Thursday, June 16, 2005
Disintegrating as it goes testing our communication
Last night, in the downstairs part of the Outlook on Kings Rd (nr. Kwikfit/Prudential,etc.) saw the birth of the Reading Fringe festival 2005. Or rather, as Mikey says, the newest incarnation of the Fringe Festival after the Readipop one in 2000. I'm completely stoked by this, and look forward to trying to establish something that can be a regular feature in the local calendar. This year has seen bands from the area achieve a greater level of success and exposure than ever (I'm not sure if this is strictly true, I know there has been a steady trickle of bands from the area doing well and guys like The Cooper Temple Clause couldn’t really achieve much more success - but this is the first time that there has been such a major "buzz" as far as I know) so we need to strike while the iron is set to "man made fibres".
There is much to be done, although to be fair the hard work has already been carried out by the local promoters and bands, so all we need to do is try and get them wider exposure and coverage under a larger umbrella for the week running up to Reading Festival. I'm very aware that we are simply showcasing that which is already in existence, and trying to use it to promote, encourage and advertise further events and activities. We have some great people on board, and this isn’t rocket science so at the very least we will be able to enjoy more gigs and activities than usually happens around festival time.
Seems stupid to have the eyes of the nation turned on Reading every August for the bands that play at the festival and not point out that there is a thriving community of talent and artists located here for the other 11 months of the year as well. As I understand it, The Cooper Temple Clause played a handful of gigs in Reading before heading up the M4 to seek their fame - I suppose one of our goals is to be able to save other bands the petrol money in the future. Oxford has some good bands, Manchester and Liverpool have some good bands, I'd like to think that Reading has some good bands too: we just need to let the world know!
The Race have CD's in HMV, hopefully they'll start troubling the charts soon, Morning Runner are supporting Coldplay and appearing at Glastonbury this year - there are a smattering of signed acts in the area, not to mention ones that are being seriously looked at by guys with contracts - and I've started seeing bands actually move to Reading to try and further their careers, so it's all starting to snowball. Sounds like a good reason to have a fringe festival to me. In fact, hopefully soon we can lose the "fringe" term and just have Reading festival spread out to envelope the town itself and not just Richfield ave. Carling, please take note.
There is much to be done, although to be fair the hard work has already been carried out by the local promoters and bands, so all we need to do is try and get them wider exposure and coverage under a larger umbrella for the week running up to Reading Festival. I'm very aware that we are simply showcasing that which is already in existence, and trying to use it to promote, encourage and advertise further events and activities. We have some great people on board, and this isn’t rocket science so at the very least we will be able to enjoy more gigs and activities than usually happens around festival time.
Seems stupid to have the eyes of the nation turned on Reading every August for the bands that play at the festival and not point out that there is a thriving community of talent and artists located here for the other 11 months of the year as well. As I understand it, The Cooper Temple Clause played a handful of gigs in Reading before heading up the M4 to seek their fame - I suppose one of our goals is to be able to save other bands the petrol money in the future. Oxford has some good bands, Manchester and Liverpool have some good bands, I'd like to think that Reading has some good bands too: we just need to let the world know!
The Race have CD's in HMV, hopefully they'll start troubling the charts soon, Morning Runner are supporting Coldplay and appearing at Glastonbury this year - there are a smattering of signed acts in the area, not to mention ones that are being seriously looked at by guys with contracts - and I've started seeing bands actually move to Reading to try and further their careers, so it's all starting to snowball. Sounds like a good reason to have a fringe festival to me. In fact, hopefully soon we can lose the "fringe" term and just have Reading festival spread out to envelope the town itself and not just Richfield ave. Carling, please take note.
# posted by AK @ 11:37 
