CAMPUS LABEL
One of the great things about all good festivals is that you just happen upon things that you weren’t planning to see but that you’re glad you happened upon.
This happened to me during the recent Sound City festival when, while ambling between venues, I ended up watching a bunch of artists playing in a space near to the much missed Zanzibar club. Everyone was wearing the same T shirts and for a minute I was worried I risked being sucked into a strange musical cult. Then I realised I was probably far too handsome and possibly a little too old and grumpy to be the target of a cult, so I relaxed, enjoyed the music and worked out that the T shirts were all emblazoned with the Campus Label logo.
So like all the great investigative reporters I thought I should probably dig a bit deeper and find out the story behind Campus Label. With this in mind I spoke to Jon Withnall, a stalwart of the local music scene. I’d known Jon since he worked alongside an old friend of mine, legendary (and a lovely bloke to boot) Liverpool producer Ken Nelson. Ken produced the first two Coldplay albums at the now sadly gone Parr Street Studios. (As an aside I would rather have my ears chewed off by a rabid dog than have to listen to Coldplay but to be fair I don’t hold Ken or Jon in any way responsible for that band’s appalling musical output).
Anyway moving on from my Coldplay bashing I wanted to find out more about Campus. Jon explained that Campus is a grassroots, artist first record label that is run from within Liverpool’s music education community. It gives emerging artists a fair, low risk home to release their music while also giving students a chance to get real world experience across recording, labels, content and live.
It initially started as a pilot through SAE in Liverpool last year. This worked really well with students using contacts gained during the programme to secure jobs in the music industry. The success of the pilot led to a full programme being launched in Liverpool this year with the plan that the city would be the centre of a national rollout.
London, Leeds, Glasgow, and Cardiff are other target cities but Liverpool will be at the heart of it all.
Jon is understandably excited about the potential for the programme, telling me about industry partners they are working with ranging from the likes of EMI North and AWAL through to Tim Peak’s Diner.
“We will find young people who really want to work and perform an A&R role for the industry.”
The prospect of Campus Label in four or five cities opens up the prospects of a gig circuit between them so artists get a chance to gain the experience of playing in other cities while the young people on the programme get a chance to experience the often harsh realities of touring.
As Jon says, most, if not all of their students, will be great in a studio or on a sound desk but sadly that simply isn’t enough. The music industry, like the film and TV sector, looks and sounds glamorous and lots of young people want to get a foothold so you need to be exceptional. You need to be prepared to work hard, work unsocial hours, and understand industry etiquette and norms.
There’s a really nice old fashioned indie ethos that underpins the Campus Label too. Bands do sign to the label but as Jon explains it this is more of a distribution deal and they can get out any time on a rolling 28 day agreement.
Artists own their own masters so if one of the major labels gets excited by something they hear then they are free to sign with them, although it would be nice if there was a way that Campus could recoup some of the money they have spent so it can go into more emerging artists.
From the outside Campus really looks like it could be the start of something special, so take a look.
The next call out is in September.
Kev McManus
