BUC Press

Music Manifesto feature - Jan 2010

How would you imagine most youth music projects get started? Meetings with committees? Protests to bigwigs? Not the British Urban Collective.

“It came from a discussion on the roof of my building in Holloway with a producer mate of mine,” explains Harry. "It was during the summer holidays and we were just having a beer on the roof, looking down at the estates and commenting on how there didn’t seem to be much in terms of skate parks and football pitches.

“We got chatting about whether we could work with some of these young people who were really into music.”

And so the programme was born. A collective of 30 talented young people aged 15-25 would be formed from open auditions, and would go on to train, collaborate and record an album together.

Harry, who founded independent label Freeport Records in 2003, posted his plans for the scheme on the company’s website where it was picked up by Islington Council, The Prince’s Trust and The Arts Council, among others, who offered much-needed funding. And so the first project, the London Urban Collective, launched in 2004.

“It was all a bit hairy at first – we had no idea if anyone was going to turn up,” Harry recalls. “But it turned out really well. The training was good, everyone stayed and the album was good – it helped launch some young careers.”

It was around this time that Harry pledged to expand the programme to reach even more untapped urban talent. And, true to his word, the London Urban Collective has grown to become the British Urban Collective.

“We’ve launched the project in four cities around the UK, as well as London,” Harry continues. “We’ve been working in some pretty heavy-duty areas and building a recording studio as we leave so there’s a legacy project for young people to carry on recording.”

And it wasn’t just the quality, but the variety, of acts that came as a surprise. “As we move around the country we see different styles in each city; it was very acoustic and folk-oriented in Belfast, very urban in London and Manchester,” Harry explains. “In Glasgow they’re really into their techno and dance and Hull has lots of singer-songwriters and jazz-funk.”

A total of 85 tracks were recorded last year and 35 of these eclectic offerings have been gathered together for the British Urban Collective album, due to be released on Freeport Records on March 15 2010.

And the London-based collective are winning plaudits for their ambitious latest project; a ‘hipopera’ reworking of Dante’s Inferno, re-imagined in the modern-day capital. The 47-minute piece was selected for the Jury Prize at the 2009 Chicago International Hip Hop Film Festival and is set for screenings around the UK this year.

For details of the next auditions, or how to set up a collective in your city, contact Harry at harry@freeportrecords.com or visit the project’s website.