Hi girls, just writing up all the notes i made about the DJ Dave Haslam in the talk he gave last week.

I found this talk really interesting and it gave me more of an insight into Manchesters music industry and how huge bands today, first started out. His talk was based on how us as artists and designers should start off following and gathering our inspriration off the marjins, not the mainstream. He spoke about when they had to recreate the Hassider night club for the filming of 24 hour party people as at the time, they didn't believe it was relevant to document it. This was an example of such a patriotic time, changing from marginal to mainstream. Also, he mentioned how Joy Division, The Stone Roses and The Smiths first started out performing infront of only a small audience of friends and family, usually only around 80 people although the fanzimes, posters, magazine articles and small grotty venues were mocked by the mainstream followers at the time, but after years of performing, they have worked their way up and become more and more talented, leading them to play at huge festivals infront of thousands of people. There was an event called 'Drunk at Vogue' at Crack gallery, this was another majonel event which was situated in an old factory with cracked glass windows, grotty floors and leaking ceilings. They wanted to promote a gay friendly night, however they believed canal street was too mainstream and only advertised for purely gay people, where as 'Drunk at Vogue' wanted everyone to come together. He wanted us to think about creating a sense of alternative. I realised a small event doesn't mean it's unsignificant, it's just ideas coming to life.

I don't know wether you all found the talk as liberating as I did? But my two favourite quotes he used were 'Don't be a consumer, participate.' and 'The only thing i fear more than change, is no change.' I believe if we never participated, we'd never change and move on.