Getting paid for what you produce and negotiating sucessfully were two of the major themes and the two sessions I caught, Bands as Enterprise and It's easier to Ask for Forgiveness than it is for Permission were pretty livewire, with a very frank (more swearing in a church than I've ever heard, anyway) and experienced panel answering a variety of questions from the musicians, promoters and managers in the audience.

One of the questions that came up in the latter session, which was chaired by the dry-humoured but reassuring promoter Howard Monk, was asking how to get your band booked at festivals. Some of the panel went for the old fashioned route of sending CDs in by post, others by the more environmentally-friendly method of online links. However, although it seems like a cliché, having your own MySpace page seemed to be a highly popular choice with the panel. Monk pointed out an excellent example of self-promotion from an artist he knew, who had their MySpace page give three different descriptions of their act. One for people who needed a line of synopsis, one who needed a paragraph and one for people who needed the full account. This went down particularly well with the panel and you could see the audience feverishly taking notes.

Un Convention's strength seems to be in providing an honest and no-holds-barred talking shop for the grass-roots of the increasingly beleaguered and bewildered musical industry. It served an excellent purpose in enthusing and reminding the attendees that although the times are challenging, the opportunities are there and potentially more diverse than ever before. Just as a small example of this, one of the audience was an Indie promoter from India, who gave superb and inspiring examples of the myriad ways in which bands can be promoted on the subcontinent. As internet access is limited there, but mobile phones widespread, he spoke of how he bluetoothed up-and-coming events to his audiences at gigs he organised. He got a round of applause for this and Un Convention as a whole deserves one as well. More power to their (helping to inspire new) Elbow's.

Unconvention website

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