First published in the Southern Daily Echo, Friday 9th July 2010

There was a little bit of chaos in Southampton’s Bargate shopping centre last Monday morning.

Well, to be more precise, it was CHAOS the first meeting of the Creative, Heritage and Arts Organisations of Southampton.

It was hosted by SoCo the not-for-profit community music project.

They’ve turned an empty shop unit into a ‘Creative Hub’ that will allow budding musicians and artists a place to meet and perfrom.

This inaugural meeting of CHAOS drew representatives from various youth organisations and arts bodies.

From community radio station Unity 101 to the printers from Red Hot Press; from Sotown Records of Lordshill to Romsey Beggars Fair (Sat 10^th July).

Over coffee and muffins we discussed how SoCo’s new venture will help people discover their creative side but also advise artistic bodies how to ride the turbulent waves of the financial cutbacks.

And with no sense of irony it was noted how art funding is the first to be cut even though it’s an inexpensive way of making people happy and connected to the community.

Over the coming months there will be art seminars and meetings in the Bargate along side gigs and displays from new bands and artists.

But most of all get yours hands on a musical instrument.

Soon SoCo will be starting a scheme where the musically curious can sample a wide array of equipment from electronic drum kits to synths.

As co-founder Matt Salvage put it: “We’ll be coaxing people to put a guitar in their hands and have a go!”

Congratulations to Matt and Jon from SoCo on Monday’s victory in the People’s Millions competition.

The win is a massive boost for the Southampton music scene and in a few years time we’ll no doubt be listening a brand new group of musicians inspired by SoCo’s project.

By then we might also know what ‘making it’ actually means in this internet age of MySpace/YouTube/Spotify

As Paul Campbell, the founder of Amazing Radio, pointed out in a recent blog, “The musical world has shifted on its axis, and the shockwaves have destroyed the traditional music industry.” (Bringing Home The Bacon)

This ’shift’ has left the old companies focusing on their back catalogue while new bands, with all the music making and marketing tools at their finger tips, struggle to shift their creative mind to a business head.

But within this conundrum Northern Irish singer Eamon Nancarrow has highlighted a different side to ‘making it’.

Now I must confess a personal interest in this next part as I am the publisher of his autobiography

‘Holywood Star: The life and times of a rock and roll misadventurer’. It’s a very funny book about his attempts to make it during the 1980’s.

However, during an interview with Maurice Boland on ‘Talk Radio Europe’, Eamon gave us another reason for being in a band: “The music was the passion but deep down it was all the friendships that we made, and the relationships that we had, which far far exceeded any success we had with the music.”

Links

SoCo
Amazing Radio
Eamon Nancarrow

This Monday we’ll be voting for SoCo in the People’s Millions. If they win, Thornhill wins a new £50,000 arts centre giving Southampton a brilliant opportunity to involve more people in the making of music.

One area SoCo tries to have an influence is asking youngsters, who are inspired by the UK’s Grime scene, to write positive lyrics.

As good as they were at rhyming and flow, they find it hard not to fall into that scene’s stereotypical subjects of violence, guns and drugs. This is why SoCo should meet Shirley based MC and lyricist ‘LST’.

LST is a vocalist who thinks his approach is right: “I’m there to get into your consciousness and make you see that there is a right way and a wrong way and hopefully you pick the right way.”

This positive attitude inspired local film maker Andy Jones to create a mini documentary around LST which was recently shown at the Falstaff International Film Festival.

The film is named after the LST track ‘Cherish Life’ which was written following the tragic shooting London teenager Michael Dosunmu. “When I saw that I felt there’s got to be something I can do.”

It was not only the grief of the family that got to him but the nagging feeling that the negative messages in the UK’s grime scene needed a positive counter-point and LST was going to provide it.

He’s made a great start, on a long journey but, as his album title suggests, it’s time to “Change the Game”.

Links

LST on MySpace

Michael Dosunmu