The Editor's column on Leicester's live music scene 2011

Big things are happening in Leicester. Lots of new venues, lots of new bands and even some new festivals. Artsin Editor Trevor Locke is now using this page as a blog-style column to keep up with all that going on.

The editor's column 2012

27th December

The perils of music journalism

As much as I enjoy writing about rock music and the bands that create it, the difficulties of this endeavour cannot be under estimated. If you want to stick your head above the parapet and say something about bands and their music, expect the bullets to come whizzing past you.

There are around about 200 working bands in our local area. They range from the undeniably superb to the ones you know will not last for long. I have seen most of them play live at least once. I have stood in front of several bands on many occasions. Going out to gigs to experience live music has been a passion of mine for several years now. My personal taste in music is wide ranging. I can appreciate pretty much all flavours of rock - of which there are many.

As a journalist, many bands have given me something to write about. It's a kind of habit that I have, at the end of year, to look back on what has stood out for me. My annual reviews are exercises in acknowledging the significant, the outstanding, the memorable and the note worthy.

All journalists have a privileged position in the world of the media; music journalists are particularly privileged because we have the freedom to exercise our skills in the public domain. We can do that either in a way that is self-indulgent or we can be tackle our work with the best professional standards we can muster.

What weighs on my mind, as an editor, is that the reputation of this magazine either sinks or swims according to the quality of what we write. What makes this magazine work are the readers that keep coming back to find out what it is saying. If we publish interesting, stimulating and insightful material, the broad swathe of readers will keep returning to read our pages. If we publish rubbish, our readership figures will drop.

We can do a professional job in reporting the facts and proving information. Publishing a Wiki of the arts and music might well be a worthwhile pursuit but Artsin is not a Wikipedia for Leicester/shire; it is a magazine and as such we have to have some understanding of what that means. Our task if not just to report on the world but to interpret it.

Looking back over what we have published in 2011, it strikes me that we might have veered towards the Wiki model and been too timid in our desire to comment on what happens in Leicester. Where live music is concerned, some people have complained that we have always been too nice to the bands and artists that we have seen. What is missing from our content, some have said, is critical analysis; we have tended to write about how good bands are and to say nothing about poor, bad or hopelessly inadequate bands.

Other music journalists would see that as being a failure. Some editors, in the music world, have no qualms about slagging off an act that they (or their reviewers) consider to be rubbish. My reply has always been: "if a band is rubbish, why waste valuable time writing about them?" If I think that a band is doing good work, making enjoyable music and can be seen to be pleasing - at least a portion of - the gig-going public, then it would be a justified use of our scarce resources to acknowledge that.

People I have talked to have said that it can be useful to offer positive feedback to a band about where they are going wrong or where their work could be improved. That appeals to me. Often I have spoken to musicians after a gig and provided thoughts about what, in my opinion, they could do to improve their songs and their performance. In some cases I have watched a band change in response to such comments.

Musicians have trusted me to give them serious criticism. That kind of commentary has, however, not always appeared in 'print.' To run a good magazine, an editor has to publish readable copy. That does not mean that content is driven solely by the prejudices and predilections of readers (perceived or imagined.) Part of the role of music journalism is to attempt to change what readers think; to move them away from dubious or ill-conceived attitudes. Good reviews can play a part in changing musical tastes and fashions, not just to reflect them.

Rock fans can be very blinkered in their views; they know what they like. Even though there will always be some degree of personal preference in writing about music, to do a job that is even half good, you have always have to see the bigger picture.

There is no point in being provocative, for the sake of being provocative. Some writers want to be scathing and outspoken; there is a role for that. I have published material of this kind from external authors but it's not a position I would want to take as an editor. My style is to be balanced, rounded and always with an eye on the bigger picture.

The challenge in the year ahead will be for me and all the regular contributors to strive to achieve good editorial standards, to write material that will keep bringing the general public back to our pages and to consolidate the reputation of our magazine as a place for serious coverage of the arts, in all its genres.

Let's see if we are clever enough to do that.

Happy new year!

7th October

Artsin abandons Google Advertising

After displaying advertising generated by Google, for several years, I have decided to delete all Google ads from this site. Why?

It doesn't work. Google doesn't pay out. Despite it's claim " Earn Money With Google AdSense", almost nothing has come in. It has proven to be a waste of time and effort. So we are now removing all advertising generated by Google.

Having scanned some forums about Google, I see I am not in an isolated position. Despite numerous attempts to attract attention from Google Support, our cries for help have been roundly ignored. Clearly this multinational corporation is failing. Hence, it's time to abandon ship and put our efforts into advertising accounts that are more likely to help us.

It's sad because Google dominates internet advertising and we use Google services on a daily basis. But, if the managers at the corporation can't get their act together and support those who are or have been their loyal clients, then they must pay the price. Commitment will drop off and their competitors will gain from their mistakes.

1st September

Grate bands play on fenders

A venue posted on Facebook today: " ... Well tonight it's Basement live with cheap booze and some grate bands ...",to which I replied " grate bands - do they play on fenders then?" and " grate n. A framework of metal bars used to hold fuel or food in a stove, furnace, or fireplace", also known as a fender (which is a make of guitar.) I liked that.

21st August

Veni , vidi , scripsi

How we covered Summer Sundae

It's Sunday, 21st August. A week ago this morning I was standing in front of a stage at the Summer Sundae festival listening to music and thinking about the long day ahead of me. A week later I am still putting the finishing touches to the report of last Sunday.

Why did it take us so long? A variety of factors weigh on my mind. Firstly, writing copy, setting it, preparing photos and inserting them into the layout, is a time-consuming business. In big publications with a team of specialists, there will be those that just do the writing, those that do the type-setting, photo desk editors and production editors who put it all together on the page. Nothing like that here at Artsin.

What struck me during my work at the recent festival was the phrase journalism on a shoe-string. We do not even have one proper camera to take pictures with. We rely heavily on the good-will of professional photographers who allow us to use their work. We credit third party work in the hope that readers will get to know their name and see the quality of what they do.

At this festival we had only one press pass. So, it was me that had to run round the festival capturing snap shots of bands and acts, before moving on to the next session in order to reach the scope of coverage that fitted with the editorial approach. Fortunately, at this festival clashes were not too bad. Compare this to, say Glastonbudget, where we had an extensive clash list: a chart showing which bands were playing at the same time. There, we still had only two reporters and there were odd occasions where three or more bands were on stages at the same time.

Secondly, we had to wait for material to come in. I said we were dependent on the good will of photographers. In fact they did a great job of getting their contributions in to us in a matter of days. Several hundred shots had to be collected together, organised into the right time frame and matched up with the correct text for that act.

Our coverage also included two feature articles: one on the band Raghu Dixit and the other on the poet John Cooper Clarke. These articles had to be researched, written and published (in the Weekend Supplement) and then linked into the body of the festival report. All that took extra time.

Thirdly, the rest of the magazine still required attention. While the five pages of material on the festival were being written, we still had to carry on with the rest of the magazine and indeed the rest of our lives. Forthcoming articles had to be pre-produced, dates added to listings and the day to day work of running a busy online publication continued, as needs it must.

All of the festival coverage will be finished today. After today the guillotine comes down on the production schedule and we move on to the next big phase of our work. This year has seen a succession of big events: we have been confronted with festival after festival ... Glastonbudget, Download, a stream of one dayers, Caribbean Carnival, Fringe and now Summer Sundae and the season is by no means finished.

We have decided that festivals are important events. We have dedicated ourselves to their coverage because they concentrate a lot of acts and bands into one place and one time. We have continued to cover gigs (during the festival season) but clearly you can more easily write about a tranche of bands playing at a festival. Our coverage of individual live music events had decreased, the more work we have had to do on festivals.

I think also that festivals play a key role in the life of a city. Our coverage of Leicester's festivals reflects on the persona of the city. Our magazine is read not just by local people but also by a significant proportion of people else where in the country. Our coverage of the big events reflects our commitment to portraying Leicester as a lively and vibrant locale for the arts generally and for music in particular.

9th August

Will hip-hop stars and rappers act against rioters?

An interesting article in The Independent's blog, suggests that artists have been playing at the Brixton Jamm, singing out messages about rioting. Writer Jody McIntyre, on 11th August, states that " a cultural uprising is taking place. It's participants are not armed with guns and bullets, but with microphones and lyrics. Hip-hop music has always been the poetry of resistance, and here is no different, with conscious rappers speaking from their hearts "

Conscientious rappers have been singing messages of understanding and resistance to the situation unfolding across many parts of the UK, not just London. Music has played a part in most of the social movements of the last century. Beginning with the anti-war poets of Vietnam, musicians have been penning lyrics that address what is happening on battlefields and now on the streets.

You might be able to read McIntyre's blog on this subject; if it's still up. McIntyre was sacked from the Independent newspaper, which will not be publishing any more of his blog posts after he tweeted a message supporting the Tottenham Riots!

Makes me think about the meaning of 'independence'.

1st August

Live music in Leicester: setting the agenda

Ted Cassidy is shown the Fringe Festival programme by Dawson Smith

Change doesn't happen over night. Especially when it comes to live music, things happen slowly. The good news is: people are trying to grow a garden of live music in the city. Tonight's meeting with Ted Cassidy was a step in the right direction.

The meeting was one of the regular get together's convened by the Leicester Music Collective. Ted Cassidy is the Assistant Mayor who holds responsibility for culture. He was invited to attend the LMC meeting, held this time at Embrace Arts, close to Leicester University.

In a discussion of wide ranging issues, promoters, musicians and others of influence, talked about what needs to be done to improve the live music scene in Leicester. Ted was in no doubt that "Live music is good for Leicester's profile". "It portrays the city as a place with a buzz", he told the meeting. It gives the impression that our is a city that is "young at heart."

The new Mayoral Team came into office in May with the last round of local elections. Headed by Sir Peter Soulsby, the team of Assistant Mayors have begun working strenuously to improve the city and to re-engineer much of the Council's programme.

Ted's first question, to the gathered music big wigs, was "What can the Council do for you?" I popped up and said "Drop the leafleting changes." I've already written about this issue (see below.) Even though everyone agreed that small venues and bands cannot afford this tax on publicity, various people came up with practical ideas about what the Council could do to help spread the word about live music.

It was suggested that the Council could put up advertising bill boards around the streets and that the LMC could use them to place big copies of its Music Guide (currently a single piece of paper half the size of an A4 sheet.)

Both the Assistant Mayor and the others in the room agreed that Leicester needs to showcase its live music scene to local people, if not to the rest of the world. The Fringe Festival, due to happen very soon, is beginning to move in that direction. If you want to see Leicester's musical offering, attending the Fringe is at present the best way to go.

In fact, it was suggested that Fringe organisers should give the Assistant Mayor a wrist bands for Super Thursday and reserve him a seat on the open top bus, so that he would get to see most of the live music venues and a lot of the bands, in just one night.

Ted wanted to create a brand: Live Leicester or something like that, a brand that speaks of quality entertainment, infectious music and happy nights of foot-tapping entertainment. I could see where he was coming from. A recognisable brand can lie at the heart of an effective marketing campaign. If there is one thing that everybody wants, it's more people going to gigs.

Music forms part of a bigger picture. It sits alongside comedy, theatre, visual arts and dance. Professor Dominic Shellard, DMU's Vice Chancellor, is charged with gearing up the Cultural Strategy for the city. Shellard is a bright and dynamic character, a far cry from the old crustys that used to sit on the carved thrones of academia. Positioned at the helm of DMU, if anyone can navigate the city towards European level recognition for the arts, it will be him.

What was good about tonight's meeting is that "rock and pop" is being taken seriously. If Leicester docks in Europe, our bands will be on board. I like that and no doubt our city's 800 rock musicians will do too.

Ted Cassidy and the Leicester Music Collective
John Helps, David Wilson Clarke and Natalie Walter of the LMC, Ted Cassidy and Dawson Smith

Find out more about the Leicester Music Collective

See our previous report on the LMC Meetings

27th July

Council should scrap leafleting costs, Editor says

"For a lot of small, live music venues, faced with a charge of anything up to £150 per session for distributing flyers ... this is a huge cost and overhead, just to tell people that a band is playing on that night ", Trevor Locke said today. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's You and Yours programme, the Editor of Arts in Leicestershire magazine, said that small venues and bands could not afford the heavy charges, imposed by the Council, for handing out flyers.

The You and Yours radio programme focused on a report by the Manifesto Club on leaflet distribution. Author of the report Josie Appleton, speaking on the Radio 4 programme said: "The distribution of leaflets has been an important part of English civil life for three hundred years ... it's a right we have lost in five."

The report found that over a quarter of councils have imposed restrictions on street flyering and over half impose charges on those wanting to distribute material.

When challenged by presenter Peter White to say why paper leafleting is still necessary in these days of Facebook and the Internet, Trevor commented that there are still people who do not have daily access to the Internet and leafleting is the only way to get information out to them about music and comedy shows.

Council representative Sarah Russell said on the programme that the controls were introduced because distributors were "carpeting the streets with flyers" and that there had been an overwhelming demand from the public to deal with this problem.

Trevor Locke pointed out that the problem has come about because large commercial night clubs had hired teams of leafleters who did not know what they were doing and had not been trained to do the job properly.

In response to the claim that the exorbitant fees were there to cover the cost of cleaning up the mess, Trevor pointed out that it was a condition of the leafleting licence that distributors must clear up any dropped leaflets within 100 yards of the distribution point. Under the current arrangements there should be no mess to clear up.

Artsin believes that the Council's current licensing arrangement should be scrapped. There are existing by-laws and powers available to the Council to deal with issues of littering.

Trevor Locke has raised this issue with Mayor Peter Soulsby on a number of occasions and had been met with favourable responses. Artsin reported recently, "Picking up on an issue raised during the hustings, we asked if the infamous charges for leafleting would be dropped. He [The Mayor] suggested that this issue will definitely be looked at and he understood how important publicity is to the many small music venues in the city centre" on our news page.

See also "Panel member Geoff Rowe urged the Council to do something about the leafleting ban which is a big disadvantage to people organising small gigs." in Mayoral Discussion.

Read the Manifesto Club's web page on leafleting.

24th July

Promoting bands and artists

The Editor talks about how he promotes bands and artists from Leicester, in the Artsin Blog.

4th July

The Power of the press

In the old days (since Caxton that is) print publishing was done on paper. It still is to some extent. For instance, on Sunday I went out a bought a copy of the Sunday Times and The Observer. I needed a wheel barrow to get them home! They both comprised a bewildering array of bits and pieces. It looks like I have got enough reading matter for the month ahead.

These are both massive international newspapers, read not just in the UK but in many parts of Europe, North America and where ever people take them seriously enough to want to fork out plenty dollars to purchase them.

Little Arts in Magazine by comparison weighs nothing and is 'free' to read - well it is for those who can afford for a broadband connection on their laptops or mobile phones.

Our magazine gets several thousand readers each month. Beyond that we connect into the social media networks - Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Youtube, etc. - if you really want to see how many people get to know what's happening, see our metrics page.

So, in promotional terms we can reach up to 25,000 people a month. Mainly in Leicester/shire but also in the rest of the UK.

The point is this. If we want to shout about a band, singer or artist we can reach a fairly large audience. All these social media and internet accounts are interlinked. A message sent out by say Twitter automatically reaches all of the other outlets.

When a message comes into someone's account on Facebook, Twitter and so on, they can then re-post it to all of their friends. That message can then reach a very large number of eye balls.

It's how the Internet works and many bands and artists have figured it out and rely quite heavily on these kind of readily available networking systems.

Quite a few acts like it when we put out nice things about them. This is probably because we are independent and it makes a change from them banging their own drum and also because they know we reach a wider audience.

Artists like to be commented on positively by people: whether it's their own fans or people like us. We take this seriously. If we like an artist we will shout about them and say why we think they are good.

Every little helps, as they say. We do spend a wedge of time every week extending our reach, whether it's through the Internet or through our contacts in the media. We like to think we are doing our bit not just for local artists but for Leicester/shire too.

Hence my assertion that Artsin is not just another web site. There's a lot more to it than that. Over the next few months we want to make it yet bigger and better.

As long as you, our cherished readers, keep stroking us, we will keep on working away because we know that someone out there appreciates it all.

20th June

Music, bands, dancers, food, skateboards, Zombies ...

A violinist entertains the European Market shoppers on a Sunny Saturday morning.

Wow! That was The Weekend That Was. On Saturday 18th and Saturday 19th June I had been rushing round the city trying to catch up with the many events, gigs and happenings that this amazingly vibrant city can throw at you.

I found myself with so much to write about that inspiration took hold of me and I decided to launch a Weekend Colour Supplement for the Magazine.

"A glutton for punishment", I hear you cry! Very true but with so much going on, what else can someone with a passion for reporting do?

The life of an Editor is 9 parts perspiration and 1 part inspiration. One leads very quickly to the other. After pounding away at the keyboard for the best part of eight hours I hope I have done justice to my vision.

Well it's all out there. All you have to do is find it, snap it and scribble away. Now its back to trying to finish what I started the previous weekend at the Download festival.

15th June

Festivals, festivals ... and more festivals

teepee town at download festival

The Teepee Village at Download festival's backstage area

It's already busy with outdoor events both large and small. From 27th to 29th May I was at the Glastonbudget festival covering that and then two weeks work editing the report. Saturday 4th June I covered the Eyres Monsell Family Fun Day and did the stage management for it, but managed to get my report filed on Sunday. Unfortunately that meant that I missed the Riverside Festival but I heard good reports about it. The set by Leicester's By The Rivers met with a lot of favourable comments from people who were there.

From Friday 10th to 12th June I was at Download and am still writing the report and uploading photos and videos. It was a massive event and massively exhausting. Hey, what a great chance to see some really big bands and discover a few smaller ones.

Next Saturday is the Edition Skateboard's launch day at the SoundHouse and I will be flitting between that at the Indian Summer Festival at the nearby Phoenix Square.

Then on Saturday 25th I've committed to the Manor House, Kaleidoscope Arts day which is pretty important for them. the following Saturday it's the SoundHouse first birthday weekender.

And so it goes on ... with Strawberry Fields weekend looming in August and the Oxjam festival in October. All good stuff but the downside is that I am getting really behind with band and album reviews. Ah well, better than being bored I guess!

Get the latest festival news.

18th May

Florida band at Sub91

Mayday Parade arrived in Granby Street with an extremely large tour bus and several hundred fans turned out to see them - more than you would see at a gig headlined by one of our local bands whose music is similar.

SubLive has been very successful at securing top bands for its Leicester venue. Since it opened in August 2010, with a performance by legendary punkers The Damned, the venue has seen a succession of stars take to its stage, including Funeral for a Friend.

The Florida five piece walked onto the stage to an explosion of screams from the thickly packed rows of girls gathered at the front and spent the best part of an hour tearing up the stage to the delight of these adoring fans. Great thing to see in Leicester.

It seemed that Sub's music policy would veer towards the underground, alternative music scene but tonight's show indicates that they have discovered a much wider market. The night before the Mayday gig they put on Californian death metal megband The Faceless. A quick browse through the What's On at Sub page shows a wide variety of music genres.

The Tallahassee tourers were on their fourth visit to the UK and will be heading off to a variety of UK locations during May before jetting across to Europe to wow the kids in Belgium, France, The Netherlands and Italy.

may day parade at sub 91

In the last few months since it opened, Sub91 has done a lot to rejuvenate Leicester's live music scene. It's 450 capacity room can soak up a goodly crowd of people and its bookers can hook some seriously good bands. I think Sub has succeeded where some other venues have failed.

Find out about Mayday Parade

10th April

So many bands, so little time

roxum at the sound house

Leicester band Roxum playing at the SoundHouse

There is just so much going on in Leicester. So many bands, so little time. What I hate most is that the bands I really want to see often play at the same time, at different venues. So I was joking last night with some mates about investing in a skate board so I can get from one venue to the next to catch the bands that are playing. Trouble is they often to get rostered to play at the same time.

What I love most is that Leicester has such a strong and vibrant music scene that you do not have to wait long for a good band to get a date to play. There are just many good venues to choose from and a wealth of talent to follow.

Last night I struck lucky. I went to The Musician to see New Town Image, Hybrid Trend and a bit of The Hordes, before skating over to the SoundHouse to see Roxum. So I was happyish. I missed Jack Kenworthy, who won through at the OBS at the Musician and I missed Shortwave Fade at the SoundHouse. All well, I can't be everywhere at once.

But then people started to tell me about the gig at the Firebug that featured some new bands that were really good. In particular a senior musician told me that new act "Thee Ludds were the best young band I've seen in ages."

Meanwhile it was all happening at The Shed where the Majick Music Group were holding the East Midlands regional finals of their Battle of the Bands competition. Two Leicester/shire bands got through: Aurora and Themselves.

Last night exemplifies the problems faced by a music journalist in Leicester. You have to make difficult choices about which bands you go out to see, especially at the weekends when, as often happens, there are several good shows to choose from, at the same time.

I try to be objective but I also have my own personal favourites, bands that play music that I really like. As a journalist I should be able to write about any band and do a creditable piece. Writers are also individuals with their own passions and when they see a show they really like they can write with passion and real enthusiasm about the acts that played.

For me Roxum was the highlight of the night, even though I am a keen fan of Hybrid Trend, New Town Image, etc. I just love Roxum's compulsive beats, their fantastic sense of rhythm and their awesome guitar work, not to mention the exhilarating vocals of Dale Taylor. It's the total package of infectious music and glittering on stage showmanship that does it for me.

The other bands are all good at what they do and are making waves on the local music scene. Faced with so many really good bands around here, it is very hard to make decisions as to which ones stand out, how much they stand out and how much of my time each one deserves.

There just aren't enough hours in the day.

Content that was previously on this page has moved to our page Leicester Live 2010 .

Check out our gigs listing to find out what bands are playing and where.