 Summer sights, sounds & festivals…Tuesday 25th of August 2009 02:12 pm The shortage of staff blogs since June indicates that it has been another very busy time for the Youth Music Action Zone and the Hive. We’ve been too busy to blog! Now we are nearing the end of the summer holidays and festival season, having enjoyed a rich and varied few months with involvement in various local festivals and events including Teenage Kicks, Love Music Hate Racism, the Darwin Festival, Live At The Hive, Live At The Place and Shift-Time. Sven is about to run workshops at Shrewsbury Folk Festival over the Bank Holiday weekend, along with workshop leaders James Barrow (Taiko drumming) and Josh Arrowsmith (DJ). The Love Music Hate Racism Festival took place at Shrewsbury College of Arts on Saturday 20th June and was the amalgamation of months of hard work by Shrewsbury College, Shropshire Council Community Regeneration and Cultural Diversity and the Hive. The line-up included popular bands Subsource, Smoke Feathers, Sarah Savoy & The Francadians and the Jam DRC, supported by a long list of talented local artists including Babytwin, Callebra, Thom Morecroft, Brentlee, The Pantomimes, Andy Lowe, EZ & DJ Buzzword, Dirty Ray and The Disclaimers - to name but a few! Ten staff and volunteers from the Hive helped behind-the-scenes all day, from 10am to 11pm. The rain held off and great fun was had by everyone, all for a good (and pertinent) cause – to challenge racism and discrimination. Teenage Kicks Festival on 27th June was a day to remember – with a tortoise sculpture procession (as part of the Darwin project – more details in Chris Vandyke’s blog), the Hive’s stall – adorned with tortoises and featuring DJ workshops by Josh and George, and the Hive’s Voltage volunteer team running the stage all afternoon. Voltage volunteers Habib, Lucy, Andy, Emma and Craig short listed from a long list of local bands who applied. On the day Andy, Craig, Habib and Volunteer Coordinator Ellen helped everything run smoothly. The day went without a hitch, with brilliant performances from Someone Else, Trampled Underfoot, Stereosmith, Nasty Habits, One Summer On, Gemma Griffiths, Core, the Beat Collective and 1.5 Days. The team are already looking forward to next year’s festival. Also this summer the Youth Music Action Zone has run two B Sound transition music rockschool weeks in Telford schools; Charlton in Wellington and Burton Borough in Newport. The successful partnership between Telford Music Services, Telford Culture Zone, the two schools, The Hive and the Youth Music Action Zone has enriched these projects great deal and participants (from Year 6 of feeder Primaries and Year 7 of the Secondary school) enjoyed themselves immensely. The benefits of the B Sound transition projects are extensive – students from the Primaries get acquainted with their new school and teaching/support staff, whilst gaining confidence and making new friends in the year above. The young people are introduced to diverse styles of music from the last fifty years, learn to play an instrument and gain more experience in various band musical instruments (primarily bass guitar, keys, drums and guitar) as well as improving vocal skills. At the end of the week-long intensive project all of the young people take part in a showcase performance lasting approximately an hour, attended by families, guardians and friends. If this year’s showcases are anything to go by we have some serious talent and a lot of budding rock/pop stars in the making! Tomorrow (Weds 26th Aug) sees our next Live At The Hive gig - back after it's brief summer sabbatical in July. All good gigs deserve a holiday! This month’s line-up will provide our audience with a jamboree of impressive acoustic acts: Jia Jinx (formerly Rose and Jess); whose beautiful melodic tunes are enough to chill out and cheer up even the most stressed-out of souls, Jack Harris; an incredibly entertaining solo singer-songwriter whose lyrics are captivating, heart-warming and humorous all at once, Andy Bucklaw; local alternative singer/songwriter whose passionately delivered songs are brimful with astute political, emotional and social observation, and The Yipes; a versatile and polished young Telford band who will be performing an energetic acoustic set on this occasion (returning in December to play a full set). Andy Bucklaw is set to move from Telford to Cambridge very soon to start a University course, so this gig will provide one of the last chances to catch a live performance before he leaves the Shire for big city-life and gets snapped up by the Cambridge music scene! Good luck Andy To whet your musical appetite and tantalize your ear drums; here are a few of the acts to expect in our upcoming live music nights: Live At The Hive ~ The Hive’s autumn/winter line-up includes: The Goodness, Lucy Wills & Sam Rickards, The Kayas, Sam Cooper, Fight The Bear, The Insults, Deco, Yes Captain, Gus Macgregor, The Daughters, Trampled Underfoot, Neotopia, Someone Else, Glenn Mann and many more! Next gigs: 26th August, 30th September, 28th October, 25th November and 16th December. Check out: www.myspace.com/liveatthehive Live At The Place ~ acoustic gigs in the bar at The Place, Oakengates Theatre, organised as a partnership between The Hive and The Place: Babytwin, Wilcox, Brentlee, Hey Nostradamus, The Yipes, Four Legged Wonder, MK Zero, Fight The Bear and more! The next gig will be on Weds 16th September, doors open at 7.30pm. We’re looking forward to another lively season of gigs and events. Please come and check out the amazing musical talent that abounds on our local music scene at The Hive or The Place this autumn, there’s something for all tastes and ages! | ||
| Katie Jennings |
