FolkArts England and Association of Festival Organisers Conference - Day 1

Posted By:Tom Rose 25.11.08, 10.07 PM

20.11.08
(Thursday)
It’s a rollover! Wednesday night is becoming Thursday morning and I’ve packed up the Navigator donkey with hundreds of CD’s, posters and flyers and printed information about our artists and tours and ready to leave the coalface for a few days.. It’s early in the morning now and there’s only 5 hours left til I’m meant to be up and dropping the nippers off at school and away.. time for sleep….. But there’s been some interesting instant message / emailing of music with Dave Derby (Gramercy Arms) and Kendall Meade (Mascott) both artists who are based in New York and still awake their side of the sea.

They have an idea for a Christmas Single duet.. just recorded.. I’m whacked out, but also dead keen to work with Kendall, she sent me her latest album in the spring but I couldn’t see a gap in the schedule and I was knee deep in the new Joan As Police Woman album planning and launching the Navigator Label at the time - Kendall has a really pure and beautiful voice and Dave’s already on Reveal, so somehow within the hour we have all agreed to make it a thing.. a plan is hatched to make it a rush release on Reveal.. just in time for Christmas.. December 8th, we are going to give it away for free (it’s Christmas after all) and do it all do it for fun.. I email the MP3 around the same night to dj’s and media bods, draw up a list of jobs to do for it and who’s doing what.. Chris (designer) and Kendall start on artwork the next morning, then I eventually get to bed before the alarm goes off at 6 am for the new day.. albeit I’m starting off a bit foggy.

Parental duties done and I’m now thinking (for thinking read DREADING) ‘why did I agree to this speech thing at the conference, I’m no public speaker.. and the afternoon talk slot is hanging over me all the more when I realise it’s just me on my own no one chairing the session.. ah well , onward into the unknown.. luckily I do know the people attending are likely to be really nice and understand this ain’t my thing..

With better planning and I’d have grabbed a Rufus Causley or Dave ‘Apeman’ Dellare to come help me out... but it’s not to be...

9.30 am and travelling north to Eastwood (Robin Hood country and not too far from Navigator HQ in Derby) where from 10am I will be spending a long weekend at the annual Folk Industry and AFO conference…

10am arrive and sign in, then dash about the hotel putting Navigator compilations and print stuff on every available surface so when folk come out the welcome meeting they are greeted by much free music and stuff to read about ..

Properganda magazine has Drever,McCusker,Woomble and Bellowhead on a special double front cover so there’s lots of them about..

AFO by day is a really useful conference (which in itself is a rarity I think )… there are so many good people of all ages coming from all over.. and people have to put a flag in the map so it’s apparent just where and who’s travelled to it.. there’s Dean Owen’s agent and manager who’d I’d met here last year ..big Davie Gardner all the way from Shetland and folk from Cornwall too.. this, part social gathering, part intense networking ‘event’ also has some exceptional artists from all stages of their careers playing showcases and speaking and generally sharing experiences, last year I was impressed by the attitude of Dave Dellare and we ended up working together, I spot Jim Moray getting his first coffee of the day and a quick glance at the conference schedule tells me he’s doing a talk on a panel about having a manager.. there are promoters, managers, club owners and agents discussing the inner workings of every possible subject to other like minded, enthusiasts.

Just in day one (and before my thing) they covered organising festivals, music education, promotion, marketing and funding.. and getting signed to a label or distributor.. a man from a folk label who’ve released 500 albums and been in business for 30 years is speaking and I’m wondering to myself a) just how different must it be for him operating in today’s faster moving scene and b) he must really love what he does to do be doing it after all this time.. hats off to him..

for me it’s been a chance to meet up and discuss our artists and work with some of those in attendance .. it’s nearly 3pm and I have a big ‘note to self’ moment - as the nerves really take hold..

If Im going to agree to speak and sit on panels in sessions and host ‘informal discussions’ on how I work etc which turn out to be quite formal (me alone upfront, audience seated in front of you) thingies, I need to try not to forget everything I’ve written down the night before...

Best laid plans and all that - I’m sitting there looking at a blur of words on countless sheets of paper... unsure if any of the words I’m speaking are in the right order or making sense.. In the back of my mind I’m wondering if Alan’s advice to ‘introduce what I do' is taking too much of the session over and I start thinking about being out front listening to me waffling on and is it remotely interesting to all those who’ve turned out..

By the end, I’m relieved but slightly shaken and people approach with cd’s to listen to later – which I do - on the way home.. I’m not sure what was said or in what order but I remember the inner sense of panic and DOOM !!! whilst speaking.. maybe it was OK I can’t remember even directly after, nice people said encouraging things and at the point where I asked if there were questions, I recall being glad there were actually some questions... but it felt like it went a bit badly from my end.. onward though.. to the coffee break and it’s one down two to go…

After the break I enjoy the calm of sitting listening to Alan Bearman showing the audience the good and bad ways to approach a festival for a gig with music and biogs.. there are ‘bad’ examples that include someone trying to sell camels and rare pigs to Towersey Folk Festival and one of his ‘good’ print and cd examples I note is from Lori Watson ( someone I know from Scotland who’s new music I have been listening too just this week).

Dinner and home after speaking with someone who’s done it all themselves and successfully for a long time (Vaughan the manager and agent to Show Of Hands) I decide I might actually be on the right track after speaking to him .. he seems a wise independently minded soul and I’ve tried to follow a similar approach in our short time working as a label.. building things up gradually for each artist - so the artist sustains a longer career and has a relationship with their fanbase, I’m pleased to be told it’s a sound route to follow by him...

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