Issue #17 - March 2026

Benoit's World News

Bonjour tout le monde!

This is a newsletter I wrote in a hurry today. I have so much to say and so little time, so I tried it to the bare minimum, no opinion... just facts, except for the robbers being robbed at the end. But here are a few new interesting developments coming. Happy reading.

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Horoscope

Early February I wrote: "If you thought 2025 was crazy bad, you can already see what happened in the world in January 2026. Just wait for the year of the fire horse to start on 17th February 2026. All bets are off... but for now just like like Ulysses; I'll tie myself up to the mast and try to keep on playing music despite the doom and gloom of the news cycle mermaids." I was so right! We now have another unpredictable illegal middle-eastern war unleashing chaos on the world, and soon after should come the AI Bubble fun... make sure you listen to music to protect your sanity and stay hopeful in the chaotic period

Live at the Royal Albert Hall

I have announced in February my plan to release a new album. Here is the news: the mastering is completed and I have received 25 pre-sales. It's not enough to finance a run or 300 CDs so I will do a super limited edition of 100 instead. That's bad news for my ego, but the good news is that it will be even more collectable!

I now have to find time to finish the artwork and submit the project to the manufacturer. The album will be released on the 1st of May. I should get the CDs signed and posted before the end of April. All the people that have ordered a CD will also receive free downloads or course.

I would like to thanks all the people that support me on this project, I could not afford to do it without you. Thank you! For the other people, if you suddenly suffer from FOMO (Fear of missing out syndrome), you ​can still PRE-ORDER a copy on Bandcamp​.
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Live music and coral reefs

You may be aware that the hospitality and entertainment sectors are really suffering. There is a perfect storm of post Brexit & pandemic deep wounds / compounded high inflation / business rates / cost of living / debts / greed / fear / digital economy / change in attitude... and now the war in Iran promising to bring a global recession. All theses are quickly making live music a thing of the past because making a basic living from writing, producing or performing music is now becoming totally unsustainable. It's just Coral reefs, because you see beautiful pictures and videos on your mobile you think it's still there and will be there forever, but in truth it's going extinct at an alarming rate. Please don’t let this happen.

Most of my colleagues, some of the best musicians in the country went from being burnt out wrecks performing too much 10-15 years ago to considering having to give it up almost entirely today. I've lost a lot of work myself. For this reason, if you can, I encourage you to support your local venues and performing artists, you'll keep your community more vibrant and participate in keeping music alive.

Small is beautiful:

For the reasons stated above, being based in Hastings, I can't perform in London very often anymore. Venues have cut the budgets so much it does not add up anymore to travel to play and pay NCP parking fees of £60 for the privilege for 5 hours. Venues also now book smaller line ups, give up on live acts or are closing altogether. but there is a great alternative: a couple of smaller & cool shows you can come to:

CENTRAL LONDON

Come to see us live at the award winning GREEN NOTE in London on the 13th of June with the Hot Club (4 piece with violin). The venue is brilliant but only has a capacity of 55, so please book early (Tickets £25).

SOUTH COAST ​
I have started contacting more intimate clubs on the south coast and even decided to sometimes scale down my act for those. I'll be going back to my roots performing only with two acoutic guitars and vocals with my good friend Jarrod Elks at Arigato (St leonards-on-sea / Hastings)

​On April 9th Jarrod & I will be performing for the first time as a duo in ARIGATO (only 26 Tickets available at £10), a very popular Japanese cafe restaurant. We'll have a different repertoire from usual hard hitting Hot Club music, with some more guitar orientated songs taken from Django Reinhardt, to Carlos Jobim to Tommy Emmanuel & Chet Atkins repertoires among others.

I will also perform again at the brilliant Brunswick in Hove on June 3rd, a favourite of mine, and at the Grapevine in Tenterden on on the 6th of June due to popular demand. Both are intimate venues with respective capacities of 70 and 36 respectively but they have great atmospheres and great acoustics...

Concert of the year 2026.

If you want to see us play with a full band in full form, with a great sound, in a fabulous venue with great lighting and acoustics, velour seating, and slouch in a royal balcony with your binoculars: this is your only chance for the rest of 2026!

I will be performing a massive show on Saturday 26th September at the ROYAL HIPPODROME in EASTBOURNE. It's a 630 capacity grade one listed victorian theatre, one of the best in the country and we are absolutely honoured to play there.

This will be the show of the year for me, a fabulous venue, amazing acoustics and some great arrangements that we will perform with the Hot Club and a couple of guests. Tickets are on sale from £26.00 Please come!

23 new live videos for subscribers

That's right, you read correctly. The 22nd November concert at the Henry Ward Hall Hastings got recorded and filmed by some proud members of the community. I am so thankful to them for doing this for us. Please subscribe to my channel (It's free) and you'll be able to be notified when those unreleased songs will be uploaded on you tube. Once I have reach 1000 subscribers, my channel will get promoted by their algorhythms for the benefit of humanity, but I'm still far away from that number.

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The first track being published is "A smooth one" based on the 1941 tune by Benny Goodman and Charlie Christian. Please don't hesitate to comment to praise the band, we'll always like this.

Robbers just got robbed.

‘Musician’ Arrested for Using AI Songs and a Bot Army to Scam Spotify for Millions in Royalties

Is this the future of AI scamming? Michael Smith, a 52-year-old from Cornelius, North Carolina, allegedly used AI to automatically generate hundreds of thousands of songs that he then put on streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music. He’s accused of using an army of bots to “listen” to the tracks that he created with no effort and likely no musical talent.

That netted him over $10 million in streaming royalties.

You can read the complete original article on Vice.com.

I'm of the opinion that we are used to have the music industry and streaming platforms exploiting the resources of hard working musicians (time, health, intelligence, knowledge, creativity, debts, Intellectual property...), most of the time at the musician’s financial loss. Most hardly make a penny and end up with huge debts. Isn't it funny that when a musician uses the industry / platforms resources at their loss (tech, servers, marketing, infrastructure, staff, energy...) they take him to court and put him in jail right away! If artists we being paid properly to do their profession with integrity, they would not take this kind of risks.

Personally I totally support this gentleman. He's just creatively used the technology he's been encouraged to use in a forever evolving digital world. He's shown some entrepreneurial spirit and generated profits from his hard work. He is to the music industry what Marcel Duchamp was to the arts. He exposes the cons, nonsense, immorality and the abuses of the industry.

Other upcoming concerts:

From the author

That’s it folks, It's was a bit long but I hope it was good, or at least "somewhat good". For complaints and accolades please email me, I will respond.

A bientot. (French: meaning "See you soon")

Benoit Viellefon

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Benoit Viellefon - St Matthews Gardens, St Leonards-on-sea, East Sussex, United Kingdom
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