Isle of Man Arts Council supporting Punk, Metal and Thrash Bands
This summer bands have been representing the Isle of Man in the Punk, Progressive Metal and Thrash music scene, who have been supported by The Isle of Man Arts Council with travel grants to help with costs getting their equipment and accommodation to the UK. The bands share their experiences and insight into how funding has helped them.
AEONS are a five piece Progressive Metal band who received funding to perform an industry showcase in London, which has led to further projects for the band. Guitarist Simon Harvey said “The Isle of Man Arts Council are a fundamental part of the way the island supports it's local musical artists who wish to perform across in the UK or Ireland. The biggest challenge AEONS and other bands face is the simple logistics of going to play a gig in a city where simply getting in a van or a car to travel there like a normal UK band becomes cost and scheduling prohibitive.
Local bands live and die on the support they get locally. But the IOM can only take you so far. Original bands like us need to play in front of new people and new venues and get our name out there / sell merchandise / promote with agents. A hundred miles for a gig in the UK is nothing. In the IOM that represents a huge undertaking of travel and cost.
The Isle of Man Arts Council understands this fundamental need to allow the local Manx Music scene to thrive internationally. It’s funding from this excellent department that recently allowed AEONS to perform a showcase in London in front of industry people which has led to very promising outcomes for the band. We would have been deeply out of pocket otherwise and not able to put those same funds into promotion : Which is any band’s number 1 outlay.
AEONS is deeply grateful to the IOM Arts Council for this. We fly the flag for the IOM at every opportunity and are proud to promote this resource any time we get”
Half Naked Head Line are a four piece Queer Core Punk band who were asked to perform for the very first time at The Manchester Punk Festival in April. From that success, they were then asked to perform at the historic “Rebellion Punk Festival” on the introducing stage held in August in Blackpool, at the iconic Winter Gardens Venue.
Lead Singer and guitarist Jenni Smith commented “It was an honour to be asked to perform at both of these prestigious festivals, without the help from the Isle of Man Arts Council we wouldn’t have been able to get there. It’s so important for bands to be able to gig away from the Island and promote themselves and the Island. ”
Swarf Damage are a crossover five piece Thrash Metal band who were asked to perform in the UK for the first time as part of an introducing music event in Halifax at “The Blind Pig” venue and also for well established Wigan venue “The Boulevard” for a punk event. The band was also asked to perform as part of a fringe event surrounding the “Rebellion Punk Festival” also in Blackpool.
Mike Cowley lead singer of Swarf Damage said “This is the first time we have performed in the UK as a band, after our first album launched in July. The gigs were brilliant and we loved every minute of it. Wigan was such a success that we’ve been asked back to perform there again with the legendary band “Disharge” Who have influenced heavy metal bands such as Metallica, Anthrax, Machine Head and Sepultura, they have all covered Discharge's songs! So it's an honour for us to perform with them.
We’re made up with this opportunity and it would not have been possible to perform at these gigs without support from the Isle of Man Arts Council. From these gigs we’ve been able to showcase our original music from the Island, which has been very well received”
