The plug has been pulled on next year’s Axis festival, which would have taken place in Stoke-on-Trent, after the city council withdrew its funding.
Earlier this year the Wombats headlined Axis 08, in a charged atmosphere at a packed out Victoria Hallin Hanley.
Axis organisers say Stoke-on-Trent City Council had promised £45,000 for next year’s event, but now won’t confirm if it will provide the cash. The city council says no decision has been made on funding because it hasn’t received a formal application.
So will the authority support the event or won’t it? If Stoke-on-Trent City Council does, as it claims, support music and arts in the city, then why can’t it commit to funding?
For the organisers to scrap the festival at this stage, after last year’s event was such a success, negotiations with the council must be in a pretty dire state.
It’s a shame and it highlights once again the real failings to the people of Stoke-on-Trent made by the city council, which prompted the Stoke-on-Trent Governance Committee to slaughter the city’s leadership in a damning report.
Axis was set up so that the youth of Stoke-on-Trent don’t have to travel to Manchester or Birmingham to see a big name live band. Getting the Wombats to headline earlier this year was a real coup. At the times they were probably the biggest new band in Britain, with the infectious single Moving To New York, riding high in the charts.
Who knows what calibre of act could have graced Stoke-on-Trent next year if the festival went ahead.
It’s also sad because the quality of bands playing the underground music scene in Stoke-on-Trent has probably never been higher. Bands such as This Is Seb Clarke, The Novellos and The Title would have embraced the chance to support a big name act with open arms.
The sounds of the Wrong Pop vibe sweeping the city would have been given a greater audience, which couldn’t fail to be impressed – and probably surprised – by the talent the city has to offer.
Stoke-on-Trent’s Sons (Soul of North Staffordshire) record label has already been compared with Factory Records, which was at the heart of the Madchester music explosion in the late 80s and early 90s.
Recently four Sons bands were in the top five of the national indie charts. Imagine if they could repeat that feat in the mainstream charts.
Look at the success Manchester and Liverpool has built around its music venues, clubs and the quality of bands.
In Stoke-on-Trent, the only place you can see a decent out-of-town band is The Sugarmill, or occasionally at Keele University. Not that venues like The Victoria Hall couldn’t support a big name act, and indeed, big names have played there before, like KT Tunstall and Scouting For Girls.
Bands who do play in Stoke-on-Trenttend to be blown away by the enthusiastic support of a crowd, who are simply so grateful to see a decent live show in an area normally avoided. When James Dean Bradfield performed his solo show, he was so pleased with the crowd reaction, he promised to return with the Manic Street Preachers.
But despite its claim, the city council’s doesn’t support its vibrant music scene, at least not to a decent extent. So the big names don’t come to Stoke, and the local bands keep plugging away on the pub scene, or travel to Manchester for a decent, regular gig.
The city council is missing a great opportunity to promote the city and its people. Stoke-on-Trent City Council has badly let down the youthful generations of the city.
Still, Jonathan Wilkes is switching on the city’s Christmas lights, so there is at least one performer who can count on the city council’s support…..
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