MUSIC student Kieron Cranton has dipped his toe into the world of gig promotion for his final college project by risking his own savings to organise a night of live music.
The 18-year-old, who is in his second year at Wiltshire College & University Centre’s Chippenham campus, has hired a venue, hired bands and organised technical support, ticket sales and marketing for the gig on April 24 at The Ruze in Union Street, Chippenham.
Kieron, of Melksham, said although most of his classmates are recording songs for their final performance project, he wanted to do something that fits in with his ambition of going into event management.
“It’s something I’m really interested in and I know the studio at the college is going to be very booked out if I wanted to record something,” he said. “I thought if I do something a bit more external, it’s more in my own hands and I can keep track of my schedule rather than having to rely on a lot of people to be free.”
He approached several venues around the area but used his entrepreneurial skills to strike a deal at The Ruze. He has used his own savings and money earned working overtime at McDonald’s in Melksham to set the gig up.
“It’s been rough going but I’ve enjoyed it,” he said. “It would be nice to break even but it is good experience. I’ve worked a lot of shifts to help get the money and I’ve learned a lot about setting the right ticket price and how important promotion is.”
The gig will be headlined by Bristol and Bath band Chase The Wild and supported by Sonic Pulse, made of some of Kieron’s classmates. His own band, The Sunnies, will also be supporting.
He and some friends formed the band while at Melksham Oak School two years ago. “We started playing indie pop but I’d say we’re moving towards indie rock now,” he said. “I started off playing bass guitar but I’ve moved to lead guitar.”
The group have released six songs on Spotify, their most recent, Listen To Me, came out last week.
Lecturer Andy Parker saluted Kieron’s bravery. “I don’t think any of my students has ever organised a full night on their own for a final performance project,” he said. “He has worked really hard and I think it’s brilliant.
“He’s put in the money out of his own pocket and it’s a really good learning experience whatever happens. I’m really impressed with how he’s sort of approached loads of people and thought of all of the aspects of it as well.”
Tickets for the gig are just £6.50, including an online booking fee. “I think that’s really good value for two hours of live music,” said Kieron.
He is hoping to go to university at BIMM in Bristol to study music performance and production after college. “The events management is something I’d like to keep as an option as well because it can be quite good, especially for experience in live sound,” he said.
“Being someone who plays gigs, doing it from the perspective of the promoter instead has been quite enlightening really.”
The gig is on Friday, April 24 from 7pm.
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