Doin' it for themselves (From Gazette & Herald)

Doin' it for themselves

IT was when a gig fell through for comedian Catherine White that the seeds of the York Arts Forum (YAF) were sown.

Knocked back from that gig and with no sign of another in the offing, it would have been easy to have been downhearted and shuffled along waiting for something to show up. Instead, Catherine decided to do something about it. That something was York Arts Forum.

YAF was conceived as a way of helping performers to get on stage in front of an audience - and that includes performers from right across the spectrum.

As Catherine's co-chairperson Graham Stables says: "YAF is made up of musicians, comedians, visual artists, poets, writers and marketing people whose main aim is to promote local talent and provide events for those performers to showcase their talent.

"We decided to start YAF to organise gigs and do it all for nothing."

Graham, a musician with The Casebeats, was one of the first roped in by Catherine, back in 2001, with the Forum's first gig being held in December 2001.

As Graham said: "We built up an audience quite quickly, but the audience changes when college terms change and we constantly strive to be aware of what they want to see."

YAF scored a notable achievement by hosting a two-day music festival at the Knavesmire, Air 2003.

"A lot of the local bands that played really enjoyed it," said Graham. "We gave them the chance to play on a big stage with a large audience."

27 events and 55 performers down the line, the heart of YAF can be found in the local music nights hosted at venues such as The Junction or the Black Swan in York.

It's also a learning experience for many acts. As Catherine says: "The more experienced acts help out the newcomers. You can only learn by doing it, but most venues need a guaranteed crowd. So we try to ensure one of the acts will at least bring a reasonable audience."

The boundaries break down at these gigs - with poets appearing side-by-side with rock acts.

Graham said: "We have tried to really mix it up," said Graham. "We've got acoustic pop, a bit of folk, poetry and rock music on the same line-up.

"We just felt that certain poets didn't get the recognition they deserve. After all, lyrics for songs are poetry, so why not listen to poets? Poets do not usually get an audience, but YAF audiences are so attentive - it's a pleasure to see that.

"There's been so many good moments. The second event, the one that Colour Of Fire played at, we couldn't get any more people in the room and we had nine acts on, including Ham, poets like Patrick Smith and Gill Brownson, Andy from Dust Bowl Central and it was jam-packed."

Future plans include the introduction of a YAF card, possibly in September.

As Graham says, it will "make people feel like they are part of the YAF community".

He added: "I want all the York bands to join together to each other's gain as it would start a little bit of a York music scene, where they all spurred each other on and promoted each other to their benefit."

For more information about YAF and future events, visit their website at www.yorkartsforum.fsnet.co.uk.

The next gig to be staged by YAF is on June 23 at The Junction in York and will feature Customer 1000, Y Rock festival winners Chu Ma Shu, Framed By Fire and Hedcage.

Updated: 14:14 Monday, June 21, 2004