Music event in Darlington to celebrate 'strong female voices'

Tracks Darlington, a music collective, has a project called Noisy Daughters which champions women and gender minorities in the music industry and on September 23 and 24, will be bringing its activities to The Forum.

On Friday, September 23, there will be a gig celebrating strong female voices with Scruffy Bear headlining, special guests Pave The Jungle, and Darlington’s own Eve Conway.

On Saturday, September 24 from 1pm-3pm there will be a free ‘Introduction To Live Sound’ workshop open to all women, girls and people of minority genders.

Eve Conway, a musician from Darlington, will be performing at the gig at The Forum on Friday, September 23. Picture: Tracks Darlington (Image: Tracks Darlington)

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Tracks has linked up with the Yorkshire Sound Women network to bring practitioner Jo Kennedy to Darlington to deliver the workshop.

Jo works as a freelance artist and technician. She said: “The workshop will empower participants who are maybe wanting to run a gig night or venue, or a performer wanting to speak with more confidence and authority to venue sound engineers.

This 2-hour workshop will provide a friendly, supportive space for you to get your hands on PA equipment and understand the essentials of live sound.

You will learn how to get signals from instruments and microphones successfully into a mixing desk via cables, DI boxes and connectors, what to do with these signals once they arrive at the desk, and how to get them back out to room speakers and foldback monitors suitably amplified and mixed for a great listening experience.

Scruffy Bear, a North East rock band, will be performing at The Forum this month. Picture: Tracks Darlington (Image: Tracks Darlington)

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It is encouraged to bring your own instruments along for the workshop, if you have them.

Rob Irish of Tracks said: “It’s great to see a growing awareness of more technical roles in the music industry nowadays, we’re seeing a lot more education and participation in recording, production and mixing, however I feel like live sound is still overlooked, despite it being such an important and exciting job in music.

“It’s no secret that women are underrepresented in theindustry, especially on the tech side, and ridiculously so within live sound, we know there’s loads of women out there who want to get their hands on a mixing desk, but maybe they’re not sure where to start, and with confidence, so we hope this workshop can be give them that opportunity.”

The Forum Music Centre on Borough Road in Darlington. Picture: Google Streetview (Image: Google)

Tickets for the gig and workshop will be available from www.tracksdarlington.co.uk

The workshop is free but places are limited and must be booked in advance. Tickets for the gig, however, cost £6.

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