This first in a series – Anatomy of a Gig – introduces a space for people to comment objectively about live music events that they have attended, to build a resource for promoters and musicians on what works and what doesn’t work at a gig. In this way, the Anatomy of a Gig series will review the gig as a live music event rather than reviewing the music per se. Emma Webster kicks off with an account of a John Bramwell show.
In the second of our guest blog posts, Dr Dave Allen from the University of Portsmouth writes about popular music in Portsmouth from 1944 till 1969. For more about the project, see the website here, or read Dave’s excellent blog. Pompey Pop In 2010 I came to Edinburgh University to describe my project “Pompey Pop” which covers popular music in …
In the first of our guest blog posts, Horace Trubridge, Assistant General Secretary of the Musicians’ Union, writes about the up-coming London 2012 Olympics and finds that, as usual, musicians are getting a raw deal. If you have had a similar experience or would like to join the debate, please do leave a comment underneath the post. A Story as …
Following on from last week’s post about the demise of Sonisphere, a couple of new points have arisen:- 1) As posited by John Muir in response to my post last week, it seems that the reason for the cancellation of Sonisphere was as a result of poor ticket sales, claimed by The Independent to be because rock and metal fans …
In the light of yesterday’s announcement that Kilimanjaro Live’s Sonisphere festival has been cancelled, today’s blog examines some of the factors that have caused the cancellation of festivals over the past few years. Sonisphere is not the only ‘big’ festival to cancel in 2012, of course – The Big Chill’s organisers, Festival Republic, announced in January that 2012 would be …
More bad weather for the Edinburgh live music ecology, with chilly conditions across Scotland, and for other activities. The situation for local live music is already problematic given Edinburgh’s disappearing venue situation. Now, changes in the law to come into effect, appropriately enough, on April Fools’ Day threaten to put more tacks in the road for artists and enthusiast promoters …
Last week’s Dispatches documentary about the secondary ticketing market has sent a squall of feedback through the public discussion channel on the live music sector, notwithstanding that some voices have been suggesting that the matter needed airing for some time now. Amongst them, our own Martin Cloonan has offered a substantive account of issues regarding the status of the ticket …
Edinburgh sometimes feels like a ghost town after the Festival – a city with a hangover, figuratively and literally. After a theatrical and musical binge when it feels like every back room and every spare courtyard is a venue, we return to a shrunken version of Auld Reekie. Maybe it seems a bit early in the year to be making …
Welcome to the blog for the Live Music Exchange. We are a new resource for stakeholders in the U.K live music sector and beyond including- promoters, agents, venues, musicians, production crew, academics, policy makers, third sector organisations and audiences. We are part of a knowledge transfer project emerging from three years of in-depth and wide-ranging research into the social, cultural …