next couple of weeks.
• Press release emailed to radio stations.  So far 3 interviews have been booked - BBC Stoke, BBC Devon and Solar Radio.
• Press release sent to local newspapers.  Nice preview in Berwickshire newspaper and another feature planned.
• Tour details uploaded to sites like remotegoat and ReverbNation.  I'd definitely recommend remotegoat as it very helpfully syndicates automatically to local newspapers and other online sites like Ents24.
• Accommodation booked.
• Rehearsal with band organised. 

So almost time to concentrate solely on the music...  Aaah - my favourite part!  :-)

Juliet Kelly's Vocal Zone - January Playlist

Happy New Year everyone!  Hope it's your best year yet!

Here's the playlist for my January show on UK Jazz Radio which features UK vocalists.

January - The British Invasion (on air from Sat 8th Jan)

Georgia Mancio – Solace (Silhouette - Roomspin Records)

Cleveland Watkiss – Memories (Blessing in Disguise – Polydor Records)

1991

Polly Gibbons – Saving Grace – Recorded live at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, London in Feb 2006 (Also available on album Moanin’ – 3D Japan)

Zoe Schwarz & Rob Koral – Devil May Care (Devil or Dove – 33 Records)

Elaine Delmar – I Concentrate on You (Everything I Love: Elaine Delmar sings Cole Porter – Joy)

Ian Shaw – Chelsea Morning (Drawn To All Things: Songs of Joni Mitchell - Linn)

Julia Biel – Where Is She Now? (Not Alone – Rokit)

Zena James – My Love Is (Tell Me More – Jazzizit)

Jazzelation  (Alison Bentley) – Spring Is Such a Beautiful Thing (Spring Is Such a Beautiful Thing – Lytton)

Juliet Kelly – Mutual Attraction (Licorice Kiss – Purple Stiletto)

As you can see, I sneaked in one of my own at the end there - cheeky! 

Juliet Kelly's Vocal Zone - December Playlist

Juliet Kelly's Vocal Zone - November Playlist