music feature

At the acoustic heart of the fringe

On the West side of town is a brilliant venue that plays host to such a big programme of folk, roots and acoustic music, it’s almost a festival in itself. ThreeWeeks spoke to John Barrow, the man behind the Acoustic Music Centre at St Brides

TW: How long have you been programming the Acoustic Music Centre @ St Brides? How did you come to be involved in the venue?

JB: 2009 is the fifth year of Acoustic Music Centre @ St Brides. I’ve run concerts in St Bride’s since about 1987 or so – almost since the old church of St Bride’s came into being in its present form. My colleague Martin Coull and I had been programming Festival shows into The Reid Hall for four or so years. But then one day I happened to call in to St Brides, was chatting to the manager there, Faye Ward, and it turned out they weren’t doing anything in the Fringe in 2005. A very well equipped venue almost in the city centre with a trained core staff... and vacant during the Fringe. Vacant? Not possible!


TW: It’s an immense programme – how do you go about selecting the artists who perform?

JB: For the most part we don’t. We cast out information about the venue into the world of music and see what happens. As we have become better known, acts have started to come to us. If an act is clearly taking on more than they are likely to be able to achieve (like too many shows in the wrong size of space) then we’ll try to advise and talk them down a bit, but basically the programming policy is quite laissez faire; let’s say sort of ‘benevolent’. I’ve believed – since my first shows on the Fringe in 1969 – that should be the way the Fringe operates: as an open festival as far as is sensibly possible. That was basically how the Fringe began and how it has been able to sustain itself and develop in the way it has, more or less, and in spite of human intervention along the way! The Fringe has a natural organic growth in its genes. Don’t mess with it!


TW: Do you see your programme as having any specific music genres at its core?

JB: Folk, roots and acoustic. The clue is in the name (for the most part anyway)!


TW: You champion a lot of Scottish talent, but then also have acts from all over the world – how do you balance the homegrown with the international artists?

JB: We don’t make any attempt to do so at all. For years, Scotland’s musical talent has travelled the world to earn a living. The question might actually be asked better the other way around, vis: “how do you balance the international with the homegrown artistes?” It just shifts the emphasis in a slight and subtle way when asked that way around! Scots musicians are well-known to be amongst some of the greatest in the world. It’s a no-brainer!


TW: Are there any past AMC artists who you consider to be particular success stories?

JB: It was good to see the successful re-emergence of Kenny Young And The Eggplants from New York, after their absence from the Fringe between the late 1990s and 2007. They’d become firm favourites at the original Edinburgh Festival AMC, which was based on Chambers Street in the early 1990s. Meanwhile North Sea Gas, a very entertaining local-based folk act, have moved up to a two-night run this year from one-offs in the past couple of years in The Big Room.


TW: What artists are you especially excited about this year?

JB: Invidious question, given my point of view on programming the venue – all the performers are worth coming to see! But here goes…

The Hot Seats should be a hot ticket with their past history at the Fringe in the Famous Spiegeltent; one of the best Americana acts out there. Martyn Joseph will also be a ‘strong’ gig. He’s very much in the political mould of Dick Gaughan but from the South Wales valleys. At the Celtic Connections Festival Club I once saw him subdue a ‘Saturday night out’ audience after midnight, just by singing to them with a guitar. A remarkable performance! I think that in our present economic climate, with all the hoo-hah about dodgy politicians and the global financial meltdown, to take but two topics, such performers acquire a heightened importance. Anyone who says folk music is not political has missed the point entirely.

The Poozies, one of the country’s top bands, have not released an album for several years and, at their first gig ever at AMC @ St Bride’s, launch their new album. Jeana Leslie, Siobhan Miller... Nick Harper, son of the mighty Roy... Shepheard, Spiers and Watson... How long do you have...?


TW: With so much of the Fringe now centered on Bristo Square, what would you say to people to entice them out West to St Brides?

JB: Our USP is that at AMC @ St Bride’s you get a real experience. Plus we’re only about 1.5 miles from the Fringe Office, that’s no distance at all to get to one of the greatest musical events on offer! And the First Coast restaurant’s menu – they do our catering in the evenings – is worth making the trip for by itself!


TW: I think the music strand of the Fringe has really grown in recent years, would you agree with that, and why do you think that is?

JB: Well, if you mean the genre that appears at AMC @ St Bride’s, to an extent it has only grown because it came from a low base to start with, mainly because of the demise of the Chambers Street AMC in 1995. Losing that venue took out some 300 shows each festival in spite of later developments; and 300 was big number to replace!


TW: Many in the music community still don’t associate the Edinburgh Fringe with music. Why is this, and is it changing?

JB: It depends who you’re talking about, but I think there’s at least an element of truth in that. And the mind-set of the Fringe hierarchy continues to be slanted towards long-run comedy and drama in particular, if you look at the cost of placing an entry in the Fringe programme. Unlike comedy and drama, Fringe music shows are not usually long-running and are not usually found in the biggest venues.

Former Fringe Director Jon Morgan got it right in 2008 when he introduced of a new costing system for Fringe programme entries that took account of both the venue seating capacity and the length of run of a show rather than just fixating on the latter. Sadly it’s gone back to how it was before now. This approach effectively disenfranchises musical acts from the supposedly open and much lauded democratic philosophy of the Fringe. Acts who would love to be here just can’t afford it.

Some of the media also favour long run shows. A good Fringe review is worth a lot but some of the ‘big’ press, The Scotsman especially, seem to have a policy that they won’t review one-nighters. Thank God for ThreeWeeks, The Herald and the others who have a more enlightened, broader approach.

Our job is to make sure an act coming to the Fringe knows what’s what before they commit or they may well drown in the general welter of shows all competing for the public’s attention. They have to be quite clear that the shirt with which they arrive may not leave Edinburgh with them afterwards!


Check the Acoustic Music Centre programme at: http://www.acousticmusiccentre.co.uk

published: Aug-2009

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