Issue 88 / May 2018

Future Music City
Liverpool’s music community have long been pushing the agenda of how to
better protect and invest in one of the most defining tenets of the city’s identity.
In March 2018, Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor STEVE ROTHERAM
announced the formation of a Liverpool City Region Music Board. The board
will mirror the structure of – and hopefully the success of – the London Music
Board, which in only two years of operation, has achieved huge successes,
including scrapping form 696 which penalised grime nights. Steve Rotheram
will be interviewed by Bido Lito!’s own CRAIG G PENNINGTON about the
future of these proposals in a panel session at Sound City+. Joining them are
AMY LAMÉ – London’s first Night Czar and spokesperson and advocate for
nightlife in the city, who’s headed up campaigns to protect Fabric and LGBTQ+
venues in the capital – and YOUSEF, an artist who’s found global success as a
DJ and producer through his Liverpool-via-the-world house music empire.
The Imposters Session
At a recent Both Sides Now discussion event in Liverpool, imposter syndrome
was continuously flagged as an issue that affects everyone working in the
music industry at some point. As a field that’s extremely competitive, feeling
as though you’re undeserving of your place and that others will realise you’re
not good enough is sadly commonplace. It’s also a lot more difficult to feel that
somewhere is your place if you can’t see yourself represented in aspirational
positions, which is why KeyChange – PRSF’s initiative which encourages
festivals to realise a 50:50 gender balance by 2022 – is so important. As a
KeyChange partner, Sound City are committed to achieving this 50:50 split in
their programme, and they’ll be tackling the toxicity of imposter syndrome with
soul artist TAWIAH and life coach FIONA BUCKLAND, who’ll be discussing
how to spot imposter syndrome, offering an artist’s perspective and delivering
practical advice on managing it.
Passports Open
Pinning down tour dates in Europe can seem daunting enough, but especially
now that the future of free movement across the EU is cast into doubt. It’s
not all doom and gloom though – a programme to provide more international
touring opportunities for UK and European artists has just been set up. The
Innovation Network of European Showcases (INES for short) brings together
a mixture of international showcase festivals and Gigmit – Europe’s largest gig
and artist database – with shared goals of connecting innovative industry hubs
and strengthening and unifying the European music market. Representatives
from four of the festivals involved (Sound City, Waves Vienna, Live At Heart
in Örebro and Midem in Cannes) will get together at conference to discuss
opportunities for artists to play at international showcases, as well as consider
the industry differences and similarities in each country and what it takes to
break through to an international crowd.
In Conversation with Alan McGee
Though best known as label boss at Creation Records and for his work with
Oasis, over the past two years ALAN MCGEE has been working closely with
Musicians Against Homelessness to raise money for homelessness charity
Crisis. Set up by Emma Rule in 2016, the MAH founder reached out to McGee
as a well-respected music business head and he agreed to get involved
and become their patron straight away, becoming spokesperson for their
campaigns – a role he brings to Sound City+ – and helping out with putting
together line-ups and developing relationships with venues. Their latest
campaign, Royal Bedding Day, will see venues across the country host gigs on
the day of the royal wedding with proceeds going to Crisis, after it emerged
that the leader of Windsor and Maidenhead Council had written to Thames
Valley Police to try and remove homeless people from the area on 19th May.
SOUND CITY
49