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Songwriter Forum => Competitions => Topic started by: Viscount Cramer & His Orchestra on August 15, 2017, 09:47:24 AM

Title: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Viscount Cramer & His Orchestra on August 15, 2017, 09:47:24 AM
Right the votes have been counted and the 'gifts' have been banked (thank you - very generous)

So without further ado, our glorious winner this month, by a safe margin, is PaulyX and his band with 'Ram Raid at the Palace of Wonder' - a great song and thoroughly deserving of the win!

Runner-up is Jambrains with his 'Leave No Stone Unturned'

There was very little between the other three.....in fact the third place is jointly shared by Mutrins and Yodasdad.

Thanks to the nominees for the great songs and to all 17 of you who validated the competition by voting. Shame we couldn't get more interest...tant pis.
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: PaulAds on August 15, 2017, 10:07:35 AM
Well done, Paulyx and the guys  :)

Thanks very much to VC for being kind enough to step in to run the competition...I wish we could get more people taking part...but I think we've tried everything!
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: CaliaMoko on August 15, 2017, 03:26:46 PM
Congratulations to the winners!
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Skub on August 15, 2017, 05:45:03 PM
Grats to all the worthy nominees and Big up to da Count for doing referee.  8)

PaulyX song blew me away entirely.
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: pompeyjazz on August 15, 2017, 06:02:00 PM
An excellent winner and well deserved. Well done Paulyx

Good on yer Count for a well run competition. Counting all those votes is some job eh ?  ;D
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Paulski on August 15, 2017, 07:36:34 PM
Big congrats to Paulyx and all the podium placers.
Big thanks to VC for the hosting duties, rousing the voting mob, and keeping voter fraud to a minimum. ;D ;D
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: PaulyX on August 15, 2017, 08:32:22 PM
Wow, I wasn't expecting that.  Thanks so much everyone.  The 'guys in the van' will be equally chuffed.
Congratulations too to the other songs - it's an honour to share the podium with such fine tracks.
And thanks to the Viscount for running it so well.  And introducing me to the phrase 'tant pis' - bonus points to the first person to get that in a song lyric?
Here's to SOTM August... good luck all.
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Mikey on August 15, 2017, 09:39:51 PM
Well done Pauly, and congrats to everyone who got nominated.

Mikey
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Yodasdad on August 15, 2017, 10:42:29 PM
Well, I'm getting some wear out of this brides maids dress :D

Nice one Pauly, and the blokes you've got tied up in the van.

Well done to the other nominee's.

Thanks to all who took the time to vote.

And thanks Viscount for being the host with the most.

Yodasdad
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: pompeyjazz on August 15, 2017, 10:59:16 PM
OK - I know I've banged on about this before but why do we get such a poor response to voting for songs in competitions ? It's really simple and takes no time (20 minutes to listen to all the nominations and vote) There are so many excellent songs on this forum that just get hardly any feedback. OK rant over, any suggestions on how we can encourage more votes ? As Paul said though, we've tried a lot of directions and nothing seems to work) Shame....
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Viscount Cramer & His Orchestra on August 16, 2017, 06:42:37 PM
I suppose if we adjust our expectations and bear in mind that a few years ago when I first hosted the comp there were only 13 votes, we can count on it as a small success!

Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Darren1664 on August 16, 2017, 07:13:20 PM
Congratz Pauly for the well deserved win!! and to all nominees for their excellent songs!

and of course to Viscount for hosting. It's great to have these competitions and the opportunity to listen to some great new music, so thank you.

All the best

Darren
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Skub on August 16, 2017, 08:04:53 PM
OK - I know I've banged on about this before but why do we get such a poor response to voting for songs in competitions ? It's really simple and takes no time (20 minutes to listen to all the nominations and vote) There are so many excellent songs on this forum that just get hardly any feedback. OK rant over, any suggestions on how we can encourage more votes ? As Paul said though, we've tried a lot of directions and nothing seems to work) Shame....

It may be down to time of year in this particular case,John. The forum is unusually quiet overall,probably due to folk on holiday. Another factor is..a fair few folk don't venture beyond 'finished songs',so never see the other sub forums.
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Neil C on August 18, 2017, 08:03:03 AM
Hi,

17 seems reasonable to me in terms of a response from my experience, especially given its holiday season.

It feels like theres a hardcore of between 30 - 50 regular posters on the forum ay any moment in time. Its a free world and everybody has time constraints, commitments and priorities, so for me it works ok. The hardest bit is getting volunteers to run the competitions, the lyric of the month has ceased again.

One thought I had was could we make it easier to actually vote. I think Jambrians is a clever and understands focus and stuff and found a way once to be able to vote without having to pm, that might make the admin overhead easier?
 :)
neil
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Mutrins on August 18, 2017, 09:45:59 AM
Congrats PaulyX !!! And everyone else 😁
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Neil C on August 26, 2017, 09:10:17 AM
Viscount,

Hi just wondered have you got a referee someone to run this months SOTM?

 ???

neil
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Viscount Cramer & His Orchestra on August 26, 2017, 12:27:13 PM
Er....no. I didn't realise that was part of my brief....thought it was open to volunteers.

Ok, any volunteers?
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Skub on August 26, 2017, 01:03:42 PM
Doesn't the last winner run the next month's competition? In this case PaulyX being the July winner would be da host for August. Or has that rule changed again?  :D
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Neil C on August 26, 2017, 02:12:32 PM
It needs a volunteer and isn't a fixed rule, but a useful convention.. PaulyX?
 :)
neil
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: shadowfax on August 26, 2017, 03:49:06 PM
I Paulyx isn't up for it I'll do it :) :)

Kevin :)
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Viscount Cramer & His Orchestra on August 26, 2017, 04:21:57 PM
Having the winner do it doesn't really work. It isn't always convenient for some plus potentially somebody could win 5 times a year or something.

And PaulyX did it in June.
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Skub on August 26, 2017, 09:55:33 PM


And PaulyX did it in June.
That'll teach him for consistently winning!

As with Kevin,if no other bugger wants the job,stick my name in the hat.
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Oldbutyet on August 26, 2017, 10:43:24 PM


And PaulyX did it in June.
That'll teach him for consistently winning!

As with Kevin,if no other bugger wants the job,stick my name in the hat.


Bugger, did someone say bugger, ill have mine with loads of onion and no red sauce thank you.
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: PaulyX on August 26, 2017, 10:55:56 PM
Yep I don't want to do it again yet as (although it's a privilege) it's not fair that I should get to choose the finalists twice within a few months.
So I vote for Shadowfax since he seems to be the first to volunteer below.  (Aargh, now we're voting on who gets to count the votes...  ???)
BTW from memory I think Darren was up for it the month after (after getting married this month?) and then we have Skub below.  That'll see us into Autumn.
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: shadowfax on August 27, 2017, 08:18:48 AM
OK, so I'm doing it !! unless someone higher ranking says I'm not ;D ;D
or me and skub can do pistols at dawn ;D ;D

all agreed? :) :)
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Darren1664 on August 27, 2017, 08:41:44 AM
Agreed! thank you for stepping up to the plate shadowfax :) and I'm happy to do it but if me and skub can swap so that he does September and I'll do October that'd be great....just that I'm away most of September so will be hard to keep on top of the tracks etc.

Let me know :) thanks Darren
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: pompeyjazz on August 27, 2017, 09:42:35 AM
It's a tough job I can tell you, especially counting all those votes.
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: shadowfax on August 27, 2017, 09:43:59 AM
OK so I'm on it..will have the contenders list 1st of Sept, been listening to a lot of the forum stuff while driving around in the Jeep so already got a good idea of which songs are gonna be in it...

best, Kevin :)
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: shadowfax on August 27, 2017, 09:44:48 AM
It's a tough job I can tell you, especially counting all those votes.

I can only count up to ten so may be even tougher ::) ::)
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: shadowfax on August 27, 2017, 09:48:38 AM
On a serious note though, when we have 4,329,00 members and around 4,309 are not the slightest bit interested in the SOTM comp, does it make any sense to keep goin on with it...?

just askin..don't anyone go biting my head off please!! :) :) :)
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Darren1664 on August 27, 2017, 10:33:38 AM
On a serious note though, when we have 4,329,00 members and around 4,309 are not the slightest bit interested in the SOTM comp, does it make any sense to keep goin on with it...?

just askin..don't anyone go biting my head off please!! :) :) :)

It's a fair question. I haven't been here long enough to know the history of the competition, what the motivations were for starting it or how successful it has been but it was one thing that really excited me about this forum when I first joined. I felt like I have found a community of active song writers who were willing to listen to and feedback on my music for the small price of reciprocating, and the competitions is a great way of doing this.

I suppose we need ask what the aim of having the competitions is and whether it meets these aims. For me it is just about hearing new music and being able to show my appreciation via a vote.

I'm sidetracking a bit but I don't listen to music much except for here. My favourite songs of the past year have all been from posters on this forum. There is some great talent and great music here and it was the competition that really made me realise this. When I review a track in the feedback sections I do just that, I review it. It's different when I vote on tracks via this competition because then I spend more time just listening and appreciating the music rather than listening with the intention of offering feedback.

Something I'd really appreciate would be some playlist or radio station that showcased the music here so that I could put on my headphones, hit play and just enjoy the music (while I potter or whatever...). So maybe the format of the competition could change slightly to encourage more forum goers to listen to music here in that fashion with the prospect that they may get their track 'showcased' or whatever. I don't know, what I've suggested is probably a lot of work but I'm just spitting out an idea.

Early morning + coffee = me waffling on

Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: shadowfax on August 27, 2017, 11:00:32 AM
On a serious note though, when we have 4,329,00 members and around 4,309 are not the slightest bit interested in the SOTM comp, does it make any sense to keep goin on with it...?

just askin..don't anyone go biting my head off please!! :) :) :)

It's a fair question. I haven't been here long enough to know the history of the competition, what the motivations were for starting it or how successful it has been but it was one thing that really excited me about this forum when I first joined. I felt like I have found a community of active song writers who were willing to listen to and feedback on my music for the small price of reciprocating, and the competitions is a great way of doing this.

I suppose we need ask what the aim of having the competitions is and whether it meets these aims. For me it is just about hearing new music and being able to show my appreciation via a vote.

I'm sidetracking a bit but I don't listen to music much except for here. My favourite songs of the past year have all been from posters on this forum. There is some great talent and great music here and it was the competition that really made me realise this. When I review a track in the feedback sections I do just that, I review it. It's different when I vote on tracks via this competition because then I spend more time just listening and appreciating the music rather than listening with the intention of offering feedback.

Something I'd really appreciate would be some playlist or radio station that showcased the music here so that I could put on my headphones, hit play and just enjoy the music (while I potter or whatever...). So maybe the format of the competition could change slightly to encourage more forum goers to listen to music here in that fashion with the prospect that they may get their track 'showcased' or whatever. I don't know, what I've suggested is probably a lot of work but I'm just spitting out an idea.

Early morning + coffee = me waffling on



Well you have found a community of active songwriters who are willing to listen and give feedback, it's just a pity that it's a very small proportion of the community as a whole...
getting the rest of them to join in seems an impossible dream though!!..pity!
ah well onwards and upwards...maybe :) :) :)

best mate, Kevin :)
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Darren1664 on August 27, 2017, 11:19:27 AM
Well you have found a community of active songwriters who are willing to listen and give feedback, it's just a pity that it's a very small proportion of the community as a whole...
getting the rest of them to join in seems an impossible dream though!!..pity!
ah well onwards and upwards...maybe :) :) :)

best mate, Kevin :)

Ahh yes, sorry I didn't mean to give the impression that I hadn't found that! This forum has been such a great place and the members here have been fantastic. Like you say, it's just a pity so many lay dormant. Onwards and upwards indeed! :) Cheers Kevin, enjoy your Sunday!
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Skub on August 27, 2017, 02:37:18 PM
Agreed! thank you for stepping up to the plate shadowfax :) and I'm happy to do it but if me and skub can swap so that he does September and I'll do October that'd be great....just that I'm away most of September so will be hard to keep on top of the tracks etc.

Let me know :) thanks Darren

That'll do Darren,I'll host in September and you'll be up for it in October.  :)
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Darren1664 on August 27, 2017, 02:41:10 PM
Agreed! thank you for stepping up to the plate shadowfax :) and I'm happy to do it but if me and skub can swap so that he does September and I'll do October that'd be great....just that I'm away most of September so will be hard to keep on top of the tracks etc.

Let me know :) thanks Darren

That'll do Darren,I'll host in September and you'll be up for it in October.  :)

Excellent, cheers Skub  :)
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: PaulyX on August 28, 2017, 09:26:20 PM
I agree with Darren here... the competitions, especially SOTM, add a nice rhythm to the forum and personally I like the way it kind of groups the forum output into monthly batches - that somehow makes each new month feel fresh again to me.  15-25 people voting isn't that bad I think, especially given the talent and experience of so many of the people that do get involved.  And the 4000 that don't chip in, hey, it's their loss.  Thanks in advance to the next 3 adjudicators now nicely lined up.
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Neil C on September 06, 2017, 06:18:33 PM
I'll go for November if Darren reminds me :-) neil
Title: Re: July SOTM Winner
Post by: Darren1664 on September 06, 2017, 07:20:29 PM
I'll go for November if Darren reminds me :-) neil

I'll do my best ;)