The good news is that my colleague Jacqui Norton and I were successful in getting an Arts Council Grant to do our new series called The Lyrics, The Music and The Money for HMPs in England.

Here’s a taster:

In six upbeat episodes Dr.Jacqui Norton and Megg Nicol navigate the rollercoaster ride that is todays Music Industry. Telling it like it is, with no holds barred, they tackle questions like; How do you get your music heard? Is it possible to make money in the process? What does it take to break a new band? How do you push through the gate-keepers defences to ‘where the power lies’?

Using music and tracks from HMP’s residents Megg and Dr. Jacs, with the help of expert guests, will listen and offer advice on taking their music/ demos to ‘the next level’.

Each episode will have a specific focus and cover everything someone needs to know about the Music Industry.

Then in a few months time Jacqui ( aka Dr.Jacs) and I will be touring various HMPS during the summer to provide the opportunity for residents to ask questions – an element that can’t be in real time via the TV Channel WayOutTV.

We are of course very grateful to get the ACE grant …especially when so many people have lost theirs. But it certainly was not an easy ask. Just filling in the application turned out to be a huge project in itself, all seventy-two pages of it. I can honestly say, that it was more complicated than doing my MA thesis.

But hey ….here we are at the beginning of a new year and we’ve got a great project to get our teeth into. We’ve just completed the first four scripts and we need to finish the final two by the end of the month.

So in theory we’re on target for Alex (our videographer) to shout ‘action’ in February when filming starts…

I’ll keep reporting as we go along….

Meanwhile , just to say, let’s hope 2023 is a jolly one for all!