BY JO LAWFORD
jo@jeemo.co.uk

Let me start by telling you a bit about BBC Kent Introducing for those of you who don’t know them. It’s a radio show dedicated to Kent’s growing musical talent, which goes out live every Sunday on BBC Radio Kent.

The show is an extension of what the BBC has been trying to do for a while which is to get new unsigned local bands more exposure and to introduce them to a wider audience all over the UK.

It has now been running for over a year and celebrated their first birthday at the new Quarterhouse Venue in Folkestone on Friday March 6th.

The gig got off to a flying start with the Elephants playing main stage followed by Kids Love Lies. Other bands that performed were Tom Williams & The Boat, Seven Story Down and Floors and Walls. Further acts included Mr Basista and MC Spooka to cater for the DJ and MC fans that attended.

The evening came to a close with Outa City Committee performing in the main bar and Nick Harrison closing the main stage.
The event was a great success for everyone and had over 500 people attending.

The birthday bash was not just to celebrate their first birthday but was also to help launch their project to make Kent a successful musical hub of talent. The idea came from BBC Kent Introducing’s very own presenter Jim Bursey.

Jim and the team Tom Kirkby and Jacob Rickard have been championing Kent’s local music for a year now on this very show and want to see Kent’s talent get the success and recognition it deserves from the industry.

In Jim’s opinion Kent is a huge county full of various pockets of brilliant individual musical activity, but it is not centralised around one place, like Manchester or Liverpool for example, that revolves around their city centres.

Jim says, “I’m a big believer in community and what you can achieve when you get that community working towards the same outcome. We’ve got so much talent in Kent and loads of passionate people who are desperate for the music scene here to be exciting on a national level as well as a local level. So if we all work together, rather than purely on individual successes, and focus the attention in one place, whether that be physical or even online, then we can make the Kent music scene the best in the country”.

He believes that by focusing all the talent in one area such as BBC Kent Introducing it would be easier for the music industry to find what they are looking for and to make sure everyone gets a fair chance. The talent is here it just needs focusing.

Question is could it work?

Maybe. For example many acts have achieved great success by joining up with other bands from their area and creating a buzz that the music industry is desperate to tap in to.

Some of the most successful bands already do this and it works. Tom Williams & The Boat, Seven Story Down, Brigadier Ambrose and several others have already achieved numerous national radio plays and even Maida Vale sessions.

A new movement created by Chatham’s own Lupen Crook and Driver from Burn Paper Tigers called the Medway Non League Extreme was also formed with the same issue in mind. It’s a collection of Medway bands that play regular gigs with an aim to raising their profile and also the scene in the area.

So it appears that what the BBC is trying to do could already be working its just a matter of time before it all comes together to create something the industry just has to take notice of.

Further success stories include Folkestone band Elephants and North Kent band Kids Love Lies. Both bands have recorded Maida Vale session for Huw Stephens on Radio 1 already this year and both will be played the BBC Introducing stage at Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Swindon on May 10th. This is no small achievement to get two Kent bands onto that line-up.

Medway bands Lupen Crook and the Murderbirds, Let Our Enemies Beware and UpCDownC have also received success such as national reviews and radio plays. UpCDownC recorded a session at Maida Vale too. This helps to prove the talent is here and helps to back up what the BBC guys are saying.

Another way of helping to produce this ‘buzz’ is the BBC Kent Introducing tour. The plan is to take this to every venue in Kent hitting at least 12 venues a month. Pretty impressive don’t you think? With all this hard work the tour should reach new audiences and help increase income and exposure for the bands, therefore creating more of an opportunity for them to get noticed and hopefully signed.
This then means more signed bands in the area which will then create the much needed buzz and in turn will draw attention from the industry bods. This will also bring people to the area to listen to these bands and also the new unsigned acts supporting them.

All this together will make people sit up and take notice of the talent coming out of Kent and will help to make the area an excellent source for new talent.
Thus realising the dream and then this success should breed success, or that’s the idea anyway.

So in order to make this work the guys need all the support they can get.
To find out how to become a part of making Kent one of the most valuable resources the industry has go to www.bbc.co.uk/kent/introducing and let the buzz begin.

Tags: BBC Kent Introducing, Big Weekend, Brigadier Ambrose, Burn Paper Tigers, Driver, elephants, Floors and Walls, Huw Stephens, Jacob Rickard, Jim Bursey, Jo Lawford, Kid Love Lies, Let Our Enemies Beware, Lupen Crook, Maida Vale, MC Spooka, Medway Non League Extreme Movement, Mr Basista, Nick Harrison, Outa City Committee, Quarterhouse (Folkestone), Radio 1, Seven Story Down, Tom Kirkby, Tom Williams & The Boat, UpCDownC

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