November, Arts & Music Network, Rihanna & The Future
Hello all!
Well, it’s been a while but things have been busier than ever - as I’m sure you can imagine…
CATCH UP
It’d be fair to say it’s been a few months since the last post (JULY in fact!) so let’s use bullet points to catch up and attempt to avoid my usual waffle…
JULY
- THIS IS LOVE, NOW IT’S LOST I lost the new Midnight Mile album from three (count em) separate hard drives and back up discs. I always tell my students to back up work, but now I can’t even promise them that will protect it. A combination of a brand new 1TB HDD dying, an ancient (albeit still operational) Macbook Pro needing to be thoroughly Time-Machined through corruption and the annual summer-clean of the studio tower all occurred within FIVE DAYS of each other and totally wiped out months of hard labour conducted by myself, Romy & Andy (of Midnight Mile fame) and a number of local musicians who had contributed to a thoroughly magical record. I’ve tried three places and spent almost £120 in services and postage trying to get any usable files off the HDD but to no avail. To say this is genuinely heartbreaking is a sentiment I will never be able to communicate in any way. I’ve not recorded anything since and I think it will be some time before I feel ready to record another band again…
- MIDSUMMER FIESTA I was lucky enough to help with the planning, staffing, programming and performing at Cheltenham’s annual midsummer party in the park. It was an honour and I got to fly the flag for local music, being on the panels to decide the music bits and organising Uni students to equip and run the acoustic stage. The list of bands/artists that we got on included: Ellie Dussek, Stressechoes, Juey, Joe Summers, Clayton Blizzard & The Cadbury Sisters. The only minus point about the day for me was the rain and the fact I had two other shows (private gig in Shropshire and headline @ Swanfest) so didn’t get to see anyone else : (
- GEORGE THRILLING which in fact is just a clever (perhaps) portmanteau of producer “George Shilling” and band “Thrill Collins” - I got to record with him - again! Not really beneficial to the local music scene at large, but hey - I’m allowed the odd name drop.
- 2000 TREES We all know this one don’t we? Anyway, this year - UoG students ran the sound and tech aspects of the Greenhouse stage this year. They also ran a three day RSL FM radio station too! Talk about busy… Great performances by local chaps JL&tSS and another great show by The Artists Formerly Known As The Echoes. Great addition of the busking stages too this year which saw numerous local acts performing at key points around the festival site. Wonderous!
- FAIRVIEW CONVENTION Annual boozeandmusicathon held on the roof of the Kemble in Fairview. Got to go. Got to watch bands. Got to play. Great day indeed. Lots of money raised for County Air Ambulance - good work Gordy, Loz et al!
AUGUST
- TWO PIGS Had a lovely meeting with Chip, bossman at the Pigs and had a good old chinwag about shows, news, developments, bands, music and everything. I don’t need to tell you about the Pigs - you all knows it!
- NEW CAMPUS FOR UoG Yes, that’s right! We got a brand new media centre (No1 post-92 institute in the Times Higher Education Report!) and I got to design a recording studio and equip it. It’s not quite done yet, but believe me - it’s awesome. Some of the music that has come out of there already has been great and it will serve those wanting to learn about writing, recording and working in music for years to come. Yay!
- EUROPEAN TOUR Didn’t get much done in August other than the above as I was mainly on mainland Europe playing a combination of venues, jazz clubs and dive bars with my skiffle band. There’s even a web documentary series about it (seriously) but here is not the place to start sticking links about.
- COTSWOLD HOSPITAL RADIO Myself and Robbie Pert (manager of SU radio station “Tone Radio”) met with the bosses of CHR to discuss ways of helping students find their way to the station and ways of the station finding its way to the students. Amazing people that run that place, amazing volunteers and incredible services they provide. They are our counties longest serving broadcasters (longer than the beeb) and I think something should be done to commend their excellent work over the decades. I just need to think of something…
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER
- New term at University. Planning and lecturing two modules, integrating new kit, installing new software. Almost entirely the reason there is nothing else in these months for me. Put another way, September is to education is what December is to retail.
CHELTENHAM ARTS & MUSIC NETWORK
What’s been happening with all of the new multi functioning arts galleries bits you promised us then Lansley?” is what I imagine a few of you will cry - well, allow me to update you.
MEETINGS
Well, we had a couple of steering group meetings and having got myself involved in the world or “local art” - several things struck me, some of which I’m sure I’ll be unpopular for saying…
Overall, there seemed to be a balance of positives and negatives but for me there was also some worryingly ill-informed opinions being expressed. The steering group was composed of some fantastic people who were able to articulate and express the town’s need to provide artistic development for youth, a multi-lateral approach to forming social enterprise models and people who genuinely cared about the development for resources in the town. There were also elements that seemed suspicious of the public’s obvious support for having a new facility to provide this kind of service and co-ordination. In fact - I would describe some attitudes as downright obstructive. I believe some people felt threatened (?) and the seemingly insular and compartmentalised nature of our wider local arts ‘scene’ (i.e. not just the steering group) it seemed (in the extreme at least) to be divided between two different schools of thought, the details of which I’ve now edited out of this blog. Highlighting it seemed not constructive in any way.
To a point, the two schools of thought I edited out are actually both valid ends of the cultural spectrum to occupy and I’m not trying to denigrate their efforts or exercise some pernicious agenda; I’m sure they produce at least some good artists/work. The issue I took was that (due to the competitive nature of arts funding/withdrawal of pots/old-fashioned snobbery, I assume) it seemed quite a few people who got in contact were just concerned with protecting their own pursestrings and kingdoms. Although I am sometimes critical of the transient nature of the Guildhall’s musical program (which has started to improve at least over recent years), I must say that it still remains number one for me for arts provisions in our county, with Brewery in Cirencester a close second.
In my humble opinion at least - I’m sure the people of Gloucester will be behind me on this!
I am still in contact with those who have been positive about the implementation of provisions for co-ordinating and developing everything cultural in and around the town so not all is lost. In fact, things are looking extremely good. The Cheltenham Art Gallery is currently undergoing an extremely overdue makeover - I’m helping with consultation for the multi-media all-purpose venue (YES!) and pushing the thin end of the wedge for community provisions. It’s important to note through all of these blogs that the staff Ive met from the Art Gallery are actually all on top of the whole arts provision for the community thing so it’s amazing to watch this grow; I get the feeling that the perceived ‘stuffiness’ that some corners would accuse the ‘old’ Art Gallery of being guilty of are about to been blown away when the new Arts bad-boy in Gloucestershire plants its’ feet filming on the group in 2012…
Between these new developments and the growth of our current music facilities I would say we’re looking in an extremely strong position as a town for 2012 onwards; let the islands sit happily in the sea - I’m going to enjoy the rich fruits of the mainland.
Enough mixed metaphors from me - let’s finish on some hard truths:
RIHANNA
Rihanna’s performance on last week’s X-Factor could be described as pedestrian at best.
THE FUTURE
My wife has a baby due this Saturday (November 26th) so you won’t hear from me until at least after Xmas. As much as I love music and playing and art and life and all that jazz - nothing compares to time with my incredible woman and our new baby Lansley. So, I’m going to be very selfish and indulge myself in the world of being a father for a bit, that is until my numerous other responsibilities begin to seep back in and unfairly claim those precious early seconds…
x
1,502 words originally - two words over the limit set in Reflective Learning Reports that I require from my students as academic evidencing in modules.
And it was written in a night…
