Generator and The Glasshouse International Centre for Music (pictured) have announced the launch of Newcastle Gateshead Music City.
The initiative is set to drive investment, boost jobs and supercharge education and skills.
A Newcastle Gateshead Music City office will be established by music hub The Glasshouse and Generator. It will work on:
– A music strategy in collaboration with other creative organisations across the region.
– Research needed to understand the region’s current assets and potential for growth, starting with a map of the region’s music ecosystem.
– A music board, with representatives from music, business and creative industries, including grassroots venues, studios and major labels.
Newcastle Gateshead Music City will work to bolster the rising levels of visitors enjoying and discovering live music. Music tourism to the region was up by 29% in 2023, according to figures from UK Music.
It will also aim to inspire and develop the next generation of musicians from the region, with opportunities to play and learn about music.
Goals set by Newcastle Gateshead Music City include the generation of between 2,000 and 4,000 jobs related to music, and £750 million increased contribution to the local economy from the music sector.
North East mayor Kim McGuinness said: “For generations, North East music has shaped our region’s identity and powered our dreams. But for too long it has been treated as an optional add-on to our economic success. As North East mayor I’m working with people from across our region to put the creative economy at the centre of our plans for economic growth.
“That means not just more fabulous music coming from talented local artists, but also space for recording, backing for live music and, crucially, a skills plan for the creative industries.
“The Music City project will help make these plans a reality not just in Newcastle and Gateshead but across our North East, and I look forward to working with The Glasshouse, Generator and musicians across the region on delivering these plans.”
North Shields singer-songwriter Sam Fender said: “I fully support the launch of Newcastle Gateshead Music City. I couldn’t be prouder of my region for its vast wealth of musical heritage.
“Music is an integral part of our culture that has been neglected historically in the North East. It’s about time we put more resource into nurturing our local talent to ensure it is taken seriously as a priority sector.”
Generator, the North East headquartered music development agency, has played a key role in shaping the plans and vision for Newcastle Gateshead Music City. In the past two years, the organisation has forged partnerships with major record labels, including EMI North and Warner UK.
Generator CEO Mick Ross said: "We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put the region on the global map for music and the creative industries. Newcastle Gateshead has the perfect ecosystem of development organisations like Generator, existing and future venues, educational facilities and industry investment, and crucially, a cultural environment and population that wholly embraces the creative sector and the economic opportunities it presents for everybody.
"Adding the collective civic and political willingness to make such ambitious plans come to fruition, now is the time for all those component parts to come together and to make Music City happen.
“At Generator, we feel an enormous sense of duty, pride and determination to be the beating heart of what will be a collective commitment of so many to make this happen and see the region thrive creatively and economically through these plans."
Alongside Sunderland Music City and Sonic Futures in Tees Valley, Newcastle Gateshead Music City is set to create a music strategy for the North East that will position the region as a “national music powerhouse”, according to the announcement.
Wendy Smith, creative director of The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, said: “Newcastle Gateshead Music City will build an even stronger music community, helping us to understand the assets and the gaps so that together we can build an even better and more resilient music ecosystem in the city and wider region.
“We have an amazing music history that we can celebrate, a vibrant music scene right now and an even more exciting future.
“Growing music here will create jobs, increase people's skills, and make sure every child or young person can get involved with music, as learners, creators and audiences. We want to see children from all backgrounds and life circumstances learning music now to be the artists on our stages in the future.”
The announcement follows the news that the MOBOs will take place in Newcastle in February 2025, alongside the MOBO Fringe Festival.
As well as Sam Fender, successful artists from the North East include Nadine Shah and Lanterns On The Lake, along with emerging acts such as Frankie Archer, Finn Forster and Kay Greyson.
Subscribers can read our interview with Newcastle-based Interval Records’ label lead Josh Daniel.
PHOTO: (L-R) Wendy Smith and Mick Ross
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