Together with Neil Povey, we headed over to Hastings on Friday 28th March for Unconvention, a one day grassroots music conference, which kicked off the annual Hastings Fat Tuesday. We could only stay for the morning (as Jim had to get back for a blood donor appointment) but we learned an awful lot including the importance of portfolio careers and even found time to do a quick Bluebell Notes interview. There are still more events to come for the festival this Tuesday 4th March – click below to find out more.
https://hastingsfattuesday.co.uk/
The Unconvention conference was held in the East Hastings Sea Angling Association which was a great little venue for this. Upstairs, through the club bar and with views over the sea, the net shops and the East Hill. It was well attended with a wide age range, Jim and I probably being the oldest down to students probably in their young teens. The panels were a good mix with representatives of Arts Council England, PRS and PRS Foundation, LIVE and Help Musicians, songwriters and performers, booking agent, festival director and a promoter. The initial discussion was about the current state of the independent music sector, the challenges and the support available. It could easily have been all doom and gloom because there are huge challenges at the moment, not just for those starting out on a music carer, but for established artists, venues and much of the sector. Lack of funding and government recognition of the importance of the music industry, higher costs leading to closure of festivals and venues, the emergence of AI were all discussed. But the amount of help and advice out there is really encouraging. Of course, networking is one of the best things to do.
One piece of advice that struck me was to concentrate on a portfolio career – don’t limit yourself to being a performing musician, do front of house work, back stage work, be an event organiser and promoter, tutor, record, do session work – widen your scope, especially as a young performer who may struggle to find gigs when the majority of venues have an over 21’s policy. Become part of the music sector whatever way you can and by doing so you will meet the people who can help you. We’ve found this at our level – we write and perform but also run workshops and have organised many events, even our own festival, run the monthly Bluebell Roots night and now have the Bluebell Notes Podcast with Neil. It keeps us busy but also keeps us in contact with lots of other musicians, venue operators, agents and others.
Another piece of advice was to become famous locally before you try to get gigs further afield. An example was given of a local band who played loads of local gigs, but once they were signed to a label, all local gigs suddenly stopped. Until they finally returned with a bang to sold out ticketed gigs – a demand for them had been created. This is something we have been working on, building our own local ‘tribe’, but you do start to run out of local places to play which won’t clash with eachother and you exhaust (you know what I mean!) your potential audience quickly. Maybe now’s the time to head further afield, ready to return with a bang!
Musicians – It would be interesting to have your thoughts on how the music ‘industry’ has changed since you became involved, or how you see it changing, and how you personally have adapted.
I have a piece of paper with lots of hastily scribbled notes somewhere in my bag, amongst the wodge of receipts, Vocalzone lozenges, Ibuprofens and business cards. Once I find it, I’ll add the important bits on here.
I strongly recommend booking tickets to Unconvention next year. Pop Shrove Tuesday in your diary so you know roughly when the Fat Tuesday festival will be, or better still join the Fat Tuesday mailing list HERE
Jo