Black Music Congress presentation at the Youth and Media panel at the African Caribbean Development Agency’s organised African Caribbean Trade and Information Exchange in Nottingham by Black Music Congress founder Kwaku on September 12 2004

Intro
Black Music Not Urban Music
Playing Live Is Key To Longevity
Why Are There No Black Music Tribute Bands?
Dealing With The Challenges Of Playing Live
Short-changing Black Music On The Live Stage
Ray Of Hope
BMC’s BOB Campaign
Records Are Different From Songs
Who Is Wayne Hector?

Intro
My name is Kwaku, simply Kwaku, although I’m officially here as Kwaku K. Sometimes people need a last name, so as some of you will find out from the copies of Gargamel magazine, I am also referred to as Kwaku K. Of course I have a last name, but I have not used it in my public persona as a music journalist or music business lecturer for over ten years.  

That’s because when I started out as a freelance journalist, which means you rely on newspapers to give you work, I decided to use just Kwaku because that’s the only African name I have. Some of us Africans do have European names, and I did not want any potential employer confused, just in case they had any problems with black people, particularly as I was not interested in writing just on black music.

I am here as the founder of the Black Music Congress, which is a forum for networking and debating issues around black music. We also organise a records and African crafts fair, and have started in conjunction with BTWSC, a monthly reasoning session in Harlesden and Stonebridge, which are two areas in London with a notorious image. We bring people in there to watch a film, and then both young people and adults have an opportunity to offer opinions and possible solutions regarding the issues raised.

I’m sure our potted CVs have been published somewhere, so I won’t bore you except to say I have been involved in the music since the mid-‘70s, when I started out with a small record label and music publishing firm. Indeed, Peter Harris’ father helped me get distribution for my first record. However, for the last ten or so years, I’ve concentrated on lecturing for institutions such as Westminster University, Collage Arts, and writing for British dance magazine DJ, and the American magazine Billboard.

Black Music Not Urban Music
I must say I am a music fan, particularly black music – NOT urban music, because I find urban music represents a very narrow concentration of the black music – it seems to not only concentrate on R&B, hip-hop, garage and dancehall, but it also does not go back to anything more than few years old. Being a black music fan means, unlike some who specialise, I review Gospel music for a Christian magazine, plus I do stuff on African music, R&B, hip-hop, and other styles under that umbrella known as world music. I guess that’s enough of me.

Before I get into my paper, I would like to thank the organisers, because I know what goes into organising events. As the organiser of the Black Music Congress, I know what goes into putting on such events, though ours is nowhere near this scale. So can we please give a round of applause to the organisers?

Thank you. My theme is the State Of British Black Music. That’s a topic of concern to me. Indeed if you go on our old website www.BritishBlackMusic.com, you will find a channel called The State Of British Black Music with contributions from British artists such as Beverley Knight, Ms Dynamite, Ola, Hil St Soul, etc. There’s also a contribution by myself, not because I am an artist, but because I edit the site. I’ll pick out some of the points I wrote about two years ago: 

Playing Live Is Key To Longevity
I talked about how I remembered what became known as Hi-Tension advertising in a music magazine for musicians. Some of the older folks may have heard of this group because they got signed by Island Records and had hits including one called ‘Hi-Tension’. The reason for mentioning them isn’t anything to do with nostalgia, but rather, to illustrate the point that a lot of black music being made today is by music-makers, not musicians. Musicians can play instruments in real time, and possibly without the need for electricity. Music-makers can make music, but only with the use of computer technology, because they need to program their sequences, or beats, as young people tend to call it.

That’s all good, but the point is that without developing a live music capability, most of these artists will survive as long as they generate hit records. Once the hits dry up, and they do dry up even for many a good act, they have no career.

On the other hand, I give examples of old groups that are now not that popular, certainly to the record companies, but still have a career because they can make a living on the concert circuit. A group like Maze used to come to the UK regularly and pack out theatres long after their recording career had waned. There are African artists such as Baaba Maal, Oumou Sangara, and other who do not sell huge amounts of records here, but they sell out some of the biggest theatres in London, such as the Royal Festival Hall – because they can play live and people do not mind paying to see them. There are British rock bands that are not popular in Britain anymore. However, people in places such as Germany are happy to pay good money to see them play, so that gives them a bit of a pension without the benefit of an active recording career.

So what I am saying to our young artists is to develop their live craft, because, yes, we know you can create slamming beats, even have several big hits. But for most, without having a live element to your bow, you are good as your last hit record. And as I’ve said, the hits don’t last forever for most artists. Certainly, not the black acts. 

Look at the Rolling Stones – they’ve been going for over forty years. Let me tell you something – the old school superstars like the Rolling Stones, David Bowie etc, don’t sell many records, but they bring in millions of pounds from their tours. In their old age, that’s where the money’s coming from.

Why Are There No Black Music Tribute Bands?
Do you know about tribute bands? The sort that play, say, just songs by Abba, U2, The Rolling Stones, etc? You notice I didn’t give any black acts in my examples, because I don’t know of any black music tribute bands. Why is that? I don’t have the answer to that, so I will let you go figure it out. Whilst you’re thinking about that, let me add some information that came from a reliable source. One of those tribute bands is called the Bootleg Beatles. That name alone tells you that they may look and sound like The Beatles. 

For those of you that don’t know, The Beatles were a ‘60s group that just happened to be the biggest rock and pop act of their day, and still sell huge amounts of records. Anyway, the fake ones – the Bootleg Beatles, I was told have about a one million pound turnover, which is extraordinary for a group that’s blatantly just performing someone else’s music. Still, it shows the power of live music. Maybe this revelation should spur some of you to start some sort of black music tribute bands, tough I wonder how one can actually play some of the hip-hop and garage records, if one’s not to rely on samplers. 

Let me give you a little-known fact, which has some bearing on the state of British black music. Anyone heard of Incognito? They are a band that came out of the late ‘70s Brit-funk era. They are, allegedly, the first, and possibly the only black British act to come to the end of a major record contract – meaning they fulfilled all the album obligations in their contract. They are one of the few black British acts that had a decent profile in America, particularly within the modern jazz sector. However, the great thing is that this year, Incognito celebrate their twenty-fifth anniversary. They are still going strong recording and playing live.

OK, so I have given you the downside by saying that the way towards longevity with one’s music career is by having a live element, and we just don’t have enough of it.

Dealing With The Challenges Of Playing Live
However I also recognise the realities of the 21^st century. Apart from the fact that it can be difficult learning to play a musical instrument, not to mention having to regularly practise, equipment can be expensive, and there aren’t that many rehearsal studios or indeed venues for new acts to start off developing their stage craft. But if you have a vision, which Ms Serwah talked about, and that vision includes a long career and not just wanting the fame and bling-bling paraded on our screens, such as MTV Base, then you can have a gameplan. For the young people among us hoping to start out in music, or indeed for their managers too, that gameplan can go like this: 

“I have been told that if I’m to have a long career, then apart from having a nice face or body, good songs, being a fantastic singer, or a producer with slamming beats, I must develop my live craft. But you know what, I don’t have any money for a real drum kit, for example. However, I’ve got a software like Fruity Loops, Reason or cut-down versions of Logic or Cubase. I’m going to use these, or use my mate’s home studio, or that community recording studio to make the best records I can afford. But once I make some money from those records, I’m going to invest in developing myself or my band as a real live act. Or else employ musicians.”  

It can be done. Last week I went to see a band called Brand New Heavies. The core of the group consists of a drummer and singer, a bassist, and guitarist. They always use a female lead singer. However, whilst today’s technology means they could use the keyboards to provide brass sounds, they choose to have a brass section made up of real horn players. 

The point here is that, whilst yes, it can be expensive using real musicians, it’s a question of choice. Brand New Heavies probably could have saved themselves the cost of hiring three horn players by having their keyboardist replicate the brass sounds, but chose not to. I enjoyed the gig more because I was there to see musicians expressing themselves somewhat differently from what’s on their records.  

Short-changing Black Music On The Live Stage
On the other hand, this summer, I attended the Respect festival. This is a huge festival in east London, organised by the Mayor of London. Obviously a lot of money has been pumped into it. So I was asking myself, why am I watching acts on the main stage performing a PA – a personal appearance? Big Brovaz, pardon the pun, are one of the biggest black acts in Britain. Nearly two years since they crossed over, why are they just singing with no band behind them? 

It’s not that they can’t afford it – they have sold enough records and do have a big time manager to do so, if they wish. It’s not that their music is so studio technology based that it’s not easy to play live – they write songs with classical song structures. That’s to say, you can identify verse/chorus, melodies and rhythms, and it’s not loop or sampled driven – so it can be easily played live. I simply think contemporary black music, or more specifically the so-called urban music, which is what majority of young people are into, is definitely being short-changed!

When the promoter puts together a festival for rock acts, they make allowance for real musicianship to take place. But it seems either our young acts can not play live, the promoter is happy to cut costs by not having real live musicians on stage, or black acts are too happy to get the gig and the publicity that comes with such a festival that they’re happy to give us a PA. I tell you, I am sure when Big Brovaz started performing, it was recorded voices, rather than live singing, that was pumping from the speakers. Or maybe they were mixing live with recorded vocals, and the engineer messed it up.

Ray Of Hope
I do see some hope. I can lay claim to seeing Aswad when they were starting up. I remember Drummie, who is now a well-respected drummer banging on some badly tuned snare drum. They went on to become a successful self-contained band, and indeed, the first British reggae band to be signed by Island Records. Closer to Nottingham, Birmingham’s Steel Pulse also got signed to Island, and are still going strong on the international live circuit twenty-five years on.

Recently, Jet Star has also been promoting RasItes, a self-contained band made up of London musicians, some still in their teens. What I hope is that some young person see a band like RasItes and says, ‘Yeah, I want to play live just like them.’ It’s difficult, but not impossible.

Like any industry, it’s about money. Black artists generally do not get the same resources as comparable white artists. Black artists generally get less, be it the advance, or say, the marketing budget. Having said that, if live music is part of your plan, and if a record company sees a long career and the potential to sell units, then the manager can successfully pitch to have a budget for equipment, rehearsals, or indeed hiring in musicians and what else it takes to get a show on the road. Because record companies know that, generally, a good live show has a positive bearing on record sales.

BMC’s BOB Campaign
Right now the Black Music Congress is in the process of talking to individuals and industry bodies to come up with a pro-British stance. It could open up to something wider, but at the moment I’m calling it the BOB campaign – a Brit On the Bill. It came about when I saw the Mean Fiddle promote an R&B festival called Jazz Café Picnic. All the artists were American. The same promoter also put on the Jazz Café Picnic, which featured solely British alternative acts, such as Zero 7 and Nitin Sawhney.

That annoyed me. Because as much as I love Joe, Dweele, and a new singer called Goapale, they were all American. It seemed to me as if they were saying no British act is good enough to be on the bill of an R&B festival. I’m sure you all I know of many good British R&B acts that can hold a candle to the Americans. But it’s more than a music issue, it’s also a financial and industry issue. 

If we continue to have Americans, or say Jamaicans, come over here to sell us R&B or reggae – forms of music in which we have a domestic pool – without any Brits on the bill, we are developing someone else’s industry. In the meantime British artists struggle financially and don’t have experience of performing in some of the good venues or to capacity audiences. So the BOB campaign is meant to be a way towards strengthening our domestic infrastructure, so as to help some of the young artists coming up.

If the idea interests you, then let’s talk, or you’re welcome to email me via editor@britishblackmusic.com .  

Records Are Different From Songs
Another thing that I want to point out – and I say this all the time when I am doing a music business course – is that a fair bit of contemporary black music is actually about records, rather than songs. A brief explanation is probably needed. You can play a song without electricity. You can’t play a record without electricity. What I want to illustrate is the fact that the recording process allows us to create some great sounding experience, which rocks the dance floor, for example. But it doesn’t necessarily translate into something that someone can perform live.

What that means is that you have little chance of someone else using your material, such as covering it. Today, we all know about Bob Marley. But before got his Island Records deal that made him a superstar, Johnny Nash, a big American pop star had recorded two of his songs, and indeed one of the factors that boosted Marley’s rise was the fact that Eric Clapton recorded ‘I Shot The Sheriff’. For those that don’t know, the songwriter gets paid when other people record their songs. Which could mean either during your active recording career, or years after your last hit record, you could still be living comfortably because someone has seen fit to cover your song. 

Look at the number of covers in the charts. If you’re writing, then don’t just think about now. Where possible, think about the potential of the song being accessible for others to cover. 

A lot of young artists starting out focus on attracting record companies. However, if you are blessed with the talent to write good songs, you may be able to attract music publishers, some of whom can nurture you creatively and financially, long before you get that record deal.

Who Is Wayne Hector?
Anyone heard of a songwriter called Wayne Hector? He started out in a swingbeat/R&B group. When that fizzled, he worked with a very talented singer called Ali. However, although the name may not mean anything to you, Wayne Hector makes a very good living as a songwriter. He’s written for many pop acts including Westlife. Apart from showing that one can make a living as a songwriter, I think even more importantly is the fact that he shows that black artists or writers need not restrict themselves to just the stereotype. Why can’t you write for a pop group, country or whether? We do not need to limit ourselves. 

I’ll leave it at that, and hope I can contribute to any specific area in the Question & Answer session.

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