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	Interview with Feargal Sharkey recorded 27.03.07 prior to the official opening of Green Dragon Studios, Stockton-on-Tees
	In your official position as Chair of the Live Music forum what have you identified as the current central issues which young musicians are confronted by? I think it's the same traditional ones that are always there: opportunity. Just the chance to go somewhere and make some noise for a couple of hours, getting gigs, getting recognized by record companies, trying to progress their careers and move it forward. Those challenges are still there, probably the ones that have always been there. The internet may have helped to a degree, but maybe not as much as some people seem to think. I'm yet to be convinced that simply putting up a couple of tracks on My Space is going to turn you into U2. But I think it probably can help in getting you exposed to a few more people. But the reality is that most young bands, curiously enough, spend far too much time worrying about the music industry instead of worrying about themselves. It's probable slightly hypocritical but I've always tried to remind myself that that last song I wrote wasn't as good as I thought it was, because it probably wasn't. And it was probably time to try and write another one. You mentioned briefly the record industry, record labels. Do you think there's still a role for major record labels? I don't buy into the current theory that the internet has meant the death of the major record labels. Nonsense. The simple truth is as more people start wanting to be creative and make music will people stop wanting to listen it? No! So there must be some way of joining those two arms up together. And that means in the middle you have the music industry. That's all it really does. It links up artists and musicians and creators with people who want to experience, and who love music. The reality is, coming back to My Space, will My Space ever be a substitute for 2 million dollars worth of marketing campaign in North America? No. It depends on what your aspirations are. If you simply want to make a little record, like The Undertones first record, and sell 1000 if you're really really lucky, to a few people living locally - if you want to do it at that kind of level that's fine, get on with it. Fantastic. But if you genuinely want to sell 7, 8, 9 million albums all around the world you're probably going to need a very large, very special, very capable organization sitting behind you with an awful lot of marketing budget. So my suspicion is major labels will be around for a very long time. They may come to look very different to what they are today but they're still going to be there. What progress do you think has been made over the last couple of years nationally and here in the north east? I think the main thing that has happened is that people who are in a position to make very big decisions have now begun to appreciate there is something going on called popular music that is very very important. Now philosophically that may appear to be a very small thing but ironically enough it is that which has lead to places like Green Dragon Studios existing, and a number of others, similar, around the country. Even five years ago the conversation amongst these people about the need for such places wouldn't have lasted more than five minutes. What are the most important issues to be dealt with, and the challenges ahead? People in organizations - you find them all over England and Wales - though they've established great resources, there doesn't seem to be a great deal of joined up thinking going on. And it looks potentially like one of those things that the Forum could involve itself with. To try and ensure that a) people are getting all the support and encouragement that they possibly can and b) probably more importantly, to try and develop some sort of national strategy. So that way you get ….. say a little gig , or a band in another part of the north east or north Yorkshire, should they run into any kind of difficulties, trouble, or anything they don't understand and need some help then there's somewhere they can go and talk to somebody who will help them fix it and move the whole thing forward. The underlying philosophy however is ……. certainly in the context of live music, the industry itself is doing fantastically well at the moment. We know for example that at the top end of the scale the number of events for more than 5000 people has basically doubled in the last year compared to the previous year. Guitar manufacturers tell me that between 2004 - 2005 they sold a million guitars in the UK. That's 25% more than the year before, which had been an all-time record at the time. So within twelve months they've broken their own all-time record by 25%. I've never met a 16 year old that's not interested in music, in some aspect or other. What I think we need to make really really sure is that those who want to get involved in music in whatever aspect that might be are given every opportunity and every bit of support and encouragement that they can possibly be given. Inside of school and outside. Why should it be inside, why should it be outside. To me, I have a very simple philosophy about these things, if somebody wants to go and bang a drum in a corner, regardless of how they want to do it, let them beat the drum! Can you foresee a time in the near future where bands that are currently playing where you probably started, on the pub scene, actually making a viable living, without necessarily getting rich and famous? That's a really difficult one. From my own experience bands tend to make money at two stages in their careers. One is when they are playing the local pubs and they're maybe getting 50 quid each for it, and they've had the problem of paying a mate's dad 10 quid for the petrol money to drag all their gear there. The other end unfortunately is when they're playing Wembley stadium. The bit in the middle is really very difficult. Simply because your requirements go up. You need to get a better PA system, a truck to take it on the road with you, you'll probably get some sort of lighting system, you've got to pay roadies, tech guys who enable it all to happen, a lorry to put it all in, you're driving up and down the country, it's really difficult at that point. And that's when having a record company sitting behind you prepared to underwrite the loss that you're probably going to make becomes a distinct advantage. Ironically, at a thing I was doing a couple of weeks ago, where there was a bunch of 16, 17, 18 year olds there, one of them said something that I felt for the music industry was quite a big thing. In many ways. The tradition always was that it was the record itself that would drive people to go and buy concert tickets. Now this young lady who was 18 said the situation now is completely reversed. She's going to live gigs and seeing a band and that's what was driving her to go and buy the record the next day. That's a really big step. And if it is fact it tends to be slightly worrying to the record company and potentially a very joyous one for the live music industry. For me personally a fantastic example is where there's now just short of 400,000 people signed up to Glastonbury's website simply for the chance, possibly maybe, of buying one of the 140,000 tickets for sale. That's an extraordinary idea. That you know your demand has outstripped your supply by basically 3 to 1, 4 to 1. Extraordinary. And it's one of those types of things, and I think an example of why Glastonbury works so well, when people register for that thing they've got absolutely no idea whose going to be playing. But they're fairly confident that they're going to go there and have a fantastic four or five days. And they probably will. Thanks, Feargal. No problem. Good luck with it all........
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