Live and kicking

WITH two-day tickets at £15 and day tickets at £9.50 it’s hardly surprising to learn that NewcastleGateshead’s May Bank Holiday Evolution Festival, May 24- 25, is reaching sell-out status.

The first question for event mentor Jim Mawdsley has to be: How does he keep prices at such reasonable levels when other music festivals charge so much?

He replies: “One of the things to bear in mind is that it still takes a lot of money to build our site, but there are less infrastructural needs with us being in a city centre. One of the most expensive things, believe it or not, is trackway. Literally laying metal roads all over these Greenfield sites (which Evolution avoids).

“However, the festival has the reputation of being one of the key ones for rising and emerging bands, which is part of the name as well.

That’s how we’ve built up the audience from when it was free. It’s the one that agents and managers want to get their act on because they’re exposed to a lot of earning potential and put their name in front of 25,000 people.”

Mawdsley is aware that the bands on his booking list are likely to be considered for other festivals depending on their performance at Newcastle.

“We more or less kick off the festival circuit and can attract bands at reasonable prices. We’re members of the Association of Independent Festivals now and it has its own festival map. Then there’s things like Rockfest and Glastonbury,” he says.

“Weekender tickets for £15 sold out in three weeks which took us by surprise and the day tickets are selling really well,” adds Mawdsley who admits he still sits and sweats over the long-range weather forecast for May.

“We use a service called Metcheck and we’re always looking at it. There’s not so much risk attached to the weather for us.

This is hard ground so it’s never going to get muddy, but we still want everyone that’s coming to enjoy every aspect of the event.”

Is there a wishlist of bands he sits down with each year?

“We’re constantly keeping an eye on who is coming through and what people are doing. There were a couple of bands that we really wanted to book but, due to their schedule, we couldn’t fit them in,” says the man who sits down with programmer Dave Stone to thrash out the evergrowing list of names that will bring live music to the Quayside.

“Dave looks out to see who is available and he makes recommendations and I make recommendations and then we put offers in and negotiate with the agents. That’s how we got the Maccabees this year, who are one of those bands who’ve got an album coming out and can make a good festival great,” explains Mawdsley who is chief executive of Generator which aims to promote and support the region’s new artists.

He’s part of a team, which includes the Evolution Festival management company, Epic Leisure, all looking to ensure the two days feature the many different genres of music which now make up the UK’s complicated industry.

“We’re all very keen new music listeners and we all tend to like different genres. One likes hip-hop with an urban slant while others like guitar bands. Martin McAloon (formerly of Durham band Prefab Sprout) still has a very keen ear and it’s quite a relaxed atmosphere in the office as people bring in CDs to share with us. “Against their better wishes I force them to listen to BBC Radio 1 for two reasons: you need to hear what’s coming through even though we’ve probably already heard it – for example I’d heard of The Noisettes about two years ago – and because our business is music.

“I don’t download stuff. I’m 42.

My son does, but I don’t. I like going out and buying CDs and I listen to most of my music in the car and at home. I’d rather put it on the stereo and listen to it that way. I’m one of these luddites who feel that the quality is always better. Mp3 files are all compressed and not the same.”

Alongside the headliners like Dizzee Rascal, The Wombats and Human League, Mawdsley has enjoyed recruiting The Puppini Sisters and Imelda May, who have a distinctly Forties feel to their sound.

Another is the indie band, the Maccabbees, who are releasing their second album, Wall Of Arms, on May 4 and promise to be another up-andcoming find for the festival.

Mawdsley says: “The festival is all about emerging music that’s good.

Last year we booked Duffy in October and then she was number one in the February and was absolutely huge by May. Taking a chance like that keeps your costs down and the ticket price low. We also want to attract people to the North-East from outside as well as making it a balanced audience.

“And if that means putting on acts that will attract older people then we’re likely to do it. The Human League are almost a heritage act, although they’ve just toured and sold out Newcastle Academy. We’d be limiting ourselves if we just went for a white, indie rock‘n’roll format for the kids. Dizzee Rascal had the biggest selling single of last year, Dance With Me, and selling several hundred thousand singles is phenomenal these days. He’s got broad-based appeal and, to be honest, if we want to keep ticket prices really low, and we do, then we can’t pay the big headliner festival bands who are commanding fees of between £500,000 and £1m. We’re trying to build this festival more as an experience, a great day out.”

The three North-East bands being tipped for bigger things – in addition to the Evolution Unsigned free events in Newcastle’s Ousburn Valley on Friday night – are Detroit Social Club, Little Comets (previous called Freerunner), who are signed to Sony, and The Chapman Family.

“Even if one of them make it to the level of Maximo Park it’ll be fantastic for the region which is, if you’ll excuse the poor expression, a real hotbed of talent at the moment, both for us and the Tees Music Alliance, who are bringing a lot of great stuff through as well,” says Mawdsley.

■ Evolution Festival takes place at The Spillers Wharf and Baltic Square, Quayside. May 24-25. For information and tickets EvolutionFestival.co.uk