News
New Free Music Night “The Mill” was launched in conjunction with Miller Beer
- Christopher Glasgow
- Scottish Music Centre
- 29 Jun 2009
Miller are making in-roads with the particularly large community of emerging music fans in Scotland; funding a weekly Thursday night gig (actually bi-weekly between Glasgow’s Oran Mor and Edinburgh’s Cabaret Voltaire venues) which provides two young Scottish bands with an important leg-up that carries on far beyond the evening itself.
“We try to provide each band which plays with us the tools they need to go on and promote themselves further,” said The Mill’s manager Karen McKean. “And as part of the deal they get audio recordings of three songs which they play on the night.” These recordings are made by Tony Doogan, Glasgow-based producer of Belle & Sebastian, Mogwai, Super Furry Animals, Dirty Pretty Things and more - so they’re in good hands. “That’s something which not many of them could otherwise afford. They also get a two-camera live video of one of the songs, press shots and billboard advertising in the run-up to the gig,” McKean explained.
Afterwards, the audio and visual recordings of the bands are theirs to do with as they please - they can put them up on their MySpace, release them as a single or send them out as demos to record labels. “It’s important for young bands to have access to things like this,” said McKean, “because the number of avenues they have to make sure they’re promoting themselves through is greater now than it ever has been.”
