Why Don’t Bands Come To Cardiff?

As outlined in a recent seminar as part of the the 2008 Swn Festival, there seems to be a real issue regarding some bands playing in Cardiff. I am interested in finding out why this is, but copied below are couple of examples (Taken from CMU) – what can be done about it??

VAMPIRE WEEKEND UK TOUR DATES
Vampire Weekend have announced some tour dates. They will happen in the UK in November and December. Tickets for them go on sale on Friday.

Tour dates:

25 Nov: Blackpool, Empress Ballroom Arena
26 Nov: Wolverhampton, Civic Hall
28 Nov: Edinburgh, Corn Exchange
29 Nov: Sheffield, Academy
1 Dec: Brighton Centre
2 Dec: London, Alexandra Palace

THE SCRIPT ANNOUNCE SEPTEMBER TOUR
The Script sold 1.8 million copies of their debut album, which would suggest that someone will actually be interested in these dates. That someone may also be interested to know that the band have a new single out, called ‘For The First Time’, on 5 Sep, followed by their second album, ‘Science & Faith’ on 13 Sep. Don’t worry, your secret is safe with us.

Tour dates:

11 Sep: Liverpool, University
12 Sep: Leeds, Academy
13 Sep: London, Hammersmith Apollo
15 Sep: Edinburgh, Corn Exchange
16 Sep: Leicester, De Montfort Hall
17 Sep: Portsmouth, Guildhall

It is interesting how both acts are playing in Scotland – not not Wales!

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State of the Welsh Music Industry – The Land Of Song

I am currently writing a book chapter for Ashgate on the advantages and disadvantages of the Welsh music industry. Interestingly, there was a ‘Welsh Music Day’ on BBC Radio Wales on March 1st (St Davids’s Day), and selected links can be found below. Jason Mohammad’s show was particularly interesting – with a short synopsis being found here. The music industry part of the show featured Pete Lawrie, Tony Etoria, journalist Simon Price and Meltdown’s Paul Clarke. This was preceded with a discussion  about Welsh Culture, including the differences of Irish and Welsh culture, with a specific discussion around the global pervasiveness of St Patrick’s Day compared to St David’s.  One of the main concerns of the Welsh Culture discussion focused around what I would describe as an ‘essentiallist’ depiction of what it means to be Welsh, where Mountains, Rugby, Poetry, Coal Mines, Male Voice Choirs, etc are seen as depicting a stereotypical perspective of Welsh identity. This seems to be juxterpositioned against an ‘anti essentialist’ view on Welsh identity – where individuals can describe their identity according to what they are not (IE English). For many, being Welsh seems to focus around the language, with one guest stating that ‘its what makes us different from the English, the Irish, and Scottish’. Ultimately, it is probably a ‘shared experience and heratige’, which for some of a particular generation involves a combination of the above parameters.  As with other small nations that have been colonised, it it apparent that  tradition can be invented to compensate for factors of identity that have been taken away. For example in the case of Wales, the Acts Of Union was largely responsible for the current dominance of the English Language – so it seems logical to emphasise this as an anti essentialist ‘two fingered’ gesture.

The show progressed to move on to a music industry related discussion, with the loss of local venues such as The Globe and The Point being a particular point of concern. Other factors  included the need for an infrastructure (ie recording studios, record companies and venues) and the need for creative people to stay in Wales as opposed to moving to London. This is a particularly interesting point, with artists such as John Cale, Steve Strange, Scritti Politti all leaving for major music capitals. Indeed the above mentioned Pete Lawie had just moved to London 5 days prior to the programme’s broadcast, making this subject particularly ironic. Lawrie also noted that his forthcoming tour did not include a venue in Wales, as Cardiff does not have a mid size 500 – 1000 seater venue. This was a point raised during a recent SWN conference outlined below, and it seems that if many cutting edge young bands are to perform in Wales it needs to be rectified. Another  good point made concerning the state of modern Welsh music (as opposed to the essentialist view of Welsh music being Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey etc) is that it has been genuinely succesful in genres such as ‘popular classical’ (Catherine Jenkins, Charlotte Church, etc) and ‘Emo Metal’  (Lost Prophets, Funeral For A Friend, Bullet For My Valentine). It was also noted that although some venues have been lost or under threat, there are a number of venues to play in South Wales in particular. The loss of BBC Radio 6 was also deemed a problem as it was a station that championed emerging Welsh Bands. It was also noted that it was difficult to place a specific sound to Welsh Music – unlike sounds that have come from places such as Liverpool and Manchester (Madchester).

The Music Academy based at the ATRiuM in Cardiff held a seminar in 2008 which discussed the live music industry in Wales, and my original post and podcast can be found here. There were also two other podcasts, one featuring Scouting For Girls and another discussing the do it yourself business model.

In conclusion, the programme also discussed how the partially financed (via Radio Cymru, SC4) welsh language scene can lead to the ‘big fish in a small pool’ syndrome, in addition to restricting creativity by stipulating specific guidelines to get exposure. It was also suggested that a way of breaking down the traditionalist barriars outlined above is to get up and coming welsh acts like Pete Lawrie to perform at national sports events, as opposed to the usual -  Catherine Jenkins etc. Catatonia playing at the opening of the Welsh Assembly a few years ago is a good example of how non traditional musics can be used more traditional events – quite right.

I would appreciate any thoughts anyone has regarding points of interest I could include in the book chapter.

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Everybody is, Everybody is: SWN festival session 3

This 3rd session from the SWN conference at the ATRiuM in Cardiff  is hosted by Huw Williams and features Andrew Dubber (New Musical Strategies), Colin Rice (We 7), Tejas Mistry (Indistore) and Ewan Grant (Xtaster/Death of Glory Music) as panellists. The focus is very much focused on the opportunities available to artists via the ‘do it yourself’ business model. After each panellist describes their experience to date, the discussion focuses upon future business models (360 model etc), rights protection, etc. Enjoy

An RSS of the podcast can me downloaded here

Download to I Tunes here

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End of year review

As I am so new to the business of   blogging, I thought it would make sense to make the final entry of the year a review of the 2008 year regarding my various activities. These are not in any specific order, but just as they arrive in my head through the Xmas haziness. Anyway – here goes.

The first important event of the year was to officially launch the Music Academy at the ATRiuM in Cardiff in partnership with Roland UK. This event took a great deal of planning, as in addition to the various VIPs that were present, Roland Founder Mr Ikutaro Kakehashi was awarded an honorary professorship for his contributions to music. During his key note speech it became apparent how humble he was – a lesson to us all! The academy is now 8 months old and is beginning to have an impact on music education in South Wales and beyond – more of this later.

As part of a number of widening participation events I have been organising, the Academy hosted a Battle of the Bands competition the day after the launch. This is to become an annual event, with the 2009 event already in the diary. We were lucky to have Both Roland UK and Rockschool sponsoring the event, so the winners of the competition received some outstanding prizes in addition to gaining a great deal of media coverage. Widening participation is something that is very close to my heart and I am currently in the process of setting up a Junior Music Academy that finances local school children to access the fantastic facilities and expertise we have at the ATRiuM via a Saturday Morning Summer school. The initiative has the support of Cardiff Council, Roland, Rockschool, First Campus, and Gates and will be implemented for the first time in April 2009. Will report more on this later.

I have recently become very interested in Knowledge Exchange/Transfer, and am currently completing a research project in partnership with Roland Uk which is examining how Glamorgan University can assist the organisation to better train both their own workforce via accredited training. This is primarily being implemented by designing a Foundation Degree for the music retail sector, and I am currently writing a journal article on the most appropriate way of going about this. My discussions with industry indicate this will potentially lead into consultancy work next year – so watch this space. Alternativelly, if you’re interested – please get in touch. On the subject of my research, I have lucky enough to have papers presented at the Sibelius Academy in Finland (on Electric Guitarists fusing Jazz with other music forms) Copenhagen University (On Frank Zappa), in addition to a number of visiting lectures/workshops on subjects ranging from on-line assessment to assessing popular music performance. For more details on this refer to my Academia edu homepage. My various activities have affected my publication output, but I have secured a chapter in a forthcoming book by Cambridge Scholars Press. This is related to my work on the impact of guitarists on the jazz canon – so again watch this space for more details.

I have worked as an external examiner for a number of years now, and am currently monitoring the undergraduate music awards at both Bath Spa University and Leeds University. This is always a great opportunity to both learn from colleagues and offer advice on the most appropriate ways of ensuring academic quality is maintained within our university buildings.

One of the most interesting aspects of my job is related to working with colleges in both Wales and England on developing franchised HE qualifications. Having been involved in HE for a number of years now,  it is gratifying to have the opportunity to share my experience in order to develop pedagogical developments outside of my own institution. Again – more on this as some of the projects develop in 09.

In addition to all of this, I have actually managed to do several gigs in Cardiff and the Brecon Jazz festival, although I must admit it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain a standard I am happy with on guitar. It is hard to believe that someone who was an obsessional practicer in his teens and 20′s can devote so little time to the guitar. I suppose this is part of growing older and developing in other areas.

The early part of next is already filling up. In addition to the research activities outlined above, I have recently been awarded some money by the Beacons Public Engagement Fund (Via HEFCE and HEFCW) to conduct research in selected schools in SE Wales. The main focus is to examine various ways we can work together and how both teachers and pupils can influence the research being conducted at The Music Academy. As this project actually involves some of my own students – I am particularly looking forward to it. I was also heavily involved with the SWN festival in Cardiff last year, basically hosting the conferences at ATRiuM. This event was a real success and we are already planning next years event. As stated in a previous post, I will be uploading podcasts of all the music related panels over the next month or so. It was also fantastic to have the opportunity to work with the Welsh Music Foundation, and an academic conference is on the agenda for the early part of next year. This will be music industry related, so I will keep everyone posted on developments.

Anyway, I have reached my half hour time limit to document this post, so can  I wish everyone a great new year. If I have missed anything, I will amend at some point.

Paul

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Why don’t more bands come to Wales: Promoting Live Music In Wales

On Friday November 14th, the ATRiuM’s Music Academy, Centre For Small Nations and the Welsh Music Foundation hosted a day of music industry seminars as part of the Cardiff based SWN festival. Over the next several weeks I will upload downloadable links to podcasts of each of the four seminars, and discuss the seminar content via this blog. The first seminar featured promoters Dave Driscoll (Push 4), Guto Brychan (Maes B), Steve Tilly (Kilimangero) and moderator John Rostron (SWN co-organiser). For more details about the presenters please click here.
The initial discussion centred around the reasons why many artists don’t come to Wales, or indeed Cardiff in particular during their ‘national’ tours. This was something I had noted during my days as a professional musician, with very few James Taylor Quartet tours of the late 1980’s/early 1990’s taking in Wales. In fact Cardiff was the only venue we played back then. This pattern seems to have continued, with Fleet Foxes being an indicative example of an up and coming ‘buzz’ band not playing a single gig in Wales. The seminar also raised a number of questions that I would welcome responses to:

• Why is it that some agents don’t feel compelled to send their artists to Wales?

• Is there a misconception that there are not enough venues in Wales?

• Is there a lack of mid sized venues in Wales? Once bands get to a certain size, can they continue to play in Wales?

• Are the transport systems good enough to get people to and from Cardiff and some of the more remote venues (should some ticket sales include transport and/or gigs be flexible to comply with trains buses etc)?

• Is the perception that Cardiff people can simply go to Bristol to see a gig?

• What is the infrastructure in Cardiff in terms of generating media coverage for bands.

• Regarding the last point, do potential audiences feel informed in terms of what is happening in the Capital of Wales? The Joy Collective was noted as a good example of a web site that included South Wales and Bristol.

• Should promoters always continue to promote gigs after the venue has sold out?

• Are bands in too much of a hurry to play bigger venues before they are ready?

• How could the Welsh Assembly Government help with some of these issues?

I think the discussion reminded everyone of the central role that promoters play in the UK music industry, and the financial risk they take when acting as middlemen between agents, venues and the general public is considerable. When one considers that a local promoter like Push 4 can be working with around 25 artists and associate venues at any one time, it provides a lucid snapshot of the skills involved. Dave Driscoll did note that the slow speed of ticket sales in Wales generally provide a series of challenges to up and coming promoters that may not be apparent in other areas. It means that Welsh promoters in particular need to have a ‘hook’ when promoting many gigs, and Push 4’s work with Donny Osmond and The Lost Prophets were used as indicative examples. The seminar did illustrate that ticket sales in Cardiff have an idiosyncratic trait of selling very slowly, so there needs to be mutual trust between agents and promoters that can only develop over time.

The fact is that there are more venues in Cardiff now than there was 10 years ago, and it would be interesting to discuss if the city is now saturated. This however does not seem to be the case in mid/north Wales, there been very few venues north of the m4 corridor.

I am very interested in anyone’s thoughts on any of this. An RSS feed to this and other podcasts can be downloaded here. If required you can add to I Tunes and simply update when future posts are documented. Alternatively you can access the podcast directly below:

Please note that the start of this podcast is very quiet.

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