Sharp Practise

Sharp Practise plays melodic rock. Like the great classic rock groups, we want to be a credible act that is capable of having hit singles. From progressive rock we've taken the idea of trying to develop the quality of our playing to a good standard. Like punks we want to make our own opportunities when none already exist. And from the days of the great album bands, we want to use the studio as an additional instrument.

We have just released our fifth album, Steal with Pride. A video for Hard Heart, the first single from the album has also been released.

Albums released so far are Hiya (2000), Radiocity (2005), Banging the Rocks (2009) and Now You See Us (2010). The first three are studio albums, the fourth a live recording. The current line-up of Sharp Practise got together during the recording of Banging the Rocks and features Nigel Clothier (vocals and keyboards), Simon Foley (guitars), Ryan Lawson (bass) and Michael Elwood (drums).

We got our name from the first record company we worked with. Nigel had sent them some demos on which he had played all the instruments himself. They assumed they'd heard a band and wanted to sign that band. When Nigel confessed to this piece of "sharp practice" there was only one thing the band could ever be called.

Since Sharp Practise started we have:

* Appeared on Ground Zero TV in Australia
* Had a track featured on the Fila sportswear Rock for Athletes CD
   in Italy
* Provided a song for the soundtrack to a DVD by a teen star in
   Japan
* Won a Kweevak listeners' award in the USA
* Won a New Music Award in the UK
* Given a song to the Odyssey 2050 project that helps build young
   people's awareness of environmental issues worldwide
* Had videos broadcast in Canada and across mainland Europe
* Played at several well-known venues including the Cavern Club
   and the Troubadour.

Having enjoyed success with previous albums the globe-trotting, UK based melodic rock of Sharp Practise makes a welcome return with the launch of fifth album ‘Steal With Pride’.

The ten track album, road tested on a recent British tour, has been written and arranged by Nigel Clothier, the driving force behind Sharp Practise. Nigel explains ‘I write songs as an observer of life, inspiration comes from things that happen around me, things that I see or hear on my travels’. 

Stirred by local news coverage of urban riots and a brief comment to a passer-by from the mother of a hoodie, Nigel penned ‘Jog On’ that opens Steal With Pride.  The album’s journey continues from the viewpoint of a thoughtful spectator and is brought full circle in the last track ‘Justice’ where Nigel’s inspiration came from the desire for social justice expressed in the Arab Spring.

Nigel’s songs come from everyday life. The look on a child’s face seeing a raunchily dressed girl in the street (Fine Line); crashing at a mate’s house listening to music through the night (Keep It Dark); the power of female influence (Over To Caitlin’s) and the counter point that men too can abstain from acting on their sexual desires (Wish My Girlfriend Was A Vampire).

Nigel explains the Sharp Practise philosophy this way. ‘Telling a story in a lyric is very important to me – I’ve always listened to the stories writers like Phil Lynott, Bruce Springsteen and Neil Finn have told and wanted to make my lyrics capable of standing alone too’

‘Musically I try to keep the song structure simple and accessible while still allowing room for something clever to happen.  That might be a guitar solo or three like in ‘Maybe (This Ain’t Right)’ or even a little vocal effect, like the blue note in the second verse of ‘Hard Heart’ on the word “blues”.

In an age of ever expanding musical genres and experimentation Sharp Practise stays true to the melodic rock style that continues to be loved by fans all over the world and which inspires them so much.

For more about Sharp Practise please visit their website at www.sharppractise.com

To contact Sharp Practise or acquire CDs please e-mail admin@sharppractise.com

Hear song previews from Steal With Pride at http://cdbaby.com/cd/sharppractise2

Watch the video for Hard Heart at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydyazaPwemU

To find out more about Sharp Practise please visit our website at www.sharppractise.com.

To get in touch with Sharp Practise please e-mail us at admin@sharppractise.com.

sdc radio networks-2014

Florida school named for Ku Klux Klan leader to change title

Florida school named for Ku Klux Klan leader to change title

By Eric M. Johnson

(Reuters) - A Florida high school whose name commemorates a leader of the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group with a history of lynchings and other violent acts against blacks, is to be renamed, officials said on Monday.

The Nathan Bedford Forrest High School in Jacksonville, Florida, where more than half the students are black, will change its name from that of the Ku Klux Klan's first grand wizard from the start of the next school year in August.

A new name will be proposed in January.

"We recognize that we cannot and are not seeking to erase history," said Constance Hall, a board member for the Duval County school, which was founded 54 years ago.

"For too long and too many, this name has represented the opposite of unity, respect, and equality," Hall said in a statement.

With its roots in the U.S. Civil War era, the Ku Klux Klan has long been associated with hooded, white-robed night riders who menaced blacks with cross burnings, lynchings and other acts of violence.

The honoring of Confederate heroes and emblems has been a divisive issue in the United States, with proponents saying it pays homage to regional history and opponents saying it amounts to racism.

Memphis, Tennessee, in February this year dropped Confederate names from three city parks. One was named after Forrest, a slaveholder before the Civil War and a general during it.

The Florida name change comes after incidents that sparked racial tension in the southern U.S. state.

In July, white former community patrol guard George Zimmerman was acquitted of murder charges in the 2012 killing of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in central Florida.

Also last year, a federal lawsuit alleged civil rights violations in a west-central Florida school district after two black women who scored well on an adult skills test were accused of cheating.

Omotayo Richmond, who moved to Jacksonville from New York, wrote in a Change.org petition that garnered more than 160,000 signatures in support of changing the school's name that doing so would go toward healing "so much racial division" in Florida.

"African American Jacksonville students shouldn't have to attend a high school named for someone who slaughtered and terrorized their ancestors one more school year," Richmond wrote.

The 1,300-student public school, which became racially integrated in 1971, had voted some five years ago to keep the name, but those officials had been replaced, the petition said.

(this story has been corrected to fix spelling of organization's name to Ku Klux Klan)

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson, editing by Elizabeth Piper)

Tony Levitas

Tony Levitas

 Tony Levitas is a song-writer, singer and multi-instrumentalist. "Together Somehow" is Tony's debut solo CD recently released, now on i-tunes, Spotify and Amazon.

He is a native Atlantan and has been in the music business over 20 years, penning dozens of songs. Tony has been in a number of bands, most notably, Arms Akimbo, who had several records out and a video which appeared on MTV.

As the lead vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter for the band, Tony toured with Arms Akimbo extensively including a performance at the South By Southwest Music Conference in Austin, TX and along the east coast playing such venues as CBGB’s and the Danceteria in New York City, and numerous college campuses form Atlanta to Boston. They played with many bands including the Ramones, R.E.M, The Beasty Boys, The Black Crowes, 10,000 Maniacs, The Tubes, Marianne Faithful, Toots and The Maytalls, Dennis Brown and The Georgia Satellites, to name a few.

Tony writes passionate songs about life, love, loss, yearning and hope. His work has been compared to Neil Young, The Clash, The Velvet Underground, Steely Dan, and John Mayer, though his main influences include the early British Invasion, Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, Bob Marley, Jim Morrison and Hank Williams.

 Band Name: Tony Levitas
Album Name: Together Somehow
Email Address: anthonylevitas@aol.com
Website Address: http://www.reverbnation.com/tonylevitas
Music Style: singer/songwriter, indie
Influences: British Invasion Personal
First Name :Tony
Last Name :Levitas
GeographicCity: Atlanta
State: Georgia
Country:USA
Zip Code: 30328

 Band Description

 Tony writes passionate songs about life, love, loss, yearning and hope. His work has been compared to Neil Young, The Clash, The Velvet Underground, Steely Dan, and John Mayer, though his main influences are the Beatles, Dylan, and Miles Davis.