Re: loop-friendly venues

[Rick Walker <looppool@cruzio.com>]

Dear Mark,

What I've noticed, viz a vis your list of loop freindly venues around 
the planet
is that frequently,  it's more efficacious to find out who the people 
are in a region
who can help you to find a gig, as opposed to having a list of specific 
gigs.
That's why I haven't responded yet to this list because, frankly, 
despite Steve Lawson
calling my home town the 'live looping capitol of the univers",    I 
can't really
send you a definitive list of venues that one could book in my area.

Instead,  I think it might be a more accurate list to mention the people 
who
seem the most committed to this notion of helping live looping artists to
get a gig when they are on tour.

Here's a long winded , but salient list of reason why I think this is true
and, at the end of my exposition,  a list of people who one might contact
through this list if they are trying to book a gig in a region.

To whit:

All of my adult life (from the turn of the decade from 70's to 80's until
the prestent time)   I have constantly searched for and encouraged the 
creation
of new venues for all original music, whether it be new wave/punk/world 
music/live looping/
experimental/goth-industrial or noise music.  

Toward that end, in my home town of Santa Cruz, California,  I've been 
successful at getting
literally dozens of venues to open themselve up to new music/creative 
performances.

Over those years,   the lion's share of every single one of those venues 
has gone out of business,
one by one.     

Oddly enough,  I've never gotten very depressed about this because I 
realize that there is always an
idealist who opens up a gallery or museum;   a struggling local bar who 
can always use an infusion of
a small but fanatical group of cretive musicians to swell there ranks on 
at least an off night.

Also,  having committed my entire adult life to trying to promote the 
notion of creative community 
I have noticed that many, many venues will be open to new music but that 
, essentially,  it really takes
someone being fanatical and completely existentially committed to the 
proposition of expanding the community
of creativity in a regional location.

Even in my touring in Europe and the UK,  I have noticed that every 
several years,  the really hip and supportive venues
have changed hands or gone completely out of business.

I've played amazing venues in Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Oakland, 
Berkeley, the South Bay,  Monterey, Carmel
and many, many places in Scandinavia, Western Europe, the UK, Mexico, 
Canada and Japan that no longer exist.

This constant overturn of venues could be really depressing to me if 
several people in this community didn't feel completely committed to the
unstoppable force of human creativity and the notion of it's promotion.

******
This is a really long winded explanation of why I can't really 
contribute to your list in the SF and Monterey Bay Areas despite the
fact that this might be one of the strongest places to present live 
looping music per capita on the entire earth.

The venues keep changing and a lot of them get opened up only by dent of 
personality as opposed to the success of commerce.

As a stellar example,  I've had the Y2K series in 5 different locations 
over 8 years and I can't honestly recommend any of them
for travelling loopers because either they are mostly not open to live 
looping presently or they literally don't exist.

Two of the wonderful spots that I did the festival in (the Rio Theatre 
and the Cayuga Vault) were brand new struggling arts venues
when I first approached the owners to do the festival.    At the time,   
I had enough clout from having successful bands in the region that
I could offer them all kinds of publicity if they would gift us with a 
venue for the looping festival.   
At the time,  that was a great idea and mutually beneficial to all 
parties concerned.

After a while, though,   they had to pay the rent or mortgages that they 
had involved themselves in to run these places and
our little wonderful but economically modest festival just couldn't help 
them to stay in business.

Even the venue that we've produced the festival in the last three years 
is struggling greatly due to the recession/depression that Northern 
California
finds itself in (and it's much worse here than most places in the US at 
least)  and as of this late date I don't even know if I have a spot
to do Y2K9 for certain because the owner may have to let go of his lease.

This means that I really don't have the ability to list great places to 
loop in this area..................................at all!!!!!

******

At the same time,    what I've noticed is that there are personalities 
in this scene who seem incredibly committed to this notion of
 the live looping community and pushing it's existence to the world.
_*
My advice is that a list of those people is really just as important , 
or perhaps more, than a list of specific venues (which come and go).*_

As an example,  in my experience,  I can reccommend some names of people 
to contact if you want to get something going.
I'm a bit tired tonight and it's late so please don't be offended if I 
have a brain fart and forget you,   but contacting these individuals
will be as efficacious in determing a place to play live looping music 
as a specific list of current live looping venues:

note:   many of these people may no longer be involved, actively in the 
promoting the international live looping movement,
but all of them have made significant contributions in the past.    My 
apologies to anyone who no longer wants to be involved
with this list.   Also,  I am just not very connected to the New 
York/East Coast scene so please forgive my lack of
information around that scene.  Please ,  
anyone............................amend this list with my humble apologies.

_United States_
Peter Koniuata, David Kirkdorffer, Tim Nelson (Boston)
Todd Reynolds (New York City)
Michael Klobuchar (Pittsburgh)
James Sidlo (San Antonio)
Hans Lindauer (Portland --- originator of Loopstock)
Rick Walker, Bill Walker,  Glenn Smith, Chris Cohn, Dan Soltberg  (Santa 
Cruz)
Matt Davignon (San Francisco)



_England_
Andy Butler (Norwich),  
Andrew Ostler (formerly of Cambridge)
Steve Lawson (London)

_Northern Ireland _
Ricky Graham (Derry),  Paul Marshall (Bangor/Belfast)

_Wales_
Gareth Whittock (Swansea)

_Sweden _
Per Boysen (Stockholm)
Tryggve Lund (Sweden/Norway)

_Norway _
Tellef Orgrim (Oslo)

_Finland _
Miro Mantere (Poorvo/Helsinki)

_Germany  _
Leander Reinhinghaus (Berlin)
Andreas Willers (Berlin)
Michael Peters (Koln)
Rainer Straschill (Munchen)
Luis Angulo (Radolfzell/Konstanz)

_Switzerland_
Bernhard Wagner (Zurich)
Claude Voit (Lucerne)

_Belgium _
Sjaak Overgaauw  (Antwerp)

_Italy_
Massimo Livernani (Firenze)
Fabio Anile (Roma)
Bruno Kleinefeld (Milano)
Luca Formentini (Descenzano/Lago Di Garda)
_
Greece_
Costas Andreou  (Athens)

_Brazil_
Matthias Grob (Bahia)

_Bahamas _
Andre Donawa (Barbado)

_Argentina_
Ariel Rzezak (Buenos Ares) 

_Singapore _
Randolf Arrioloa (Singapore)

_Japan _
Sunao Inami (Kobe/Osaka)
Aci (Tokyo)



Okay,  I know I"m missing a lot of important people (especially people 
from my own country)
Please help me out and forgive me any brain farts.