Literally two days after I’d landed back in Blighty from New Zealand, it was time to head to the airport again.  This time, I was headed to Groningen in The Netherlands for the music industry showcase festival and conference Noorderslag, eagerly looking forward to seeing lots of new bands and my friends from Buma Cultuur, the event organisers.  Luckily for me, I hooked up with the legendary Allan McGowan on the flight, and we put the world to rights on the 2 ½ hour train journey from Schipol Airport to Groningen. 

On arrival in Groningen, I collected my pass and bag of goodies at the registration desk and headed to the designated hotel. This year’s event was slightly different for me; on-top of enjoying all the new bands and doing some quality networking, I was overseeing a band called Gravity Co, helping them promote their showcase and getting people to turn up and see them.  No easy task with so many bands from all over Europe playing at the popular event, but I was determined to do my best for them.

Thursday 15th January was the first day of the event and after a slow start, it was buzzing with activity.  Bumping into loads of friendly faces from the year before in-between meetings was great and I got the lowdown on all the inside booking agent gossip from Steve and Emma at ITB during the ETEP dinner.  Next up was the European Border Breakers Awards, which celebrates the success of artists outside their own country.  The awards were presented by industry stalwart Jools Holland and featured performances from award winners including Cinema Bizarre, Lykke Li and a show stealing performance courtesy of Kraak & Smaak.
   
My next port of call was Gravity Co’s showcase at the MuzeikSchool.  I had been putting up posters and talking to people about it all day, so was keeping my fingers crossed that people would venture down.  It reminded me of when I worked for a record label years ago, and the nail biting wait for the radio 1 playlist to be announced each week.  Luckily lots of my industry friends turned up to support me and the band, helping me to keep calm.  Special thanks to Stefan, Inge, Andy, Deitmar, Debra, Charlie and Timmy – you know who you are. :-)  It was possibly the most stressful thing I’d done in ages and after the band had packed their gear away, we went for a well deserved drink or two…or five!!!!!  We sat at the Three Sisters Bar in town (thankfully, close to the venue they had just played) and drank Jaegermeister and vodka shots. Classy!

After the showcase was over, Friday was a breath of fresh air, the feeling of a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders.  After countless more meetings, I gratefully received a handful of top tips of bands to see that night.  I also hasdthe pleasure of introducing the Gravity Co boys to Lucy from Notion magazine, immediately rendering the band smitten forever.  :-)

Once I’d managed to drag them away, we made our way to the legendary Vera, where 3FM radio were doing radio broadcasts; a special and historical venue, where the Likes of the Rolling Stones, U2 and Nirvana had played gigs early on in their careers.  We checked out the Belgium band Black Box Revelation at the venue and bumped into the guys from Best Fest, who also recommended we also go and check out The Asteroids Galaxy Tour at De Speigel (apparently their music had been used by Apple in their ipod adverts) and their singer was a quirky, eccentric little thing!! Next, I wanted to take the band to see one of the biggest and most publicized Dutch indie bands, Moke (who even have the blessing of English legend Paul Weller).  At Huze Maas, a tiny bar acting as a venue, we were met by a massive queue, literally braving the freezing temperatures. On second thoughts, we settled for a nightcap at the hotel instead.  

At breakfast on Saturday Nik from the band chatted to Mark Jones of Wall of Sound, who happened to be taking part in a panel on the future of record labels.  He invited them along, so we all went to the conference together to check it out and soak up the lecture. 

I then sneaked out for lunch with my friend Vesna, who works for the EXIT Festival, where we were given the wrong bill at the restaurant and got away with paying for a fraction of what we had actually ordered (ha-ha).  Needless to say, we hastily made a swift exit, acting like naughty school children as we ran down the street in fits of giggles.

By Sunday, the event drew to a close, with the last night being a special showcase celebration of local, Dutch bands, staged at the spaceage Oosterpoort centre.  After starting the evening well and seeing lots of bands including de Straat and Hit me TV, we ended up in the VIP room with lots of free drinks vouchers.  Unfortunately, I missed ZzZ (who I really wanted to see), but had a good laugh with Mark from the Sziget festival, who was giving the Gravity boys tips on where the best coffee shops were in Amsterdam!!!! (oh dear).

Ending the night with a literal bang, we saw rock femme Elle Bandita give an energetic and wild performance, proving that girls can rock out just as good as the boys.

Sunday was a blur, and I was trying to hold it together after only a couple of hours sleep and having to get the earlier train with the band, who, understandably, wanted to make the most of their first time in Amsterdam.  The train was full of other weary souls from the conference hiding behind their sunglasses, the locals casting strange looks at us as we lugged our cases, guitars and sound equipment onto the busy train.

Eurosonic is a great event, which is unfortunately overshadowed by SXSW in Austin. Like SXSW, but on a more personal level, you can meet all the players in the live music industry in Groningen and see some great bands and have lots of fun while you’re there too. I can’t wait to go back next year…it feels like home. :-)

http://www.eurosonic.nl/