Leading Music Scene Night Launches Wide Days Event

LEADING MUSIC SCENE NIGHT LAUNCHES WIDE DAYS EVENT

Scotland’s leading music business night, Born To Be Wide, is to host a series of seminars and showcases, to take place in Edinburgh on Thursday 8 April. The Wide Days event will see key music industry figures participate in a series of daytime panels at  the Shanghai club, as well as being treated to some of the hottest local talent in the evening.

Veteran music managers Keith Harris [Stevie Wonder], Rab Andrew [Texas, Primal Scream] and Bruce Findlay [Abefeldy, Simple Minds] are confirmed for a seminar  about music management. And organisers of Scotland’s largest music events T In The Park, Rockness, Wickerman and The Edge, will explain how to get on to a festival bill in a discussion chaired by the BBC’s Vic Galloway.

A seminar titled What Next? includes the founder of the world’s largest independent digital music company, The Orchard, and an expert in online promotion. It will provide suggestions for how musicians, managers and labels can best use technology and highlight how they should respond to existing trends.

“To get to see such an amazing line up of speakers would normally involve paying hundreds of pounds to attend a conference, or at the very least taking a three hour train journey to Inverness for Go North,” says Wide Days co-organiser Olaf Furniss. “Our aim is to make this accessible to people by keeping the price low and hosting it on their doorstep.”

Tickets are £30, but for members of the Musicians’ Union or anybody ordering before March 21, they will be available for £20.

Furniss adds that the advice given out on legal panel, which includes former Sex Pistols and Bryan Ferry lawyer Steven Fisher, is likely to be worth several hundred pounds alone. The panel is supported by the Musicians’ Union and Fisher will also host a presentation about partnership law, a legal area which bands ignore at their peril.

In the evening the seminar guests will be taken on a tour of Edinburgh and its venues, where they will be treated to a selection of emerging Scottish acts, before being invited to play their favourite records at the closing party. Free tickets will be made available for the gigs and closing party from Friday 19 March.

SEMINAR VENUE

SHANGHAI, LE MONDE,

16 GEORGE STREET,

EDINBURGH

EH2 2PF

SEMINAR TICKETS –

£30 [£20 for Musicians’ Union members]

Available from www.eventzi.com/borntobewide

SEMINARS

-HOW TO GET ONTO A FESTIVAL BILL

Helen Chalmers [Wickerman], Dave Corbett [The Edge, T In The Park], Rob Hicks [Rockness, Belladrum], Stuart Nisbet [Hogmanay Edinburgh], P.C Rae [Slottfjell, Norway]

-I AM THE LAW – ESSENTIAL LEGAL ADVICE

Dawn Barraclough, Murray Buchanan, Claire Thompson

-WHAT NEXT? PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE

Scott Cohen [The Orchard], Ruth Daniel [Unconvention], Andrew Dubber [Birmingham University], Will Page [Chief Economist, PRS]

- SPEAK TO THE MANAGEMENT

Rab Andrew [Texas, Primal Scream], Mark Bailey [Woodenbox], Keith Harris [Stevie Wonder], Bruce Findlay [Aberfeldy, The Silencers, Simple Minds]. Moderator, Vic Galloway [BBC Scotland]

-Keynote Q&A

Gavin Bain, author of California Schemin’ an account of how two young Dundonians convinced the London record industry that they were rappers from California.

Born To Be Wide was launched in February 2004 to provide a meeting place for those involved or interested in the Scottish music scene. A diverse range of musicians, journalists, promoters, label owners and friends of music, invited to play their all-time favourite records unless they were by Morrissey or Joy Division.

Since April 2008 the night has hosted seminars covering subjects such as How To Get A Gig, Unveiling The Mind Of A Music Journalist, How To Get On The Radio, Music Management, and a Norwegian-special titled Play Norway. In February it celebrated its 6^th birthday with a special German night which included a seminar, a live show by Berlin band Jeans Team and a DJ set by the Consul General.

Past Born To Be Wide guests have included members of Teenage Fanclub, Idlewild, The Fire Engines, The Beta Band, Belle & Sebastian, Josef K and Broken Records, as well as Irvine Welsh, Kristin Hersh, Pat Nevin, Laurence Bell [Domino Records], Norwegian Consul, Mona Røhne, and the producers Owen Morris and John McLaughlin.

Contact:

Olaf Furniss, borntobe_wide@yahoo.com, www.borntobewide.co.uk