I spent the day at the Music Live exhibition at the NEC, helping out on the Gigbeth stand. It was education day today, and there were plenty of recruitment opportunities for the Music Industries degree were plentiful.
It was a good day – though it was pretty tiring. The stand right across from ours was a demonstration stage for Ernie Ball guitars, and they had some ‘shredding’ going on at regular intervals.
Somebody should tell that guy on the left that’s not how you wear a guitar.
To our right, there was a place where students could try out expensive ‘endangered species’ musical instruments – like clarinets and violas. This was one of the key features that stood out from a cacophony of sound that surrounded us all day.
Sadly, it seems clear that high school music teachers have a limited repertoire that seems to consist entirely of ‘Baker Street’ and ‘Careless Whisper’. I need never hear those tunes again. Seriously. Even hearing them being played badly was only funny for a little while.
I chatted with the woman from MySpace, who had a very impressive stand — for about 20 minutes. She had free t-shirts, caps, and badges. And then they opened the doors. All of her ‘friends’ descended upon her and swooped them all up. For much of the rest of the day, the MySpace stand at Music Live was just some empty tables. Still, we had a good talk, and we’re going to explore the idea of doing online music seminars — a bit like my occasional ‘Laptop Workshops’, only conducted on MySpace itself. Now that would be cool.
Judging from the interest in Gigbeth, next year’s event is going to be pretty spectacular, and it’ll be tied in with Music Live ’07 as well. There’s a lot of interest from sponsors and partners – not the least of which my department at UCE. We’re looking at setting up a media centre at the event, and hosting a stand at Music Live.
Met some nice people, played with some cool toys — and now I need to sit in a quiet room for a while.
