I’m guessing that you and I share something in common. Something that makes us understand each other even though we may never have met. We share a profound love of music.
I’m guessing that you and I also share a common challenge. The challenge of finding the best of new music in an environment which encourages, seemingly, momentary new releases by both mainstream and new acts alike. In the spirit of a disposable culture, what often rises to the surface is not always, unfortunately, the cream but those acts backed by huge marketing budgets with the ability to negotiate 4 page ‘specials’ in the Guardian or to push their material to the top of any Search Engine Optimization list.
It’s these budgets which can, if we’re not careful, mean that we are left listening to the sounds of infantilised pop music rather than the new, original, socially conscious, intensely personal, sounds of music designed to change the world. I’m not sure I completely agree, but Bobby Gillespie’s recent comment that the more interesting, younger bands, can’t get in the charts anymore and that ‘no one cool get’s big anymore’ is a subject we should all be worried about. If I was looking for confirmation bias I’d point you in the direction of the recently announced Steps reunion tour which has already sold tens of thousands of tickets since being announced in March.
Good luck to all bands, but come on, we can do better can’t we!?
So you and I have something else in common, the responsibility to find new music as well as the responsibility of finding new ways to find new music.
One of those ways is already available to us; we can take note of the good people at ‘Into Tomorrow’, Teeside’s very own musical production team with a track record not just of hosting live music shows, but also of building a community of like-minded music lovers, performers, radio shows, bloggers, record labels and…well.. anyone related to music talent. It’s a community designed to be friendly, inclusive and supportive to musical lovers looking to hear the best of new music, rather than the disposable element. It’s a community you and I should join and be active members of.
Building on the recent success of their ‘Sun Inn Stage’ at Stockton Calling, Into Tomorrow’s next venture is the ‘Into Teeside’, free, all-day music festival on Sunday 28th May. Promising to be a no clash day musical extravaganza, Into Teeside will feature 14 of the hottest acts across 2 stages including Nine Tons, Chloe Chadwick, The Approved and Idle Idle Violets. Set across an acoustic and a main stage, the festival promises to be a mix of musical genres and styles, offering something for all music lovers.
Main Stage headliners ‘Lost State of dance’, with 80s synths and spiky guitars, are guaranteed to bring energy, whilst Acoustic Stage Headliners Major Matilda will be worth watching if only to see how they take their upbeat material and replicate it without their usual electrical gear.
You and I may never have met but if you’re a lover of music, and looking to hear some of the best live bands around, then we may well meet at Into Tomorrow. If not, then let’s meet in the Into Tomorrow Community at some point soon.
Into Tomorrow will be hosted on Sunday 28th May at TS One, 200 Linthorpe Road, Teeside. Entrance is free. 1pm til late.