Pop music festivals and (cultural) policies – New IASPM Journal special issue

In this post, we’re introducing a special issue of the Journal of The International Association for the Study of Popular Music co-edited by the Live Music Exchange’s Martin Cloonan and Adam Behr, with Beate Flath. Festivals, along with live music in general, are increasingly a part of the broader political process and, relatedly, the cultural policy process. This timely issue approaches the politics of popular music festivals from a range of theoretical and geographical perspectives.

The contradictory politics of Glastonbury – Adam Behr

This week’s blog is a repost of an article by Live Music Exchange’s Adam Behr in The Conversation that discusses some of the contradictory politics of Glastonbury as both a site of mainstream consumption and campaigning activity.

Considering the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee’s Live Music Report – Martin Cloonan and Adam Behr

On March 19th, after a lengthy inquiry, the UK Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee produced its report on live music, drawing on numerous evidence submissions, including from the Live Music Exchange. Having followed the proceedings, this post sees LMX’s Martin Cloonan and Adam Behr assess the contents of the report, beyond the headlines.

A Tribute to Dave Laing

The Popular Music scholar and writer, Dave Laing died suddenly on 6th January 2019. Amongst many other things, Dave was a very good friend to Live Music Exchange, someone to whom we often turned to for advice and help. Both were always freely given in a wonderfully supportive way. In this post, we offer an LMX tribute to Dave.

Rolling Stones tour: they may be older but time waits for no one – Adam Behr

This week’s blog is a repost of an article by Live Music Exchange’s Adam Behr in The Conversation following the recent announcement of a Rolling Stones tour. An article in Rolling Stone magazine described the legendary band – its near namesake – as “growing old angrily”. Its portrait of Mick Jagger referenced “age lines around his eyes … as old as …

Ten things learned at Venues Day 2017 – Emma Webster and Adam Behr

2017 saw the fourth instalment of the (hopefully) now annual Venues Day, which gathered over 300 venues from across the UK in one room. The day was kicked off by an impassioned introductory speech by BBC Radio 1’s Steve Lamacq in which told the assembled venues and promoters that ‘We must never stop telling people how important you are’ and …

Valuing small venues: The Cellar, Oxford – Live Music Exchange team

Anyone following the Live Music Exchange blog will be well aware that the UK has seen an alarming number of small music venue closures over the past decade or so. The latest venue under threat is The Cellar in Oxford, an underground 150-capacity venue which has been a music venue for more than 45 years. The owner, St Michael’s and …

Is Glastonbury really running out of headliners? – Adam Behr

Today we feature a repost of an article by Live Music Exchange’s Adam Behr in The Conversation discussing the debate about headliners at Glastonbury and other festivals. Controversy around the Glastonbury line-up, given the vagaries of the British weather, is an even more reliable feature of the festival calendar than photographs of mud dwelling festival-goers. This year, Norman Cook, one of …

UK Live Music Census begins amidst concern over the threat to gigs from budget tax – UK Live Music Census team

The UK Live Music Census – a Live Music Exchange project – began at noon yesterday, on Thursday 9th March. The first strand to the data collection exercise – snapshot censuses in Glasgow, Newcastle, Oxford, Leeds, Brighton and Southampton – finished today at 12 noon. Volunteers have been out and about trying to get to every live music event in …

The Beatles revolutionised music by putting the record centre-stage – Adam Behr

As a new show covering Beatles recording sessions at Abbey Road premiers at the Royal Albert Hall, Live Music Exchange’s Adam Behr writes in The Conversation today about talking to the show’s producer, how the Beatles changed the status of the record in popular music, and the challenges of depicting that process on stage.