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	FROM THE EDITORS
	A couple of free gift offers in this month’s LiNK. There’s the usual “Album of the Month” competition - just complete Otis Crump’s Wordsearch on p.43, send your completed entry to our Rosedale address and you’re in with a chance to win any one of three excellent albums: Phil Saunders’ “Hardcore Folklore”, “ Ruled” from A Fable for The Curious, or “3 Foot Ninja” by, er, 3 Foot Ninja. And then there’s the offer of a couple of tickets to see Celtic Dreams at Middlesbrough Theatre. See p.12 for details of this brain taxing competition. Look forward to getting all your entries. First out the hat wins.... We’ve been involved in the beginnings of promotion of the Ninja’s album over the past few weeks. And the response has been remarkable. Co-inciding with a broadcast by Bob Fischer on his BBC Tees show on the winter solstice a free MP3 of one of the tracks “Fear” was made available. As we go to press early January there’s been app. 700 downloads of this track and people from as far afield as Australia and the States have sent congratulatory messages. A vid of another track “England Rains Over you”, also played on Bob’s programme, has had about 800 plays in three days. And our mate Paul Crossland made a vid shot from a camera mounted on his son Callum’s chest as he fearlessly completed a circuit of Teesside’s South Tees Motocross Park. Using “Fear” as the soundtrack. Hundreds of views of this vid. Check out www.youtube.com/cultfound to see these vids and 3 Foot Ninja’s facebook page for the link to the free download. We’re only talking hundreds here - but these are significant figures for a young band with no promotional budget or support from a major label. The music is exceptional - get the album when it’s released: Monday 26th March. Follow the links at www.cultfound.org for 3 Foot Ninja’s official website for latest news and that. We were really pleased to receive an unsolicited review of “Fear” by Jericho Keys a few days ago. You can read it on p.40. Hope to have more contributions in the future from Jericho, recently graduated from Teesside Uni with a degree in jounalism. Any other budding young writers take note - we always welcome submissions. Send them by email to info@cultfound.org. If you need any guidelines on writing for the LiNK don’t hesitate to ring us on 0845 458 4699. There’s so much good music being created in this region - it needs properly reporting. Don’t worry about sending stuff that you think is maybe not perfect. We’ll edit it if necessary - and we’ll explain to you the reasons for the edits. Might help in your progress as a writer. As we’ve always stressed: This Is Your Mag. We particularly welcome stuff written from the perspective of bands who are struggling with the whole business of originating new material, rehearsing it, and getting out there and gigging. Robert Nichols’ account of “The Band With Square Wheels” and Bob Fischer’s recent account of a gig he played with John Otway are perfect examples of the kind of stuff I’m on about. Gonzo journalism. (Read “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” or anything else by Hunter S. Thompson for a clue) Plenty of good gigs this month - see you at one of them, Pete Bell 2012 – year of Olympic ideals… Cricketers being taken to court for involvement with betting scams Boxers having results tampered with. Footballers showing their racist credentials Anarchy in the England rugby team & FIFA shown to be corrupt from the very top downward…. Well it could all turn around and be a wonderful event that showcases all that is best about the human spirit but one cannot but think it is so little to with the individual and so much more to do with corporate sponsorship and profit for the few. Will it deliver the kind of legacy that only Barcelona can readily claim to have done in recent years or will it be a costly exercise with security being the major element that we will be paying for decades to come…? Well I think as the Cultural Olympiad that has been part of the lead up to the event shows there is a lot of money being spent on things that seem wonderful on paper but that don’t engage people on the ground. Saving live music venues like The Boardwalk in Sheffield and The Marquee Club in London would have been a much more appropriate use of public money to ensure future generations get a chance to see live music in iconic venues as well as down the local pub. Creating wonderful events dreamt up by focus groups and quangos is not the way to engage people in local communities and create a legacy. I wish I’d gone with my initial idea to subtly change our name to Musicsport and had a go for some of that funding that was being thrown at 2012. Jim McLaughlin
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