A BLOG OF SORTS FROM CHRIS COOKE
Here is some stuff I did in August 2022…
Don’t cancel this!
Bag is packed and I am now Bergen bound. We are presenting four sessions as part of Vill Vill Vest on Friday – two speed briefings and two panels. In the middle I’ll be joined by these fine people to talk about the responsibilities of digital platforms to deal with harmful content – and all things cancel culture. What should the platforms be doing? What should artists and creators be doing? What should music companies be doing? Can I get us all cancelled in 45 minutes? Let’s find out! Check out info on all the CMU sessions at Vill Vill Vest here.
Travel fun times
Having hardly left the UK this year, super excited to now be heading to Norway to talk Web3 and cancel culture, to Italy to talk music rights and audio-visual, and to Denmark to talk digital licensing and the streaming market. Given my nothing-in-the-hold policy, currently figuring out how to get seven days of clothes, a laptop and my podcast mic into the trusty backpack. Andy reckons the mic is most important. Sure it will be fine!
Edinburgh finale
So the Edinburgh Festival 2022 has reached its grand finale! It was great to see everything back in action – and to actually review some shows myself (all of these in fact). Thanks to all our reviewers, the venues and PRs, our printer and distributor, and all the performers we met and interviewed and reviewed. Thank you one and all! Lots of chat online about the challenges the Edinburgh Fringe now faces, I need to properly read it all. But don’t forget, we talked about quite a few of those challenges on our all new TW Backstage podcast – which you can access here. But for now, see you all at Edinburgh 2023!
Fixing the Fringe
As the Edinburgh Festival enters its final weekend, how about we put the spotlight on the key challenges facing the Edinburgh Fringe community? What have been the big talking points this month? What are the issues to address in the year ahead? I chatted to five great guests about all those challenges while in Edinburgh last week and you can hear what they had to say via our all new podcast on the business of comedy, culture, theatre and fringe – tune in here.
Vill Vill Vest 2022
Vill Vill Vest was definitely one of my favourite trips last year, so I can’t wait to be back in Bergen next week for the 2022 edition. CMU is presenting four sessions this year – two speed briefings and two panels. On the CMU+VVV agenda: digital debates, web3, marketing content, platform responsibility and cancel culture. More info here.
Edinburgh learnings
What I learned by actually reviewing some shows this Fringe: the GB Teviot Balcony venue is not in the Teviot Balcony Room. That’s my old school Teviot knowledge working against me! Anyway, twelve shows reviewed and a stack of interviews recorded, now to do some editing. You know, if my first class LNER train ticket actually gets me a seat at some point before London – which seems unlikely.
Back in Edinburgh
So I made it to Edinburgh after another super early start this morning. I’ve brought a really old copy of ThreeWeeks with me – from deep in the archives – you know, to read between the shows. Gonna sneak it into the Pleasance later and try and offend someone. I mean, you’ve not really done the Fringe unless you offend someone, right?
Edinburgh bound (again)
I’m heading back to Edinburgh tomorrow to interview some people and even review some shows! Yes, me, reviewing! It’ll be like it’s 1996 all over again. Our ThreeWeeks review team have been busy seeing shows for more than a week now, while Caro has interviewed a stack of great performers about their 2022 productions, including all the people on this here montage. You can check out all our Festival 2022 coverage here.
With a capital W
I forgot to mention, I did some in depth judging while walking around a postered-up Edinburgh this weekend and can confirm that the winner of this year’s annual “That’s Right, It’s One Word With A Capital W” Award goes to Kevin Quantum’s ’Dark Matter’ at the Gilded Balloon. There’s no prize I’m afraid, except the warm glow of knowing that your attention to detail is both unusual and top notch – and sub-editors everywhere (especially at ThreeWeeks but not Three Weeks) thank you for your efforts.
No tickets required
Hey Spotify, in a city full of comedians desperately trying to sell tickets to their shows, I’m not convinced this is the best marketing slogan for your comedy podcasts – basically “don’t spend money on actual shows, just download these for free!” Not sure the comedy community will be too keen on that. And that’s before I tell them about all the comedy copyright issues!
Edinburgh bound
Early start today to make sure I’m in Edinburgh in time for the Fringe’s big old Meet The Media bash (or Meet The Performers from my side of the table). Flashbacks to the manic but uplifting Fringe launch event in 1996; the old Meet The ThreeWeeks Reviewers sessions in the 2000s, especially the one at Roman Eagle Lodge in 2008; and the last time I was pitched to by a very long line of performers at Fringe 2019. Here we go again!
Festival 2022
So, if you go by official dates – and who doesn’t love some official dates? – today is the first day of the Edinburgh Fringe, and the wider Edinburgh Festival I guess. If you are in Edinburgh, do pick up our 2022 ThreeWeeks Preview Guide packed full of interviews and Caro’s Three To See show recommendations, you can get a free copy at loads of venues. Or you can check all our coverage of this year’s Edinburgh festivities on the website here.
Train to where?
Yeah, but what are you meant to do when the display on the front of the train is broken too? I mean, trains from this platform go to four different destinations! Anyway, I’m Chiswick bound to talk music rights data at Metropolis Studios. Or maybe Wimbledon bound not to – who knows!
Setlist journey
I ended up spending several hours ploughing through the CMA’s 97 page report on the streaming market to put together some notes for this week’s Setlist podcast. That delayed recording, resulting in Andy having to upload the final edit from a holiday cottage in France over wobbly French holiday cottage wifi. That proved impossible, resulting in him having to send me the file cut up into ten minute segments so I could stitch them together and do the uploading. What I’m saying is, this week’s Setlist went on quite the journey before being published! See how it turned out right about here.
