Well all good things have to come to an end – the last episode of Salopian Mixtape’s current series dropped yesterday and it made me think of how grateful I am to Simon and Michaela for making Adélie the Release of The Series. I thought I would look back at the last seven episodes and five months that this series has spanned.
5th December 2024: Episode 1 (A New Series and The Shed Mixtape #2)
Simon and Michaela launch the new series off at Nerdy and announce Adélie as Local Release of The Series, playing Take Me Back off the album. They also made it possible for me to stock my CDs at my first retail stockists – Tubeway 2 in Bridgnorth and in Spinning Around Records in Wellington.
11th December 2024
Adélie gets 200 streams on Spotify, undoubtedly due in part to The Salopian Mixtape.
20th December 2024: Episode 2 (Merry Christmas)
A Christmas and New Year special! I get to talk a bit about myself, the name and my musical origins. Hurts Every Time is the second track to be played.
24th January 2025: Episode 3 (Adult Play, Ez. Rowan Lawson and more!)
The first one of 2025! Sweet Music is played and Simon creates the legendary LROTS jingle.
28th February 2025: Episode 4 (Love and Hip Hop)
The Valantine’s Day episode, Simon rides solo and presents it from Albert’s Shed Southwater for their next Albert’s Mixtape. A bit about the recording process of the album from me and the soundscape from Fisherman’s Story is explained just before the track is played.
20 March 2025: Episode 5 (Left to Reign, sicky, and The Raging Mabels)
Michaela returns, turns into Kenny from South Park and tries to convert Simon to her new hoodie cult. The very first track off the album, Rocks and Stones, gets played and I natter about the album name, the reason for recording it and a sneaky advert for Shrewsbury Songwriters and my next album. Simon gets the pronunciation of the album right by reminiscing about his friend Kelly. The album is not yet available from Sainsbury’s but we live in hope…
1st April 2025
Adélie gets over 350 Spotify streams, with You’ll Never Be Gone at top place with 71 streams. Definitely not an April Fools prank… I think.
7th April 2025: Episode 6 (An Indie Albert’s Mixtape)
The penultimate episode. Simon and Micheala get stuck in a drum machine. You’ll Never Be Gone is appropriately played, as a few days before I performed it with Two Black Pages live for the first time. The incredible release-ready LROTS jingle is unveiled. I chat about the tracks on the album and adding different harmonies.
29th April 2025: Episode 7 (A Riot Grrrl Albert’s Mixtape)
The final episode of the series. Simon tweaks his masterpiece. Very sad news about Tubeway 2. We all get excited for LoopFest 2025 and Micheala creates a new jingle for the next two special episodes. I show my incredible maths skills by revealing my favourite three tracks rather than the one I was asked for. Campervan marks the end of a very happy series for me, so I’ll be grabbing my tissues and leaving now in my campervan…
Thank you…
Thank you so much to Simon and Micheala for choosing Adélie to be their Release of The Series. This was a very important album for me, being the first “proper” one I had released. Rockhopper was a University project and piece of work and because of the timescale and circumstances I was limited to what I could do with it. With Adélie, I had time to write and record exactly what I wanted and was also the first one that heavily featured my songs, most written in the last year or two. Add on top of that the fact that this was my first foray into mixing my own album, so I was really nervous about how it would be received. When I was told the album had been chosen by The Salopian Mixtape, it gave me a confidence that, OK, this album might not be total rubbish.
Thank you as well to all the people who have listened to the album, whether through The Salopian Mixtape or elsewhere. The fact that people are listening to Adélie means so much to me.
I am really excited for the upcoming LoopFest special episodes and also playing at LoopFest myself for the third time in a row. It is such a special festival that brings together both the town and artists from across all the musical genres. In short – it is a festival for everyone, very much like The Salopian Mixtape.
