NEW YORK BLOG
You can make a good argument that the two greatest music cities in the world are Liverpool and New York.
( Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans may try and force themselves into the reckoning as well but let’s ignore them for now).
I was fortunate enough to spend a couple of days in New York recently as part of a Combined Authority Mission to the US and was keen to look at what opportunities there are to link the two cities music sectors to our mutual advantage.
There are no two ways about it New York is an amazing city with an incredible music heritage which is why almost every musician wants to play there no matter what the musical genre they come from. I’m sure almost every musician cant wait to say ‘Well when we played New York …’ because there is a romance and kudos about it that surpasses anywhere else.
My first trip to New York was many years ago when the band I was working with played a legendary venue called The Bitter End on Bleeker Street in Greenwich Village. We were all a bit over awed because we’d seen this very street in a host of films and knew that a load of legendary music figures had played early gigs at this same venue. To be honest the ‘romance’ didn’t last long – once we had done our set the stage manager just shouted at us to get our gear off stage as quickly as possible so that they can get the next act on!
But it is true that wherever you look in New York some sort of music history has been made. Hip hop started here and changed the music world forever. Or if you go a bit further back in the 70s you have the CBGB’s scene where the likes of Talking Heads, Blondie, Television, and The Ramones spearheaded the punk/new wave scene that was my first music passion.
But enough of that nostalgia. New York is still a hugely important centre for the music industry, and I was there to see what meaningful links we could begin to develop between the two cities. Historically of course The Beatles led the British music invasion of the US in the 60s and the Strawberry Fields corner of Central Park is a peaceful area away from the noise of the city and home to a memorial to the life of John Lennon. (Metro Mayor Steve Rotherham led a moving tribute to Lennon with the laying of flowers while a busker played Imagine).
There are more recent success stories such as that of Sentric Music, the Liverpool founded music publisher which still has its HQ in the city but has its North American base in New York. I caught up with the Sentric team there who are steadily building the company’s profile over there which is a great advertisement for the fact that you can grow a global music business from Liverpool.
Our delegation had a really useful, practical session with Visit Britain, and we were able to talk to them about the strength of the Liverpool music brand and how we could work together to grow music tourism to the city.
In the couple of days we were there we tried to make the most of the time by meeting with key people from the sector. Here I need to say a big thank you to an old colleague Vanessa Reed, who has been based in New York for five years now in her role as President of New Music USA. Vanessa kindly introduced me to Shira Gans (from the New York Mayor’s Office) and Erika Elliott (from Summer Stage). It was a joy to meet Shira and Erika as well as catching up with Vanessa and they gave us so much food for thought and were receptive to developing a meaningful relationship with us moving forward. Hopefully these links will lead to opportunities for our artists and music businesses in the US. Artists such as Red Rum Club and Jamie Webster have been steadily growing their profile in the US over the last few years and we need more artists to follow and see if they can find a way into this potentially lucrative market. From our side we need to find appropriate ways to support this ambition and use any relationships we can establish in New York and across the US to make things easier for them.
Of course, the conversations weren’t all one way. We wanted to find out more about what was happening in New York but at the same time we wanted to the chance to share our exciting plans. We want people in New York and across the US to realise that something exciting is happening here that they should be aware of. We have an awful lot to be proud of at the moment in terms of our music sector and the ambition we are demonstrating through initiatives such as Accelerator City and our plans to develop a Music Industry Hub as well as the vision of an immersive music-based attraction.
Supported by the City Region Music Board Liverpool music is going places and part of the mission is to say to music businesses in the US that if they are looking for a UK or European base then they should look to Liverpool first.
