The Glasgow PodcART

In the oft quoted words of Vinnie Jones, it has been emotional. It really is hard to quantify how incredibly different my life has become since joining PodcART 52 weeks ago. I suppose one of the strangest things is that after playing music either in bands or as a solo musician for the previous 15 years, it is only since joining PodcART that I actually feel like I belong to a musical fraternity.There was a time during my 5 year stay in London where I felt at home and at peace musically, my band at the time where playing bigger shows in higher profile London venues, but we stood out from the crowd way too much. Being in a punk/pop band fronted by a baldy, pierced jock singing ironic songs about perversion and drug abuse did not fly too well in London during the mid 90’s. We had too much fun, we had too few fans and I definitely didn’t have enough hair for ‘Brit-pop’ obsessed industry people.

When I returned to Glasgow battered and bruised I started a band with my best mate David and our other mate Ian. Once again, for a short time, I felt musically at home. I felt comfortable being in a band with my mates and I was lucky to be rehearsing and recording with two of the most creative people I have ever met in my life but yet again we were badly out of sync with peoples tastes. Every other band in Glasgow seemed to either sounds like Oasis or Belle and Sebastian, we were trying to make music more akin to Deftones playing Flaming Lips covers. By this stage my rampant drug and alcohol abuse was a major factor in our continued non-success. It seemed I had an inability to even turn up for rehearsal without spending time puking in the toilet and towards the end I just stopped turning up because of the mess I was in from the night before. I am lucky to have good mates who have supported me enough to allow me to remain their friends, but the realisation was there that some people are not meant to be successful musicians.

The less said about my forays into becoming an acoustic troubadour the better. If you were unlucky enough to catch one of my frankly shambolic performances then I am truly sorry, I was wrong. Very, very wrong. Watching people like Peter Kelly or Finn Lemarinel and even Panda Su or Jill Leighton is enough to convince me I did everyone a favour by packing up the acoustic.

The upshot of all this is that having been a musician for so long I have never felt truly comfortable playing music, and towards the end it was actively making me sad!   

So what do you do if you are a failed musician but still want to be involved in music?

Once again I cannot thank enough my friend and partner in crime Halina for asking me to do something with that very first podcast recording. I won’t go over the story again, but PodcART exists because of our web designer Will, who never gets the credit he deserves, and Halina Rifai who is (switches to Ice-T mode),’one crazy-ass slamming bitch mutha fucka’!!  Between the two of them, and alongside Ben and Pamela , the made an idea a reality.

Our team now consists of an ever expanding group of artists, writers, designers and musicians. I am lucky to have met such talented people and it is (mostly) a joy to work with them. I realise sometimes our message is confusing, people are always asking us to define what we do, just what is PodcART for? I have stated in previous publications and most recently in an interview we completed for @peenko that the question to what PodcART is for will be answered differently by each of the members of PodcART. And that is how it should be. We haven’t even scratched the surface of what we want to achieve and we all come from different backgrounds and hope PodcART can achieve different goals. This is perhaps where our message is confusing for some people. So in an attempt to offer an explain I will send out some open invitations to YOU.

PodcART exists as a facility to highlight artists work. The type of art you create is irrelevant. Obviously we are known just now for the weekly music podcasts and live music sessions we have produced but that is only a tiny part of what we want to do. In the coming weeks we will be co-hosting our first open mic event. This is open to ANYONE! Writers, poets, musicians, comedians, performance artists, actors, ANYONE! We are combining the event with an exhibition of photography and painting and this will be the first of a series of exhibitions we will be curating in a variety of different venues in and around Glasgow. We do not want to stop there. If you are a film maker or in a band, a playwright or a poet, even a performance artist, then please get in touch. If you are a designer or sculptor or large scale multi-media maniac with an idea for doing something different then get in touch. We don’t want to steal your ideas, we want to help them become a reality. PodcART is a vehicle, a facility for you to use. If we cannot help you then we will try to put you in touch with people who can. At the very base level, if you have something you are doing in Glasgow that you think more people should know about then let us know and we will help promote it. Or invite us to whatever you are doing and we will review it.

Finally I will call out to promoters, venues, management companies and other podcasters!! PodcART is not competition for what you do. We are not here to steal money or talent from you. We realise that you run your operations in order to make money or promote your product, let’s work together to try and help everyone achieve the success their talent deserves. Let’s get together and focus on raising the profile of the art and music scene in Glasgow and Scotland to an even higher level. If you have something that you think is great and want to promote it then get in touch, or invite us to your launch, or on your show. In the words of the great Marvin Gaye, ‘Let’s get it on!!!

I have some people I would like to single out for special thanks for making the last year the best year of my life.

 Claire Lim and Paul McCallum, you guys are rock’n'roll.

Rosemary James at the Tramway for being essential to us functioning properly (me anyway)!!

Radio Magnetic, Andy and Dougal we love you!!

The 13^th Note who have never taken a penny from us.

Creation Rehearsals and Cafe  (Dave and Roddy, I hope we have a long and fruitful relationship)

Stuart Braithwaite for actually giving a damn.

Vic Galloway for also caring way too much and being a charming and decent man.

Big Jim you have supported us from the start, thank you.

Jerry Dowd = LEGEND

My mate Gav Troon from The Balladeers for letting me borrow his camera

John Paul Coyle from Jetpace  for being ‘JP’

Sharon Stephen from Hail Eris management, your support has been unbelievable

Megan Leggo for her camera and amazing work at SxSW

The amazing Panda Su. Su Shaw you are unique.

Julia Doogan thank you so much.

Nial and Iain Bronto you guys are INSANE.

Jill Leighton for being the sweetest girl.

Peter Kelly aka Beerjacket, you have provided my soundtrack for most of the year

Allison Young at the GFT, the best press officer in the world!!

David McGroarty my mate for years, thanks for your sound help and for being a friend through good times and bad.

I would like to highlight the bloggers and twitterers with whom I have had the most contact/help

Jim @ayetunes you are an amazing bloke

Lloyd @peenko = best dancer in Scotland. FACT

Ross @morguepartycandidate hurry up and sort that guitar sound!!!

Milo McGlaughlin @ Products Of My Gaseous Brain – one of the most underated bloggers out there

Billy and Nick @ Under The Radar – one of the first groups to put us on the map

Wull @definepop amazing bloke

Portis @portiswasp a man with impeccable, weird taste

Danny @dannyhearn another legend and your band rocks!!!

Lis @lastyearsgirl the reputation precedes you!

Matthew Young at Song By Toad you are an inspiration

Ed at Ten Tracks; why you are so very tall?

Euan at Trampoline; BE NICE!!!

Muckle Sandwhich Neil you are too talented for your own good

The 405 gang – for whoring us round London and indeed the world!

To my sister Charlie, thank you for the occasional financial bail out!

To Alex Kenzel, thank you for everything

To everyone at The Crypt, thank you for keeping me straight

To my fellow podcarteers, I love you all so very, very much.

 Sean x