Paul Lamont : Early Career Promoter Fund
About :
I have operated on the periphery of the music business and in entertainment for an age, in distribution and record shops in Los Angeles, low level music journalism. In the past I’ve played in critically acclaimed bands in LA and before that in the UK. I currently publish the online music, arts and culture magazine, outsideleft.com. Outsideleft began in Los Angeles in 2004. For the past decade I have been marooned in Bearwood in the UK. Several ad hoc partners work on our events, Outsideleft Nights Out, which feature live music and guest DJ’s and are free to all, although we do collect money for the artists and DJ’s and the audience is never less than very generous. On many occasions the musicians have tried to give back some of the money donated to them. We are small time operators. We work in small spaces. We may be considered unconventional. We seek out women artists and are hoping to use this grant to grow our audience and our connections with the musical refugee community. Featuring mbira player Millicent Chapanda was as thrilling as when we persuaded 90s million-sellers SOHO to perform an acoustic set. Wow! We believe that live music should be accessible for all and that’s why our community driven events in our underserved neighbourhood are free. Here’s a quote from one of our performers, one of the most important musicians in Birmingham now, David Benjamin Blower, illustrating what we seek to achieve… “The Outsideleft gig at Corks had one of the most beautiful atmospheres I’ve ever played. The feeling in the room was just gorgeous. There was so much care that people seemed to have for each other. I was walking into an existing community rather than people who a promoter had managed to round up.”
Project Description :
My plan is to promote excellent carefully curated diverse in terms of talent, live music in my underserved Sandwell community of Bearwood, accessible to all.