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The Review - MUSIC - grooves with RóISíN GADELRAB
Published: 15 January 2009

Camden band Vaults appear on tourdates.co.uk

‘My site’s got more space!’

BEYONCE is in the UK Top 40 three times this week and it’s impossible to walk down the high street without hearing her blaring relentlessly from shop speakers.
So when trying to escape from the monotonous repetition of the radio A-list makes you feel like Patrick McGoohan in The Prisoner, there’s a new treasure trove to plunder.
Camden-based website www.tourdates.co.uk has been publishing its own unsigned chart for the past two years – an absolute people’s choice of the most popular new music each week.
Electro-indie favourites The RGBs, Camden nu-folk busker Yan Yates and hip-hop supreme Cyber Ninja are all currently competing for top place in the unsigned chart.
With downloads taking over, new bands no longer need to rely on huge record companies to snap them up.
Now, it’s more a question of being seen and heard on the right website – MySpace. But MySpace has limits and tourdates.co.uk has ambitions to take over the world.
CEO of tourdates.co.uk Jarrod Robinson says: “I want bands to give out their tourdates URL rather than their MySpace. MySpace has a limit to the number of tracks you upload. We don’t. On MySpace the music stops when you change the page – on tourdates you can keep listening to a track and queue other ones.”
At the time of print, 7,873 bands had signed up. They can create their own page, list merchandise, unlimited tracks and videos for free. Although it’s mainly for the unsigned, a few surprising names have joined, including Marillion. But what makes this stand out from the multitude of music-sharing websites is the Unsigned Chart – a measure of downloads, plays and visits to pages.
Jarrod formed the site along with Dean Hill after 12 years in the army and a spate as an IT consultant. They later teamed up with Mark Beilby and set up base in Camden Town.
Jarrod says: “What gives us a buzz is finding something no one else knows about and helping them become something. There’s certainly a lot of bands on tourdates that are starting to come through.”
But can he keep up with every band on the site? “There was a time last year when I could have said I’ve listened to every single track on there, but I just can’t keep up with them any more,” he says.
The site is not confined to traditional indie-rock bands. This week’s top three all fall under the “urban/dance” genre.
The site also has a radio show three times a week, includes regular music news bulletins and has linked up with a forthcoming battle of the bands competition so fans can register their votes through the site.

• Tourdates is holding a musicians’ clinic at Proud on January 26, where bands will be able to get advice from Camden’s music industry leaders.
• Look out for Camden bands on tourdates.co.uk including Vaults, Radfax and Zemmy.
• The Unsigned Chart top three is: Nate Christian’s Gritting Teeth, The Sassysquist’s Messi Venom, and Cyber Ninja with Chillin with the Old and New.

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