Sage Gateshead Artist in Residence Geoff Kirkwood curates genre-blurring night of live music in celebration of North East culture and identity

(Press release)

• Geoff Kirkwood, Sage Gateshead Artist in Residence, has curated an evening of music with performances from William Basinski, Tom Ravenscroft, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, and his alias Bed Wetter.
• His new composition in collaboration with Fiona Brice ‘NXS8’ will be premiered with the Royal Northern Sinfonia and features visuals from local emerging filmmakers.
• As a celebration of and tribute to working-class voices and dance culture in the North East, the performance will blend electronic music, contemporary classical music, experimental music and DJ culture.

 

‘Man Power’, also known as Sage Gateshead Artist in Residence Geoff Kirkwood, invites William Basinski to join in a night which combines experimental electronic music and contemporary classical performance in celebration of North East culture and identity. Through his record label and promotions company Me Me Me Geoff has curated the evening, which will be performed on Friday 4^th November at Sage Gateshead.

With performances from experimental musician William Basinski, renowned DJ Tom Ravenscroft, and the Royal Northern Sinfonia alongside Geoff, the evening will fuse genres at opposite ends of the spectrum - both musically and socially - seamlessly connecting electronic music, contemporary classical music, experimental music and DJ culture under one roof. In what will be the first contemporary-classical event curated by a dance music promoter in the North East, the line-up will showcase the blending of musical cultures and genre boundaries that is happening worldwide.

Now globally recognised as a DJ, producer, and performer, Geoff was raised in Wallsend against the backdrop of the hardships created by the closure of the Swan Hunter Shipyards. After being introduced to Acid House by his mother, dance music culture in the North East shaped his life and career. Broadening his work through his Bed Wetter project, Geoff explores regional identity and internationalism, examining the prejudices that act as barriers to self-expression in working-class North East communities.

 As Bed Wetter, Geoff will be premiering a new piece ‘NXS8’, composed in collaboration with Fiona Brice and with arrangements from the Royal Northern Sinfonia. Not restricted to specific genres, NXS8 fuses the creative worlds of experimental electronica and classical composition. In keeping with the theme of the event, the composition shows how different creative strands can come together and become more than the sum of their parts.

This multi-sensory piece will be accompanied by an audio-visual showreel, featuring footage filmed by local young filmmakers and edited together by creative studio Novak. Through funding from Arts Council England, these films captured North East spirit, with footage of local landscapes and interviews with factory workers of all ages.

Alongside NXS8, world-renowned DJ William Basinski will headline, with a solo performance of his 2020 album Lamentations. Two decades after Disintegration Loops made his name, Basinski’s influence on ambient music, and on Geoff himself, is ever apparent. Support will also come from DJ Tom Ravenscroft, known for his regular show on BBC Radio 6 Music, whose mixes span genres and locations.

Geoff Kirkwood said: “It really is the greatest honour of my creative career so far to have been appointed as artist in residence at Sage Gateshead.

Growing up where I did, when I did, means that I come from a generation of North Easterners who were wrongly made to believe that arts and culture were for other people and not for “the likes of us”. It’s testament to the region that in less than a quarter century since I left school someone like me can find themself not only being supported in my desire to pursue creating an artwork that is inspired by the North East, but that I would find that support coming from such an iconic local musical institution that is also recognised around the world.

“As much as things have improved in my lifetime I think that there are still so many barriers that remain for members of the working classes and those with less privileged backgrounds when it comes to access to participating in the arts, and I hope this role, and the work it has enabled me to create, might go some way towards removing those barriers and inspiring people with similar backgrounds to my own, or anyone who feels excluded in any way simply because of who they are or where they are from.”

Tickets for this show can be purchased here - https://sagegateshead.com/whats-on/sage-gateshead-manpower-and-me-me-me-present-william-basinski-plus-bed-wetter-brice-and-novak-and-tom-ravenscroft/