I'm so proud to be a part of Independent Venue Week with Gorwelion/Horizons and The Queens Hall, Narberth - the live gigs recorded throughout Wales for Independent Venue Week start tomorrow (mine and Rona Mac's is on on Wednesday 27th January from midday!).
You can check that out HERE if you missed it.
A few of the live tracks recorded throughout the week by various musicians at several grassroots venues throughout Wales will be played on BBC 6 Music tomorrow morning from 4am where Bethan Elfyn & Adam Walton (of BBC Radio Wales) will takeover Tom Robinson's BBC Introducing Mixtape on BBC Radio 6 Music!!
My live version of Carageen - recorded specifically for Independent Venue Week at the Queens Hall (thanks to Gorwelion/Horizons, BBC Music Introducing, BBC Radio Wales, Arts Council of Wales & Creative Wales) will be featured on the BBC 6 show!
If you missed the 4am early start on BBC Radio 6 Music, you can check out the show HERE!
"Live music - our industry (whether you're a musician, a venue owner, promoter, engineer, bar staff, door staff, or 'just' love going to gigs) has been decimated over the last 10 months.
This year's Independent Venue Week is particularly poignant and resonant, then, because something that was set up pre-Covid 19 to help spread the word about the challenges facing venues, and to lobby for support for the UK's live music industry - from the grassroots upwards - has now taken on a whole new level of urgency and importance.
IVW 21 will be celebrated and shouted about across the BBC over the next week. Obviously it's vital that the conversation about the challenges facing independent music venues isn't just for one week, but if this week raises awareness in the corridors of power - where the kind of press and attention that coincides with high profile campaign like this can draw attention to circumstances that might otherwise be ignored - then it's a very good thing.
To celebrate the beginning of this year's IVW, Tom Robinson Music Fresh On The Net has invited Bethan Elfyn and I to host his BBC Introducing Mixtape on BBC Radio 6 Music tomorrow morning at 4am (available on BBC Sounds afterwards, for those of you who aren't inveterate insomniacs, like what I am.)
Bethan and Horizons invited a selection of new Welsh artists to record sessions as live, as part of a virtual tour of some of Wales' excellent music venues...
and the fruits of those sessions will be celebrated on the 6Music BBC Music Introducing Mixtape tomorrow morning, as well as across a variety of other BBC programmes, including mine and Bethan's from last night; Janice Long's programme on BBC Radio Wales this coming week; on Radio Cymru... and elsewhere on the network.
The artists who featured in these sessions were:
Hope you have a chance to listen to Tom's show. And I hope your local venue is back as soon as safe and possible."
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