Ragged Music: Edinburgh Fringe Festival August 2011

In July of 2011 Gary Boast and I were approached by Alex Dunedin from Ragged University to request help in coordinating a programme for the month of August at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Dunedin had procured two venues for the entire month and wanted someone with a musical background to help him in providing an organisational approach that gave the artists not just a platform to perform, but the assurance of support throughout the process.   The philosophical ideal of Ragged Music was very simple; inclusive approach, self-led development, and sharing knowledge within the music community.
Boast and I were based in Manchester and were not familiar with the venues we were working with in Edinburgh, nor had either of us attended the Edinburgh Fringe Festival before. Dunedin educated us on how the festival operated and expressed the importance of a stress-free experience for the artists as one of our primary goals. Boast’s role in the initial programming of the festival was invaluable – his methodical and practical experience as a drummer and sound engineer shaped the approach with which we planned the event. Read more…

Putting Ragged Music Into Action

The Ragged project has been formed of the people who have got involved, bringing their ideas, wants and needs to be realised over time, in and through a like-minded community.

At one point four musicians asked where music fitted with the project and they were told that it would fit wherever and however they made it fit.  The result was the groundwork of Ragged Music which was particularly headed up by Dan Zambas and Gary Boast. Read more…

The Origin of Ragged Music by Dan Zambas

Myself and Gary Boast approached Alex Dunedin who was running the Ragged project to create the foundations of the music arm of Ragged at the beginning of 2011. Working alongside musical colleagues and venue owners we aimed to create the philosophies of an all-inclusive project that would strike a chord within the music industry on every level; from the musician learning their instrument to the large organisations that publish and sell music to the consumers.
We began by asking ourselves what resources would we have wanted at the beginning of our musical journey and begin to make them accessible to individuals wanting to take their music to society. We recorded unsigned artists, live gigs and co-ordinated over thirty events alongside Alex Dunedin at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This experience was invaluable to the Ragged project and helped validate the need for artistic creativity to be treated as an important aspect of social inclusion within society. Read more…

Artist Development

 

To effectively help an artist on the road to realizing their work pragmatic and strategic goals must be worked towards. This involves some very simple elements.

Dead Stock

Artists have an incredible amount of dead stock which ‘produces nothing’ – work which has been produced but sits in the back of a drawer for various reasons. Ragged Music will actively encourage the exposure of these materials to the musical market so that their potential is valued. There is good reason to think that there is a lot of great music, already produced, which could be more widely available. Read more…