Record numbers descend on Tyneside for major music gathering

For its 10th anniversary, Evolution Emerging hosted a national music conference at the Sage Gateshead which saw over 30 guest speakers from the likes of BT Sport, PRS for Music, Help Musicians UK and many, many more.

Hundreds of ambitious artists, music businesses as well as established acts descended on The Sage Gateshead on Wednesday, 6th June to learn from industry experts on important topics such as musicians’ mental health which was delivered by Barry Hyde and Help Musicians UK, women in music which uncovered the often-subconscious gender bias within the industry and what publishing and synchronisation deals really mean for the artist.

Ahead of the Evolution Emerging Festival 2018, Generator hasn’t staged a conference of this size since Music Futures in 2015.

Jim Mawdsley, CEO at Generator said at the event: “The reason we wanted to run the conference this year was to celebrate 10 years of the Evo Emerging Festival, but also to remind the public nationally that we are still very much a music development agency.

“With the acquisition of Digital Union a few years ago, it has appeared that a lot of our focus has been on building up our profile within the digital and tech sectors and not really shouting about the music side of the businesses as much, but this is far from the truth and, if anything, our music activity has ramped up.

“For instance, we have piloted a project this year aimed and female musicians and trying to get to the bottom of why there is such an uneven ratio of male to females within the industry. This isn’t just performers and writers but also behind the scenes or working in a music business. The all-female cohort on the WeCreate programme will get to learn from the likes of Nadine Shah who played at Evolution Emerging in 2013.

“Another major passion of ours is the support we give to Chase Park Festival through our AAA programme which helps musicians of all abilities get a foot on the ladder and prepares them to perform at the festival which is often a massive confidence boost for the artists.

“This is all in addition to the ongoing development support we offer to artists and music businesses which has lead to significant success for both Bryde and homegrown talent, Jake Houlsby, in the past 12 months.

“The conference has been, in my eyes, a huge success. We managed to host over 30 key players from around the country in our small corner not only was this to enable to artists up here to see what support is out there and how to step their games up, but it also opens the industries eyes to the talent we have here in the North East.”

Joe Frankland, senior grants and programmes manager at PRS Foundation added: “It was a real pleasure to be a part of the Evolution Emerging Conference. Having been a part of the Generator team at the start of the festival, it’s great to see its growth over the past 10 years.

“It’s fitting that the new conference style brought together leading industry names and passionate artists and songwriters from the North – making it the perfect event to discuss PRS Foundation’s passion for talent development and to challenge the industry and organisations to put a diverse range of music creators at the centre of discussions around the future of music.”

Evolution Emerging Festival takes place Saturday, 9th June 2018 across 10 venues – The Cluny, Cluny 2, The Tyne Bar, The Tanners Arms, Cobalt, Little Buildings, Blast Studios, The Cumberland Arms, Mustang ‘S’ Ally, and Backyard Bikeshop.

Tickets are £12.50 and can be bought here: www.musicglue.com/evo-emerging-2018.