DIVER:CITY A MAGAZINE IN CONJUNCTION WITH SO:MUSIC CITY
WOMEN AT EVENTS
FESTIVAL REVIEW
Venue Comments
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PHOTOS BY ABBIE JONES & Luke Simcock
CONTENTS 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 14 15 16
SO:MUSIC SUMMARY WOMEN AT EVENTS nos alive SO:MUSIC City FESTIVAL FESTIVAL REVIEW Festival in the making Black Kat boppers VENUE COMMENTS Magazine in a day Zuby podcast
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EDITOR’S LETTER Diver:City is a magazine produced by a variety of students across several courses at Solent University, all coming together to celebrate the first SO:Music City campaign as part of SO:Music City Festival. With the challenge to create a magazine in a day, as chief editor I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the company throughout. Fuelled by endless tea, Hobnobs and Jaffa cakes, the team pulled together to create this insightful and innovative magazine. This magazine expresses the events that happened throughout SO:Music City festival, and I hope you enjoy reading our thoughts on Southampton’s growing music scene.
Emily Young
CONTRIBUTORS CHIEF EDITOR Emily Young
SOCIAL MEDIA
Carolina Soares, Georgia Evans
Writers
Abbie Jones, Beatriz Domingues, Ellie Chivers, Emily Young, Grace Williams, Jasmine Hodge, Josh Abraham, Luke Simcock, Scott Boeser, Tom Severs
Photographers
Abbie Jones, James Tobin, Jim Houlbrook, Luke Simcock, Rosie Chalk
Podcasts
Beatriz Domingues, Tom Severs
Design
Ellie Chivers, Emily Young, Grace Williams, Mike Allen
Website Mike Allen
Illustrations Zoe Coxon
Magazine in a Day is an annual event as part of the SO:Music City campaign and the SO:Music City festival, which has been created and produced by the Solent University students in Southampton. The views expressed in the magazine, website, photography, podcasts and social media are the contributors’ own and as such the University and its staff cannot be held responsible.
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SO:MUSIC SUMMARY S
outhampton has a vast amount of musical talent. However, not only does the amount of talent surprise me, but the variety too. Kicking off SO:Music City In The Square is The Black Kat Boppers, an old-school blues band, who gets the early comers off their feet. Next up is The Edit; a fresh-faced indie rock band whose talent exceeds their age massively. Rock band DJuno stands out as well, being hailed as “the favourite band of the day” by most people I interview. Soul/Jazz outfit The Flourish quickly became a personal favourite of mine. The running theme of bands with impeccable female lead singers continued with 80s pop band Bash!. Concluding the
day is Route2Roots, a boom bap hip hop band, who effortlessly combine hip hop with reggae and funk. Their charisma on stage is clear, with those present at the Guildhall Square rocking and off their feet. Meeting up with independent artist Zuby, he shares with me that he moved to Southampton from Bournemouth for its notorious music scene. He believes Southampton “could be on the music map in a much bigger way” with a bit more time and work. Being a fan of Southampton’s music scene and the venues that the City has to offer. I can only agree with Zuby after today’s events, having seen a handful of local talent, making me wonder what other uncovered musical gems the City has to offer.
Words by TOM SEVERS PHOTOS BY ABBIE JONES
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NETWORKING NETWORKING EVENTS: EVENTS: WHERE WHERE ARE ARE THE THE WOMEN WOMEN AT? AT? blem in Southampton’s this an underlying pro Is me ho ce on t feeling comfortable rbia, the scene? Are women no sic eople gather in Subu mu b, so. clu htnig events? I don’t think ourite indie ough to attend these of Southampton’s fav en ve ls ha na e sio on fes for I pro is a mystery. with music e underlying problem Th Lennon’s, to network et d me ste d Ho an y. ng Cit come alo m around the e why women did not clu no and music starters fro r. , G) cto :N se ir (SO the p n withi tworking Grou inded people working e-m lik by Southampton Ne d an s nk dri with charm, the night is filled ent City. k of female involvem upcoming SO:Music the Perhaps it was the lac information about ic us :M SO of wever, part m the top down? Ho fro ate sic cre mu “to n’s d pto an as Southam is to push for diversity Excitement spreads r hieved so City’s focus ac s ha it s es nt that encourages ou cc su the sitive music environme po a industry celebrates of ain ure rem to fut t en the ve tal anticipation of music industries creati far, combined with the one thing music and R, VE to Southampton te WE ibu HO ntr n co aig to mp re and continue he SO:Music City’s ca be n. me wo y an is , the campaign cannot t the evening and NOT depart.“ So that is absent throughou ing ok Lo t. en lack of female involvem t I see criticised for tha s ale that can be taken. fem r fou ) nk rd, there are measures wa for I am one of (I thi the ite sp de night and in attendance of the t anisers, women just courage women to ge org the what can we do to en , So best efforts from n low me fel wo re my mo of book king to one ? Firstly, we need to aren’t here! Upon spea t how we involved ou ab them involved in k t tal ge d we an t, en ls kers at pane ea sp females at the ev the th wi ed I personally feel to get involv g networking events. nin run want more women d an ne sce events when they see pton’s music more women attend t tha future of the Southam d. a as me ca It what can be achieve ts like these. men showing them wo join networking even s of nd k ba lac ale the fem es e more other attende also need to celebrat We shock to myself and re LE the MA d, FE an AS t-h S BAND as I know firs STOP REFERRING TO d an women at this event, s, lity list ua eq rna jou er s, nd Ge female artist D IN REVIEWS. are plenty of strong, and around FRONTE in s has improved trie ers us ph ind gra st oto mo ph music and in promoters and still re? he are m none of the the 20s- however, we massively since- say the City. So, how come n me wo m fro t involvemen need to encourage s. ist ex dy ea alr talent that and celebrate the
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Words by Jasmine Hodge
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PREGNANT? PREGNANT? YOU’RE WELCOME WELCOME YOU’RE AT NOS NOS ALIVE! ALIVE! AT L
isbon’s iconic festival NOS Alive has become the first European festival to offer a safe space for pregnant women. With a line-up improving the gender inequality at festivals, powerful women such as Gossip, Robyn, Tash Sultana and Jorja Smith grace the stage over the three day weekend, and now those that are pregnant can enjoy the festival with less worries. The festival have announced that they will be offering a free viewing platform exclusively for pregnant women so they can escape the crowds. With a capacity of 100 people, the platform will be facing the main NOS stage, and will be equipped with fully-trained nurses on standby. Included in the service are free blankets and cushions to make sure the individuals are as comfortable as possible, and families are allowed
to join in and enjoy the festival in comfortable style. “This announcement is a really exciting development to encourage pregnant women to still enjoy live music without additional worries on top of the stress of queues and crowds,” says Vanessa Augusto, booker for NOS Alive. Whilst the spaces on the viewing platform are free, guests are required to book in advance via the festival’s website, and CEO of the festival is excited to share his latest development after listening to the feedback of his festivalgoers. “I fully believe this new viewing platform will enable more people to enjoy the festival atmosphere without worrying about being in a crowded space.” Taking place in Lisbon from July 11-13, tickets are available now from the event’s website.
Words by Emily young Art by Zoe Coxon
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SO:MUSIC CITY FESTIVAL
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s the clouds drift over Southampton and the noise of sets being built drown the City centre in the early hours on a Saturday it is clear something is happening. Drum kits being placed outside NST City, speakers being thrusted into Orange Rooms and more and more sets being built is a clear indicator that the music scene was changing. The morning set up begins with panels at John Hansard Gallery talking about the music heritage of Southampton whilst a different panel altogether is happening at Orange Rooms; Demo Surgery, a panel where Southampton artists/bands came together and a panel of experts critique their work. With the likes of BBC Introducing, Band of Skulls and Echo Location Music Agency being the ones who are listening to the majority of the tracks, it was well received. Although, the music was your typical indie and singersongwriter work so not a lot of diversity there. We move on to Mettricks, where the coffee is flowing and the real talks about the music industry are getting honest. Five hours of panels – ranging from marketing for musicians, to the power of networking to the reality of running live music. Each panel packed out with people being stuck for places to stand to listen to the great advice being offered. Kristianne Drake of DIY Southampton speaks honestly about her experiences having Autism and being in the local music industry, where everyone
REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW in the room just listens and only the panellists interrupting her with their views on the music scene. Towards the end of the event the power of networking is packed out and even though the panellists are trying to introduce cringy exercises, it ends up an overall success with people leaving with more knowledge than they come in with. Now we turn to the Guildhall Square where the Black Kat Boppers are drawing in the crowd and keeping them as they bounce around the stage and attract people from different parts of the City. From shoppers who were just looking around to photographers taking the most intriguing shots and to most people’s surprise, the crowd kept growing and growing. Throughout the entire six hours of music, the crowd varies between families with their children dancing to older men and women sitting in the local café’s, drinking their coffee and watching from afar. The whole idea of the festival is a jumpstart for the SO:Music City campaign where creatives need a City where they can express themselves in the music scene and not jump to London, Bristol, Brighton and more. The festival shows the level of creativeness with the bands involved and that Southampton’s music scene is there, but with more coverage, more panels like the ones at the event and more bands showing that they are there, then Southampton can become the prime real estate for music.
Words by josh abraham Photos by Luke simcock
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A festival in the making The organisers of SO:Music City tell all...
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outhampton has always been a City of rich culture, fizzing with creativity and innovation. That spark of imagination exploded across the City in SO:Music City festival this weekend. But how would you even begin to organise a festival? Let’s meet three of the brainboxes behind the event: Martin James, Dan Mar-Molinero and Tom Gibson. James explains:”I had been running the multi-venue music festival and conference SMILEfest for 10 years and announced last year the ambition to take it outside of Solent Universitiy and into the city. Luckily Tom [Gibson] came to that conference and recognised we had similar ambitions.“ Gibson says, “I set up a networking group SO:NG which brought the professional music scene together.” Meanwhile, James met professional musician and University of Southampton Lecturer, Mar-Molinero through an associated project with Southampton Cultural Development Trust (SCDT) and a team was born. There was a collective aim to push the music scene in Southampton further, with concerns about this part of the City’s culture falling away. When the group first met, the energy was obvious. Mar-Molinero says: “The evidence that a drive to raise the profile and to create a more sustainable economy for music in Southampton was indisputable...Both Universities then agreed to fund a launch festival for the SO:Music City campaign, which was then endorsed and funded by Southampton City Council.” James is over-the-moon with how everything turned out, but next year he is hoping for something even mightier: “The entire week of events were a great success… from the first gig all of the way to the final drum clinic. That’s not to say there weren’t areas for improvement. That’s the nature of events like this and we’re happy to admit mistakes, learn and build towards an even better event next year. One of the great things for me was that the council and both universities invested in the project because they can all see the positive benefits.” Guildhall Square was filled to the brim with dancing, happy people enjoying the local talent. Every act that took to the stage enthused the
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audience, wowing both the attendees and the organisers: “I was blown away by the talent - there wasn’t one poor performance,” Mar-Molinero says. “More importantly, the professionalism and original music was sensational. We are sitting on a gold mine of original talent in this City - we should be very excited!” The success of this event can only inspire bigger and better things next year...and not only next year - but many years to come. Gibson says: “Over the next 5 years, personally, I would love to see it grow and become the next Great Escape, South by Southwest type event. Putting Southampton on the map musically has always been a key aim. We have the City infrastructure to make it happen and there clearly seems to be a need/desire for it from the public and music scene given the feedback we have received.” James elaborates on this: “My aim is that Southampton builds towards being a music City. At first, we need to create a music-positive City and show the positive economic, cultural and social benefits of a strong music scene to the local council, business and communities. Then we need to build the infrastructure. The festival was a small step in a long road.” The future, in many respects, is uncertain, but the undeniable joy gained from seeing a passionate live performance will surely live on forever. James seems pretty sure about what he wants to see from what is sure continue as a hugely popular festival: “a thriving local music industry, buzzing venues, a new larger capacity venue, a permanent space for a Southampton music heritage exhibition, a fully supportive council, fully invested local businesses. “As for next year’s festival, I’d like two or three stages, a broader range of conference topics, more funding and at least ten months lead in time! And as for the artists, more from the urban, grime and dance communities! More form the experimental, noise and avant garde artists. More of the unusual.” How with only City
lucky are we to live in a place so vibrant culture and music? And this vibrancy is set to get brighter, thanks to SO:Music festival - time to get ready for 2020.
Words by Ellie Chivers Photo by Abbie Jones
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“SOUTHAMPTON IS GREAT. THAT’S WHY I MOVED HERE.” Black Kat Boppers’ Lead Guitarist Talks Southampton Music Scene and Why He Prefers it To London
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hen speaking about Black Kat Boppers, Damon Albarn once stated, “Wow those boys can really play,” and they sure can! Gracing stages such as Glastonbury, Port Elliot, Bestival, Hyde Park, Notting Hill Carnival and not to mention their memorable performance with Florence and The Machine at Bob Geldof’s 60th birthday party, it is a real treat to have these guys living on our doorstep. Southampton band, Black Kat Boppers take to the stage for SO:Music City on the Saturday for an afternoon of rock ‘n’ roll. As far as Southampton’s music goes, Black Kat Boppers are one of the grooviest, party-starting bands around and never fail to bring large crowds wherever they play. Lead guitarist, Luca Scaggiante spoke to us after their show and gave us the low down on how the afternoon went and his opinions on creating a more diverse, inclusive music community that will help put Southampton’s music on the map. Moving from Italy to London and then finally to Southampton (just only a few weeks ago), it’s fair to say that Scaggiante has travelled around a fair few music scenes in his time. Although living in Southampton for only a short period, he has been playing here for the last three years after he joined Black Kat Boppers, before he was travelling from London for their previous shows. “Southampton isn’t any less of a City,” he begins, “The only way to help the music scene is put on more gigs and encourage young people not to play for free!” We begin talking about the closure of music venues such as Lennon’s and The Talking Heads and how the financial burden causes problems for fans and owners.
“The closing of music venues is not helping the scene obviously. But when anyone ever plays, including us, you get asked ‘how many people do you bring’. It shouldn’t be like that.” Part of the premise of SO:Music City is to encourage people not to depart to bigger cities such as London and Brighton in search of music work when we have a strong scene right here on our doorstep. When comparing the London music scene to Southampton’s, Scaggiante prefers here. “I’ve come from London and there is way too much there! There is so much crap going on and you have to then be selective and pay big fees for shows. But Southampton is great. That’s why I moved here.” Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t share the same outlook on Southampton’s music scene with Scaggiante but SO:Music City campaign is here to change that. “We need more outdoor gigs - absolutely!” He began when we spoke about how the scene could improve. “The more outdoor music, the better. I think some more outdoor and public gigs would be great.” He continues, “that way you don’t have the barriers or doors between that make people do that thing at gigs where they poke their head in to look for friends and then leave because they can’t see them. This way everyone is included from the start. It’s much better that way.” With Scaggiante moving to Southampton for specific musical purposes, it surely shows that the scene here is one that should soon be held in the same regard as places such as Brighton and London.
Words by Jasmine Hodge Photo by Nosa Malcom
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VENUE VENUE COMMENTS COMMENTS
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SUBURBIA STUART COLLYER I’m Stuart Collyer and I run the Suburbia music venue in Southampton, and yes it was great day! We had the opportunity to catch some networking sessions, talks from various artists and people from the music industry and then also a great chance to catch some of the new upcoming talent from Southampton on the main stage in the Guildhall square. It was a brilliant opportunity and I hope it happens every year!
THE JOINERS ARMS TONY ROBINSON
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It was a really cool event to have in the City obviously bringing everybody together. Lots of the main creative people coming together and lots of local bands. Great to see people coming out to see the show, there was so many people in the square. Which is awesome, especially when it was better than expected, I hope we can build on it in the future. To create a bigger festival by 2020, bigger and better and hopefully it will turn into something big like the Great Escape down in Brighton.
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” METTRICKS OTIS CONNELL
THE ARTS HOUSE KITTY O’NEIL
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The various arts festivals on Saturday created an absolute buzz, centred outside Guildhall and spreading down the road into all the streets, bars, cafés and venues. We hope to see a return of SO:Music City festival in years to come, as it brought together so many important independent venues, artists and arts lovers which was fantastic to experience.
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We really enjoyed hosting the SO:Music City event in Mettricks - independent businesses and musicians are what makes the community of Southampton so unique and that’s why we believe that this was the perfect kind of festival for our City!
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MAGAZINE IN A DAY What goes on behind the doors of the Newsroom?
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agazine In A Day has been an organic opportunity for creative media students for eleven years, with thanks to Martin James, a Professor and former music journalist at Solent University, who first came up with the concept of what used to be SMILEfest.
This is the first year the group has been creating multiple multimedia content but there is hope for more in the years to come.
Podcasts, Instagram, Twitter and a Flickr account have gone up to spread word about the magazine The aim was to provide an opportunity and in the years to come Morrell for Journalism students to come into hopes that there can be more video contact with people involved in the and online content created too. music industry - to test their journalistic interviewing, camera operating With a growing history, this one-day & content creating techniques event has motivated students to turn out on professional musicians. up with their A-game. Bringing different courses together, this year Popular Music The ‘Magazine In A Day’ element Journalism, Multimedia Journalism, has always been a key component Media Production, Web Development of this collaborative process, with and Fashion Buying students have the intention of providing students united to take part. It’s not just a chance with an experience of industry style to create something awe-inspiring, it’s expectations of content turned around also a great place to meet new people. in a demanding but realistic time frame. Creating a network between musicians, The ‘SO:Music City’ music campaign journalists and creative people alike debut came as a breath of fresh air for is vital to the social cohesion in any the editorial organiser of the Magazine university. Allowing students and In A Day event - Louise Morrell, thinks professionals to collaborate means that that the event has given students more we are incentivised by the real world and opportunity to exemplify their efforts. our degrees don’t feel meaningless to us. As reporting on a public event gives the magazine much more scope for an actual Converging skill sets together and readership, she is looking forward to working against the clock - whilst gaining working on the project for years to come. valuable work experience along the way - some of the creators of this years Students involved are expected to magazines highlights were witnessing plan, design and then create through group work come together, working with writing and producing media content different people from different courses, to put together a professional and gaining industry style experience. standard magazine in a day.
Words by scott boeser
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SO:Music City festival is a free multi-venue event that ran this year on from the 18-24 March. The music festival featured a number of different events such as talks form panellists, performances and gigs from local artist and additional workshops. A number of Southampton based acts performed and all had one purpose to establish Southampton as the musical City that it once was. I got a chance to speak to the performers and to see their take on the production and who they are as musicians. First up I interviewed Zuby, an independent rapper and panellist:
Zuby: ‘I am Zuby, I’m the director of my label COM entertainment, I am also the host of the real-talk with Zuby podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitchers and everywhere else. I am also a creative entrepreneur and university graduate.’ Tom: What do you think of the Southampton music scene? Zuby: ‘I think it’s good... Southampton has a lot more stuff going on there’s a better infrastructure, there’s more venues, more artists and people doing things within the world of music and that’s one of the primary reasons why I moved here. There’s a lot of talent in the City and there are people doing things which are very positive and people putting on events like this and the universities are doing things. So, there’s a little bit more that can be done to support artists and creative people, just like there is on a national and international scale.’ Tom: What venues have you played in Southampton? Zuby: ‘I have primarily played at the Joiners about 4 times now. I have got a gig at Heartbreakers which has been rescheduled to may 15. So, that one is coming up but for the past few years the Joiners has always been my go to venue in Southampton.’ Tom: Is there any Southampton acts that you follow? Zuby: ‘Yeah, there was an event I went to a couple months ago, it was an urban/hip-hop event so there was a whole bunch of acts going on there. I am keeping an eye on what Foor are doing, Tyrone and Warbs are doing a lot of stuff, Shannon B is doing some great stuff and my friend JoJo that I record with has just recently got his first silver certification plaque, which is really dope because he’s both artistically and as a producer and as an engineer he’s doing great things. There’s a load of artists… there’s a lot of talent in the City... there’s a lot of stuff happening and I think it’s really good, I think if people collaborate more and really try to build something as a scene and a City then Southampton could really be on the map in a positive way.
Listen on SoundCloud @MAGAZINE IN A DAY
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Following on from Zuby, I caught up with Zoe and Sam who are part of the band ‘The Flourish’: Tom: Are you enjoying the day and have you seen any of the other acts? Zoe: ‘Yeah it’s been really good, Djuno were really good! Sam: ‘Yeah, definitely one of my favourites, really high energy, great singer and great guitarist.’. Tom: Are you guys from Southampton and what do you think of the music scene? Zoe: ‘Yeah we’re studying at university, I think the music scene could be better, but it’s still better than other places.’ Sam: ‘I really like The Brook, The Joiners and The Talking Heads when it was open. I’m into all those cheesy rock cover bands.’ Tom: Where can we find your music? Sam: ‘We’ve got a little bit on SoundCloud but we’re working on pretty much the songs that we performed during that set but we’re releasing an album on Spotify probably around May/June but it’s not finalised yet.’ Then, I interviewed Miles and Amanda BASH! Tom: Have you been at the festival all day? Miles: ‘I’ve been checking out the bands, I particularly like Djuno.’ Tom: What do you think of the Southampton music scene? Amanda: ‘It’s blooming, everyone is getting there.’ Miles: ‘The venues are getting fuller, there’s more and more sold out shows at places like The Joiners which is a lovely thing to see and the comradery between bands is excellent, we all support each other and are at each other’s show.’ Finally, I saw, Routes2Roots. Tom: Have you been watching the bands and how have you found the day? Routes2Roots: ‘Yeah, I’ve been having an awesome day, we watched the last two bands – Black Kat Boppers were great, always been a fan of those guys.’ The overall aim of the project was to revitalise Southampton as a music city. From what I’ve heard and seen from others,the festival has definitely been a great start and I’ve enjoyed being a part of it.- Tom
Interview by Tom severs
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PHOTOS BY ABBIE JONES & Luke Simcock
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