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Musical hit squad ready to put LIPA in touch with its grass roots

Grumbles from mere mortals that Paul McCartney’s much vaunted LIPA college in Liverpool is sliding into an elitist hot-house are proving groundless, thanks to the success of a remarkable grass roots scheme which has helped more than 200 young unemployed wannabe musicians kick-start their dreams.

 

Apart from a series of financial hitches, the high falutin’-sounding Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts appeared hell-bent on a global forum, pitching for rich overseas students while local bands and singers from deprived neighbourhoods like Toxteth, Kirkby and Kensington felt increasingly excluded.

 

McCartney himself is now cock-a-hoop that in just 18 months the wordy but worthy Flexible Learning and Enterprise Support team at the Institute is pioneering the government’s New Deal for Musicians programme. It is aimed at encouraging those between 18 and 24 who have been unemployed for at least sixmonths to learn skills which could set them on a musical career.

 

The only hard rule is that those applying for the free courses provided by LIPA must demonstrate some musical ability, but project manager Ged McKenna stresses it is open to anyone who wants to perform or become a DJ. "Or even become involved in the business and production side of the music industry, and in particular making full use of new media technology," he adds.

 

Ironically, as a pupil at the then selective Liverpool Institute, McCartney and his pals laughingly tagged the venerable school as Nob Hill because they reckoned it was mostly for posh kids. In the five years since LIPA opened, he has voiced some disquiet that his brain-child was in danger of emulating that staid image.

 

" Initially I had misgivings about the ability of any institution to teach the stuff that we had to learn the hard way by going to clubs and just doing it," explained Sir Paul who makes frequent visits to LIPA to check on its progress. "Since then I have seen what LIPA students can do; they have proved to me that they can stand up and deliver. The training and the spirit I have seen should give our graduates a good chance in the professional world."

 

While McCartney’s comments are focused on the eclectic range of diplomas and degrees conferred by LIPA since 1996, he is also very keen to encourage other less privileged young musicians take advantage of the expertise and advice available, according to Ged McKenna, especially as he relishes and maintains his strong family connections to the area.

 

Now with the hands-on backing of a veritable hit-squad of well known musicians and industry professionals such as Keith Mullin, a former member of the Farm, Eddie Lundon, singer-songwriter with China Crisis - who have also just launched a record label at LIPA called Honey Records which is signing up bands, DJs and solo performers for a one year contract — and Roddie Gilliard from the Muffin Men, the institute is getting to grips with its original mission statement.

 

Last year McKenna’s team also forged friendships with Liverpool’s celebrated Life Cafe and Euro Bar to promote a series of concerts by students and launched a special training scheme for would-be disc jockeys with the world famous Cream Club. "When Sir Paul first muted the idea of LIPA, it was to offer local people the opportunity to develop their musical abilities as well as welcoming students from abroad, but the priority in the early days became the international agenda," explains Ged.

 

We believe there is room for both and have picked a team of music professionals to help us deliver that message and those skills across the region," adds Ged, who formed the task force just over five years ago and which is now a dozen strong. Amongst other activities, it has been responsible for the keenly attended Get Serious courses, which were funded from the coffers of the European Unions Social Fund.

 

" The idea was to help musicians become more aware of other skills which they would need to enhance and influence their careers, including the use of publicity and the media — a sort of grooming process for the real world," explained Ged who took further advantage of EU funding to set up a trans-national music industry training scheme with sister organizations in Paris and Munich.

 

In baffling Brussels bureaucratic lingua franca, it goes by the mouth-numbing name of The Music Industry and Multi-Media Innovation Centre but its simpler acronym MIMIC is more commonly used by the laid-back team members.

 

Part of the project involved an extensive analysis of the impact the worldwide web has on the local music industry. Its research director, Pete Fulwell, worked closely with Steve Levy from Liverpool’s Hug Management, which represents the hugely popular band Space, and they discovered a rich vein of valuable material.

At the same time Mat Flynn owner of the VauxRehearsal Studios was brought in to show how marketing and packaging are essential ingredients of the music industry.

 

Launched three years ago, the project soon became ah integral part of the New Deal scheme and the Get Serious courses, which have now been upgraded to the trendily-tagged Plugged In seminars.

 

McKenna reveals proudly that LIPA was the first organisation to be awarded the New Deal for Musicians contract, involving extensive open and distance learning programmes, by the Employment Service; its brief is to span the North West coastal region from Cumbria into Cheshire, Lancashire and Merseyside.

 

" It gives young musicians wider access to advice and support from LIPA, at workshops and in the institutes studios, but also lets us send our music ‘mentors’ out on location for one to one sessions," he said.

 

In an attempt to cover its most northerly outposts, LIPA has also joined forces with More Music for Morecambe, a community-driven group, and has an alliance with the Leicester-based Access to Music firm for those interested in the New Deal.

By Lew Baxter

 

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