BIMM Group Connected Magazine 2014

CONNECTED london | brighton | bristol | dublin | manchester

THE BIMM GROUP MAGAZINE

JULY 2014

BELIEVE THE HYPE Chuck D visits BIMM Brighton

SECRET DRUMMING WEAPONS

JoJo Mayer's Tech Music School Masterclass

BY GEORGE!

BIMM Bristol alumni George Ezra’s having a top year

Part of the BIMM Group:

THE UK AND IRELAND’S BEST CONNECTED MODERN MUSIC COLLEGES

WELCOME Hello… and welcome to the latest edition of the BIMM Magazine!

We’re honoured that you’re thinking of joining us in October and we really hope you make the decision to rock enrol with us. If you do, we know you’ll have an amazing time studying, learning from the best in the business, building on your craft, and meeting new likeminded, and hopefully lifelong, musician friends.

Before the new academic year starts, we just wanted to share some of the fantastic things we’ve been doing over the past year here at BIMM and Tech Music School.

You’ll get an idea of what you could expect if you were to join us and the opportunities that would come your way by being part of the UK and Ireland’s largest and leading provider of modern music education.

So without further ado – here’s our jampacked year in brief!

WE RIPPED IT UP AT RIP IT UP! In February, Tech Music School hosted the Rip It Up Festival – a week of fantastic guests and brilliant music all in aid of our nominated charity, Strummerville.

The week was launched with a screening of the legendary documentary ‘Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten’, followed by a Q & A session with director Julien Temple.

There was a Masterclass by Joe Strummer biographer, journalist Chris Salewicz, which gave an intriguing and personal look into Strummer’s colourful life.

We turned our boardroom at TMS into Joe Strummer’s living room and held sofa sessions which showcased 40 live acoustic performances across the week, and students also hit London with our ‘Fulham Takeover’, hosting three great gigs across three different venues.

The festival ended with a Strummerville Charity Gig, including a set by Dark Moon featuring Lola Ulalume, Joe Strummer’s daughter. To commemorate the week, a new mural of The Clash was painted at TMS by talented artist Will Vibes.

GEORGE EZRA’S EPIC VOYAGE

SECRET DRUMMING WEAPONS: JOJO MAYER MASTERCLASS Students were given an exclusive Masterclass from legendary Swiss drummer, JoJo Mayer, as he visited TMS’s brand new drum facilities.

Mayer, who has played with Dizzy Gillespie and Nina Simone, toured the five dedicated drum-practice rooms, three drum-teaching rooms and three large live performance rooms, before wowing 280 students with his unique blend of drum and bass, jazz and jungle grooves.

What a month it’s been for BIMM Group success story, George Ezra – his single ‘Budapest’ debuted at #4 in the UK Singles Chart, he played an incredible set on the John Peel stage at Glastonbury, and his debut album ‘Wanted on Voyage’ is currently at #3 on the UK Albums Chart, having gone top 10 on iTunes in 15 countries to date.

George joined BIMM Bristol in October 2011 to study Songwriting, and less than a year later he was signed to Columbia Records.

Since then he’s played the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury 2013, and earlier this year George placed fifth in the BBC Sound of 2014 poll.

He then toured the UK for two months, before heading to Europe where his song ‘Budapest’ had gone top ten in nine countries and reached #1 in Austria. 2014 sure is shaping up to be his year, and we couldn’t be more proud.

JoJo was joined by acclaimed American session drummer, Russ Miller, who has worked with Cher, Ray Charles, Nelly Furtado and Tina Turner; UK drum guru, Mike Dolbear; and director of artistic relations at Vic Firth, Joe Testa.

The Masterclass ended with JoJo offering tips about groove, sound, techniques and musicianship.

BIMM BRANCHES OUT TO 2000TREES This summer, BIMM will be sponsoring, curating and hosting the brand new Forest Sessions woodland stage at award-winning Cheltenham festival, 2000trees.

The stage will host mainly BIMM acts and will be run by BIMM Bristol Event Management and Music Business students. Around 40 volunteer positions across the rest of the festival will be filled by students, including as tech staff, artist liaison, front of house and stewarding. BIMM Brighton band, Wild Cat Strike, will also be playing a full set on one of the festival’s main stages.

Andy Rea, founder of 2000trees, said: “It will put BIMM at the heart of the event, bringing its brightest young acts into the limelight, enabling its students to gain real life work experience and encouraging the next generation of rock stars and event managers to sign up for courses.”

FESTIVAL FEVER Summer equals festivals and this year we’re proud to announce that a whole array of students and alumni have been performing and working at UK festivals throughout the summer!

In Dublin students have been strutting their stuff at no less than eleven Irish festivals, including Knockanstockan, Castlepalooza, Indiependence and Sunflowerfest.

The hugely successful 2000trees festival in Gloucestershire has launched a new BIMM Group ‘Forest Sessions’ stage, which hosted over 20 artists from our London, Brighton, Bristol and Manchester campuses. It was completely run and managed by our students, and a further 40 worked across the festival site throughout the event, in roles such as artist liaison, crew, stewarding and stage management.

It has been a summer to remember - and we can’t wait until next year!

“

The great thing about TMS is that you’re always treated 100% seriously as a musician.

I’m a production student and I’ve shared original songs, recorded myself playing keyboard, guitar and bass, and had the opportunity to sing and beatbox with my acapella group! There are talented performers, producers, songwriters and business students all under the one roof. The tutors all actively work in the industry and are always happy to constructively criticise and support any work you might have done. It’s a very ‘real’ atmosphere. And I love studying in London – it’s the world capital of music and every single artist, record label and venue has a place here.

”

FRANK TURNER VISITS BIMM BRISTOL Post-hardcore come acoustic troubadour Frank Turner paid the students at BIMM Bristol an exclusive visit on 9th May to talk about his music career so far.

STUDENT STATEMENTS

STUDENT STATEMENTS

NAME: HERTY HILL COURSE: DIPLOMA IN MUSIC PRODUCTION – TMS

NAME: CHARLOTTE KINSELLA COURSE: BA1 SONGWRITING – BIMM MANCHESTER

“

The social life at BIMM Manchester is really good – you get to work with other students for the end-of-term gigs and assessments. We hang out and go to lots of gigs. We recently got to play at both Gorilla and the Manchester Academy for our last two end-of-term gigs. Lots of current BIMM students attend open jam nights too. Manchester Academy 1 is my favourite venue – it’s the best for size, atmosphere and location, and good acts play there. I love the fact that Manchester embraces all music genres and scenes –­ I’m in a Gaelic folk band! Over the summer we sometimes get together at Blueprint Studios for songwriting and rehearsing.

”

Interviewed by Cliff Jones, best known as frontman of 90s Brit poppers, Gay Dad, it was clear that Frank lives and breathes his music – showing energetic passion and expert knowledge of his craft to the point of fine geekery.

KT Tunstall visited BIMM Manchester for an exclusive Masterclass on Monday 18th November. She was our first guest at BIMM Manchester, and what a guest to have!

Frank sung and played some of his own songs for the audience, such as ‘Recovery’ from his latest album ‘Tape Deck Heart’. He also treated us to some of his favourites by other artists, including ‘Pancho and Lefty’ by country singer-songwriter, Townes van Zandt, ‘Ramblin’ Man’ by the Allman Brothers Band, and ‘Heart of the Continent’

by John K. Samson – his favourite songwriter.

KT rose to fame with her 2004 album ‘Eye to the Telescope’ and went on to win a Brit Award for Best Female Solo Artist and an Ivor Novello award for songwriting.

Many thanks to Frank for visiting us at BIMM Bristol and for generously donating his fee to Shelter ­– the housing and homelessness charity.

KT TUNSTALL AT BIMM MANCHESTER

BIMM Students were lucky enough to hear some brilliant and inspirational advice from the singer-songwriter during an informative Q & A session. Following this, they enjoyed two acoustic tracks performed by KT from her latest album ‘Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon’ which was released last year.

BELIEVE THE HYPE: CHUCK D VISITS BIMM BRIGHTON Ahead of Public Enemy’s sold-out show at the Concorde 2 on Tuesday 3rd June, rapper, producer, political activist, and bona fide hip-hop legend, Chuck D, made an exclusive visit to BIMM Brighton for a special Q&A Masterclass, bringing with him Brother James (James Norman) of S1W/ Public Enemy fame.

GRAHAM COXON’S SPECTACULAR MASTERCLASS! On Friday 9th May, BIMM Brighton was honoured to host an exclusive Q&A Masterclass with Graham Coxon – the lead guitarist of Blur and a successful solo performer in his own right.

The seminar closed with back-toback famous riffs, played by the man himself on both electric and acoustic guitars. It was an invaluable experience to students, showing instrument versatility and a lesson in how to develop into a multi-faceted artist – an inspiration to us all!

Graham spoke about his songwriting and production methods, while

GREAT DEBATE AT THE GREAT ESCAPE BIMM Brighton was proud to present The Student Sessions which ran on Friday 9th May as part of The Great Escape Festival.

The afternoon kicked off with a panel of BIMM students questioning a team of industry executives, including guests from Island Records, RockCorps/The Young Guns Network, Infectious Music, Naim Label and ArcTanGent festival. Talks

from PRS, the BPI and AIM followed.

The Sessions finished with a Q&A discussion between Tony Wadsworth (Chairman of the BPI) and the legendary co-founder of Sire Records and Vice President of Warner Bros.

Records, Seymour Stein – the man behind acts including Madonna, Depeche Mode, The Pretenders, The Ramones and Fleetwood Mac.

After answering a range of great questions from the floor, Chuck and James stuck around to chat with the students, take a few selfies and sign our wall, before they headed off to their gig.

A massive thanks to Chuck D and James for coming in, and to everyone else who helped make the session possible!

STUDENT STATEMENTS

BIMM Brighton’s Music Production Course Leader, Matt Hodson, spoke to Graham about his legacy as one of Britain’s most influential, contemporary guitarists, as well as his work as a visual artist – in fact he even drew a masterpiece on our wall!

answering questions from the audience about guitar techniques, creative aspects and what it was like to be part of one of the most important bands in recent British history.

Hosted by our Senior Academic Lecturer, Jon Stewart, the session delved into subjects including the origins of hip-hop, the early days of Public Enemy, the current state of the music industry, the importance of women in hip-hop and the role of technology in modern music.

NAME: ADE DOVEY CV: LIVE MUSIC EVENTS CONSULTANT – BIMM BRIGHTON

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Before I started at BIMM I was working on small DIY independent rock/punk shows. I also toured with my band and with American bands in the UK/EU as a driver and merchandise seller. I wanted to expand my skillset with logistics knowledge of larger tours, and aim to incorporate mixing bands, while acting as a Tour Manager.

Working and learning from the tutors at BIMM

DON’T BE A STRANGER At BIMM and TMS, we take pride in our students and the unique musical community they build – be it in Brighton, Bristol, Manchester or London – and we like to shout about them on our Facebook and Twitter feeds. Whether it’s promoting gigs, or finding band members, songwriters, managers and venues, it’s worth keeping an eye on our Facebook and Twitter pages before you arrive in October. And who knows? You may find your future band members before you even get here!

Oh… and while we’re on the subject… our website isn’t bad either!

/BIMMBrighton /BIMMBristol /BIMMManchester /TechMusicSchool @BIMMBrighton @BIMMBristol @BIMMManchester @TechMusicSchool www.bimm.co.uk www.techmusicschool.co.uk

Brighton and being guided into the world of larger shows certainly increased my portfolio and helped progress my music career.

The facilities on site are great too.

Brighton’s in the central hub of national and independent tours, so I easily got involved with the local music scene. Working alongside fellow students was great fun and some of us still meet regularly – it’s good to see how everyone’s careers have bloomed. Now I look after the Manchester gig venues Gorilla, Albert Hall and The Deaf Institute – the rewards are the best!

”