A tiny segment of the In The City music trade fair was given over last Tuesday to debate traditional music. Down the street the Essex Street Seomra an Cheoil the inevitable "fringe" - a session entitled In The Know - was taking place, also British-initiated but locally-organised, and though the subject was rock, it could have related as well to traditional music. Here the panel was all "indies", (small, independent record labels). The "majors (big companies) were invited but didn't show.
Hot Press's Jackie Hayden said that small bands were wasting their time and money appealing to majors. "If you've got no answer, you've got your answer - F**k off! If they'd liked you they'd be over on the next plane." Some speakers complained of this unfairness; others, like "indie" Oliver Sweeney of CBM urged"' self-production, and were impressive for their passionate dedication, energy and successes. The discussion turned to ethics: Should the "indie" sell out when the "major" offers to buy it?
In the main In The City conference, Nuala O'Connor of Hummingbird was facilitator to a panel that had musician-composer Maire Breathnach (recorded on STARC), Amy Garvey of Green Linnet, Paddy Prendergast of Grapevine and "Gerald Seligman of EMI.
Declan Colgan of Virgin Venture (Altan's label) and Tony McAnany of Columbia/Sony (Davy Spillane's) were listed but couldn't make it.
The topic for debate was The Tradition Of Selling Traditional Music: tickets for the day cost £175. None of the small Irish labels was there - Gael Linn, Claddagh, Mulligan, Seanachie, Starc, CBM and the like, among whom have been produced most of the 600-odd traditional albums currently on our shelves.
Perhaps there was significance in the absences from the panel, for this should have been a discussion that engaged both majors and "indies". The majors are about making money; money is made from mass sales; mass sales can only be achieved by promoting a small number of non-competing artistes playing music which appeals to a majority taste or fashion. Since Irish traditional music fails on most of these counts, why indeed should Sony and Virgin have bothered themselves? But perhaps the latter could have let us know the answer to the burning question: how do Altan, a straight up traditional band, sell? Are they going to have to move in the synthesisers, the drum kit and electric bass in order to keep Virgin happy?
The trade secrets shared here, although a bit like confessions of a discerning kleptomaniac, were illuminating. Gerald Seligman told us that the kind of Irish music that really sells is not the strictly traditional - Enya is New Age, The Chieftains work by piggybacking on other genres, A Woman's Heart is treated as country.
Peter Prendergast explained how he never uses the term "Celtic"; Maire Breathnach: made the shocking confession that she hadn't realised it had a negative connotation. For Mary Black promotions on the British market, Prendergast also said he deliberately avoided the use of the term "Irish singer".
And about the actual music: the punters were just wowed by Sharon Shannon. But only for a few tunes, then they got bored.a So he shortened her sets to 20 minutes: "If she'd done an hour they wouldn't have bought the record".
Amy Garvey felt that "hardcore traditionalists" were not keen to buy records, and had a tendency to copy someone else's just to learn the tunes. She saw her sales-task in this market as "missionary". Expansion of sales and promotion was the big issue in this desultory discussion: artistes are "acts", albums are "product", music is a shelf-tag.
Maire Breathnach felt that small labels were the place for traditional music anyway. Amy Garvey justified this by relating Green Linnet's commitment to giving detailed sleeve notes: "This music is so ancient nobody knows where it's coming from". But Nuala O'Connor's leading questions came from one who has a particular view of where it's going, who knows the inside of marketing Irish music: she interrogated her panel on education, reconnection with dance, stereotyping, US market, Irish music or a version of Ireland?
Faced with such a scale of dealing, propaganda, games and economic pragmatism it is a wonder that young rock bands bother at all, nor is it surprising that musicians have such faith in local record companies, or that so much traditional music goes out on "own productions" sold at players' gigs.
