News: Media and Music students showcase their talents

Music and Media students came together last week for the College’s annual Music Industry Week – ‘Music Expo’ - which involved a variety of interactive workshops, master classes and live performances, offering a real insight into the industries they’re training in.

Highlights from the week included a fantastic show put on by music students for fellow students in The Venue at the College’s Clarendon campus. The showcase included a range of music genres, with performances by both technology and performance students, including: rock, pop, house, and trap (a mixture of hip hop, dance music and dub).



Music and Media students and staff ensured the production went without a hitch - organising everything from lighting and sound to filming and photography. The show was shot with multiple cameras and live-mixed and streamed via YouTube. To view one of the four live-streamed music TV shows, search for ‘Earlier with Andy Scoffin’ on YouTube.

The College had the pleasure of welcoming back successful alumni bands: ‘Pendulums Fall’; ‘The Sarah Knight Band’; and Nottingham singer-songwriter Jake Burns, who was also featured on BBC Introducing. Workshops included visits from industry professionals including: Sound on Sound magazine, Synthetic Pro Audio, Genelec, Prism Sound, The B-Side Project, Hospital Records and Aston Microphones.

Level 3 Music Performance student Jacob Elliott, 18, performed with his band ‘The Alphas’ which was put together as part of his course. He explains: “As part of our final assessment we were tasked with creating our own band and coming up with a list of original songs. The Music Expo was the perfect platform and a great opportunity to warm-up before our final assessment performance next month, and it felt good to play to a big crowd.

“It was a challenge coming together with a group of people from all different backgrounds, with a mix of music styles; but we quickly learned that we needed to compromise. We worked well as a team, and together we came up with our own unique sound of ‘funk fusion’, which was funk with a taste of rock. It was great fun to be part of and I learnt a lot from the experience.”

Jacob plays the piano and has had a passion for making music from a young age. He is progressing to Leeds College of Music in September to study Popular Music.

Becky Bidmead is studying Level 3 TV and Film and was assigned the role of Director, responsible for the live stream and the camera operators. She said: “It was a lot of pressure because if I messed up it could affect the whole live stream and viewers would see my mistake; but I learnt so much, and even though parts were stressful, overall it was really fun and is something I would love to do again. The thrill and excitement of being live is something I think everyone should enjoy!”

Andy Oakley, Nottingham College Music, Performing Arts and Media Coordinator, said: “The event has once again been a huge success. The support we’ve had from industry has been amazing and the students have had so many different opportunities and experiences that will help towards, not only their studies, but also their future careers.”

Rob Hitchen, Media Course Leader, said: “The programme was a great opportunity for media students to get hands-on in a 'live' environment. It was really hot, the angles were tricky and they had to get creative fast. It was interesting to see how they dealt with what was essentially a three-hour work out! They all did very well and the bands were great.”

If you have an interest in music or media and want to find out more, please click the links.