Hello folks and thanks for picking up your copy of Slap magazine, the last one of the year, and what a year it has been! I had hoped to write my editorial on a positive note looking back over 2016 but it’s not easy to be positive when the world just went crazy.
In fact if 2016 was a film it could have been directed by Quentin Tarantino, it’s been so bizarre! The difference being that Tarantino movies usually have a good soundtrack but shockingly, the Grim Reaper lost his taste in music. He took so many of our musical and cultural icons from us, Leonard Cohen being the latest in a long list of sad losses which includes, Prince, Sir George Martin, the young British band Viola Beach and not forgetting David Bowie.
If like me you view Christmas as just ‘something to get through’ we should at least try and keep up beat and look forward to 2017 with optimism regarding the local scene if we can. We have more exciting promoters putting on great gigs around the counties such as Outlast Bookings and Hereford’s Underground Revolution adding to the already vibrant local scene like Surprise Attacks, Task in Hand and Faithful City - all dedicated to bringing touring acts to our venues and giving local acts a platform to build on.
We ourselves are in association with a new Indie club night, ‘Uncover’, the brain child Sam Daly of Born Music Online. ‘Uncover’ launches during Independent Music Venue Week at the Marrs Bar in late January. Look out on social media and the Marrs Bar web site for updates.
This issue marks the completion of our sixth year of publishing Slap and we’ve come a long way in that time, but not so far that we have forgotten our core values of Supporting Local Arts and Performers. We are proud to keep that tradition going by bringing in more local writers and ideas to keep things as fresh as the day we began. We owe a huge thanks to them, our advertisers and of course never forgetting our wonderful readers.
Have a great winter solstice and I’ll see you on the other side...
Grinch-Ed
