Music for these times

Happy Monday folks!

Hope folks had good weekends and are keeping safe! Not a lot to report at the moment – we’re very much business as usual here at Rusty Towers. Currently the Leadership Team is preparing for our company AGM taking place this weekend, and production work continues apace to ensure we can keep bringing you our shows and work on things for the future. We’ve mentioned Freaks’ Rollcall before – a new 6 part dark comedy show that will be available to all Patrons - and I’m pleased to say things are still on track as we put the necessary infrastructure in place for it.

Talking of potential new shows, this month also marks our first scheduled commissioning round where we’ll be looking at the various pitches we’ve received. Obviously it’s too early to say what things will look like, but we’ve assembled an internal panel to review and make their recommendations as to potential future RQ shows. With The Magnus Archives on its final season and Rusty Quill Gaming potentially heading to a conclusion, it’s important we plan for the future and say that we want to continue bringing you quality new audio drama.

From a personal point, thank you to everyone who tuned into last week to watch EuroQuill 2020 over on RQ Streams. It was an absolute blast doing that and I hope you all enjoyed the special little extras we were able to bring you. Big shouts go out to all the other RQ Crew who helped me put that together, with tech, music and juror votes. For those asking about the special Captain Bigtime song that was played during the interval, Tim has very kindly posted that on his Twitter and it can be seen HERE.

Some associated news from our colleague, Katie Seaton, producer for Stellar Firma, who also helps run an international group of musicians and music production folks, the Women Composers Collective. This group want to highlight the issues surrounding domestic violence and victims of domestic abuse, an area of particular concern given the close confinement procedures that the current COVID-19 situation has given rise to, and raise money for those working in this field. Thus, they are releasing a charity album called 'Her Indoors', proceeds of which will be donated to groups like Sisters Uncut, who are working tirelessly to not only look after affected folks during the current crisis, but also to mitigate the effects of austerity on women’s aid charities and services.

The album is due for release on 25th May 2020, but is available to pre-order from the group’s Bandcamp page now. To explain more about the situation and the project, Katie has put together some information and report statistics, which you can find attached to this newsletter.

Quick note about the new milestones we posted last week. As some may have seen, we have now passed the next goal with regards to hiring a Communications Assistant. Thank you so much for the generosity that allows us to continue growing. We are working on the job spec for the position now, and thanks to everyone who has already sent us an expression of interest – we are keeping your details on file and as soon we’re ready to post, we’ll let you know what the next steps are. 

And, here's what you can expect from us this week (all shows release at 4pm UK time, unless otherwise stated):

Tue 19th May
RQG156 – In Memoriam (Patreon)

Wed 20th May
MAG168 – Roots (Patreon)
RQG156 – In Memoriam (Public)
RQ Streams – Anil plays… West of Loathing (5pm) 

Thu 21st May
STL049 – Vain Attempts and Vent Descents (Patreon)
MAG168 – Roots (Public)

Fri 22nd May
Knight/Noble Bonus – Rusty Bits #12
Noble Bonus – Letter: Azu to Eren Fairhands
STL049 – Vain Attempts and Vent Descents (Public)

Sat 23rd May
RQ Streams – Mike plays… The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Part 3 (3pm)

Have a great week all!

Anil
Community Manager