BUC Updates

Manchester - Manchester Music - MANCHESTER URBAN ARTISTS BUILD A MUSICAL FUTURE

http://www.music-dash.co.uk/news/news.asp?item=2466

By JA 10 November 2009

British Urban Collective youth-music project strikes a chord in Manchester

British Urban Collective is a national youth-music project that turns inner city kids into rising stars of the British music industry. The project launched in 2004 as London Urban Collective and has now expanded into Manchester, Hull, Belfast and Glasgow, with funding through the Execution Charitable Trust.

The Manchester artists featured on the British Urban Collective album, to be independently released on Freeport Records / Universal Digital in 2010, were selected from open auditions at The Zion Centre and The United Estates of Wythenshawe (UEW). They then completed an intensive week of music training that included vocal tuition from Sam Brown, before writing and recording their own music, which now features on a double album, alongside tracks from the other cities.

The project’s legacy also enabled a free-to-use start up recording studio to be built at the UEW. The UEW was established in 1996 by a group of local people, headed up by Greg Davies, who were concerned about the lack of social and recreational facilities in the community. UEW secured a vandalised Chapel to house the charity’s activities and transformed it into a vibrant community facility which includes a gym, a crèche, dance studio, community café and now with the help of the Manchester Urban Collective a recording studio.

Manchester Urban Collective hip hop artist DNA, who features on the album tracks Ringtone and The Struggle, produced by Resin, grew up on the Wythenshawe council estate, but received schooling in the more middle class area of Altrincham. He first hand witnessed the gap between the two areas in education, lifestyle and opportunity, which he has since used in the inspiration for his music writing. DNA has now completed his debut album and is currently studying for his BA Honours degree in popular music and production.

The British Urban Collective project has recently been nominated by The New Statesman Edge Upstart Awards 2009 for Best Social Enterprise Serving a Community.

“It’s not often a well meaning community project produces generally compelling results, but Urban Collective is a noble exception” –IDJ Magazine.

To read and hear more about the many other Manchester Urban Collective artists and the wider, national project please visit: