Keeping Live Music, Live

Once again something pops up on my facebook page that makes me stop and think, remember and generally cogitate. The subject this time is an online petition challenging the Secretary of State for the Environment to look seriously at noise abatement regulations and start bringing a little common sense to bear:

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/65582

There's a number of issues involved but the thrust is that some seemingly fairly sensible rules are being hijacked by the fun police to make it increasingly difficult for venues to host live music despite one of the reasons for the legislation being to make it easier for small venues to host live music!

We live in an age where the Nimby rules. "Live music is absolutely fine so long as it's not in the same county as me." People move into areas where they know there's a live music venue and immediately try to get it shut down. The same happens with city dwellers that move to the country and then complain about the smell of the pigs on the farm next door. It's crazy but we cater to these people!

Without wishing to get all political here we, as a country, have a bit of an issue when it comes to live music anyway; we'll happily pay £50 upwards to go and see the 'big' acts in a stadium but baulk at a fiver to see a local band who's only ambition is probably to break even (and believe me that's a somewhat pious hope!). We struggle to bother to go to the local boozer to see Johnny and the Basingstoke Roundabouts (I made that up) because we'd rather stay in and watch X Factor, a place of often big aspirations with little talent to back it up. So many people wanting to get to the top without doing the apprenticeship on the shop floor so to speak while small groups of hardworking dedicated semi-pros slog their guts out week in, week out playing to a crowd of six! It's heartbreaking to see so much real talent forgotten and wasted.

When I was a kid the music scene was lively and well regarded as well as being accessible for pocket-money rates. We could get to gigs every weekend and we went. Hell, I saw Maiden at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1985 and it only cost me £5, which admittedly was a half day Saturday working in a greengrocers but it was still affordable. Local bands played the pubs regularly and the pubs paid for the privilege knowing that the beer take would more than pay for it. Now it's the Youtube generation, five minute clips without the need to go out and actually socially interact. And there's a problem that we as a band agonise over regularly. How do we best attract a dedicated audience for our work? As a bunch of forty somethings, tending towards, shall we be kind here, a cuddly plumpness and for some a major follicular challenge (except Gilles who eats like a horse and still has all his own hair and teeth) how do we appeal across the generation divide to a wider audience? Any suggestions would be gratefully received I'm sure!

Anyway, let me get back to the issue at hand; support your local bands. Go and see them whenever you can, wherever you can. It's a seriously good night out whether the band you see is good, bad or, as it is in our case, plain ugly! Sign the petition to bring some common sense back into at least one piece of legislation. If you like a band and they have a facebook page, go like the page. One little click means so much to guys like us at the other end of the ether, it shows that what we do somehow matters just a little to someone. Get your friends to have a look too, get them to like the page, get them to the gigs. Once you rediscover live music you'll wonder why you never really tried it before or you'll remember how much fun it was.............

.........which brings me neatly to the subject of our next couple of gigs, The Miley in Rochford this Saturday evening. We'll be around from about 7 onwards and will probably start our first set around 8ish, unless we zone into band time as my daughter calls it in which case, who knows! We're also playing Chinnerys on Friday 13th June. There are four bands on and we're on last but we really need support so that we get booked for more gigs there. Go on. Give it a try.

Cheers

Dunc