New music festival where you choose the bands

[seany t]

Have you guys all seen this? Now Triptych is finishing, Tennents have launched a new music venture in Scotland. I've been heavily involved along the way with the branding of it, but I think its an absolutely superb idea (provided loads of ****ty Kooks fans don't get on there).

This is the spiel:

We're delighted to announce news of Tennent's new music venture, The Tennent's Mutual, which is offering you the chance to transform Scotland's gigging agenda - from selecting artists and electing locations to calling the shots on ticket prices.

And they're putting their money where their mouth is: Tennent's are putting a start-up fund of 150 thousand pounds on the table, with a view to enabling you to collectively devise and programme a series of live shows in October / November 2008. And that process starts right now!

As long as you sign up as a founder member (via www.tennentsmutual.com) before 30 June, you'll have a say in shaping The Tennent's Mutual's first-ever gigs this year.

The Tennent's Mutual is a not-for-profit enterprise - no booking fees will be charged for its events, and all ticket income generated from The Tennent's Mutual shows will be reinvested into your live music budget for next year and beyond. As for how said money is spent - that's up to you!

Tennent's have enlisted the help of several industry specialists - who're here to offer advice on all aspects of live music programming for The Tennent's Mutual - including Rolling Stones svengali Andrew Loog Oldham, Babyshambles manager Adrian Hunter, Optimo's Keith McIvor (aka JD Twitch) plus label bosses of Scottish indie institutions Chemikal Underground, The Fence Collective and Creeping Bent.

So make haste: join the revolution! Sign up and transform Scotland's music map:

www.tennentsmutual.com

I'm not sure whether I should sign up or not as I don't live in Scotland, but if you do (and I know several of you with more alternative taste on here do) I urge you to get involved. I genuinely believe it could change the way music is put on in the country...

 

[Interpol Shrimper]

Good shout, I'll be logging on there later!
Cheers for the heads up!

 

[Pubey]

yeah looks quality... thanks for the PM Seany

 

[Aberdeen Shrimper]

Yes.....very good spot there seany. That is me registered....I skimmed the first bit, was there mention of locations?

 

[Pubey]

just had a bit more of a look at this and it is genuinely pretty exciting... the list of industry people associated is impressive, and it seems they genuinely have a large pot of money to through at this

get voting for your favourite bands (esp. mogwai!!!)

 

[seany t]

Yes.....very good spot there seany. That is me registered....I skimmed the first bit, was there mention of locations?

Not yet no, I believe that'll follow soon though. The plan is to get the basics sorted (bank, investments, etc) then move onto where to the hold the events, type of bands, venue sizes, what to do with any profits etc.

The scope of the thing is great. And the people behind it are so dedicated to making it work that it's one of those rare ventures where the goodwill is what's driving the project, as opposed to any brand profile or marketing campaign.

It's so pioneering, the problem is that no-ones ever truly done anything like it on this scale before and with this amount of co-creation and freedom. Time will tell I guess how it pans out, but some of the ideas they have ready to unleash would force the industry to change how it deals with us punters forever...