Rich Batsford

Business is a covert form of warfare. Warfare is an overt form of business. Britain is a business. Part of the job of the government is to sell us the idea that we need a government. (read more)

I came across Peter Cox’s music blog via a Yahoo egroup which I’m a member of which probably deserves a blog post in itself as its a valuable musicians resource – its a place where muso’s across the world hang out to exchange ideas and tips and music chat called Music Thoughts – and theyre a really friendly bunch of people. Your Music Blog is a new enterprise and well worth checking out,… (read more)

If you like my piano music, or you have an interest in contemporary piano music, or just fancy something nice in the background when youre chilling or working, can I suggest giving my online radio station a try? OK, to be fair, I should explain that I havent gone to a lot of painstaking effort to create my own station – this is a feature of the excellent LastFM.com.  If you dont know Last FM, I’d… (read more)

My first gig for top Birmingham music promoters Capsule was a great pleasure yesterday. For my set, I was a little taken aback at first by how quiet the audience were – very attentive and polite.  Probably because it was in a pub – albeit in the venue room of what is certainly one of Birmingham’s very bext music pubs – I suppose I expected it to be more lively – but actually the gentle… (read more)

Ive received a great albumn review today from the good guys of Bearded Magazine. In case you dont know Bearded already, these guys are very passionate supporters of independent music – well worth checking out in there current online incarnation. Some highlights from the review by Simon Harper include: “Quietly building melody and atmosphere, Batsford appears to excel at gently shaping moods and… (read more)

Really looking forward to my first gig for local promoter heroes Capsule on Saturday June 5th at the Hare and Hounds Kings Heath. For those that may not already know, the Capsule ladies have a exceptional 10 year hisory of running extremely good concerts and also the Supersonic Festival – two of Birmingham’s finest. On this occasion, I’ll be supporting Phosphorescent – an interesting touring… (read more)

I really enjoyed my week in Brighton playing piano for a theatre show. We were based in Grand Central – see photo – right by the train station.  It could hardly have been better in terms of access – we were accomodated in rooms on the top floor, with the theatre space being on the middle floor and the ground floor being a really nice pub. Happy Days!  Also, as Brighton afficionados will know… (read more)

Very pleased to discover that my track Namaste is featured in an Imix of Birmingham music, alongside some really top drawer artists such as the Destroyers and Soweto Kinch. Its a really good mix of styles and good quality, so if you fancy a sampler of music in Birmingham, well worth a go I reckon: (read more)

Im heading down to Brighton tomorrow to play piano in a small theatre production called “An Intimate History” as part of the Brighton Fringe. When I say small, I do mean it – this is a show that is performed by one actor to one audience member at a time. You can’t get much more intimate than that! The 5 minute pieces are inspired by text taken from Zeldin’s ‘Intimate History of Humanity’… (read more)

I recently sent a copy of my album Valentine Court to a lady in the US called Rebecca Johnson, who writes regularly on a website called Seasoned with Love.  She is also a key player in the growing army of people with an interest in music, books etc who contribute to our growing global cultural wealth my regularly reviewing music on Amazon. Its very hard for indie artists to get coverage in papers… (read more)

I had a lovely gig last night courtesy of Matt Hernandez who runs a great acoustic night at Cox’s Yard – a nice pub right on the riber Avon in the middle of Stratford. Matt himself kicked things of with some beautifully played flamenco guitar and then I did my bit.  The crowd wasnt paying too much attention at first and there were noisy pool games off to the right, but as the set progressed the… (read more)