LONDON 4x4 Performance Relay
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I've travelled round the London performance scene for six years now, performing and photographically preserving thousands of artists and promoters. I see a large (yet finite) number of disconnected groups at varying levels of maturity and/or social conscience. There is a wealth of energy and talent, often either ill focussed or lacking in intensity.
And there is competition. This affects different groups in different ways. There are limited (free) venues with more closing by the day it seems. There are limited audience members as few of us have the spare cash for mid-week performance gigs (at least as regards the cost of the beverages needed to complete such a night).There is a limited time window (with London's tube system closing down around midnight). And then with higher aspirations, there are limited contacts into the BBC, Sky, Radio, Major Festivals. Pour lots of individual groups into a hot bed like this and it has to be true that energies are being wasted.
This in the face of the fact that every individual group has a heart that it tries to follow. There seems to be no model in place that can overcome this difficulty. When I lived in the North East I was, for a time, the chair for Stockton Music and Arts Collective (SMAC) – running several bands a night in a 400 year old theatre building that was otherwise a millstone around the council's neck (to be honest, I probably did less for SMAC when I was chair than I did beforehand!). I would like to create something in London that sends out a signal flare of what can be achieved by co-operative effort.
Something that celebrates every 'level' of artist in an environment where the famed/respected is supporting and are supported by 'the new blood' – at four levels across four dimensions.
The four levels are:
- The Great and Good – to help catalyse the event, to instil excitement in the other participants; Simply to lend their name to the campaign and to play one free set on one agreed night in 2013 in central London, for free.
- The Local Heroes – Two 'feature' sets on that same night. For a month prior to the gig all interested bands can collect evidence of stage minutes played for free around the circuit. The logic being whichever band has worked hardest to give away performance time in London gets the benefit of a really good gig to play. The second feature band will be chosen entirely at random from all interested bands.
- The Have A GO Heroes – There will be an open mic opportunity on a strict first come first served basis.
- The Unknown Soldiers – in an ideal world I would also display all 2,000+ photographs I have of London performers on a suite of digital photo frames, so that in a sense every one of those performers are part of the gig.
The four dimensions are:
- Music
- Poetry
- Comedy
- Story-Telling
So that would amount to just four gigs over the year, but there's a strong story and theme amongst them that will help to create a real buzz. This could be a series of gigs that live in the social consciousness for a long time, with more people claiming to have attended than the venues could ever have held.
All I need now is four willing 'celebrities' and four free decent venues… any suggestions?
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