Ian Shaw – SYD Music – Uber Rock Interview Exclusive
Written by Rich Hobson
Sunday, 19 June 2016 03:20
Cast your mind back a few years and the live music landscape was looking pretty bleak. Some things were the same; venues were at threat of closure due to the gentrification of urban environments (after all, why should the residents of a flat that was built six weeks ago put up with the noise of a venue which has existed for thirty plus years? The mind boggles…), but other things spelled disaster for live music in the UK. Attendance levels were dropping like the bass at a Skrillex gig, and more and more bands were finding it difficult to actually get out and tour, which cast a gloomy forecast for the future of good old fashioned live rock ‘n’ roll, which some music rags even went as far as calling “the death of live music”. Of course, they would say that. They helped usher it in in the first place.
Live music needed a saviour, and not some Jesus icon in a plaid shirt with a hipster beard and a knack for writing great off-punk ditties, and most definitely not a fuckin’ wannabe Bono from the bible belt of America with illusions of depth and intelligence (They know who they are. I’ll take the “save the children” shtick seriously when you stop having tracks 1 through 5 about fucking strippers up the arse. You can’t be Motley Crue and Pearl Jam).
What live music needed was people with passion, people who get into the business for nothing more than the exhilaration of building the scene, putting gigs on for a laugh and knowing which bands need looking into. What it needed, quite simply, was people like the good folk here at URHQ, and promoters like Surprise You’re Dead, in Birmingham.
As a stalwart champion of the Midlands music scene (in as much as I’m like black mould – even if you haven’t noticed me festering in the corner I’m spreading about like a scene-greedy disease), I can honestly say there’s little more niggling in your soul than when great bands tour, and don’t play within even 50 miles of your hometown. Which, I admit, is rich coming from someone that lives in the Midlands seeing as most bands touch down here usually. I honestly don’t know how our Irish/Scottish/Welsh brothers and sisters put up with so few bands passing through.
It’s the kind of thing that sticks in my arse so much I’ve even gone to lengths to meet various promoters around Brum to essentially browbeat them into putting on bands, so as I’m not travelling a day and night just to catch an hour long set. Imagine my delight then when the gigs suddenly started turning up by the bucket, giving more than enough material to start upping my live reviews game.
Alien Ant Farm, InMe, Dog Fashion Disco. Not to mention a heap of other bands (Conan, Heck, The Melvins to name but a few) all came through the West Midlands recently as a result of one promotions company in particular, the aforementioned SYD Music. Formed in 2014 by Ian Shaw, SYD have basically exploded onto the West Midlands (and a few other select nearby areas) like a cluster bomb of awesome gigs and bands, proving that an awesome music scene isn’t necessarily fostered by bands or magazines, but instead by blokes who just want to preach the gospel.
And if that’s not worth an interview, over “16 things that Andy Black has eaten this month (Part 4 of 12)”, then I’ve no interest in what constitutes good reading in the music industry!
Hi Ian, thanks for agreeing to this interview today. Could you give us a better idea of the “story” behind SYD, where it all started and whatever?
Essentially I started in 2003, but I used to work for The Mirror newspaper, doing tax and accounting. I got really bored of that, it was driving me insane and I was really lucky in the fact that my actual manager was part time so whenever she would disappear, I was left on the office in my own – a really bad idea haha!
So I would sit there in-between 12 and 5 doing my own stuff, and not doing any of their work and basically tried to build up my career to some degree. I started putting on live music shows in my home town in North Wales, and eventually I got fired from the newspaper. After that I started to put on my own rock shows in Wrexham, and started my own club nights where I DJ’d, and eventually I started getting DJ jobs and other club nights as well, and it kind of grew from there.
Foreshadowing the growth that Ian would eventually enjoy with Surprise You’re Dead, Ian went from being a straight up rock and metal promoter to working with Lockjaw Records, based out of Worcester.
I used to do PR and realised very quickly that you had to have a story behind the band to get them into the magazines or a tour, but none of the bands were touring. So I was like “right I’m gonna book these bands some tour dates to go with the release they have coming up” and got to booking tour dates as well as promoting their shows.
Always moving, Ian would eventually shift to working with Factory Music, working with heavy metal bands from around the world. Ian worked with Factory for a short while, before moving on to international booking agency TKO, moving to Birmingham in 2012 where he immediately set to work on building the live music scene in the West Midlands.
That was me being self-employed and dipping my fingers into different pies to make myself some income. I eventually left Factory Music to join a company called TKO; I moved to Birmingham four years ago, and helped set up The Oobleck two years ago. I then set up my own company and started putting on rock and metal shows in the Midlands, but yeah I basically book tours for bands, put on my own shows and fill venue calendars – so yeah that’s my career explained in a very short space of time.
Was there a certain thing that made you think, right this is where it’s gonna balloon?
It all sort of fell into place. Because I am both an agent and a promoter, that helped me get bigger shows in my own town than should have been there. In 2003 I was bringing out bands like Alexisonfire, Million Dead, Frank Turner, Bastille, Catfish and the Bottlemen and loads of others in the early years. I did some really big shows and they just got bigger and bigger and bigger!
So what prompted you to start putting gigs on in Birmingham?
All the tours generally come to Birmingham, but when I got here I was finding it really difficult. They weren’t, which was mental because it’s one of the largest cities in the country.
Ian credits the biggest expansion in SYD to his work with the (now-defunct) Custard Factory based venue The Oobleck, which operated in the Digbeth area of Birmingham and (sadly) closed its doors earlier this year. Though Ian was there for the inception of the building, he would eventually move on to other venues, putting on gigs at venues around the Midlands including The Sunflower Lounge, The Institute and The Rainbow in Birmingham, as well as The Slade Rooms in Wolverhampton. Ian has recently been instrumental in the opening of The Station in Cannock, taking on responsibilities as the venue’s chief booking agent – not a bad job for a promoter to have! He also runs two other venues; the Live Rooms in Chester, and The Central Station in Wrexham, linking back to his origins in getting bands to tour areas that weren’t necessarily high on the touring itinerary.
I did at one point get involved in The Vault in Rugby for a year, to get them on the map, but sadly the venue in no longer there. We ended up bringing bands out like Skindred, Ugly Kid Joe and InMe, and it was a great venue but the problem is that everyone sees Birmingham but they don’t see how many other places are close to it. It’s ludicrous because there’s the M5/M6/M42 axis of motorways which will stretch to Wolverhampton, Leamington, Coventry, Cannock, Worcester… and all of these places have strong local scenes, so smaller places like Rugby find it hard to keep on putting shows on. Eventually it disappeared so it’s a shame. But yeah the three main venues are The Station in Cannock, Live Rooms in Chester and Central Station in Wrexham.
So you’ve got quite a lot of areas that you cover – I saw that you were doing some work in Newport?
Yeah, but it didn’t go to plan. I did a great show there first off, the venue was a lovely little underground pub but unfortunately I had a fall out with the owner so I won’t be doing any more shows in Newport. But I have done a couple of shows in Cardiff in May last year where I had Alien Ant Farm, Hoobastank and others, so I do dip out in that but I work with other companies in those areas to make it work. Because they have the knowledge of the areas, they have the contacts and it’s the same when people come to me to put on shows in Birmingham.
You also put on a massive eclectic collection of gigs from various genres; alt-rock, alt-metal, doom, hardcore punk. Is there any criteria to the kind of bands you put on?
Essentially all I do is Alternative. I’ve done Acid Mothers Temple, so that’s proper Japanese psych, when I was at The Oobleck we were bringing all sorts of acts in. I don’t want to step on Birmingham promoters toes, because they are great with what they do. With their indie and pop they branch out a bit more than I do, but I like to stick to what I’ve known for years – which is alternative, rock, metal, hardcore, punk and any subgenre within that.
Occasionally I’ll do a bit of hip hop, psych music, eclectic music, but 98% of my stuff would be anything that would feature in Kerrang, Rocksound, Temples Festival and Download – the heavier rock versions of Leeds and Reading, basically.
Do you have a favourite show that you’ve put on so far?
I’d probably say Frank Carter, twice. Two of the shows I’ve done with him were crazy, both sold out shows and the anticipation for the first one was really cool, to see everyone – cause they came to the show not knowing much about the band – they’d only heard one track and all they knew was it was Frank Carter back at his angry, hardcore roots.
It was a great show, the atmosphere was amazing and there was a lot of stage diving, lots of climbing and jumping off the PA. It’s strange to say it, but shows nowadays are so safety conscious that they kind of lose what it used to have 10 years ago, because we live in a culture at the moment where everyone wants to sue everybody for everything that’s gone wrong in the world. Someone will hurt their ankle because they were plastered and they will sue the venue, and win! Because of that, it has affected live music shows, so to do the shows with Frank Carter, we stripped the barriers back and it was craziest show going!
What plans do you have for the future? Do you have any plans to branch out?
I don’t know, I do a lot of work in Leamington with a company called MKR who I really respect. They own the Tramshed in Cardiff, The Globe in Cardiff, the Leamington Assembly and Engine Rooms in Southampton. When you get to that level you start behaving like a national promoter and there are far too many companies that are trying to do that and I think there’s far too much competition when you try and branch out too far.
I’m happy putting on what I put on and I get annoyed when a band I’ve worked with a couple of times, in a particular market, get swallowed up by the big boys like SJM or Live Nation. They end up promoting the bigger shows, and make all the money, but I wish that there was a little more loyalty with sticking with people you’ve already promoted with. I am a new boy on the scene in Birmingham so I’m not expecting to keep hold of bands for that long, but give me a few years down the line. My biggest show to date will be in August when we do Ministry and Devildriver, and that will be the biggest show that I would have put on, on my own in Birmingham.
It would be nice to grow to a point where I am putting shows on in the Institute main room regularly, and eventually step up to do O2 Academy main room and I mean as far as SYD in Birmingham goes that’s where I want to see it. Eventually if I do get my own venue I’ll still branch out and do those things, and I’ll still do my booking because there’s so many great bands out there that deserve a chance. I’d love to work with every single band that gets in touch with me but I don’t have the time and man power… but we will see how it goes!
A full list of Surprise You’re Dead events can be seen at https://www.facebook.com/SYDMusicUK/and http://www.surpriseyouredeadmusic.co.uk/
Frank Carter photographs courtesy of LEE ALLEN PHOTOGRAPHY