We speak to Andrew Cushin ahead of festival season in the North East

NewcastleWorld

Check out our interview with Newcastle based Singer-Songwriter Andrew Cushin where we speak about the upcoming Come Together Festival as well as the impact of the closure of small venues across the North East.

Transcript

00:00I'm buzzing, mate. Listen, it's always a pleasure playing a hometown show.

00:04Geordie's always made good crowds as well, but it's always a nice thing. I've been gigging,

00:10you know, continuously for the past four or five years with not many Newcastle shows

00:15in there. You know, you come back and you do a big headline show, so it's always a special

00:18thing when I get to come back and play my hometown, my home city. So, yeah, it's something

00:23I'm massively looking forward to. I think it's about 35,000 people, so it's going to be absolutely

00:27amazing. We've got a couple of things to announce as well around that show for other bits that I'll

00:31potentially do in Newcastle as well. So, it's great. There'll be a couple of people there that

00:36have maybe seen me before, a few people that haven't, so a chance to turn a couple of heads

00:39and hopefully pick up a couple of new fans as well. Yeah, I'm buzzing for it, man.

00:43Seeing a tune for the city, you know, I was saying this to somebody in an interview earlier

00:47on today that we haven't had a big festival in Newcastle for a number of years. We had

00:52This Is Tomorrow and we had Hit The North and all that kind of stuff, but with them not going on,

00:56there has been a little bit of a void to be filled and bringing somebody like Robbie Williams,

01:02who's obviously an international superstar, we're going to clearly have people coming from other

01:08areas as well, which is brilliant for Newcastle as a city. Come Together Festival has done an

01:13amazing job of really championing new talent and emerging artists, you know, such as myself, various

01:18other artists from the North East that are playing on that build. So, it's a chance for them to have

01:22a big Newcastle show as well. So many venues are closing down up and down the country and

01:27there's a lot of venues that are beginning to close down in Newcastle, so hopefully this really gives

01:30another spark to what is a good scene in Newcastle. Yeah, well, Covid ruined everything really, didn't it?

01:36I mean, obviously because the venues weren't making any money, especially the smaller ones,

01:41nobody could afford to stay open if they're not making any money, but it's such a shame

01:48because if it wasn't for small venues, I wouldn't be sat here doing an interview with yourself, I

01:52wouldn't be playing this gig, I wouldn't be able to do my own gigs, you know. The small venues in

01:56every town, in every city up and down the country, they're the ones that really chaperone new talent,

02:02they're the ones that, you know, they make people learn their craft. I always say like an apprenticeship

02:06into music and without those venues, artists aren't going to have that, unfortunately. So, something

02:12needs to be done, whether it's more government grants or whether it's more money coming in,

02:16something needs to be done to really keep these massive pillars of the community in the music

02:21scene alive and hopefully something like Come Together, where people can come to Newcastle

02:25and see that Newcastle's got some amazing talent, they're more than likely going to start, go to more,

02:30you know, smaller venues or, you know, try and see the next big thing. So, this is

02:38definitely a step forward, I think, but yeah, it'll be great to see more money pushed into these

02:42small venues, because it's always upsetting when you see a small venue close. You worry what you

02:46said about The Grove, you know, there is venue, but I suppose that's the same with anywhere, venues,

02:49there's always venues that do better than others, it just always, it seems to be the smaller ones

02:55that always close down. I mean, The Grove's a fantastic place, but I'm talking more about the

02:59venues that only hold 100 people, the venues that only hold 75, you know, the places where people

03:04literally go for their first gigs, for their, you know, first time they get on stage, those places

03:09need to be kept alive. But yeah, it's a shame, man, it's a shame, people can't afford to keep

03:12these venues open. There's a great venue called Bobbix, which I believe is closed now,

03:19closing, and yeah, I think that was, I think that was about 120 caps, so it's such a shame that

03:25these places, these places are having to close, and it's not for the talent that's coming in,

03:29it's not that they're not good enough or anything like that, it's purely because, you know, there's

03:35unfortunately not a demand for it, where hopefully festivals like this, where you can showcase

03:39North East talent and you can put them on a bill with someone like the Kaiser Chiefs and someone

03:43like Perry Edwards and someone like Robbie Williams, you know, hopefully people see that

03:46there is talent to be nurtured and there is talent to be seen in Newcastle, and hopefully that gets

03:50people into these small venues to keep them going. And that local North East scene as well, obviously,

03:54it's vital to both venues and all that sort of thing as well, but like, just having a place for

03:59young people to be able to, you know, be expressive and all that sort of thing in the arts as well,

04:02obviously, you know, arts funding's been slashed so much over the last, I don't know,

04:0615 years or so, but how is it, how, from your experience, how have you seen the North East

04:11scene kind of work its way through that? I'd be lying if I said Sam Fender didn't help,

04:18you know, what he's done for the area, Warrant is a massive thing, but he's almost became,

04:23he's paving the way almost in British music now, so he's doing brilliant. So yeah, everyone wants

04:30to be the next Sam Fender and everybody wants to start gigging, you know, there'll always be talent

04:35and there'll always be the creative, whatever that might mean. There'll always be people out

04:39there creating music and creating art and poetry and all that kind of stuff, so I don't think,

04:46if I've interpreted your question wrong, I do apologise, but I don't think the talent has

04:51stopped, I just think the places where they can showcase that talent isn't getting the support

04:56it needs. I don't necessarily think the individual is becoming any worse or any better than what they

05:02always have been, I just think that the places where they can go and showcase their talent isn't

05:07being looked after.

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