I'm unsure as to whether this would count towards my progress as an individual but I think it's an event worth mentioning none the less. On Wednesday 11th May I went with a friend to go see the post punk band SKATERS. Though based in NYC one of the band members hails from sunny Hull and, through a close community, I know his dad. This is pretty cool as SKATERS have a fairly large cult following (around 14,000 instagram followers and over 200,000 likes on facebook), and they've seen my work before as I did a piece for Josh's (SKATERS guitarist and vocalist) dad's cafe Thieving Harry's. When I heard they were coming to Leeds for a gig I got tickets for me and a friend. Weirdly enough however, one of our mutual friends who works at Thieving Harry's ended up going on tour with them to sell merch, and got us onto guestlist for the gig.
Before the show we sat down with Skaters and shared in some pizza and pun appreciation. It was great hanging out with musicians I really loved, who made music in a genre I might possibly be interested in pursuing later on. As the first act came on and SKATERS went to get ready, I realised how many people in crowd I'd gotten to know over the past year through networking in this scene. By the end of the gig I'd seen the members of The Hubbards who I knew through mutual friends, as well as a few members of La Bete Blooms and Josh's dad turned up right at the end. We even helped SKATERS pack all their gear into the van at the end of the night and see all the backstage goodies; I even got a free unreleased EP for winning best pun of the night.
Though this doesn't have much to do with illustration as such, it was kind of exciting to realise that networking wise I'm starting to run with the same kinds of people I want to be working with and for. It's nice to know that real face to face socialising and meeting can play a part in my development as a practitioner, into the field I want to go in.
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