Great Escape round up

Generator led a storming North East invasion at The Great Escape in Brighton last weekend, with insightful industry panels and well-received live showcases from the top emerging acts in the region.

At the ‘What’s required to DIY panel’ on Friday 13 May Ollie Hodge, A and R for Columbia records who signed Glasvegas and The Vaccines set out to counter the myth that labels no longer invest in artists, saying: "Labels generally are developing less but we spent 18 months developing Lissie before her album was released and major labels do have significant budgets to spend on development."

Commenting on the changing role of press companies as a key component in an artist’s ‘team’, Ritu Morton of Six07 Press agreed with Hodge to a certain degree: “Major labels very rarely develop artists…build your team with a plugger, manager, PR, agent, etc…Press companies are often involved before labels. We’re normally second only to managers in the ‘core team’.”

On the issue of support available to emerging artists and aspiring music businesses, Tam Coyle from the Scottish Music Industry Association said: “You can find all you need to help your project at the click of a button. But music development agencies certainly help." Ritu Morton added: "Information is key - if development agencies didn't exist, artists would be on their own."

The Generator showcase between 1-4pm at The Queen’s Hotel featuring Lanterns on the Lake, Lets Buy Happiness, Mammal Club and Polarsets seemed to go down extremely well with delegates and general punters attending the 3-day festival of live shows, industry conferences and workshops.

Reviews of the well-attended showcase came flooding in almost immediately, with influential blog ‘Breaking More Waves’ writing: “An incredible performance by Lanterns On The Lake, whose bejeweled atmospherics were so gut-wrenchingly beautiful that grown men in the audience were shedding tears.”.

Elsewhere, Drowned in Sound founder Sean Adams tweeted about Lets Buy Happiness: “Lovely lovely @LBHappiness set. New songs soared into that space 'tween Saddle Creek, Smiths and The Sundays. #TGE11”. We were also giving away a fantastic 13-track North East Invasion CD.

Commenting on the success of the events, which marked the second consecutive year that Generator have been involved in The Great Escape, Generator CEO Jim Mawdsley said: “The Great Escape is a massive opportunity for North East bands to debut their music in front of the senior decision makers from all sectors of the UK music industry and once again Generator's North East Invasion showcase was well attended. It has become an essential event in the industry's calendar”.

See you at Liverpool Sound City this weekend.