It is time for the music industry to get the hell out of London
When he’s not slagging off his brother or criticising every piece of music that he didn’t make, occasionally, Noel Gallagher talks some sense.
“Fuck the customer,” was at the heart of this particular rant, as he disparaged the idea that any kind of formula can be followed in the pursuit of groundbreaking art. Great music is made by innovators, those who don’t just think outside the box, but step outside completely and twat it for six. Gallagher said you can’t make music with the customer in mind because they only want what they know, and the best music always comes from ground never before trodden.
“The customer didn’t want Jimi Hendrix. But they got him. And it changed the world,” he said. “The customer didn’t want The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper, but they got it. They didn’t want Sex Pistols, but they got it. Fuck the customer. The customer doesn’t know what he wants.”
Convention can never exist within artistic spaces, and the moment you introduce a system that works, you encourage stagnation. What’s the point in trying to make something cutting-edge and interesting when there is a formula, proven to work, that you can just stick to instead? The music is bad, but if it’s going to get you on stage, in front of fans, and selling records, who cares?
This is what happened in Los Angeles before Guns N’ Roses burst onto the scene. Hair metal was proving to be the most effective way to get a record deal, and it led to a sound which was very much style over substance. The result was creativity becoming completely stunted, and it took musicians like Slash to kick a hairspray-smelling door off its hinges and usher in a new movement.
“I fucking hated the whole scene, man… In Los Angeles, it was just bullshit. And we were coming up in the midst of all that,” said the guitarist. “Everybody was fucking converting to the industry standard to get a record deal and get girls, this whole thing. Where our band was coming from was the antithesis of all that, and it’s something I’m really proud of.”
It’s for these reasons that it’s time for the music industry to get the hell out of London. So long as it still has a dominant presence in the nation’s capital, the process of breaking into the mainstream exists as a formula. This isn’t a criticism of bands from London, it’s merely an observation that the moment you have big names in the industry, be it in the creation, marketing or release of music, all occupying one space, you run the risk of what is supposed to be a boundaryless genre inadvertently setting itself boundaries.
On a recent visit to Rockfield Studios, I spoke to recipients of a grant from a government branch called Creative Wales. This grant allowed budding musicians and producers to attend a songwriting retreat called Pro7ect, where they could work with established writers and producers in a studio environment. Through projects like this, the door is pried open for an industry that many may consider to be permanently closed.
I spoke to Carys Bromham, a musician and producer who received one of the grants. She had previously worked with people who had given in to the pull of London, and while it’s something she can understand, she also doesn’t like the idea that artists from other cities don’t realise their full potential purely because of where they’re based.
“Taking it out of the big city is great because the art is just as good. It’s different circumstances,” she said. “Maybe you can’t move to London, it doesn’t mean your art is less, it doesn’t mean it’s any worse, it just means that you can’t move to London. It is a bit frustrating that that’s something that people tend to be like – ‘Oh if you want to be anywhere then you have to be in London’. It’s just wrong.”
She continued, “I know a lot of people turn their nose up. They say ‘Oh where are you based?’ If you say anywhere other than London, they’re like ‘Oh, I’ll just find someone closer’. Why? It’s just convenience, then, it’s just laziness.”
It’s here where funding from places like Creative Wales comes into force. They recognise the potential of local artists and, rather than seeing them flock to the capital, would sooner keep them local and give them the tools to thrive from wherever they feel the most comfortable.
“The Welsh government is amazing with their funding, really tryna support all the artists and make sure that it’s a sustainable way of living, and to be able to get these experiences and to be able to grow as artists,” said Bromham.
“We’ve got amazing talent in Wales. Any genre of music is in Welsh, or there is a Welsh person writing it… Why not use what we have to offer?”
Carys Bromham
Of course, it’s not just Wales that has talented artists with great potential. These kinds of innovative minds exist all over the country, and slowly but surely they will be realised within their natural setting without needing to make the move to London. It’s already steadily shifting, but the plunge needs to be taken wholeheartedly, as if labels, organisers and creative minds in general cast focus elsewhere, they’ll tap into different scenes that have something to offer which the general public is yet to truly experience.
Another artist at the Pro7ect retreat, Kendra, originally from Paisley, now champions the Manchester soul scene and thinks it has a lot more to offer mainstream audiences. “Manchester’s a great city, there’s a lot going on,” she said. “Everyone says it’s up and coming, but I don’t think that’s true. I think it’s always been there, and it’s just now being included. We’ve had the Brits, and in two weeks the MOBO Awards, which is huge… and the soul scene is getting better. We’ve got great venues in Manchester, great venues that will support that jazz and soul vibe.”
Leeds band Thank also made a reference to the lack of northern artists present in mainstream music in their song ‘Dread’, where they sang, “You know, there’s never been a good band from London / And there’s never been a good band below the age of 25.” When discussing the tongue-in-cheek lyric, band member Freddy Vinehill-Cliffe said he was “trying to express frustration at how focused the music press is on London and young bands.”
Additionally, while there are bands outside of London that get overlooked, there are also artists within the capital who are so focused on trying to get big that they make the scene uninhabitable. In an interview with Far Out, Fat White Family’s Lias Saoudi spoke about how the competition in London can make the city a hard place to be creative. He mentioned how bands in America and Asia are as innovative as ever, whereas those in the UK feel stagnant.
When asked why that is, he said: “Biterness and jealousy. That’s what I’ve seen in this country… London’s just the toughest because of people’s behaviour. Everyone in America was always really influential or accepting of your talents and wanting to grow with you, but here they get nasty.”
He continued, “It becomes like hard competition when you’re all trying to do the same thing. You’re all trying to go up, and you could do events together; you could support each other online and other stuff… Everyone wants to be the star here.”
In complete contrast, bands like Thank celebrate the northern scenes because of the community feel that envelops them. “That’s part of the joy of it,” said Vinehill-Cliffe, “It being this muddled together community thing.”
It’s time for the music industry to get the hell out of London. In having a central hub for something creative, the industry encourages stagnation and creates an environment where musicians struggle to truly tap into their creativity. By casting its eyes outside of the capital, not just in terms of talent but also marketing, publication and distribution, the music industry opens itself up for exciting new acts, processes, and a different approach towards the business in general. The moment a repetitive cycle appears to be revealing itself, it’s time to remove the spokes from the wheel. The faster the music industry spreads out and involves more of the UK, the better.
