History of the Festival
Question - How do you start the longest running annual international guitar festival in the UK...?
Answer - You meet someone in a graveyard!
(ex) Festival Director, Ambassador Rob Smith sets the scene...
The International Guitar Festival of Great Britain (initially entitled the Wirral International Guitar Festival) came about through a chance encounter between me and a local professional guitarist and musician, the late Brendan McCormack.
In 1988, as Wirral Council's newly appointed Arts Officer, I was seeking to establish a 'community festival' for Wirral that would be different (I hesitate to use the word unique, although the guitar festival was unique in the UK in its infancy). I was also invited to the re-opening of Birkenhead Priory.
Picture this...it was a beautiful, sunny afternoon in May, just after 1pm in the graveyard at Birkenhead Priory. The lutenist who (according to the programme was Brendan McCormack) had just been performing indoors at the formal re-opening of the newly refurbished Birkenhead Priory and was enjoying a well-earned break. I thought I would go over and congratulate him on his performance. I introduced myself to Brendan and we talked about the Priory and lute music little knowing where this conversation would take us. I told him of my recent appointment in the Council and my 'Arts Officer' plans, and mentioned the notion of a festival of some kind to set Wirral apart, and explained my thinking to him. During our conversation it became apparent that Brendan was a very enthusiastic and talented professional guitarist, lutenist and teacher. "How about a guitar festival?" was his response.
We researched across the UK, checking with the editors and staff of the guitar magazines of the day, professional players, and the Musicians' Union and Performing Right Society. Although there were a few classical, jazz and blues festivals and 'summer schools', there was no 'guitar festival' which celebrated the guitar in all of its styles and musical genres. It appeared that we had found a niche into which we could fit something unique by way a festival.
Although Brendan was primarily known as a classical guitarist and lutenist, he was a most accomplished rock, blues and flamenco guitarist, and highly regarded teacher. Our festival concept was that of a celebration of the instrument embracing the widest range of guitar styles. Our aim was to bring top class national and international players to Wirral performing the widest range of styles and repertoire, and also provide a platform for showcasing our local talent. We also made a conscious decision not to involve any element of competition in our programming. Our proposition received a lot of support and attention from the players and guitar magazines particularly - it also confirmed what we believed...(in more recent marketing jargon) we had a USP; a unique selling point.
One question that I am regularly asked is... "Why November?? Festivals are usually a summer event." ...and up to a point this is true. If you are not a 'notable city'; if you are located across the River Mersey in the shadow of 'the Music City' that is Liverpool and just down the road from Manchester; if you are located on a peninsula on the coast and if you have no track record of major events, then most people would say that the odds are stacked against you with little hope of success - and they would appear to have a point.
However during the month of November in the late 80s and early 90s there was little serious 'guitar/music event' competition locally, nationally and internationally. That is why I chose November. Don't forget, there was no internet, websites or email at this time and marketing and promotion was a whole lot more time consuming, labour intensive, costly and difficult. We had less competing promotional material to swamp us and media interest was a little easier to generate particularly on 'light news days'. Also, the lack of competing musical activity meant that we had access to the greatest number of players for bookings as they weren't busy elsewhere.
Towards the end of 1988, Brendan and I were joined by Paul Holliday, later to become manager of the Floral Pavilion Theatre, and the first 'Guitar Festival Team' was in place. With Brendan's address book of professional players and contacts, and our event management prowess, we started to put together a provisional programme for our first Festival. As the programme came together and interest grew we sensed that we could be in danger of having a success on our hands!
After months of preparation, the first 'Wirral International Guitar Festival' took to the stage in November 1989. It ran for 7 days, presented 18 concerts and events, and was a resounding success. Our first Guitar Festival was so successful in fact, that it paved the way for a number of other 'copycat' guitar festivals to start to appear during the following 18 months. A number of festivals bearing a 'local town or area name' (names changed to protect the guilty!!) such as the Doodahshire International Guitar Festival, or the Whereisit International Guitar Festival, began to establish themselves in the UK. Imitation is very flattering but here is the downside...
Imitation is supposed to be the highest form of flattery, however, flattery isn't everything and this posed a real problem for us. Nationally and internationally, in the public's and players' perception, there would really be little to set Wirral apart from anywhere else with a 'local' guitar festival and could seriously dilute our attempts to create something head and shoulders above any competition. Why travel when you can get something similar down the road?
Never setting our sights low, and setting our aspirations even higher, the intention was to attract substantial numbers of people to Wirral with a world class event that was an international attraction. In marketing and promotion terms we were in danger of losing our USP and were now in competition with others. This had changed things in our first 2 years and we were actually becoming a victim of our own success and popularity. Our festival was not any longer unique in the UK and I was not going to allow our festival to disappear amongst more and more competition - we had our USP to protect.
I changed the name of our 3rd Festival in 1991 from the Wirral International Guitar Festival to the International Guitar Festival of Great Britain. There were lots of interested parties watching what we were doing, and there was potential for hundreds of 'local guitar festivals' to compete with us and seriously diminish our profile. There will only be one International Guitar Festival of Great Britain and it is in Wirral! USP enhanced, protected and 'future-proofed'.
Whilst actively defending our position as a developing 'brand' it was important not to lose sight of my original impetus which was to establish a 'community festival' for Wirral. The starting point for our programming and pricing (and budget balancing!) was to construct a programme which offered opportunities for everyone to participate in the Festival should they wish. This 'inclusivity' was achieved by programming a series of top quality free concerts and activities which complemented the top quality ticketed programme of concerts and activities. We also programmed free and ticketed daytime as well as evening concerts on weekdays and during weekends. This programming policy enabled anyone with childcare or other family responsibilities, as well as people working shifts (or doing evening gigs!), the opportunity to attend concerts or other events of quality during some of their free time.
Now about the venues. The Guitar Festival also provided a good promotional vehicle to attract new audiences to the developing range of 'visitor attractions' in Wirral. At the start in 1989 we are looking back at the since-demolished Glenda Jackson Theatre in Birkenhead, (it would be another 10 years before the award-winning Pacific Road Arts Centre became a force to be reckoned with!), The Gladstone Theatre in Bebington, Birkenhead Town Hall and The Williamson Art Gallery. The refurbished Birkenhead Priory, Woodside Ferry Terminal and the 'old' Floral Pavilion Theatre in New Brighton all gradually came into play as our Festival grew into an annual event.
It was politic at the time to programme the events around the Borough of Wirral and we matched our performances to various venues very carefully. You wouldn't think that rock/jazz would be well suited to Birkenhead Priory, but when we brought Jan Akkerman to the Festival in 1997 for his first visit to the UK in 25 years, his first solo concert was to a lucky 120 people at Birkenhead Priory...followed up by a second with his band at the Floral Pavilion a few days later - the equilibrium restored!
Over the years we have used concert halls, theatres, public halls, Mersey Ferry boats and terminal buildings, the Empire Theatre, the Beatles Story, shopping centres, double decker buses, school halls and pubs and clubs...I don't remember using a park, but November in the UK freezes guitarists fingers!!
Good news travels fast and after our first couple of Festivals we had artists and promoters knocking on our door trying to get a gig at our Festival. This was a very good sign as Brendan, Paul and I had taken stands at major Guitar Shows in London Olympia, Birmingham NEC and NIA, and Manchester, with players (including Brendan) who had performed at the Guitar Festival, performing on the stands creating a great deal of interest in what we were doing. This was the way we did it before the internet and eventually MySpace and You Tube came into their own, and it was very effective - a captive audience we didn't have to convince - we just had to be able to contact and enthuse them and get them to Wirral!
The next bit of this brief history is almost certainly destined to become an interminable list of dates, gigs, venues and players. I would rather spare you that but I have put together an A-Z of guitarists (not all the musicians!) who have performed at the Festival which you can link to here (apologies to anyone that I have omitted - let us know and we will add you to the list). There is also a collection of images of the covers of all of the Guitar Festival Programmes you can link to here.
In a sense that is the history that underpins the International Guitar Festival of Great Britain but the concept of the Festival hasn't changed over 26 years in that 'celebration of the guitar' and all of its styles underpins the programming. A range of concerts, workshops, exhibitions, lectures, recitals and master classes presents jazz, rock, blues, country, folk, classical, pedal steel, finger style, flamenco, slide...the list goes on. Bringing top quality players to the Festival and using it to promote Wirral are non-negotiable factors, as is using the Festival as a platform for our very talented local players to perform and gain exposure.
Just before 'signing off' on this 'a brief history of (Guitar Festival) time', there is something else that needs to be said. For all of the endeavours of me, Brendan and Paul, (and Festival Directors Kate Carpenter and Dave Tracey more recently) it took a lot of people over a lot of months and a lot of cups of tea to successfully deliver each Festival. I have to pay thanks to all of the individuals who have performed, and those who still perform 'above and beyond the call of duty', to deliver what's now called the 'back office' and technical administration, programming, security and stewarding, front of house services, artist liaison, graphic design, marketing and promotion, distribution, sponsorship, stage management, lighting, sound, instrument and backline loan, transport, work permits, catering, hand-holding, tea and sympathy, car parking and so much more.
Also, thanks to our sponsors over the years.
So much music...so little time...
Answer - You meet someone in a graveyard!
(ex) Festival Director, Ambassador Rob Smith sets the scene...
The International Guitar Festival of Great Britain (initially entitled the Wirral International Guitar Festival) came about through a chance encounter between me and a local professional guitarist and musician, the late Brendan McCormack.
In 1988, as Wirral Council's newly appointed Arts Officer, I was seeking to establish a 'community festival' for Wirral that would be different (I hesitate to use the word unique, although the guitar festival was unique in the UK in its infancy). I was also invited to the re-opening of Birkenhead Priory.
Picture this...it was a beautiful, sunny afternoon in May, just after 1pm in the graveyard at Birkenhead Priory. The lutenist who (according to the programme was Brendan McCormack) had just been performing indoors at the formal re-opening of the newly refurbished Birkenhead Priory and was enjoying a well-earned break. I thought I would go over and congratulate him on his performance. I introduced myself to Brendan and we talked about the Priory and lute music little knowing where this conversation would take us. I told him of my recent appointment in the Council and my 'Arts Officer' plans, and mentioned the notion of a festival of some kind to set Wirral apart, and explained my thinking to him. During our conversation it became apparent that Brendan was a very enthusiastic and talented professional guitarist, lutenist and teacher. "How about a guitar festival?" was his response.
We researched across the UK, checking with the editors and staff of the guitar magazines of the day, professional players, and the Musicians' Union and Performing Right Society. Although there were a few classical, jazz and blues festivals and 'summer schools', there was no 'guitar festival' which celebrated the guitar in all of its styles and musical genres. It appeared that we had found a niche into which we could fit something unique by way a festival.
Although Brendan was primarily known as a classical guitarist and lutenist, he was a most accomplished rock, blues and flamenco guitarist, and highly regarded teacher. Our festival concept was that of a celebration of the instrument embracing the widest range of guitar styles. Our aim was to bring top class national and international players to Wirral performing the widest range of styles and repertoire, and also provide a platform for showcasing our local talent. We also made a conscious decision not to involve any element of competition in our programming. Our proposition received a lot of support and attention from the players and guitar magazines particularly - it also confirmed what we believed...(in more recent marketing jargon) we had a USP; a unique selling point.
One question that I am regularly asked is... "Why November?? Festivals are usually a summer event." ...and up to a point this is true. If you are not a 'notable city'; if you are located across the River Mersey in the shadow of 'the Music City' that is Liverpool and just down the road from Manchester; if you are located on a peninsula on the coast and if you have no track record of major events, then most people would say that the odds are stacked against you with little hope of success - and they would appear to have a point.
However during the month of November in the late 80s and early 90s there was little serious 'guitar/music event' competition locally, nationally and internationally. That is why I chose November. Don't forget, there was no internet, websites or email at this time and marketing and promotion was a whole lot more time consuming, labour intensive, costly and difficult. We had less competing promotional material to swamp us and media interest was a little easier to generate particularly on 'light news days'. Also, the lack of competing musical activity meant that we had access to the greatest number of players for bookings as they weren't busy elsewhere.
Towards the end of 1988, Brendan and I were joined by Paul Holliday, later to become manager of the Floral Pavilion Theatre, and the first 'Guitar Festival Team' was in place. With Brendan's address book of professional players and contacts, and our event management prowess, we started to put together a provisional programme for our first Festival. As the programme came together and interest grew we sensed that we could be in danger of having a success on our hands!
After months of preparation, the first 'Wirral International Guitar Festival' took to the stage in November 1989. It ran for 7 days, presented 18 concerts and events, and was a resounding success. Our first Guitar Festival was so successful in fact, that it paved the way for a number of other 'copycat' guitar festivals to start to appear during the following 18 months. A number of festivals bearing a 'local town or area name' (names changed to protect the guilty!!) such as the Doodahshire International Guitar Festival, or the Whereisit International Guitar Festival, began to establish themselves in the UK. Imitation is very flattering but here is the downside...
Imitation is supposed to be the highest form of flattery, however, flattery isn't everything and this posed a real problem for us. Nationally and internationally, in the public's and players' perception, there would really be little to set Wirral apart from anywhere else with a 'local' guitar festival and could seriously dilute our attempts to create something head and shoulders above any competition. Why travel when you can get something similar down the road?
Never setting our sights low, and setting our aspirations even higher, the intention was to attract substantial numbers of people to Wirral with a world class event that was an international attraction. In marketing and promotion terms we were in danger of losing our USP and were now in competition with others. This had changed things in our first 2 years and we were actually becoming a victim of our own success and popularity. Our festival was not any longer unique in the UK and I was not going to allow our festival to disappear amongst more and more competition - we had our USP to protect.
I changed the name of our 3rd Festival in 1991 from the Wirral International Guitar Festival to the International Guitar Festival of Great Britain. There were lots of interested parties watching what we were doing, and there was potential for hundreds of 'local guitar festivals' to compete with us and seriously diminish our profile. There will only be one International Guitar Festival of Great Britain and it is in Wirral! USP enhanced, protected and 'future-proofed'.
Whilst actively defending our position as a developing 'brand' it was important not to lose sight of my original impetus which was to establish a 'community festival' for Wirral. The starting point for our programming and pricing (and budget balancing!) was to construct a programme which offered opportunities for everyone to participate in the Festival should they wish. This 'inclusivity' was achieved by programming a series of top quality free concerts and activities which complemented the top quality ticketed programme of concerts and activities. We also programmed free and ticketed daytime as well as evening concerts on weekdays and during weekends. This programming policy enabled anyone with childcare or other family responsibilities, as well as people working shifts (or doing evening gigs!), the opportunity to attend concerts or other events of quality during some of their free time.
Now about the venues. The Guitar Festival also provided a good promotional vehicle to attract new audiences to the developing range of 'visitor attractions' in Wirral. At the start in 1989 we are looking back at the since-demolished Glenda Jackson Theatre in Birkenhead, (it would be another 10 years before the award-winning Pacific Road Arts Centre became a force to be reckoned with!), The Gladstone Theatre in Bebington, Birkenhead Town Hall and The Williamson Art Gallery. The refurbished Birkenhead Priory, Woodside Ferry Terminal and the 'old' Floral Pavilion Theatre in New Brighton all gradually came into play as our Festival grew into an annual event.
It was politic at the time to programme the events around the Borough of Wirral and we matched our performances to various venues very carefully. You wouldn't think that rock/jazz would be well suited to Birkenhead Priory, but when we brought Jan Akkerman to the Festival in 1997 for his first visit to the UK in 25 years, his first solo concert was to a lucky 120 people at Birkenhead Priory...followed up by a second with his band at the Floral Pavilion a few days later - the equilibrium restored!
Over the years we have used concert halls, theatres, public halls, Mersey Ferry boats and terminal buildings, the Empire Theatre, the Beatles Story, shopping centres, double decker buses, school halls and pubs and clubs...I don't remember using a park, but November in the UK freezes guitarists fingers!!
Good news travels fast and after our first couple of Festivals we had artists and promoters knocking on our door trying to get a gig at our Festival. This was a very good sign as Brendan, Paul and I had taken stands at major Guitar Shows in London Olympia, Birmingham NEC and NIA, and Manchester, with players (including Brendan) who had performed at the Guitar Festival, performing on the stands creating a great deal of interest in what we were doing. This was the way we did it before the internet and eventually MySpace and You Tube came into their own, and it was very effective - a captive audience we didn't have to convince - we just had to be able to contact and enthuse them and get them to Wirral!
The next bit of this brief history is almost certainly destined to become an interminable list of dates, gigs, venues and players. I would rather spare you that but I have put together an A-Z of guitarists (not all the musicians!) who have performed at the Festival which you can link to here (apologies to anyone that I have omitted - let us know and we will add you to the list). There is also a collection of images of the covers of all of the Guitar Festival Programmes you can link to here.
In a sense that is the history that underpins the International Guitar Festival of Great Britain but the concept of the Festival hasn't changed over 26 years in that 'celebration of the guitar' and all of its styles underpins the programming. A range of concerts, workshops, exhibitions, lectures, recitals and master classes presents jazz, rock, blues, country, folk, classical, pedal steel, finger style, flamenco, slide...the list goes on. Bringing top quality players to the Festival and using it to promote Wirral are non-negotiable factors, as is using the Festival as a platform for our very talented local players to perform and gain exposure.
Just before 'signing off' on this 'a brief history of (Guitar Festival) time', there is something else that needs to be said. For all of the endeavours of me, Brendan and Paul, (and Festival Directors Kate Carpenter and Dave Tracey more recently) it took a lot of people over a lot of months and a lot of cups of tea to successfully deliver each Festival. I have to pay thanks to all of the individuals who have performed, and those who still perform 'above and beyond the call of duty', to deliver what's now called the 'back office' and technical administration, programming, security and stewarding, front of house services, artist liaison, graphic design, marketing and promotion, distribution, sponsorship, stage management, lighting, sound, instrument and backline loan, transport, work permits, catering, hand-holding, tea and sympathy, car parking and so much more.
Also, thanks to our sponsors over the years.
So much music...so little time...
