The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Friend
Yn Gymraeg
The Welsh Music Foundation held a very interesting talk on Friday, 8th October, at the Galeri in Caernarfon, which gave some very useful advice for young bands trying to make it in this day and age.
The talk, titled ‘The revolution will not be televised, friend – the media in Wales and the world’, talked about the role the media has today in contributing to the success of bands and artists in Wales.
There were a panel of people answering set questions and taking questions from the audience. They were: Gareth Iwan (Producer – Radio Cymru); Iwan Standley (web expert/Rondo); Barry Thomas (Golwg); Adam Walton (presenter – Radio Wales) and Gethin Evans (presenter – Gofod/Community Music Wales).
Opportunities
Their first subject to talk about was the provision of music opportunities on S4C. There was a lot of talk about the Gofod magazine style programme and the fact that they have bands play in fans living rooms on the show.
“Having a band in someone’s front room playing does not bring out the best sound, for example Plant Duw are a brilliant live band with loads of energy but in someone’s front room it just looks and sounds bad. Is this because of the low funding there is for this type of programme?” said Barry Thomas.
“It was a big mistake for them to get rid of Uned 5. This was an entertainment programme where the whole family could sit around and watch and without realising they would be seeing a live Welsh band every week.”
“With Bandit (Welsh music programme for young people) the brand is everything, like Stwnsh and Cyw and so on. It is a loss not to have it. When you are 16 or 17 and you see these videos you see it differently. It’s a revolution. You don’t get this with programmes like Nodyn. They should bring Bandit back as a regular programme, something cool and fresh like the stuff Adam has on his programme.”
Adam Walton hosts a 3 hour live programme of new music every Sunday night at 10pm on Radio Wales. “If you can’t do it well is there a point in doing it at all?” he asks.
Adam also pointed out the differences in opportunities that Welsh bands that sing in Welsh have over those who sing in English.
“There is a lack of support from BBC Wales and ITV Wales while there is support from S4C so a Welsh singing band get more opportunities than English ones. There is no programme for them to perform on. It would be good to have this.
“Given the amount of musical talent and the fact that broadcasters try to do stuff cheaply, it is quite cheap. There should be more of it,” he said.
These days the Internet is seen as being the place where anyone can put their own stuff onto it so that anybody worldwide can listen to their music. But is this enough? They asked Iwan Standley if he thought that the internet would become more important as a place to see and hear music.
“I think music television generally just doesn’t work, not just in Wales, look at Top Of The Pops. The same is true for S4C. Bandit is quite a niche programme and Nodyn the same. We need a more general programme that people like to watch but that they also happen to see bands on it.
“On the Internet there is all kinds of opportunities but you do have to go searching for it. You have to be a fan already.”
Deian Ap Rhisiart, otherwise known as MC Saizmundo, was in the audience and said that he agreed with the panel: “Music has to come into something naturally, as a part of a magazine programme which reaches and audience.”
But Barry said that he felt it was hard to please everybody because at the end of the day we only had one channel to do it in.
Standards
Dafydd Iwan, singer, politician and founder and manager of Sain (recording company) was also in the audience and said it was important not to forget that S4C and Radio Cymru were trying to cater for everyone and that this job was an impossible one.
“We have to be careful about putting music on the TV cheaply. The sound has to be right or it can do damage to these artists.”
It was generally agreed that one of the major factors to the quality of music on Welsh television was down to cost. They don’t want them to mime because this costs more and to have them in someone’s living room rather than a studio is also cheaper. A suggestion was made from the audience to cut costs by cutting down on the amount of cameras filming a piece rather than letting the sound suffer and another audience member asked if it not worth doing it right is it worth doing it at all? Was this harming the bands?
They asked if it was a case of there not being enough good bands and artists and that if they were there would there be more opportunities because people would want to see them on the TV.
“There is lots of interesting music in Wales. I have no problem filling a three hour programme,” said Adam. “ I set myself a task of filling a 3 hour show with artists that people had never heard of before and asked people to send their stuff in to me. I got 250 sent to me. I think it was an even better programme that week than usual so the talent is out there.”
Gethin supported this by saying that the producers on Gofod never had any problems finding Welsh bands. But he did think there seemed to be a lull in the Welsh language music scene at the moment.
“5 years ago Bandit was a 12 to 16 part series. Now it’s 4. Music was livelier then. Does television sustain the scene or is it a reflection of it? Looking at it now I think that maybe Bandit sustained it.”
But it was agreed that opportunities were even less for English language Welsh bands with nothing since the BBC Wales programmes Juice in the mid 80’s and The Slate in the 90’s.
“I think the exciting things is there are definitely kids out there doing incredible music without media support,” said Adam.
Gareth said that even though the scene felt quiet a few scenes such as electronic music was extremely busy.
Barry said that he felt the talent was out there.
“Although it’s a different market they had over 100 entries for Cân I Gymru (Song For Wales) this year. There are people out there creating stuff. I never have any trouble finding bands for Golwg.”
No Support?
There were a few people from record labels present in the audience and one of them admitted that they as a label were less inclined to invest in a young band because the direct support was not there from S4C and Radio Cymru any more.
Gareth suggested that bands, artists and labels should send things direct to people.
“People don’t feel they have to bother now with things like My Space, but it is only a small amount of people it reaches. It’s easy to put on there but it’s dangerous for people to think that they’ve done their job now when they’ve put it on and can sit back and relax, waiting for the contracts to come in.”
“It’s frustrating to know that there is good stuff out there and that bands aren’t promoting themselves. They don’t realise how desperate we are sometimes!”
Adam said that a recent poll Radio Wales had done with 300-400 people revealed that radio was still important to them and that this did not tally with the amount of music they get sent to them.
“I spend so long trying to find something interesting. People think because they have a shop window (a My Space profile) they get complacent. They say it’s difficult to get a gig but there are some successful gigs out there. People need to decide not to moan about things and go out there and do it,” he advised.
Deian in the audience asked what kind of formats do they prefer songs to be sent to them but Gareth said that this was not clear cut, that people needed to contact the programme and that they would say which format they preferred. He also raised the question of how easy was it to contact the media when in a band?
Gethin, who himself played drums for bands such as Genod Droog, Kentucky AFC and Yucatan, said that the problem was the high turnover of staff.
“The staff changes so often so your stuff never gets to the right person. In the end we didn’t bother sending stuff to companies, just to Boomerang and Antena because we knew they would be more likely to take an interest.”
Dafydd Iwan said that the capacity of the computers in Radio Cymru was also a problem and that during request shows maybe about 6 songs are not available on the computer to play each show.
“This means that some things are never heard in the media. But as long as there is an S4C Welsh language music has a stage. English language Welsh music does not.”
Gareth did say that there were things in progress to improve the system at the BBC. He continued that the problem with the Internet was that producers and bands, and producers and labels, don’t have contact with each other.
“There is more of a chance to get something played if bands and labels actually go to the bother of contacting,” he said.
“People have to think about what the media wants. That it is suitable for that type of programme. Everybody knows if a programme is suitable for their type of music so they don’t waste their time sending stuff to them. The internet is making things less personal.”
Adam said that Radio Wales focus group what is played on the radio so that they get the biggest possible audience so things that are not popular in the focus groups don’t get on the computer.
“This narrows the field of music played. A lot of people are trying to change that but unfortunately at the moment that’s the way it works.”
An audience member said that he listened to music from a variety of countries in all kinds of languages and that Wales are missing a trick.
“If you’re saying something new then people will want to listen. If you’re competing with the same music as people are doing in English then you’ll always be trapped in Wales because people can choose to hear it in a language they understand.”
Gareth said that it was actually easier for alternative music to be played on Radio Wales and Radio Cymru compared to a middle of the road bands although Adam disagreed with this.
“Alternative music does not get played during the day, there is more of a chance at night.”
New Policy
Rhys Mwyn, member of Welsh punk band Anrhefn, and music manager, PR, consultancy and A&R, was also in the audience.
“We have to accept what they are. The BBC is funded by public money, it is a service for the public, and they should not be trying to be like Radio 1. With Radio 3 and Radio 4 it is clear what they are, you know what you’re getting and Radio Cymru and Radio Wales should not be trying to be commercial.”
Rhys suggested that they way forward was for them to have a music policy that supported the playing of Welsh bands on the station.
Others complained that it seemed that if a certain record was played once that week on Radio Cymru then it was not allowed to be played again, and Deian said that although he’s sent new stuff to them they are still playing the old stuff.
Gareth said it was hard to get a music policy for Radio Cymru as they have to make sure that the music is suitable for the programme and that they try to get a variety across the station. But Rhys insisted that the emphasis should be on the new and not the old.
Gareth defended this by saying that the producers are trying to create a sound where the familiar is important. That it is familiar songs that people know. To this Rhys asked how do songs become familiar if they are not played.
“One of the complaints is that programmes play the same things,” explained Gareth.
“If it was policy to make sure there was more variety then the danger is that people load things on to the computer who don’t understand Welsh music.”
One audience member said that if they wanted them to send new stuff then they had to play it.
“I know it breaks the heart of bands who have a new CD out when the radio still plays their old stuff,” said Gareth.
Adam thought the example of 6 Music was a good one for the people of Wales to take notice of.
“They tried to get rid of 6 Music but it was kept because it’s funded by the licence fee and people were protesting that they wanted it to stay. They have to satisfy the people who are paying the licence fee. So if we got enough people to say we should be playing more Welsh music then they have to listen. The licence fee is always under review.”
Advice
The talk came to end with each panel member giving their tips to Welsh bands.
Iwan Standley: “We need to remember that young people don’t tend to turn to television and radio for music any more, they find it through the Internet.”
Rhys Mwyn agreed and said that because the viewing patterns had changed then we needed to think about how content is provided by S4C on the web, with a portal so people can watch as they want.
Another audience member said that You Tube was an important tool as people embed videos into their Facebook pages and so on. S4C could contribute to this he said.
“Maybe they should be looking at this and recognising that you need it to reach an audience. But it has to be done right.”
Adam Walton: “Radio audiences have actually increased generally over the last few years. I’d advise musicians not to give up. There is a solution there if you’re prepared to go and find it. If you’re not getting anywhere then you might be trying the wrong person. Phone to find out who the correct person is and send your music directly to them and also follow it up to remind them.”
Gethin Evans: “If you don’t like what Radio Cymru are doing make your own programme on You Tube. If you don’t like the festivals and gigs that are going on then put your own one on.
Gareth Iwan: “Make personal connections.”
Do you have an opinion on how the Welsh media support bands and artists in Wales? Then leave a comment below.
Links
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IMAGE: schmilblick
1 Comment – Postiwch sylw
lincoln
Rhoddwyd sylw 19 mis yn ôl - 15th October 2010 - 11:51am
I was at an event in St David's Hall down in Cardiff a few weeks ago and Community Music Wales were giving out free CDs of bands like Wyrligigs and Clinigol. There was even a white vinyl 7" by The Arteries! All free! I picked up about six free CDs in total. This can only be a good thing as the bands are getting exposure and young people are getting free music somewhere other then online.