That Fatal Kiss Music » Website Updates

Shop ‘Til You Drop

tfkm — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 00:00:35 +0000

Having had one abortive attempt at bolting an online store onto the TFKM website, we have now taken a different approach and had another go using osCommerce, an Open Source package dedicated solely to this function.

The store is now fully up and running, and can be accessed via the Buy Stuff page, or from the direct link.

Also on the Buy Stuff page are links to our merchandise stores at Cafepress and Spreadshirt, where you can buy t-shirts, bags, hats, all that sort of thing … as well as the TFKM song book (although I would hold off on that, as we are planning to release a new edition very shortly).

If you check out the Cafepress store, we have introduced some new items related to the release of 96, including a handsome t-shirt, which comes in various colours, a striking new coffee mug and a cool tote bag.

Happy shopping, and every blessing,
David

Site Update

tfkm — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 14:54:54 +0000

The site has now been updated to include a page for theREIGN’s brand new, live album, 96, which is due for release on Saturday 10 September 2011. The CD and downloadable songs will become available in the TFKM online store from midnight on the 10th.

Fresh New Look

tfkm — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 00:54:18 +0000

Having finally become a little tired of the look of the TFKM website (not to mention the strange little foibles exhibited by the WPRemix theme, I have made a move to a new theme, which brings with it a new look. I hope you like it!

WPRemix is a brilliant, and powerful piece of kit, but without sufficient backup knowledge in PHP and CSS, and the lengthy cycle involved in updating the theme whenever a new version of WordPress is released (there is still no update for Remix following WP’s update to v3 severla months ago, for example), I have been struggling to get the site to do what I want.

Moreover, the templates used within Remix are a wonderful addition to WP’s admin system, but they do make it difficult when it comes to change something as they are laden down with code to establish the layout.

So … I have, instead, installed a new theme that simply has 200+ settings to play with.

At the moment, it is pretty much on default setup with my graphics in place. Over time, I might get around to learning what the settings do and personalise it a bit further. Time will tell.

Everything is still where it was before, and I have update the Songs page using the Download Manager plug-in I am using. This has made looking after (and navigating) the download pages much, much simpler.

If you come across any broken links, or have any feedback to offer, please let me know.

Every blessing,
David

New Online Store

tfkm — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 18:12:03 +0000

Those of you who are particularly eagle-eyed will have noticed a link in the Navigation bar to a new “Store”. This is an experiment to see if I can pull together those things we have for sale into a single, simple interface. I suggest that you don’t actually try to buy anything at the moment, as it is currently under construction, and has not yet been fully tested.

Once it has been completed, I will confirm accordingly. In the meantime, please bear with me as I pull it all together. One of the joys of WordPress is that it is not possible to quietly build and test stuff in the background, so enjoy my trials and tribulations!

Every blessing,
David

Server Change Update

tfkm — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 08:41:36 +0000

Of all the site moves I have made over the last month or so, this one was by far the easiest. After some consternation in moving others, PHP files to tweak whilse in situ, DNS changes not propogating across the web very quickly and sundry other small niggles, I changed the DNS settings for TFKM at around midnight last night and on waking up and trying it this morning it works perfectly from its new home.

Simples … as they say.

I say perfectly … in fact the events calendar was broken somewhere in the move, but since I was already planning to change from the Gigs Calendar plugin to Gigpress once the move was completed this was not a great hardship, and that change is now completed and the calendar brought fully up to date again.

If you come across any broken links or downloads, please do let me know. Usual e-mail address: david@thatfatalkiss.com, or fill in the contact form.

Every blessing,
David

Potential New Feature

tfkm — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:19:34 +0000

You will have no doubt noticed that there are still no audio/mp3 files for the new songs added to the site back in April. This is entirely due to a lack of the time required to make proper demo recordings of the songs.

Consequently, having recently taken delivery of my 40th birthday present (a digital HD camcorder) I will be having a go at providing these in a different way … i.e. videoing myself playing the songs on guitar. Granted this means you will have to look at me, which is not necessarily ideal, but it will allow me to short circuit the time taken to get the songs onto the site, and also allow me some space to explain a little more about the song at the same time.

I am currently trialling some video editting software and once I am sure I can set these up the way I want to, the three newest songs, Sanctified, Great King Of Love and In Your Arms, will get the treatment and we’ll see how they go down.

Subject to audio quality, it is likely that I will also extract the audio track and include that as an mp3 file for download in the usual way.

Your feedback would be appreciated once these videos start appearing.

Every blessing,
David

“Sanctified” Updated

tfkm — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:06:26 +0000

We have now been able to add the Lead Sheet for Sanctified to complete the files required to play this song … although the melody is slightly more flexible than is indicated in the score itself.

All will become clear once the audio recordings are completed for the new songs, which should now be after theREIGN complete their “showcase” Rock Eucharist on Thursday 7 May.

Every blessing,
David Cooper

New Songs Update

tfkm — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 22:28:54 +0000

As promised I have now uploaded Lead Sheets (melody line, lyrics and guitar chords) for two of the three new songs; Great King Of Love and In Your Arms.

Sanctified is so new that I haven’t even had the chance to get to work on it yet but, hopefully, this will be done and ready to upload over the next couple of days.

Every blessing,
David

New Songs

tfkm — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:00:31 +0000

Hooray for Spring Harvest … a few days in the fog, wind and cold of Skegness helped to clear my writer’s block (at least for the moment) and allowed me to write my first new song in over a year. Given the busyness of the last 12 months, there are now three new songs backed up that haven’t made it onto the site yet, and I am now in the process of putting that right.

In Your Arms is a simple song of worship celebrating what it is that Jesus gives us in our daily lives, and how solid and strong we can be if we rest our hopes and our lives on Him, rather than on our own humanity.

Great King Of Love is a song celebrating that Jesus is the King of Love and some of the things that His love gives us beyond the obvious.

Sanctified (the Spring Harvest song) combines gentle verses of reflection on our own weaknesses and our sins with a big, bold chorus celebrating Jesus’ holiness and asking him to forgive and sanctify us in His name.

I have already uploaded Chord and Lyric charts for each of these three songs … but these are no good by themselves as you don’t know the tunes. Therefore, piano arrangements will be uploaded over the next day or so, with demo recordings (probably just guitar and voice) shortly afterwards.

This process has also highlighted that the Download manager on the site does not display downloads in alphabetical order … I’ll have to see what I can do about that.

Every blessing,
David

We’re Back!

tfkm — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 09:23:01 +0000

Thanks to a little luck, a great deal of elbow grease, some beyond the call of duty from our hosts and, I imagine, a little divine intervention the site is back up and running … almost.

All of the posts, pages, and calendar are back in place and up to date, along with the following sections of downloads: Audio Files, Radio Interviews, Outside Projects, Fun Stuff and Video Clips. The rest will be completed over the next few days.

We are trying out a new download manager on the site, in order to simplify the mechanism for getting separate categories on separate pages (otherwise known as not having to ask Tim Canty to change the code of the plug-in to make it happen). At this point, the plug-in simply produces a list of the files that can be downloaded which is not ideal as we would like to show a little more information about each one. The plug-in writer is working on this for a future update, so we’ll see how it goes.

At least we know this hacker attack (unlike previous ones) was not directed against Christian sites as they basically took out the entire server at the webhosts’ end … and I believe mine are the only Christian sites on it.

Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any way to prevent this kind of thing from ever happening, so we thank you for your continued patience while we resolve the outstanding issues and look forward to getting back to the music imminently.

Every blessing,
David