Kevin McManus head of UNESCO City of Music (c) Kevin McManus
The head of UNESCO City of Music Kevin McManus has launched an initiative to help promote the music industry in Liverpool.
The ‘Discover A New Beat’ campaign aims to raise the public’s awareness of the new music coming out of Merseyside as well as to celebrate the musical success the city has already achieved.
When people think of music in Liverpool, their minds might automatically turn to the Beatles – but Kevin wants people to start looking beyond the Fab Four.
He told MerseyNewsLive: “Obviously it’s incredibly lucky to have The Beatles coming from Liverpool and it’s it’s brilliant for the city in all sorts of ways, but if you look at it too much it neglects the fact that since the Beatles we’ve had incredible music history.
“My view is that we just need to remind people that there’s the next Beatles, or there’s the next Frankie goes to Hollywood, or the next Atomic Kitten.
“There’s always amazing things coming out of the city that we don’t talk about and campaigns like this really seek to address that balance.
“Even at the moment we’re in the middle of a yet another great music boom with amazing things going on, and our initiative is saying to people that if you’re a music fan, come to Liverpool anytime and there’s always going be something exciting happening in a musical sense.”
The Cavern Club is a rock and roll club at 10 Mathew Street, Liverpool, England, where Brian Epstein was introduced to the Beatles on 9 November 1961. The club opened on January 16, 1957. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavern_Club
Former music journalist Kevin is head of UNESCO City of music Liverpool but has had a vast range of experiences in the music industry. Originally from Ireland but raised in Liverpool, he started off by writing for the publication Musical Express. As he gained experience he then went on to write for the NME, The Face, and mixed mag.
Kevin described his role now as varied, with the main aim to ‘support the sustainability and growth of music in the city’.
“I work a lot with other music cities, managing and supporting collaborations and exchanges between Liverpool musicians and other cities”, he added.
“We work a lot with the venues here and try to help them solve any issues they might have as well.
“So, it’s really varied and it is an amazing job because it it means I get to work with people across the sector.”
The main focus of the project is those bands that are upcoming and beginning their journey to what they will hope be major success in the music industry. Specifically, Kevin has listed the likes of Michael Aldag, Red Rum Club, Koj, and Keyside as local bands and artists to keep an eye on.
The Coral are one of many successful bands to emerge from Merseyside
Liverpool is considered the capital of pop music due to the incredible number of huge hits to come out of the city. But what is it about Merseyside that hums the right tune?
“I think a lot of it comes back to our rich heritage through the port”, Kevin said.
“There’s the Irish influence and the there’s a big black music heritage in the city as well.
“In the ’90s with bands like the Real People, the LA’s, Cast … with these bands it was always about there being no jobs at that time, in Liverpool lots of people were unemployed and there wasn’t much money, so people used to go back to each other’s flats and play acoustic guitars and and write songs.
“A lot of the people who came out of that phase formed bands and got signed, so there’s always different things happening in the city which just means music is ever present.”
For these reasons, it can be expected that musical talent will only continue to emerge in Liverpool. The legacy of the Beatles may blur the public’s perceptions of upcoming artists to this day, but initiatives such as Discover A New Beat are aiming to remind people that there’s nothing stopping young bands from replicating the success of the Fab Four.
