Category Archives: Delta Ladies

NEW ARTS & MUSIC CENTRE PROPOSED FOR NORTH LONDON

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NEW ARTS & MUSIC CENTRE PROPOSED FOR NORTH LONDON

‘BRAND NEW START’

 – a breath of fresh air for arts & music –

North London – that’s Crouch End, Haringey, Hornsey, Stroud Green and the surrounding area was once home to a thriving music & arts scene – famous names from the arts who lived and worked in the area abound – they include -The Kinks, Pete Brown of ‘Sunshine of Your Love’ & Cream fame, Mick Kidd (Biff of the Guardian), Anthony Minghella, Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) Laurie Morgan (legendary Jazz drummer) , Tim Healy, Denise Welch, Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth; Bob Dylan – yes he resided in Crouch End for a while. In recent years some of the area’s best loved venues, theatre, cinemas and arts centres have gone – recession, corporate Gastro Pubs and the like have taken over. A once thriving area feels like a cultural wasteland.

But not any more if entrepreneur Jonny Rogers has anything to do with it. Jonny’s vision of a community arts & music centre based in Stroud Green and serving North London’s creative community is gathering momentum – read on…

 

 

BRAND NEW START

A home for community arts and music in North London

With recession devastating the arts & music scene, a single individual has come up with an exciting plan to launch a creative complex within the community.

BRAND NEW START (BNS) envisages the realisation of an ongoing ‘creative village life’ in the heart of North London. BNS would enable a multifunction network channelling independent creative practice into the community and vice-versa. It would harness music, visual & performing arts, film-making, fashion, craft and other disciplines, with particular care taken to accommodate the disadvantaged. All this would be in the confines of a 10,000ft² live-work complex.

BNS seeks those with an interest in this project, investors or donors, who possess material assets that they are willing to contribute. Financial investments will go into a co-operative fund held in trust to facilitate the instigation and day to day running of the centre.

At a time when one of North London’s iconic buildings – Church Studios in Crouch End is in imminent danger of conversion to flats – BNS offers those with a vision a brand new oasis in the present cultural desert.

Initial enquiries to jonny-rogers@hotmail.co.uk

 

ABOUT JONNY ROGERS

 

Jonny is an established successful  professional antique & furniture restorer who specialises in prestige period property renovations. He has wide experience and connections with the local creative and charitable community and previous experience of involvement with creative premises. Further information on application to jonny-rogers@hotmail.co.uk

 

ABOUT THE PROJECT

BNS envisages offering space, support services and facilities to those believing in developing local creativity. Its core principles would be justice, community, equal opportunity and creative expression, as well as creating a level playing-field for individuals coming from vulnerable or under-privileged circumstances and who are in a position to benefit dramatically from its services. With music as one of its core creative areas, BNS would provide stage, recording and rehearsal settings, as well as a touchstone for shared musical contact, dialogue and interaction.

BRAND NEW START will consist in self-sustaining and community-dependent artists, musicians, tradespersons and other people of relevant profession, who will occupy live-work space and help to run the continual flow of workshops and events that make up the BNS scheme.

THE SITE The project is presently is pitching for is a 10,000ft², A1-status premises in Stroud Green, N4. This would be occupied by project contributors and sub-let to other artists. Work has been done to secure a series of pre-let guarantees for the property.

 

August 22, 2012

Diana Stone, London N14, UK July 2012

A bit of peace and quiet?

Delta Ladies, Musings, whatever
Its a little like the calm before storm. Just one gig on Friday then nothing for a couple of weeks, though we will be doing some rehearsing. Friday was supposed to be a band gig but turned in to a duo at the last moment due to illness as Rosie is poorly at the moment and we are a bit worried. We got through the gig OK though. The place was fairly empty though I think due to the Olympics, but a few people came in and were enthusiastic enough to make it feel a bit better. I even got complimented on my performance.A friend who we hadn’t seen for a while also came along as it was one of her nights off, so that was also a bit of a lift. She enlightened us as to the why and wherefore of some recent events that were puzzling us too as we lost a gig at a venue where we had been pretty popular. Without revealing any secrets it was not anything we did, but rather circumstances that we had no idea about that sealed our fate. I was concerned that it might have been gender related, but it turned out to be something completely different! Just goes to show how wrong you can be, and how much we conflate ideas and make 2+2 make 101.I really do feel like I could do with a bit of a break as I am slightly off form. I am still continuing to clear out the crap but its a very labour intensive exercise. It also has also made my back flare up a bit again. Curiously enough the best analgesic seems to be a moderate amount of real ale. Well it works for me anyway. The current warm weather is a mixed blessing as when we had a rehearsal earlier in the week it knocked me senseless by the end as it was way too hot. Rehearsing is far more tiring than gigging but pretty important.The biggest problem at the moment is that using the PC is very painful, so there is a lot of stuff that I cant get on with, as I am quite restricted in the amount of time I spend using it. It would seem that that the forces of nature are altering the course of my life somewhat. It would be very difficult to go back in and work in an office physically now as I just couldn’t sit and type for any length of time. Plus I have the attention span of a gnat these days in certain respects.

The phrase feeling the cold in my bones has finally found meaning for me

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The phrase feeling the cold in my bones has finally found meaning for me, being out a couple of nights recently where the thermometer hits -6C has been an experience, and one that I shall try to avoid in future.

We had two gigs this weekend, one at Cambridge Folk Club on Friday where the audience was a bit sparse possibly due to the Arctic conditions though they seemed to enjoy it. We videoed the gig to use for promotional purposes so that was a plus. I didn’t feel were were connecting with the audience as we did the last time we played there but we got some good feedback in between sets.

Saturday night we were in St Albans and had a lively night in one of the many pubs that has live music and we had a good crowd and played a very lively set.
just as we arrived I got a full on back ache that spread to my ribs and shoulders and had a very uncomfortable first set, but things eased a bit by the second set perhaps due to a pint of real ale consumed in the first set. We had a few friends in the audience that night so it was quite a jolly affair by the end.

A woman we have met at our gigs a couple of times, asked what we expected to be doing a in few years time, as in how would we be developing our music career. I managed to stifle the urge to say “Hopefully not starving, if we are still alive”.

She was talking about using project management techniques, and I waited whilst she went through the whole spiel. I then explained that I was no stranger to gant charts and that forward projections are pretty irrelevant. A bunch of semi-geriatrics is not likely to get signed to a record deal and there is no Mr big waiting around the corner with a fist full of dollars or even a pocket full of 50p’s. She did also ask if we had a manager, and in my experience unless they are also taking on the role of investor there is virtually nothing that they can do that we can’t do for ourselves, or are all ready doing.

A couple of years back an independent producer offered to do a record with us. He seemed to think we had money to burn and that we would tip some on his personal bonfire. A lot of people are so desperate to get heard that they are willing victims for this sort of stuff. He told us our songs were weak and he being a songwriter could write better ones for us. Now there’s a surprise ! If you have a product that people want they will pay you for it but a lot of the music industry at the bottom works by taking your money and the deal you get satisfies your vanity but nothing else.

Now anyone can get music on Itunes and everything else worldwide, but you may only sell a few pence worth. A lot of people still get sold on the fantasy of course…