Alive, the music scene in Hull has always held a place in my heart. From standing in converted fruit markets listening to my old English teacher spit rhymes to prancing at the front of a crowd listening to Florence and the Machine perform at Freedom Festival, it fills me with a sense of pride to see major artists and local talent performing in the many venues Hull has to offer. Holding this ever-blossoming love, I was inspired to delve more into the back-stage scene, the how, the who the what it is that makes it all possible and how, if possible it could be improved.
It appears, however, I may have been looking at the whole industry through rose-tinted glasses, as only a consumer, I had no real idea about, well, anything in the music industry in Hull, I attended gigs, donned the merchandise of any band possible but never really had an understanding of the difficulties of such a massive industry in a small port town. Until carrying out research for this article, I now feel I never really had any knowledge of how flawed the industry may be. Speaking to people within the industry, artists, producers, promoters, I found the hidden truths the City of Culture music scene hides…
‘The music scene will plod along as it usually does’, Adrian of Hairy Monsters Audio responded when I asked what he thought the music industry would be like the coming year in Hull. His response slightly odd to me, the avid supporter of the music scene. However, he gave me and insight to the industry as an artist that had long tried to be involved but had been turned down.
‘The City of Culture thing seems to be a clique from what I can see. If your face fits and you’re part of the clique – you’re in, otherwise, not much of a chance, I’m afraid.’ Having tried with his own band, Salem, to be involved with the City of Culture adventure he was declined and that was something that didn’t sit lightly with Adrian. His band, Salem, have an incredible history and are a successful band touring all over Europe you would think would be something many would see as unmissable, however for some reason their input was unwanted.
Also, owning a home studio, Adrian understands the industry in a lot of depth. He started the studio, Hair Monster Audio, as somewhere for Salem to record. Listening to Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven at the tender age of 10 found Adrian never looking back from a passion of music, living the dream and leaving school at the age of 16 to join a rock band. However, this may be beginning to strain, he explained ‘There is a proliferation of software and cheap hardware that makes home recording accessible to just about everybody, and for a while this hurt recording studios’. With the rejection of involvement from the City of Culture, a growing fight with home recording studios and what he describes as ‘the ad-hoc, shoestring budget type of venue’ that is still seen in Hull, it would be understandable if Adrian decided he no longer wanted to be a part of the music scene, especially the one in Hull. However, that just isn’t the case, his band Salem already have there busiest year to date lined up for 2017, with gigs all around Europe, including Barcelona, Holland, Belgium and Paris, as well as gigging at festivals around the UK! Salem featuring in the local Newspaper
Despite discovering this less than admirable side to the Hull music scene, my passion was still un-dying, but I did discover a new understanding of how for everyone, it is not as brilliant and like anywhere, everyone has different experiences and you’re not always guaranteed to be what everyone is looking for.