Throughout the history of popular music, the careers of many culturally significant artists and groups began on the small stages of local bars clubs, pubs, and discotheques. When the stories of The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and the New York punk hardcore and post punk scenes are told, iconic venues such as The Cavern, The Marquee and CBGB's serve as the settings of their early chapters Small live music venues such as these are pivotal in the narratives and history of popular music. However, very few of them survive. This book focusses on the role of small live music venues as incubators for emerging talent and social hubs for music scene participants. Such venues are grassroots spaces of cultural labor and production that often struggle with issues of financial precarity yet are fundamental to the live music ecology of a city, acting both as platforms for emergent performers and spaces of sociality for local music scenes.

Mapping the changing realities of youth creative self-employment in the twenty-first century.

Popular music scholars have long been interested in the connection between place and music. This collection brings together a number of key scholars in order to introduce readers to concepts and theories used to explore the relationships between place and music. An interdisciplinary volume, drawing from sociology, geography, ethnomusicology, media, cultural, and communication studies, this book covers a wide-range of topics germane to the production and consumption of place in popular music. Through considerations of changes in technology and the mediascape that have shaped the experience of popular music (vinyl, iPods, social media), the role of social difference and how it shapes sociomusical encounters (queer spaces, gendered and racialised spaces), as well as the construction and representations of place (musical tourism, city branding, urban mythologies), this is an up-to-the-moment overview of central discussions about place and music. The contributors explore a range of contexts, moving from the studio to the stage, the city to the suburb, the bedroom to festival, from nightclub to museum, with each entry highlighting the diverse and complex ways in which music and place are mutually constitutive.

This book is an ethnographic investigation of punk subculture as well as a treatise on the importance of place: a location with both physical form and cultural meaning. Rather than examining punk as a "sound" or a "style" as many previous works have done, it investigates the places that the subculture occupies and the cultural practices tied to those spaces. Since social groups need spaces of their own to practice their way of life, this work relates punk values and practices to the forms of their built environments. As not all social groups have an equal ability to secure their own spaces, the book also explores the strategies punks use to maintain space and what happens when they fail to do so.

The Live Music Business: Management and Production of Concerts and Festivals, Third Edition, shines a light on the enigmatic live music business, offering a wealth of inside advice and trade secrets to artists and bands looking to make a living in the industry. Previously published as The Tour Book, this new edition has been extensively revised, reorganized, and updated to reflect today’s music industry. This practical guidebook examines the roles of the key players – from booking agents to concert promoters, artist managers to talent buyers – and the deals, conventions, and processes that drive this global business. Written by a touring professional with over 25 years of experience, this book elucidates why playing live is crucial to the success of any musician, band, or artist, explaining issues like: what managers, promoters, and agents do and how they arrange shows and tours; how to understand and negotiate show contracts; how to create a contract rider, and how the rider affects the money you earn from a show; how to appear professional and knowledgeable in an industry with its own conventions, language, and baffling technical terms; and a three-year plan using live performance to kickstart your music career Intended for music artists and students, The Live Music Business presents proven live-music career strategies, covering every aspect of putting on a live show, from rehearsing and soundchecks to promotions, marketing, and contracts. In an era when performing live is more essential than ever, this is the go-to guidebook for getting your show on the road and making a living from music.

This report examines the operation and impact of the Licensing Act 2003. In conclusion the Committee makes several recommendations. These include: that the Government should, together with local authorities, licence applicants and other stakeholders, evaluate the licensing forms with the aim of making them more user friendly; that in the case of not for profit clubs only the bar area should be taking into account when assessing the rateable value of the premises; that sports clubs should be placed in a fee band based on 20 per cent of their rateable value; that a national database of licence holders be implanted and that the allowable period for transferring a personal licence due to death should be increased to 21 days; increasing the limit of Temporary Events Notices (TENs) to 15 per year whilst enhancing the ability to object to the granting of a TEN; that the density of venues in a particular area should always be taken into consideration when granting a premises licence; the exemption of venues with a capacity of 200 or less from the need to obtain a licence for the performance of live music and the reintroduction of the two in a bar exemption; the introduction of portable licences for circuses and possible exemption of certain low-risk small-scale travelling entertainments; the creation of a new category be created for adult clubs such as lap dancing clubs and that they be licensed, in accordance with Government proposals, under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act.

In the 1960s, as gentrification took hold of New York City, Jane Jacobs predicted that the city would become the true player in the global system. Indeed, in the 21st century more meaningful comparisons can be made between cities than between nations and states. Based on case studies of Melbourne, Austin and Berlin, this book is the first in-depth study to combine academic and industry analysis of the music cities phenomenon. Using four distinctly defined algorithms as benchmarks, it interrogates Richard Florida’s creative cities thesis and applies a much-needed synergy of urban sociology and musicology to the concept, mediated by a journalism lens. Building on seminal work by Robert Park, Lewis Mumford and Jane Jacobs, it argues that journalists are the cultural branders and street theorists whose ethnographic approach offers critical insights into the urban sociability of music activity.

Access and interpret manufacturer spec information, find shortcuts for plotting measure and test equations, and learn how to begin your journey towards becoming a live sound professional. Land and perform your first live sound gigs with this guide that gives you just the right amount of information. Don't get bogged down in details intended for complex and expensive equipment and Madison Square Garden-sized venues. Basic Live Sound Reinforcement is a handbook for audio engineers and live sound enthusiasts performing in small venues from one-mike coffee shops to clubs. With their combined years of teaching and writing experience, the authors provide you with a thorough foundation of the theoretical and the practical, offering more advanced beginners a complete overview of the industry, the gear, and the art of mixing, while making sure to remain accessible to those just starting out.

an extraordinary, wide-ranging, funny, clever account of 40 years in the life of the most successful touring theatre company of all time.

This is the first book to investigate the social, political, cultural, artistic and economic forces which created conditions for the rise, success and decline of mime and physical theatre in the United Kingdom, from the 1970s to 2000. Unpicking the various routes through which mime and physical theatre emerged into wider prominence, this book outlines key thematic strands within this history of practice. The book blends historical description and refl ective analysis. It aims to juxtapose the various histories at play within this field, giving critical attention to the voices of the artists, funders and venue managers who were there at the time, particularly recognising the diversity of practitioners and the network of relationships that supported their work. Drawing upon over 40 original interviews, including, amongst others: Joseph Seelig, Helen Lannaghan, Steven Berkoff, Julian Chagrin, Annabel Arden, Nola Rae, Denise Wong, David Glass, Justin Case and Toby Sedgwick, the book offers unique testimonies and memories from key figures active during these three decades. This wide-ranging account of the history, social context, key moments and practical methods gives an unparalleled chronicle of one of the UK’s most vital and pioneering forms of theatre. From undergraduate students to established scholars, this is a comprehensive account for anyone studying contemporary theatre, theatre history, mime, physical theatre and the structures that support the performing arts in the United Kingdom.