Welcome to
2013.
The year got
off to a great start as into my Inbox came an Email with the heading, “Find Out
why you Will Not Succeed in 2013”, just what you want to see on New Year’s
morn, even if the sun was pouring through the window at the time.
May your New Year be filled with music and and your diaries filled with Gigs.
But first,
unfinished business from 2012 from the World of Music and the Leather Zoo, Eurotrash promo at The
Charters -
The evening
got a real rocking kick off with Waiting
for Eddie. Wow. I’m told they only had a forty five minute
practice in the last month because of College and School commitments; you
simply would not have been able to tell, the set was so tight. A nice mix of their own material and
covers. Great to see that they are
becoming more confident with their own material and the “Freedom” song was
great. I’m really looking forward to the Band finding
the time to get into the studio and producing some quality demo tracks.
I’d heard
the name, but would you believe Myke’s old Buddy from the Sheffield sessions Rob Tarana had been like ships in the
night, running a bit close but never meeting or getting onto the same Bill.
I could
instantly see why Rob would have had a fan in Myke. His amazing punk / jazz
improvised fusion held the audience spell bound; if only because they were not
sure where he would take us next, musically speaking. It was wonderful to see, and his
appreciation of Myke the musical troubadour and the Mashers, naturally made us
instant friends. Rob’s card was marked
and we hope that he’ll be joining us for one or two of this year’s
Festivals.
For his set
Rob was backed by the French outfit Black
Hole Super Mass. Wow: showing outstanding
musicianship it would be difficult to replicate the quality of the blues / punk
/ rock fusion they offered in a nonstop sixty minute high octane set made up
entirely by their own material.
Problem: For reviewers such as I – e.g. one’s of
limited intellect, the clearly angry lyrics were hard to grasp as they were in,
yes, surprise, surprise, French. And
readers will not be disappointed to learn that I had the same trouble with the
German Band, yes, this was a truly European night of music, without Graham
Norton’s attempts at humour, and of course no marking from the judges.
From Germany
Bif had recruited Into the Boon Docks, hailing
from Munich, who produced an edged set with a deeper and more underscored anger
in the writing. So once again it would
have been fantastic to have been able to understood the lyrics (kiddies learn a
language when you’re young, sadly, in Dad talk, you’ll regret it at my age if
you don’t.)
So a damp,
wet, and cold Friday night was warmed up nicely, although we were taking bets
as to whether it was colder in the pub than outside, yes, the heating switch
had not been found. Result what should
have been a packed event, held few people, as even those who came down into the
downstairs room soon sought the tropical heat to be found in the rain
outside.
This is the
cutting edge music and entertainment that is so exciting, youthful and angry,
which given the European political circumstances in which we find ourselves I’m
surprised that we don’t hear more of in the UK. Having said that my digging has uncovered
one or two things which we will talk about in future Blogs
Which
reminds me, I need to do some listening to Radio 6 to see if the spirit of John
Peel lies there.
It would
appear that our friends Leather Zoo have been a bit in the war. They very kindly lent a group of musicians
£1,000 to hire a vehicle, a sum which has not been returned despite many
requests. So STP Records have organised
a Pay Back Leather Zoo Show for June 2013.
You can check the full details HERE. You really couldn’t wish to meet a nicer team
than Leather Zoo, and they do so much to promote and encourage Grass Roots
Bands across Europe as well as locally in Rotherham. So if you can get across to Manchester or
simply help by buying a ticket please do so.
And that
sadly, was my only musical outing of the whole holiday period, other than being
dragged out by Mrs Masher to sample the delights of a deluded lad calling
himself a “tribute singer” and one of
those show bands thrown together by someone to work the Holiday Parks during
2013, and still undergoing training. I
shouldn’t be cruel. Oh go on then. But
only because these acts are being paid riches from the Clubs comparatively when
placed against the meagre earnings to be made by far better acts from Pub
Gigs. And within that there lies a huge
political discussion about Agents! which we will not go into here.
I’m told
that there were good turnouts at all the Folk Clubs meeting over the Festive
period and the live Gigs at The Bridge received mixed reviews from my
spies.
Even Mick
was quiet over the Festive season, pinned down by his shift pattern over the
Festive season.
So with
batteries fully recharged we look towards 2013.
But first,
like all good News Papers and periodicals at this time of year, (even The Mercury, you can read it on line HERE) it’s time for Dickie’s review of
2012.
And unusually
I’m going to start with a non-music development that I’m just over the moon
about. OK, it’s not the most
comfortable building / venue, especially during the late autumn and Winter
Months but the job that Vicky Hilton has done for RCC on the Old Market Gallery
has been nothing short of miraculous.
Since being passed the baton Vicky has attracted new sources of finance
and mounted some excellent Exhibitions, including three fantastic months over
the Michaelmas Term, including Youth, freelance local artists for the Open Arts Festival, and rounding up with the work
of a South Yorkshire Arts Collective.
The 2013 Old
Market Gallery season starts with an Exhibition of Chris Slater’s work called “Rotherham and Beyond” and it kicks off
at 7:00pm on Thursday 10th January.
A real treat for the eyes I promise you, especially if these tropical
weather conditions continue.
And
throughout 2012 the Arts have been doing some great things in Rotherham, many
of which were covered in the AGM Blog
a month or so ago, so let’s look at what Rotherham Art Events has been up to
during 2012
At the turn of the year 2011 RAE did not
exist. However, thanks largely to
some very hard work by Mick Hill, supplementing the broken body that is Dickie
Masher, RAE was born. Others to be
thanked for their early enthusiasm Jane Corbitt, backed by Linda Gamston, Lisa
Marie, Louise, and considerable essential support from Vicky and all the guys
in and around RCC and ROAR.
The project
was an ambitious one, to bring together as many genres of art at the grass
roots, especially in the field of music which has so often been overlooked and
mount time framed Festival Presentations.
The early Meetings suggested that there would be support from
organisations across the board.
Looking back
on the year we can say that the attempt to knit together audiences and artists
from different genres was just a little over ambitious; although there are
signs that the initial ideas have been taken up and experimented with outside
of the RAE framed events, which is great.
Our attempt
to mount a Day of alternative entertainment for those not into celebrating the
Diamond Jubilee went off like a damp squid.
A magnificent morning of political debate was followed by an afternoon
of showcased entertainment involving, poetry, music, theatre. Artistically brilliant but unfortunately
failing to find support from an audience, made more disappointing as the “left”
failed to show any support preferring the high jinx’s going on at The Town
Centre Street Party. Also the expected financial support also
disappeared into the ether, requiring us to use money that should have been
designated for Slamfest / Fringe Festival to pay the artists.
Having said
that, the evening Concert we promoted at The Rugby Club featuring Ed Tenpole
Tudor was a fantastic success, with around 200 packing themselves in.
The Day was
declared a draw.
Onwards to
Slamfest. Sounds quite simple when sat
around in the Pub and scribbling ideas on the back of a fag packet. Not so easy as we drove the whole event with
around £1K of sponsorship - less in
fact. Also, we didn’t appreciate the
hoops that we would all have to jump through to make the Festival happen.
In the end
the Insurance had to be paid by selling the Mashing Machine Taylor Guitar! So that the big Town Centre show could go
ahead.
Slamfest
began life as what we hoped might have been a literary based Festival, and
while there was much enthusiasm during discussions in January, nothing had been
transposed into anything by July. Three
Arts based evenings were put together and staged at the Myplace Theatre, these
included Folk Music, Satire (Music and Poetry), and Theatre. Not one of the evenings succeeded, which was
a little disappointing. It was argued
that entry to these events should have been free – however, one of the RAE aims was to help with other
organisations to develop an arts economy in Rotherham and encourage Promoters
to pay a sensible fee for the services
of our arts – this means cover charges and ticketing – therefore by not at
least experimenting with charging would not have made any sort of sense.
It was the
music that again saved the Festival.
Slamfest came to life at 10:00am on the Saturday, winding up at a
rubbish hour on the Sunday at The Bridge.
Over eighty acts, adding up to 300 individual musicians, on eight stages
across the Town with music from Folk to the heaviest of Metals took part in
what was a tremendous day of music; a true celebration of Rotherham
musicianship, and including musicians of all ages, from the Youth Stage at Myplace to the Folkies at The Exchange where Roy Blackman was banging out his stuff.
Anyone want
to buy a T shirt from Slamfest in sizes large to mini skirt can do so by
heading HERE yes, our T shirt buyer went a little
mad?! Well we all live and learn, and I
did suggest Folkies were large.
We had a
great team of volunteers on the day who did all they could, but small was the
operative word and yet another lesson was learnt. And of course our huge thanks to the whole
of that team.
By the time
we reached The Fringe Festival in October one would have hoped to have been
slicker in our delivery; however our team of volunteers should be thanked for
the fantastic hard work they did.
We were also
fortunate enough to attract a bit of local Commercial Sponsorship for Slamfest
which we were mighty grateful for, even though one major contributor went into
Administration leaving RAE with a bit of problem or two which are currently being sorted.
The lessons
have been learnt, and details of the 2013 two day Slamfest will be leaked over
the coming weeks. You might already
find some HERE
Our final
blow out of the year came throughout the entire month of October as RAE
Promoted an ambitious range of events for the Rotherham Open Arts Festival Fringe, not that we wanted to be quite so involved in
the Production process, but once again we note that there was a lack of Arts
Groups wishing to be involved.
That said
RAE linked up with Gallery Town and the Urban Piano Project and launched the
exhibition of the work across Rotherham during the Busking Day. Young people and communities engaged
themselves with professional artists to decorate and sculptor pianos donated by
Towns folk. A real Community project
that RAE were very much proud to be part of. There was even a special piece of music composed which you can find in the early Fringe Blog.
As a result
audiences ranged from the fantastic to what at best might be described as very
disappointing, and once again our lack of volunteer support really did for us
in a big way.
The
highlights, attracting OD Saxon to play Rotherham for the first time in thirty
years, and at the incredible, and unrepeatable ticket price of £5; thanks too
to Graham and Steve for agreeing to become Honorary Presidents of RAE. Around 250 packed into the Trades Club. Two nights of free rock music at the Bridge
to packed out audiences. The Rotherham
Red Choir Evening and an absolutely brilliant night of blues at The Charters
from Tom Killner and friends.
Biggest
disappointment of the Festival, the near to zero support for the anything acoustic
music based, even though we had attracted top names from South Yorkshire and
over the Boarders to play. There are a
number of reasons for this, the venue being one and I think publicity being
another.
There were
also a number of administrative and communication issues relating to the
overall programme that have already been addressed by RCC and RAE.
But what an
amazing year? From twinkle in Dickie’s
eye, RAE on a budget of not much more than a pocketful of Dickie’s, and Mick’s
fly buttons managed to hobble together three multi genre events involving grass
roots artists from across Rotherham.
Looking to
2013. Planning for the three showcase
Festivals has already started. Banners
High will become a Festival based on Young Bands, Slamfest will run for only
the weekend and concentrate mainly on music with opportunities being found for
other arts groups who may wish to become involved. The Fringe Festival and thoughts about it are
still in the early stages of thinking – it’s open to everyone and if you want
to get involved, get in touch. EMAIL that applies to all 2013 RAE
projects.
And Mick and
Dickie are nothing but ambitious in developing opportunities for live
performance and music, providing great music entertainment and full access to
the arts.
Hence we
have spent the winter negotiating hard and working out how we could put one of
Rotherham’s premier venues to work. RAE
has gained an agreement and booked at least two to three dates a month with the
Rotherham Trades Venue and will be launching “Live at The Trades”. We’ll be holding at least one Rock night a
month with a top Regional / National touring Band playing, local Bands will get
the opportunity to provide support, and will also have Show Case Evenings of
their own. We’re also venturing into
Burlesque and other forms of live entertainment, Comedy etc. and towards the end of the year watch out for
news of a series of Party Nights. Yes
and watch out for some special nights to run into our Festival dates.
Check out the Events as they become available HERE
We will also
be looking to put the room to good use during the week. We’re thinking about some Workshops and
Training Courses for Musicians looking to take the next step on the
ladder.
Live at The
Trades will also be promoting monthly open access to Care / Disabled Community for live music. Watch out for news of the first one probably
in March.
Reaching the
youth audience is one of our key priorities.
The evidence suggests that within Rotherham we are blessed with talent
seeking to play and find an audience. We
are also aware that for a lot of young people getting involved in music as a
musician, technician, or simply for musical enjoyment. Thus we will be developing a project aimed at
taking Live Music to the Schools, covering the full range from access to
instrument instruction / putting Bands together / staging and practice /
Promotion and Performance.
And you
might ask, what has happened to the Quarterly Acoustic Rotherham Events. October was called off because of my health,
but it has given the opportunity to sit back and think about it’s future. There is no doubt that artists liked the
format and enjoyed playing the event and networking, but the last three events
took that to it’s limit with only minimal non playing audience in
attendance.
We are in
the process of planning a re-launch of the Acoustic Rotherham Events in March
at a more central Rotherham venue. My
list is growing, but if you would like to play at an Acoustic Rotherham in
March contact us HERE
Our links
with ROAR, Get Sorted, and RCC will we trust be consolidated, and into 2013 we
hope that we can make positive contributions to the discussion of the Rotherham
Culture Group. We hope also that we’ll
be able to get out to some of the other organisations and Groups.
But our
priority is to build our team of Volunteers, and this in the main will mean
that we will be positively seeking to build bridges with youth and young adult
groups.
So, an exciting year lays ahead and
just a reminder, if you want to get involved at any level simply EMAIL HERE, to make it all work we need
more people to come on board and help, especially on event days.
The Masher had his own interesting year
with his general mobility making appearances rare, but those Gigs that he did
do were great fun. Barnsley Folk Club in
April, Madfest, Natures World, Filey FF all stand out as being great fun. Who knows, the medics may sort things so that
he’ll be out and playing more during 2013.
Shall we say that he is simply frustrated at the moment.
It’s been a
good year musically for some of our great friends, with new CDs from Jack’s
Rake, Roy Blackman, String Theory, Speedyfrost, Tom Killner and others. None will get the coverage and plays that
they warrant or welcome. I’m also
privileged to know that one of Rotherham’s / South Yorkshire’s premier Bands
will be marking the New Year with the release of a CD – can’t wait to be able
to tell you more.
One person
who is doing his part for the unsung heroes of
the independent unsigned musicians is my old mate Phil Hartley, his Saturday
afternoon (UK) Internet Radio Show, via a Canadian based Radio Station is fast
becoming a must listen. OK four hours is
a bit long, but Phil’s Phancies (for that is what he calls the show) is also
available as a Podcast. He even plays
The Mashers so he is clearly a man of great taste. You’ll find Phil HERE on a Saturday afternoon and the Podcasts are HERE
Phil has
finally caught up with the World of eighties Electronic music, and has been a
bit of busy bee writing some nice sounding music which you can find HERE .
Fans of Phil will know that way back in time he recorded his own version
of Gary Newman’s, Cars which you can still find on his Phillip Hartley
Reverbnation page. Gets so complicated,
doesn’t it?
It’s worth
mentioning again Mike Harding’s
Sunday Tea time Folk Programme treat on the Internet. Unfortunately the first two weeks have been
spoilt by a malicious spoiler attacking his Broadcasting Web Site. Very small minded of someone. One hopes that listeners will be
patient. In any event, following the
trend set by Mr Hartley, Mike has made it available as a Podcast which you can
find HERE
It seems a
lot of acts have drawn breath and are already beating the drum for 2013 with host
of January Gigs. I have to admit January
was always down time for the Mashers as nothing seemed to happen and the
sessions were all poorly attended, but there might be change in the trend.
It has been
really good to hear some encouraging noises to start 2013, and I was over joyed
by the impromptu mixed genre New Year Party at The Bridge – fantastic, and I
was really sorry to have missed it. Of
course hats off to the main stars of the night Papa Leba’s.
So what have
we got coming up, remembering you can find the full listings HERE - this week Rotherham
Goths will pushing aside their coffin lids to gather at SNAFU on
Thursday. This is a return of what was a
popular night organised by Mesmerised.
On the same night Chris Slater’s Rotherham
and Beyond Exhibition opens at the Old Market Gallery, so why not give
Vicky and Chris a rite scare before heading across the road to SNAFU.
There’s one
other stand out event for the week, a mass Lobby
of the Rotherham NHS Trust at the Hospital on Wednesday 9th at
4:30pm. If you thought the cuts have affected
your life up to now, or simply sighing because you have escaped, 2013 will
bring the reality of what is happening home in a big way.
Besides the
Welfare Reform in the form of the unified benefit scheme which will hurt many
people, despite the Government saying something different, we have the Bedroom
Tax, which will affect your Council Tax Bills.
Already Newcastle have zeroed the Arts budget, and Rotherham is looking
very much the same. I also discovered
this week that with the Reform of Legal Aid no longer will people be able to
get debt and Housing advise from Solicitors in the build-up to proceedings,
instead they will have an emergency Solicitor given to them on the day of the
hearing! Or use Charity Gateway
referral.
The RHV January Showcase looks
interesting with a great line up on the 19th, at The Charters so
more of that next week.
Pleasing
news of ailing folkies. Pete Stone is threatening to break out
and do some Keystone Acoustic spots with Pam in the very near future and Andy Hault’s hand is well on the mend,
so much so that I’m informed that he has played a few notes and chords.
The Web Sites, yes I know we’ve made
rash promises in the past that have not happened, but I really hope that by the
end of next week we will be completely up to the moment. In the meantime why not check out The Word
Pit HERE or David Kidman’s reviews HERE and if you have any money left or
are buying from Amazon, please, please, please use our Amazon linked Shop – no
extra charges, and we get a small amount from your purchase to pursue our
Festival and Event objectives.
Congratulations if you have got to the end of
this one, you truly deserve a fantastic New Year, so have one.
And whatever you are doing this week, have a great time, support your local artists and KEEP IT LIVE
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