4.4 • 796 Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2023
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Musicians, promoters and comedians take us inside the grass roots gigging industry.
David Reid speaks to guitar band Vernons Future about their experience gigging at small venues in the UK and getting their music out to international audiences via streaming platforms.
We also hear from gig promotions company Bugbear about organising gigs and comedians trying their luck at an open mic night, hoping to make it onto the comedy circuit.
Presenter / producer: David Reid Image: Vernons Future; Credit: BBC
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| 0:00.0 | Fukushima, an original audio drama series from the BBC World Service, |
| 0:06.6 | telling the story of the 2011 disaster at Japan's Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. |
| 0:11.9 | There is no greater threat we face at this time than the one unfolding in Fukushima Daichi. |
| 0:18.3 | Search for Fukushima wherever you get your BBC podcasts. |
| 0:25.5 | How much to live your dream? |
| 0:32.5 | Maybe you fancy being a performer. |
| 0:34.3 | You've got jukebox hero on repeat play in your head, |
| 0:38.6 | and you're working hard on those pesky guitar riffs and lit. Or maybe, like the boys in Vernon's future, you were forced |
| 0:47.7 | to park your dreams of stardom a while back and are only now getting the band back together. |
| 0:54.6 | We're not going to be... while back and are only now getting the band back together. How long do you think we can keep our life under these conditions? |
| 0:57.5 | We're not going to be challenging Taylor Swift at the top of the charts. |
| 1:01.4 | You know, one of the goals for next year to try and get on some festivals. |
| 1:05.5 | There's always this little part of me that thinks, well, we've got all our stuff on Spotify. |
| 1:09.4 | I don't know, you know, there's a chance. |
| 1:10.9 | It's just a very small chance, but it is out there people can hear it. Whether you plan to make it |
| 1:15.2 | big or just living your dreams for kicks, you might not want to bank on making your first |
| 1:20.8 | million quite yet. If they get paid, that's a bonus. It tends to be that people, they want to practice with a proper PA. |
| 1:29.0 | And that's why they come to us because they know they'll play in front of an audience |
| 1:32.0 | and they'll play with a proper sound system. |
| 1:37.0 | I'm on the trail of the entertainers, people with an irresistible urge to perform |
| 1:42.5 | and the businesses that help it happen. |
| 1:45.3 | We hear from an indie band that's now touring 25 years after they'd hung up their guitars for good. |
... |
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