My name is Lee and I’m the Development Director for amazingtunes.Which means I manage the team that builds amazingtunes.

2009 will see some really cool enhancements to the site and I’m going to start sharing with you what we’re up to.

Right now we are busy designing, building and testing new ways for amazingtunes users to get (what we call) activity feeds – a bit like a timeline of things you’ve done (e.g. when you became a Fan of an Artist), things people have done to you (e.g. liked one of your uploaded tunes) and things that you’re following (e.g. when an artist you like uploads a new tune or announces a new Gig).

We’re building this into a new personalised Home Page that also has better links to new music recommendations and tools.

We know

After a weighty discussion about tea protocol in the office followed by another public listening of Ben and Amy

So, the day has arrived! Adultery by the Little Comets is now available to download from the Little Comets profile page. If you are one of the lucky ones who has a postcard and you have already signed up to amazingtunes, get yourself to the Little Comets profile page, click on the

As this summer’s festival season moves into full swing amazingtunes found itself in amongst the sun-kissed masses last weekend, donning the shades and dancing it up at the Rockness festival following Spokes as they looked to impress the reveling crowds.

As part of our Sound08 competition held in March of this year we gave one lucky act the chance to get played on XFM and perform live at the Rockness Festival. The eventual winners Spokes last weekend took to the stage in Dores, on the shores of Loch Ness, with a point to prove. The heavily dance orientated line-up at this years event was a motion away from the more subtle and emotional guitar driven melodies of Spokes, however their departure from the intensities of the surrounding stages made them, for me, something of a stand out act.

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Opening with the instrumental track ‘We Like to Dance and Steal Things’ the band built a strong foundation from which to develop, moving into tracks like ‘Sleep it off’ and ‘Young People! All Together’ with a great enthusiasm. While the quieter moments were unfortunately often offset by the traveling bass from the other stages, Spokes’ ability to command a wall of sound made the large majority of the performance a powerful experience, with strong progressions and well weighted climaxes keeping the audience enthused throughout.

While having to compete against a line-up clash that saw the band scheduled to play at the same time as DJ Yoda and the Editors, the lads and lady from Manchester held their audience with great confidence and it certainly left myself with a smile on my face. Speaking with Matthew Baty, the drummer of Spokes, after the performance he said “It was a superb experience. Playing at the same event as so many great acts was a bit of a surreal experience, but really enjoyable. After it was over we decided to make sure that next year we’ll do what it takes to be playing at plenty more festivals.” And with lots of smiles after their performance from both on and off the stage I’m sure they won’t be disappointed.

The festival itself was a great show set in some of the most idyllic scenery north of the border, and with such great weather there was always going to be enjoyment to be had. Fatboy Slim called in the Saturday night, entertaining a massive crowd in front of the main-stage with a brilliantly thought-out set after Soulwax had stunned their patient fans with a live show in the Soulwax Arena, a show that was packed full of energy – and nothing short of amazing. Mylo, donning a vintage Scotland shirt, fed the crowd with healthy doses of bass and the Mystery Jets went down with great aplomb, their single ‘Two Doors Down’ getting an excited response. Underworld reminded us of why they were so successful all those years back, whipping the audience up into a frenzy with an extended version of Born Slippy, and then, of course, there was Spokes. While obviously not commanding quite the same level of interest as Johnny Burrell et al, this relatively new act, here to prove a point and reach new ears, stood tall and left their audience with something a little different to take home with them.

…amazingtunes

Today is another great day for the Amazing Radio scrapbook as we unveil our new schedule. We told you about our new presenters a while ago as well as revealing the name of our first show; It’s Amazing. Well, Trevor’s show is in the can and ready to air tonight at 7pm (GMT). We’ll let Trevor introduce his guests and take you through a selection of songs from amazingtunes.com.

The rest of this week’s schedule looks like this:

Thursday – 7pm – It’s Amazing (with Trevor Dann)
Friday – 7pm – Xan Down South (with Xan Phillips)
Friday – 9pm – Mark Ryan
Saturday – 1pm – Frankie Ward
Sunday – 10am – Greg and Burtt

There’s also another opportunity to catch some of our shows;

Saturday – 3pm – It’s Amazing (with Trevor Dann)
Sunday – 3pm – Xan Down South (with Xan Phillips)

So tune in and let us know what you think either by commenting on this post, via Facebook, Twitter or email.

Oh, and that was just the hors d’oeuvres, we’ve got first shows from Tom Cotton, Fuzz Chaudhrey and the return of Audition with another new presenter, Charlie Ashcroft. We’re sure you’ll love it. Keep an eye on our presenters’ page for further information.

We still keep receiving emails from charities keen to take advantage of our Amazing Christmas offer of free national radio advertising for charities, which is due to end today.  Two people sent submissions late on New Year’s Eve, awesomely proving their commitment to their cause.  In the past two days, we’ve had more.  It seems horribly churlish to say ‘too late, bugger off’ – so we’ve decided to extend Amazing Christmas until the end of January. We’ll have to call it Amazing New Year or something – who cares, the causes are more important than the name.