GoNorth Fringe

From about 1.30 onward yesterday I was listening to panels to do with the music industry. The panels including DJ Vic Galloway, Chris and Phil from Baby Boom Records, and a few guys from Universal.

The panel on management in the industry was industry mainly due to the fact that we had Vic Galloway slating major labels and giving good advice to the young bands in the audience while sat next to representitives from the very people he was slating! His passion definitley shone through as he seemed determined to help up and coming bands. The other panel members seemed to amount to nothing more than one upsmanship. Name dropping, tales of John Mayer tours and how many records they sold. 'You make the artist think they have power to keep them happy' retorted Christian, manager of Faroe Island singer-songwriter Teitur. He spoke about artists like they were pawns which got my back up a wee bit. Baby Boom seemed to want to genuinely help bands, talking about the long and arduous process of grooming bands to be ready for the public.

A main point stressed was the fact that all bands should sign up to PRS to receive funds for live performances. The recent young support band to Bon Jovi made £20,000 alone from one gig due to PRS. So it is worth signing up, then.

I got dead drunk and ended up playing pool with all these industry types, beating Baby Boom due to default. Then I mangina'd Peenko and Alan from Rokbun. The less said about that the better, but they are also covering GoNorth so check them out.

My pick of the young bands playing yesterday was Iglue who sounded like a cross between Bright Eyes and Bombay Bicycle Club.

If you are in Inverness or are in a young band get your arse to GoNorth today. Panels from Born To Be Wide on self-management and on various other seminars.

Lets hope tonight is not as messy as yesterday. Seemingly Bronto Skylift are launching their album on a tiny wee island!