I had the pleasure of doing my final conference as a full time academic in Newcastle last week. Who would have thought that after 30 years – this would be the final location – and also – I was speaking ..read more

It is a while since I last posted, but I am entering a phase of my career where I am going to be posting more (more on this later). So for the moment, I am pleased to announce that over two years since I originally started the project, Welsh Government have eventually posted my research on Welsh music venues on their website. This work has a massive backstory and has faced many barriers and I need to thank everyone who helped not only gather the data, but also make the technology work – you know who you are. Most importantly, I need to be clear that this is only the start – not the end. There ..read more

I am in the process of putting together a new edited collection about song, nostalgia and its relationship with home. Here are a few words from the Introduction which I hope will give readers an idea what the book is about. A Personal Story In February 1984, I left the North East of England to undertake my first professional job in music—a five month contract playing guitar in a Dubai hotel—over 4000 miles away from home. Little did I know that this somewhat impulsive decision, would result in me spending the next 38 years away from Newcastle Upon Tyne—effectively nearly all of my adult life ..read more

To add to the post I just published on mapping the recording, live music and rehearsal room sectors, I thought I would add some information on some other work I recently completed for Creative Wales on the the economic worth of the Welsh music industries and how it has been hit by Covid. I will attach the reports to the end of this post, but for the moment some headlines. What I have copied below is a shortened version of a response I recently sent to the Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport and International Relations Committee. The responses are based on some questions that the co ..read more

Pre covid, I was looking forward to going to the University of Michigan to deliver a paper talking about what was at that point a new edited collection I had just worked on – focusing on ‘hidden histories of popular music in the UK‘ (Popular Music History 2019). However, the conference was eventually cancelled and postponed a year until last week. Hosted by the International Association for the Study of Popular Music US branch, the online event ran for the majority of last week. You can check out the papers here and if you are interested, you can listen to my presentation below. I have also in ..read more

Photo by Vishnu R Nair on Pexels.com Off the back of my 2020 report for the Culture Welsh Language and Communications Committee on the impact of Covid-19 on the Welsh Music Industries and thanks to funding from the University of South Wales and Welsh Government, I have recently completed a series of three reports for Creative Wales. I am writing about the first here – with the other two following in a later post. The first piece of work involved building a database of Welsh Music Venues, Recording Studios and Rehearsal rooms and placing them on a digital map – which Creative Wales ar ..read more

At a time when covid-19 has made many of us stare face to face into our own mortalities, this seems like an appropriate time to express something I have never written about – my Christian faith. So this post will provide a brief account of how I believe the providence of God has been with me, well before I was aware of it. The post will finish with me introducing an album of mine that I think at least partially verifies this assertion. For the moment – consider listening to it while you read the rest of this post – I suggest starting with ‘It’s September’ – the 2nd track below, then go from t ..read more

After a couple of months on planing, the IASPM event I organised on the impacts of Covid-19 on the European Music Industries took place yesterday. The event featured six speakers, from Wales, England, Germany, Norway and the Netherlands. This work builds on the previous work I have posted concerning the situation in Wales – which you can access here and here. There was some fascinating discussion that took place both during and after the presentations, which you can now see via the recording below. For me, I think the one noticeable factor was how much all of our nations had in common. Despite ..read more

The following text is a transcript of the talk that I gave to the Culture, Welsh Language and Communications Commitee in November 2020. Amongst other things, it provides a brief context of the music industries pre and post pandemic, followed by a discussion of some of the important recommendations from my report, which can be accessed via this link. A full recording of the subsequent conversation can also be found at the end of this post. In order to give the committee a concise snapshot of the details contained in my report which are relevant to live music, I’ll initially provide a very brie ..read more

This last week has been a busy one for me, with my report on the impact of live music in Wales released, just a few days before I gave evidence to the Culture Welsh Language and Communications Commitee. In order to give readers an overview of the whole ‘post covid music industry in Wales project, what I have done here is upload a transcript of my 15 minute presentation to the committee, which can be downloaded below. A full copy of the 36000 word report can also be found here, with shorter executive summaries in English and Welsh also available for download below. Paul Carr Senedd TalkDownloa ..read more