As I said I’d contribute to this blog, the lovely Clare Edwards said she’d let me into the Gigbeth Conference!
Now potentially, this could have been a disaster. The Radisson Hotel (amazing by the way) quite possibly saw me from a distance and insisted on taking my coat when I arrived as it ‘would surely get in the way.’ I suddenly felt a bit paranoid about my little pullover with hand sewn on buttons…
Upstairs there was so much coffee, tea and juice to choose from I got a bit flustered, (particularly when I saw the pastries.) Clare Burgess, Gigbeth administrator extraodinare helped me calm my nerves and gave me a Gigbeth conference goody bag which was sponsored by Brewin Dolphin,. (At first I thought they were stationers as they supplied a neat pad of paper in the bag but they are, in actual fact, investment managers.)
The first challenge was to aquire a pastry and an orange juice whilst juggling aforementioned goody bag and my own large sack. The second was to attempt to consume either. This was when I met a new friend!
I’d seen keynote interviewee Fyfe Dangerfield from Gigbeth headline act Guillemots kind of milling around but did not expect to start sharing ideas on how best to consume my pastry! We decided that first I should put my bags down, and then realising that with saucer in one hand and OJ in the other I was still loaded, I carefully put down the juice. Then I internally realised that I couldn’t really eat a pastry in front of the lead singer of the Guillemots so really it was all for nothing!
Janice Long, legendary Radio 2 DJ arrived just before the conference officially began and was the most incredible force of energy. Having finished her show in London at 3AM she’d wizzed up to the hotel, had very little sleep and still lit up the room. I cannot imagine a more perfect radio presenter, or infact, keynote interviewer.
When Janice and Fyfe began their interview in front of us I could feel that the singer might feel a little intimidated at being asked questions in front of so many people, however eventually he did stop sitting on his hands and flung them around with vigor! (If you’ve seen the Guillemots onstage you’ll note Fyfe does the same thing with his hair.)
Points relevant to the three strands the conference dealt with:
In terms of music law and IP, Fyfe does not feel strongly against downloads and seemed to enjoy the fact that music can be distributed so quickly.
When asked about promotion, particularly where radio is concerned Fyfe told us that certain tracks of theirs had been restructured by radio stations, with one station once telling the band to ‘Make the drums come in quicker!’ Once or twice in the past the band have gone back into the studio and submitted to this request, but now Fyfe believes that their music shouldn’t have to be tampered with; “Imagine going to buy a song you’ve heard off the radio and then it sounding nothing like what you expected…”
Music Education is suprisingly an area Fyfe has experience in. Before the days of Guillemots, Fyfe stood in for a music teacher at a school, and ended up staying for two terms. One of his finest teaching moments was getting the students to have a rap battle with nonsensical language. He is still working with Birmingham choir Ex Cathedra who have links with young people and have been very active in educating people about music.
After the interview I gave Fyfe directions to the Digbeth vintage shop and promised I’d come to the gig the next day, he promised he’d look at my You Tube channel!?! I also got to speak briefly to Janice Long about radio… All in all it was a great morning!
FW