I often fall out with one of my best mates about the best way to watch live music; I prefer to be at the gig, and he prefers to stream it.
Though we try we don’t really meet in the middle very often; I’ll give him the tv cameras at Glastonbury, and he’ll give me any situation involving The Wildhearts.
We do both agree, however, that the formulae of watching live music through Howzat TV works very well; though it’s remote I get the advantage of watching a gig that is truly live and beamed back from one of my favourite venues; he gets his advantage of being able to keep one eye on the music and one eye on the bands Wikipedia page.
I still have to reign myself in at how he chooses not to have both eyes on the music, but we’re over the moon to actually agree on something we can watch virtually.
“I think one of my favourite things behind what we do, maybe aside from the fact that we try to pay musicians properly for their time, is the fact that the shows are completely live” agrees Howzat TV host/producer/arranger/booker Jamie Cook “and playing live does come with that type of danger which only a really live show can bring”.
Forming Howzat in the wake of a raft of comedy/gaming streaming work created in 2020, Cook was keen to move from producing streaming shows to live events; his background in working at comedy stores proving invaluable; “it’s really strange how Howzat has come about because life has almost come full circle for me. I played live music, and I enjoyed working in live comedy, and that has mixed now with the production work I’ve done to end up in a live music show where it’s almost an amalgamation of everything.”
Deciding to apply for a government grant to fund Howzat also meant the ability to support the local scene “As lock down went on further and further I really wanted to do something to help the North East’s scene so the grant has helped me be able to push the show a little; using local venues and local acts, and being able to pay them properly. It’s so sad to see what has happened with some of the local venues and how they’ve just had to suddenly stop and stay dormant. If Howzat can help raise the profile of not just the artists but also the venues then I feel like good can come from a bad situation”.
A unique mixture of live music, skat and virtual audience participation, Cook has already lined up the remainder of February’s Howzat’s acts to appear (Poor Moi, The Cusp) and is well on the road to booking March’s; (“it really does feel like a dream in that I can work with the very best artists from the region whilst at the same time feeling like it’s giving them a platform for them to be heard”).
Going out live at various points in February, and beyond, if you like live music, or you like half an eye on live music and half an eye on Wikipedia, then you can’t get much better.
14/02/21 Poor Moi (previously known as Memphis Gerald)
28/02/21 The Cusp
14/03/21 Archipelago -don’t mention
28/03/21 (Hannabiell and the Midnight Blue – TBC!!!)
LIVE STREAMS FROM COBALT STUDIOS (Newcastle, UK) START SUNDAY 6th!!! Balter + more TBA Song ‘Erica’s’ – Balter Music Video – Kaleidoscope CFA HTV Illustration – Erin McGrath HTV Modification…