goNorth Submissions now open

I don't think it's much of a secret that I really enjoy my annual trips up to Inverness for Scotland's largest music industry event, goNorth. Not only has it given me the opportunity to meet a lot of people and make contacts that I wouldn't normally have had the chance meet, but it's also been one of the most fun things I have been involved with since I started this blog. I am pretty sure that my liver is only just starting to get over the battering that it took after last years debauchery. Having originally been invited up to write a review about the event, last year I was lucky enough to appear on two panels. One about blogging and another about starting up your own record label (I really was blagging it on that panel), plus in the evening myself and my blogger cronies, The Pop Cop and Song, By Toad also got to curate our own night featuring Kid Canaveral, PAWS, LightGuides and IndianRedLopez.
Man, that was a fun night, highlights included dancing on a table to Kid Canaveral (whilst singing the wrong words and nearly putting the band off), watching Phil from PAWS invading the crowd and causing mayhem, followed by inadvertently calling the head of FatCat a 'c*nt', proceed by spending the next hour asking questions about Frightened Rabbit (at a point where they'd just left the label), followed by me babbling on about how they should sign PAWS. Yes folks, I am that drunken arse.

Anyway, the whole point of this post was really just to let you all know that the submission window to showcase at this years goNorth opened today. Now obviously I am a wee bit biased about the importance of goNorth, but as I said before it's been great for me in allowing me to develop both the blog and the label(s). In case you don't already know, basically goNorth is an industry get together which runs seminars during the day then in the evening they have live music showcases taking place around Inverness city centre. Imagine it is being like SXSW on a much much smaller scale. Even though the venues are so close together, with over 70 bands showcasing it is pretty tough to take in everything you want to see, but if you plan your route out in advance, it is possible to check out a lot of good (and not so good) stuff.

This years event is a wee bit different in that it's taking place during the middle of the week on Wednesday the 6th and Thursday the 7th of June this year, plus they're also going to give bands that play at the event the opportunity to feature on their goNORTH Festival Tour, which means that bands will be given the chance to play at festivals such as Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival, The Wickerman Festival, Summer In The City 2012, B-Fest and Loopallu.The one big announcement that they made was that four of the bands that are selected to play at goNorth, will also be given the opportunity to go out and play at the Summerfest Festival in Milwaukee. Yes, fucking Milwaukee in the US of fucking A!

If that sounds like something that you might be interested in, then you can submit your application now or you could even just find out more details by heading here. Hopefully I'll catch a few of you up in Inverness in June for a couple of days of schmoozing, boozing and plenty of great music.

IndianRedLopez - My Eyes

Kid Canaveral - Teenage Fanclub Song