Everything you need to know and more about...

 


 

SellaBration '08 will be the first ever SellaBand Festival. One night, two stages, four continents, 10 bands, That is, in a nutshell what our second Birthday Bash will be all about. On August 15, the famous Paradiso nightclub in Amsterdam, will be the place to be, and the venue will be completely at our disposal!


After our first working session with the wonderful people at Paradiso, it became apparent that they were as enthusiastic as we are to have us celebrate our second birthday at their venue. So when we asked whether we could use the second stage as well, they immediately obliged and embraced the idea of a SellaBand Festival. This resulted in a full blown program where we can showcase no less than 10 performances on 2 different stages.

 

Watch all bands live on the night
Doors will be open as early as 6:45 and the first band will be on stage at 7:30. The last performing artist will also officially launch the After Party and should be finished with his performance well before midnight. We have four hours of live-performances scheduled and the whole show can be seen live on www.fabchannel.com. Because we are using two different rooms, there will be big screens in each room, where you can watch the proceedings in the other room. In other words, when a band is playing in the Main Hall, you can also watch and hear them at The Upstairs and vice versa.

 


Believer tickets are free
Tickets are priced at €10,00 and are on sale via Paradiso itself and various online ticket services as of Saturday, June 21. With a total capacity of 2,000 we have reserved no less than 1,000 tickets for our community. And it goes without saying that tickets for our Artists/Believers will be FREE. It is after all also a special way to thank all of you for you faith, friendship and dedication (and buying the odd Part, of course).

Invite a non-Believer
We are offering 500 members of our community to order 2 tickets for SellaBration '08. Here's the idea: getting in new Believers is still our #1 priority. We are now giving you the opportunity to introduce a friend, colleague or family member to SellaBration. You can apply for tickets as of June 17 via a special registration page on SellaBand.com. You can apply for 2 tickets per person and will then be offered the opportunity to bring a person who is not yet registered as a Believer on SellaBand. Show up on the night and your guest will receive his/her first Gift Part from SellaBand. For free! More about this in next week's Tribune.
 
Early birds rewarded
Last year, the opening act played his set to a venue that was more than half empty. SellaBand and our friends at Heineken Netherlands would like to encourage people to show up as early as you can to also catch the first performers. So, all visitors who show up before 7:30 will get a SellaBration '08 t-shirt with the date, logo and names of all performing artists on it. Again, for free.

 
More news next week
In the coming weeks and months, leading up to August 15, more details and nice little surprises will be announced. On top of that, we will add a countdown clock on the home page this week, counting down to August 15, 7:30 PM, the start of the first performance. Our aim is to top the success of last year's event and to present an evening that is totally worthy of all the positive things that SellaBand is about.

 

What is SellaBration?

 

A short introduction to our annual birthday party 

 

For those who weren't around last year, or somehow missed it, here's a short explanation of what SellaBration is: On August 15 2006, www.sellaband.com was launched. One year later we invited 1.500 of our closest friends to watch performances of no less than six SellaBand Recording Artists (Nemesea, Cubworld, Second Person, Lily, Mandyleigh Storm and Clémence) and a special opening act (Daniel Ward-Murphy). The event ended up on the front page of a national Dutch daily with the headline: "Shareholders meeting with a beer".

In other words: SellaBration is our once-a-year-live-concert-extravaganza and is the one event that is not to be missed.

 

The following points sum up the philosophy behind SellaBration:
1. To generate (free) publicity and to shoe the outside world what SellaBand is all about and what it can achieve for aspiring artists.
2. An original way to thank our community for their faith and dedication.
3. To offer our dedicated and ambitious artists a professional stage to showcase their music.
4. To offer our community a place to get together and (finally) meet each other.
5. To confirm that, amongst other things, this is what sets us apart from the competition. We're making things real and try to make things happen.

SellaBration 07

 

 

Afternoon Delight:

 

The SellaBand Seminar


In the afternoon of Friday, August 15, SellaBand will stage an official seminar. An event for Artists and Believers to get together and be involved in discussions and presentations regarding SellaBand.

Paradiso 

Location and exact timings are still tbc, but visitors of SellaBration 08 are well advised to arrive early in Amsterdam on August 15. That is, if they would like to attend the SellaBand Seminar. During this seminar we will offer a program where all things SellaBand will be discussed.
It includes:

Presentation of the new website
Future plans
Artist Panel
Expert discussion
Q + A with SellaBand Management.

For more details, also about how to register for the SellaBand Seminar, please keep an eye on upcoming Tribunes, but for now we wanted to give you the heads up that this event will be taking place on August 15 as well.


BELIEVER'S CHOICE

 

You decide who will open SellaBration

 

In the middle section of this Tribune you can find the nine confirmed performers for SellaBration. Nine artists from eight different countries. All in different stages of their career, but all of them very dedicated and working hard to make it to the next level. The tenth act will be selected by the community of SellaBand. We received hundreds of e-mails from bands who wanted to play. A remarkable fact: we counted more than one hundred requests from bands with $0,00 on their account. So at least they do read the Tribune;-) Because we were overwhelmed by the number of entries, the jury will need a bit longer to make their final selection. Therefore we will announce the finalists in the next Tribune, after which the daily voting will begin. So, more about the final performing artist in the next Tribune.

 

All in all we think we have been able to secure a fantastic line-up. While the focus of a lot that we seem to be doing is on Europe, the line-up of SellaBration '08 also shows that we are making waves around the globe. With the addition of Mysti Mayhem (North America), Maitreya (Oceania) and EES (Asia), this Festival covers at least four continents.

So, in a nutshell:

One Night

Two Stages

Four Continents

Ten Performing Acts

Two thousand people in the audience...?

NINE LIVES

 

This is the line-up:

 

SellaBand has invited nine artists to perform at SellaBration '08. The tenth performing artist will be decided by you, the community of SellaBand (see left column). In this article we give you an overview of the bands/artists who have been confirmed to play, their status on SellaBand and why we have invited them to perform.

 

Paradiso


"It took us 8 years to be able to play the main stage of the Paradiso" - thus exclaimed Chris Martin, lead singer of Coldplay from the main stage of Paradiso, last Wednesday. It took some SellaBands less than 12 months to make this dream come true, is what us cheeky b***ards have to add to this..


We spent many hours trying to find the perfect line-up for SellaBration. There are 10 available performance spots, which may seem a lot but still is virtually nothing if you look at the number of active bands on SellaBand. We decided that we would draw the majority of the performing artists from the 50K ranks, which is what made the success of SellaBration '07. At the same time we decided that none of the artists who had their own performance last year, would be invited again; we wanted a brand new line-up. Also, having your album out by August 15 would weigh in considerably. Thus, no less than 7 acts were selected. For the three remaining slots we wanted a/ an artist selected by the community, b/ a Dutch act who can pull a decent crowd and c/ a wild card for a band with a stunning live reputation. Finally we came to this very exciting line-up. Here it is, in alphabetical order:

 

CONFUSED 5

Confused 5 

Status: Will release their SAB album "Out of Confusion" in June.

Invited, because: Among the bands who have 'fresh' product to promote. This hard working five piece from Austria are always giving back more than they have asked for. Putting their native Salzburg on the map like only Mozart has done before them, they are also a very experienced live-act.

 

ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK

Electric Eel Shock 

Status: Current #1 on the SAB Search engine

Invited, because: This Japanese sensation on SellaBand, drew the wild card from SellaBand HQ. Last year we invited Daniel Ward-Murphy because of his persistence (and talent, of course), this year we're inviting a band because of their impressive rise on our platform and spectacular live-performances. Representing Asia, a very appealing part of the globe, EES are, arguably the most experienced touring band on SellaBand and guarantee to bring their own crowd, as well as convince an international audience with their unique sound.

 

FRANCIS RODINO

Francis Rodino 

Status: Will release his SAB album "Circles & Squares" in August

Invited, because: Hey, we needed a reason for the big man to speed up his recording process... All joking aside, SellaBration '08 is the perfect vehicle to launch an album, Francis has promised the record will be ready before the gig and invitations will go out to UK press to come over and watch this Londoner kick **s at our birthday bash. He is after all a very convincing live-performer...

 

JULIA MARCELL

Julia Marcell 

Status: Has just released her SAB album "It Might Like You"

Invited, because: This unpolished Polish lady is a shining example of what SellaBand can do for an artist. She rose to the occasion when her fans and our community gave her the opportunity and has just released an album that has only garnered rave reviews. Julia will bring her String Quartet with her and will play for the first time in front of a SellaBand audience.

 

MAITREYA

maitreya 

Status: Has just released his SAB album "Close to Home"

Invited, because: Some may argue that he has played a SellaBand stage before, but at London Calling he performed because he won a competition, while at SellaBration '07 he was 'just' a guest of Cubworld. Now is the time for him to perform in his own right. Representing a style of music that can attract a young and hip crowd, Maitreya is the perfect choice to end the official performances and launch the after party.

 

MYSTI MAYHEM

Mysti Mayhem 

Status: Will release her SAB album "Diversity" in August

Invited, because: Have guitar, will travel. That seems to be her motto. And travel she will, with guitar in tow, all the way from New Mexico. So much pure talent, so much dedication, there was never a doubt in our mind that Mysti Mayhem would be invited. And, incidentally her SellaBand album will be launched in the week of August 15, so what more reason do we need?

 

SOLIDTUBE 

SolidTube 

Status: Have just released their SAB album "The Running Time"

Invited, because: Together with C5 they have put SellaBand on the map in Austria. We've been welcomed by this lot in Vienna a couple of times already so it was about time we returned the favor. And besides, Mandana is great in the studio, but the stage is where she really shines. SolidTube is guaranteed to bring some eh... solid, country tinged rock to the stage of Paradiso and will confirm their status of great live-act.

 

SO WHAT

So What 

Status: Will be recording their SAB album this Summer

Invited, because: For obvious reasons (media attention, attracting an audience) we wanted to have at least one Dutch band on stage. They were a last minute stand-in for Nemesea at the gig in February and had to disappoint most of their fans who wanted to attend. And although they have yet to record their SellaBand album, we want So What to be able to give all they've got on the Main Stage of Paradiso this time and show the audience why they became the second ever Dutch act to raise 50K on SellaBand.

 

T-KA

T-ka 

Status: Her SAB album "And Maybe a Tree Will Rise Out Of Me" will be released this Summer

Invited, because: It's hard to believe that T-ka has never performed at an official SellaBand gig before. Now that her album is ready to be released, and she has just put her new band together, the timing is just perfect to have her perform at SellaBration. One minor setback: T-ka will be on holiday in August, but has already confirmed she will fly in straight from wherever she may be to make her SellaBand live-debut...