Set up by the friends and family of Joe Strummer in the year after his death, the Strummerville foundation seeks to reflect Joe’s unique contribution to the music world by offering support, resources and performance opportunities to artists who would not normally have access to them.
Having had a weekly residency at The Elgin in his early band the 101ers, Strummer was a regular of ours and nearly 40 years from when he first graced our stage that unique relationship still endures via Strummerville. A great cause we’re always more than happy to support.
The second “Strummerville Presents” of the year brings together three acts that represent that earthy, boundary-challenging and strictly D.I.Y. ethos for a party set to truly rock the Elgin:
TECH MUSIC SCHOOL LONDON OFFERS £103,000 WORTH OF SCHOLARSHIPS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH STRUMMERVILLE
Tech Music School London (TMS) is offering budding musicians a life changing opportunity to pursue their musical ambitions as the college, part of the award winning BIMM Group, partners with Strummerville to offer a fully funded place on its BA (Hons) Creative Musicianship course.
Each scholarship is worth £17,250, covering in full three years of tuition fees. One Strummerville Scholarship will be offered to one student, each academic year, for the next 6 years.
TMS London is an established market leader with 30 years experience in delivering popular music education and professional, real world training for performers, producers, songwriters and music business entrepreneurs.
The Strummerville Scholarship is the first in an exciting new scholarship programme offered by TMS London, for students who are in proven financial hardship, the opportunity to study a wide range of BA (Hons) 3 year degree courses at the college completely free of tuition charges.
“We are delighted to partner in such a worthwhile project and offer talented young musicians the chance to get qualified at a centre of excellence for music. We also recognise that the current financial climate is immensely challenging for many families and we have created this scholarship in order to support members of the next generation of music industry creatives who might otherwise not have been able to gain a BA (Hons).”
Lucinda Garland Trustee of Strummerville, says:
”We are delighted about our partnership with Tech Music School London and thank them for giving this wonderful opportunity. We can’t wait to see the first talented young person on The Strummerville Scholarship.”
The Strummerville Scholarship is announced as TMS London prepares to move into its new £3m home at Barclay House, Fulham, which will include a permanent Strummerville performance room. Due to the success of the college and demand for places this new building sees the school able to double its intake of students to 1,200.
BIMM boasts a wealth of success stories including BRITs Critics Choice Winner 2013 Tom Odell, hotly tipped folk artist Luke Sital-Singh and up and coming singer / songwriter James Bay, all of whom will be supporting The Rolling Stones at this summer’s Hyde Park gigs.
TMS London is open for applications and due to continued demand, is hosting its next Open Day on Saturday 18th May starting at 11am. More Open Days are planned for 8th June, 7th September and 23rd November.
For more information on Open Days and all the courses available at Tech Music School London please visit http://www.techmusicschool.co.uk
McChuills tribute to the music and influence of Joe and raising funds for Strummerville with Glasgow Calling.
Glasgow DJ Neil Bryson has put together this cracking all day event with live bands Esperanza, The Sweet Vendettas, The Zips and DJ’s playing the best of REGGAE PUNK WORLD AND DANCE MUSIC plus special guests to keep the day rocking.
Tickets are available from McChuills, 40 High Street Glasgow. Only £5.00.
We are delighted to announce a partnership with Dr. Martens. Long the footwear of choice for innovative sub-cultures and musicians, from their beginnings as work boots and shoes to the present day, Dr. Martens are interwoven with the fabric of alternative music.
They will be announcing a selection of our bands – one a week via their online channels. So far we’ve seen Sean McGowan, Skellies, The Meat & Onions Gang and CuT, with many more to come in the following weeks.
“Dr. Martens is an iconic brand that is synonymous with music and has a great heritage. So we at Strummerville are honoured that they have chosen to support us. This partnership will offer a great platform to some of the fantastic bands we work with as well as offering them in store performance opportunities. Dr. Martens also made it possible to create Strummer School, a one off exhibition showcasing some of Joe’s archive at Strummer Of Love, our festival in the summer.” – Strummerville
As a registered charity, the support we aim to give aspiring musicians is dependent on assistance from the wider community. We therefore welcome this opportunity to partner with a quintessentially rock-and-roll brand as a wonderful opportunity to promote both Strummerville values and the eclectic mix of talented DIY artists that we currently work with.
Through their prominence in the eyes of the public, and their cultural legacy as a brand, we think Dr. Martens are in the perfect position to showcase our DIY bands through their online channels; we very much welcome the continuation of this partnership and look forward to spreading the word about the work that we do and to help develop new grassroots music.
Today, Saturday 20th April 2013, is Record Store Day! In case you’re wondering Record Store Day came into being in 2007 when over 700 independent stores in the USA came together to celebrate their unique culture. The UK followed suit and 2013 will see the sixth celebration of the UK’s unique independent sector.
This is the one day that all of the independently owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day and hundreds of artists across the globe make special appearances and performances.
Festivities include performances, meet & greets with artists, DJ’s, in store quizzes and many other events.
Support your local independent record shops and score special Record Store Day exclusive releases! Want to see what’s happening today? Here’s the full list of special releases and guide to participating shops.
The incendiary collective ID & Friends played at KOKO on Sunday 31st March. We caught up with them just before the show to find out what they had to say about their band, their musical style and what Strummerville means to them.
An energetic and fiery show allowed the band to showcase just how exciting their songs actually are, and a small but lively crowd responded enthusiastically. If they continue with their upward trajectory, and continue to write songs with such a thrilling mix of old-school hip-hop and rock, it seems that ID & Friends have a very promising career ahead of them!
Strummerville: Whereabouts are you based?
ID & Friends: Sort of Camden, Greenwich, South East London… we’re kind of from all over really! This is the home of the band though, ‘cos all we did was play in pubs in Camden last year.
How long have you been playing for?
A year, literally. We did loads of pub gigs.
How did you start playing as a band?
We all do our own individual bits – everyone has at least three or four different projects that they’re involved in, but we play together ‘cos I think we just wanted to have a bloody laugh! It’s kind of funny, we met up and at our first rehearsal we wrote the set that we’re going to play in three hours, played our first gig a week later, and then that was it! None of us knew what it was going to sound like at all.
So, how would you describe your sound?
Really over the top! Because we didn’t have much time before our first gig, the lyrics were already written. It would be nice to write some new ones after knowing these guys more; originally it was my stuff and it’s just a bit tongue in cheek. The music is all extremes. Its very in your face and really happening, but then its quite jazzy and chilled. We’ve got the strangest contrasts of styles in our songs. It’s kind of hard to explain… apart from it all being about fun, and having a f**king good time, and getting a bit messy! I don’t think anyone expected the music to be as good.
When you’re thinking about musical style or ethos, are there any particular bands that you regard as an influence?
I do enjoy the big ‘f**k you’ Rage Against the Machine gave the world. If you wanted to draw a comparison, Rage would be a good one: there’s quite a lot of folk to it, but its heavy. The stuff I like to play, and the stuff he likes to play, comes out live. If you were to ask us what our influences are, you’d probably get seven different answers. I don’t think I’d know half of yours! And that’s cool, because we all just do our own thing. If it sounds good, keep it!
What do you think about the current music scene?
To be honest, I don’t really follow it very much. I don’t like things being too contrived. In rock music, what’s always been great about it is the rawness and honesty. Rock bands shouldn’t worry about always saying the right things, or being the most professional. These days, everything is run like a business. If you’re just a musician, who likes rocking out and just going for it and having a good time, it’s not enough anymore. It’s nice playing at this level, before any of that starts to have a real effect on what it is that we’re doing.
Do you think the Strummerville way of doing things is a good one?
The way it started with Strummerville is exactly how it should, at ground roots level. In the early stages of gigging they saw us and really helped us. It does exactly what it says on the tin. We’re a very DIY band I think; we’ve got quite a punk way of doing things. The thing about Strummerville is… Because of Joe Strummer, who I genuinely know very little about, but I do know the mark he left on the world. That sort of transcends to the following Strummerville have. When they put things out, they get listened to. Yeah, it’s who Joe Strummer was, the impact on millions of people who f**king love the guy and love what he stood for and who he was as a person. We’re a really different band for Strummerville, but we like that. It doesn’t matter what kind of music we’re making, as long as we’re doing it with passion.
Strummerville Benefit Gig – St. George’s Night at the legendary Ace Cafe London, NW10
The Bermondsey Joyriders, live at the Ace Cafe promoting their recently launched debut album, “Noise and Revolution”.
The title track of Noise and Revolution and the rawkus “Society is Rapidly Changing” speed past in a hail of spit and venom, while a love of early rock n’ roll surfaces on the check list “Right Now”.
The night is in aid of Strummerville, the Joe Strummer New Music Foundation which seeks to reflect Joe’s unique contribution to the music world by offering support, resources and performance opportunities to artists who would not normally have access to them.
Also playing, debuting their sonic wake up call, The Supernovas, the very shape, sound and vision of cutting edge, skank fuelled, culture crossing, second decade 21st century North London and Sean McGowan, the 20 year old singer songwriter who has supported acts including Jesse Malin, Reverend & The Makers, Shed Seven, Frank Turner, The Men They Couldn’t Hang and many more.
The first Strummerville concert of the year was a resounding success with some amazing performances. Friday 1st March 2013, The Elgin, Ladbroke Grove, west London was treated to sets from three great bands. One of the reasons why Strummerville Presents was so enjoyable was the variety of musical styles on show – reflective of the Strummerville ethos and the night really captured the DIY spirit upon which the charity is built.
The first band to play was LTNT, whose Seattle-inspired grunge stylings made for a successful set which the audience really enjoyed. Their music is heavy, with obvious metal influences, yet has a lovely melodic basis which makes it a delight to listen to. Their performance was lively, bold and very noisy! Set highlights included the visceral ‘Ride On Daddy’, with its haunting chord progression, and the sleazy, Americana-tinged ‘Blessing’. You should expect big things from this band, as their set showcased their evident musical talent as well as a considerable stage presence.
“They sound like the Ramones!” was overheard when CuT came on stage, and whilst their sound is much scuzzier and more complex than the three-chord punk patented in New York CuT certainly had the energy to make this comparison valid. Their noise-pop-punk is infectious and demonstrates a real grasp of technique, with their reverb drenched songs exuding class and a real punk energy. What was particularly great about CuT was the cut-and-paste approach they seem to take to songwriting; their style draws from a plethora of influences but manages to sound completely unique and exciting. They are currently recording their debut album, which (if it reflects the enthusiasm and talent seen during their Strummerville set) should be brilliant. Possibly the stand-out song of their set was ‘Get Me A Gun’. Infectious and staccato, it really channels this band’s obvious energy.
However, as headliners the night really belonged to The Meat and Onions Gang and their particular brand of politicised songwriting. Swaggering around the stage like a butcher-jacketed Ian Dury, Danny Onions claimed that they “wouldn’t be playing this chintzy gaff if it wasn’t for Strummerville”, yet their interaction with the crowd meant that their energy was contagious. Despite the small size of the venue, the crowd really responded to the Gang and danced like their lives depended on it, with songs such as the incendiary ‘Creme Egg Boss’ and ‘Sick of The Struggle’ condemning the present era and picking holes in the fabric of society. The Meat and Onions Gang focus their lyrics discusses the struggles of and current state of society and their red paint-splattered jackets are striking. Hopefully The Meat and Onions Gang’s next concert will be on a bigger stage, so they can take their message to more people – they certainly deserve success.
Strummerville Presents… at The Elgin was a fantastic and thought-provoking night, and the quality of the bands playing shows that the Strummerville approach to music really does work. Back in the day, Joe Strummer used to play at the Elgin with The 101ers, and his practical approach lives on through the work of the charity. The bands on the Strummerville roster are amazing and the next Presents… should be a lot of fun. This was a fabulous event which was a credit to both the charity and the bands who performed.
We are deeply saddened by the sudden death of one of our supporters and fundraisers Mr Ian Noble, we thank him for all the hard work over the years. Thank you Mr. Ian Noble you will be sadly missed.
“Ian was a great lecturer and possibly the wisest man I ever knew,” one of his former Kingston University Communication Design MA students, Alice Keegan, 23, said. “Whatever you said to him, he’d always come up with something new, something surprising.”
Standing well over six feet tall and with a formidable reputation in the world of design,Ian was a big man in every sense. He cut a distinctive figure with his hair swept back in a quiff, blue jeans and brogues. He had a tattoo which read: “The future is unwritten”.
Ian was widely published in a number of influential design magazines and academic journals and wrote Picture Perfect – a study of contemporary international illustration released in 2003. He also co-authored several books with fellow designer and friend Dr Russell Bestley. The pair delivered workshops at colleges and universities across Europe and North America and ran their own design group, Visual Research. In 2005, they used the same title for a textbook which rapidly became required reading for students on undergraduate and postgraduate courses around the world. A second edition of the book was published shortly before Ian’s death and has been translated into six languages.
The friends also shared a love of punk, contributing to several journals on the subject as well as being heavily involved in the sub-culture itself. Ian was a leading fundraiser for Strummerville, which supports up-and-coming musicians worldwide and was set up in memory of Clash lead singer Joe Strummer in 2002. One Twitter user reacted to Mr Noble’s death by urging his friends to listen to the Clash “loudly and in inappropriate places” by way of tribute.
It is with great sadness that Strummerville has to announce the death of one of our beloved friends and trustees. Gerry Harrington sadly died last week and will be remembered for his unfailing loyalty and love of all things rock’n'roll. He was a stalwart supporter of ours and championed us over in the States. His help and friendship will never be forgotten.
