Sonic For The Troops

When Peter Schmidt first started a music festival in his hometown of Groningen 27 years ago, the rock ‘n’ roll loving Dutchman had no idea of the monster it would eventually become.

“At the time we did 20 bands and we thought it was a lot in one night,” the perpetually harried-looking founder of Eurosonic Noorderslag tells Hot Press, during a rare moment of quiet in Groningen’s Da Oosterpoort conference centre. “Now we do over 300 bands in four days. It’s really hectic, but it’s also wonderful.”
Wonderful indeed. For many European fans, bands and industry professionals, Eurosonic Noorderslag has long been considered the festival to kick off the musical year. Despite the worldwide recession and the fact that many people are financially smashed after Christmas, this year’s event – which ran from January 9 to 12 – was completely sold out. The stats are impressive: more than 35,000 visitors from 45 different countries made the trip to Groningen to see 304 acts play on 48 stages scattered around the city.
Of course, it’s not just a music festival, it’s also a music business festival. Of the 3,250 delegates who attended the daytime music conferences in the De Oosterpoort, there were 31 radio stations, 404 journalists and almost 500 festival organisers and talent scouts. There were also countless managers, tech-heads, studio operators, music publishers and legal experts.
In the north of the Netherlands, a two-and-a-half hour train journey from Amsterdam, the whole city of Groningen is wired – and also wireless – for sound throughout the four days of musical madness. Radio and television channels broadcasting from Eurosonic 2013 included BBC (UK), DR Musik (Denmark), YLE (Finland), RTBF Pure FM (Belgium), Le Mouv’(France), RUV (Iceland) , Radio Belgrade (Serbia) and WDR (Germany). In the Netherlands, NOS, NTR, 3FM, Radio 6, 3voor12 and de Volkskrant presented comprehensive reporting on radio, television and the internet.
RTÉ’s Ian Wilson and 2fm’s Dan Hegarty were flying the flag for Irish radio, recording live gigs and broadcasting nightly from upstairs in city centre venue Vera.
“I’ve been coming to Eurosonic from the very start,” Wilson explained. “I’ve done 13 or 14 of them now – I’ve kind of lost count. There’s seven Irish bands playing here this year, which is very good if you consider that major music countries like the UK and Sweden will be bringing over 14 or 15 at best. And they were all selected on merit.”
Although somewhat less of a veteran, Hegarty is well-familiar with Groningen at this stage.
“This is my fifth year,” he said. “I was going to say it keeps getting bigger and bigger, but it’s actually always around the same size. It’s great, quality-wise. Little Green Cars are the band that we [2fm] brought over, but there are seven Irish acts in total – Villagers, MMOTHS, DJ Fitz, Girls Names, Kodaline and Adrian Crowley.”
With so many bands playing so many venues each night, it’s always a combination of being spoiled for choice and frustrated at the inevitable overlaps. However, the opening night of Eurosonic 2013 hosted two major award ceremonies – the European Border Breaker Awards and Festival Awards Europe – so those lucky enough to have tickets stayed in Da Oosterpoort a little longer before hitting the town.
For the last three years, the EBBAs have been broadcast by TV and web channels in more than 20 countries around the world. Now in its 10th year, EBBA 2013 was presented by legendary musician and TV presenter Jools Holland and Dutch celebrity Birgit Schuurman in the sold-out concert hall of Da Oosterpoort. During the ceremony, which featured live performances by Katie Melua, Juan Zelada, French Films, C2C and others, the UK presenter apologised to the audience: “I’m sorry I don’t speak Dutch – even though my name is Holland!”
The EBBAs are for European artists who have had proven success in crossing borders with their first international release in Europe. Previous incumbents have included The Thrills, Damien Rice, Dolores O’Riordan, The Script and James Vincent McMorrow, but there were no gongs for any breaking Irish acts this year.
Every year the European Commission hands out 10 EBBAs. The winners are selected on the basis of analysis by Nielsen Music and votes from EBU radio stations. Only one winner is chosen by public vote and this year’s ‘Public Choice Award’ went to French hip hop act C2C. Other bands who picked up EBBAs on the night included Iceland’s Of Monsters & Men, Estonia’s Ewert & The Two Dragons, and Scotland’s Emeli Sandé.
No sooner was the EBBA audience ushered out of the Da Oosterpoort hall then a fresh crowd was brought in for Festival Awards Europe 2012. Decided by a combination of public vote and industry juries, FAE is the only event solely dedicated to recognising the contributions and achievements of the event organisers and performing artists that generate billions of euro for local economies and brighten up the summer for tens of millions of festival-goers each year.
This year’s awards were a heightened celebration of triumph over adversity in the wake of what proved to be a truly challenging year for many promoters. 2012 saw the European festival market shaken by economic instability, claims of saturation, some high profile cancellations and some of the wettest weather on record.
More than one million public votes were cast and, for the first time in Festival Awards history, electronic music rose to take the crown for ‘Best Major Festival’ courtesy of Belgium’s mighty Tomorrowland. Dance music also triumphed in the categories for ‘Best Indoor Festival’ (Sensation, Netherlands) and ‘Best New Festival’ (Germany’s Electro Magnetic).
‘Best Medium-Sized Festival’ was won by Heineken Balaton Sound in Hungary (smaller cousin of last year’s ‘Best Major’ winner, Sziget). The ‘Best Small Festival’ award was taken back by 2010 winners Tauron New Music Festival in Poland, a bash that took place in a disused coal mine, highlighting the creativity and diversity of Europe’s contemporary modern festival landscape.
The ‘Artists’ Favourite Festival’ award went to Denmark’s colossal Roskilde. Foo Fighters were voted ‘Headliner of the Year’ (their manager collected it). Having already picked up an EBBA earlier, Of Monsters & Men returned to the very same stage to collect ‘Best Newcomer’. The ‘Lifetime Achievement’ went to Herman Schueremans of the Belgium division of Live Nation.
After the ceremony, Steve Jenner, the Festival Awards co-founder, had this to say: “This edition of the European Festival Awards has been a great and much needed celebration for the industry as a united whole. A significant increase in events rallying to take part suggests a healthy display of confidence, competitiveness and pride. The staggering number of public votes received shows that people’s appetites for festivals have never been greater. In the face of toughening conditions, the forecast still looks bright for Europe’s festival market.”
With all the gongs dispensed, speeches made, and champagne drunk, the Da Oosterpoort crowd dispersed widely into Groningen to take their pick of the night’s myriad musical offerings.
Each year’s festival focuses on music from a different country, and 2013 was Finland’s turn in the spotlight. Amongst the Finnish acts playing showcases in larger venues were Disco Ensemble, Astrid Swan, LCMDF, Reckless Love, Mirel Wagner and French Films. But if the Fins didn’t float your boat, there were acts from all over Europe begging to be heard. Of the 304 bands who played Eurosonic, 100 of them were Dutch and the rest from other European countries. Eager to maximise their trips, many of them played two or even three gigs, some of them in shops, coffee houses and cinemas.
While there were occasional live gigs during the day in Da Oosterpoort, most of the activity there was centred around music business, legality, copyright and technology. Panel discussions on the second afternoon included ‘Google’s View on Music and the Creative Industry’, ‘Cashless Payments at Festivals’, ‘The Value of International Cooperation of Venues’ and ‘Managing Your Sound Recording Performance Royalties Internationally’.
If none of those were of any interest, there was also a popular table football tournament.
The big buzz shows of that night were Estonia’s Ewert & The Two Dragons at Machinefabriek, EBBA winners French Films at Muziekschool, and France’s C2C at the Cathedral. Having previously won the World DJ Championship for teams four times in a row, these four ‘People’s Choice’ winning DJs and eight hands played a mix of jazz, soul, blues, electro and hip hop.
Perhaps news of his third Choice Prize nomination had reached Holland because there was a large turnout for Adrian Crowley’s show upstairs in the Grand Theatre. Although the seated venue held just 140 people, at least the same number again queued down the stairs, through the lobby and out onto the street, straining just to hear the Galwegian sing.
Currently flying high with his sixth studio album, I See Three Birds Flying, Crowley had only just heard the Choice news himself.
“I was on a train in the Netherlands, on the way to a gig, when I got this text from a friend,” he told Hot Press shortly before the show. “It was just a series of exclamation marks. So I thought that means one of two things: either he sat on his phone or there’s some good news.”
Although Crowley regularly tours in Holland, this was his Eurosonic debut.
“It’s my first time here. I’ve been hearing about it for years. I often thought it would be great to play, but I suppose I just waited and, out of the blue, found myself on the list of people performing this year. It’s very exciting that my day so far has been unbelievably full. I’ve just been literally running from one place to another to play.”
After Crowley’s impressive performance, alternative Scots act Frightened Rabbit played to a packed house across town at Machinefabriek. Mixing indie folk and frenetic indie rock, their set comprised songs from their 2010 album The Winter Of Mixed Drinks and the soon to be released Pedestrian Verse. Our post-show interview with frontman Scott Hutchison can be viewed on
hotpress.com
Having had the audience well warmed up by the antics of Frightened Rabbit, Irish rockers Kodaline also rocked out Machinefabriek. With some critics already comparing their sound to U2, Coldplay and Elbow, it won’t be long before these four young Dubliners are packing out stadiums all over the world. Or maybe not. The music industry is a cruel and fickle business...
The other big Irish show of the night was Little Green Cars at Stadsschouwburg. Managed by former Thrills man Daniel Ryan, and recently featured on charity album A Murray Christmas, the five-piece are signed to Young & Lost Club (home to the likes of Noah & The Whale). Their show was broadcast live by Ian Wilson, and can be heard on the 2fm website.
On the eve of the release of {Awayland}, Conor J. O’Brien and his fellow Villagers were in town the following day to play an evening acoustic set at the Plato Coffee Shop in the city centre before their big midnight show at Stadsschouwburg.
After their acoustic gig, O’Brien explained to Hot Press: “This isn’t my first Eurosonic. The first time I came here was with Cathy Davey, when I was her guitar player. We played a great show and had an amazing time. I always thought it would be nice to come back to Eurosonic. And then I came back as a solo act. And that’s actually the show that got us our European agent. And I also enjoyed it. It’s a nice festival.”
Back at Da Oosterpoort the following afternoon, Peter Schmidt professed his personal delight at the EBBA win for Estonian act Ewert & The Two Dragons.
“They played Eurosonic last year on a very small stage, but everyone liked them a lot. Since there are over 400 festivals here looking for acts, they were booked for a lot of summer festivals. Because of that they became popular all over Europe, and they got a EBBA award the other night. It’s nice to see bands being discovered here. It’s why we organised the event.”
Long may it continue…