How we did it

They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step, and our very first step was to appoint a Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer to administer our business affairs. To ensure democracy, all decisions were put to a vote where all class members could have their say. The first decision was the format our release would take, some members of the group (the dance orientated DJ's within the class) was some interest in a 12" vinyl from however it was decided that CD format would be best.

To ensure maximum impact, our first instinct was to release a compilation featuring local unsigned bands performing cover versions, in fact we went so far as to name the CD 'Northern Cover Up' and produce a logo. Upon further investigation, if was felt that the covers CD was not one of our better ideas, what with having to pay publishing royalties on all of the tracks and possibly seeking permission from various song publishers. In the end it was college lecturer and our good friend Bun who came up with the idea of producing a dance CD one afternoon in the college bar. This seemed to be a belting idea, previous CDs which have been produced by the college had featured local bands recorded within the college's own studios. As dance acts normally program away from within their own bedrooms this would seem like an excellent idea to avoid a possible drain on college resources.

And so an advertising campaign was put into practice calling for dance artists far and wide. We postered the college, produced an internet site and was lucky enough to be featured in the prestigious Sound On Sound. This resulted in us receiving enquiries from as far afield as Canada and Singapore no less. We auditioned all material the received through the post (and submissions we received over the .net), and the class acted as jurors and chose the most suitable tracks.

To promote our CD we arranged a pre-release party at the Citadel in St.Helens on the 17th Oct '98, which was a great success.

The CD was originally destined for a Christmas release but was delayed in manufacture due to various technical difficulties too complicated to enter into here but during this time but we had an offer of the use of the Citadel again and arranged a further party at the end of January '99. The CD was finally released on the 22nd Jan '99, which was followed by the post release party which was a rip roaring success.

And that is that, obviously we could go into further details about the trials and tribulations of it all, there have been some major problems encountered along the way not least the amount of time it has taken to actually complete the project but we've finally done it, a CD of our very own.

Work has begun on another CD called B.S.E.(British Sound Evolution) another dance CD which will follow in the footsteps of Digital Nation. B.S.E. is being handled by the current 1st year National Diploma students and is scheduled to be released later this year, we wish them well.