Brit On The Bill (BOB) is a campaign to get promoters of black music gigs headlined by foreign acts (invariably American or Jamaican) to have at least one British act on the support slot. British consumers are free to spend their money as they like. However, we believe that Britain has a great consumer base for black music, and some of that economical activity should be proactively used to develop our indigenous market, without necessarily costing the consumer or promoter extra.

Until we grow a lot of global artists, we can expect many of the superstars that headline the live circuit to be foreign acts. What we are proposing is that by having at least one black artist on the bill, some of the money will go towards sustaining a local act, and more importantly, that act gets the experience of playing on a stage and to an audience, which would probably otherwise have been unlikely. 

 

June is British Black History Month (BBHM). As you are aware, Black History Month (BHM) has become 'too successful',  to the extent that there are now not enough slots within the month of October. Hence some BHM programmes take place in September and November. Whilst music does feature a lot within these programmes, we don’t think enough space is given to concentrating on the historical aspects of British black  music (of African or African-Caribbean origin), or developing a firm foundation for our music and artists.

Hence the proposal is to have BBHM in June, where the accent will not just be on performances, but also on talks programmes focused on the history or strategies to build an indigenous black music sector. We hope to have enough support for fruits of this campaign to begin rolling out in 2006.

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