Music / Gender Equality
Lightime ‘mothers in music’ series flips industry on its head
Mothers are banding together to reclaim their place in a landscape that, traditionally, dismisses their experiences and fails to accommodate them.
The Mothers in Music network is tackling the music industry head on, starting with a practical alternative to the night-hours economy which restricts the involvement of people with children.
Their Lightime Music series, beginning on November 16 and running for the next six months at St George’s and satellite venues – bringing music to where audiences live, starting with east Bristol – will see musicians who are also mothers performing during daylight hours to mixed audiences including parents and their children.
is needed now More than ever
“This programme is lovely, and I hope it unlocks abit of thinking and conversation – and that it becomes a movement in time,” says network founder Alice Ballantine Dykes.
The BYOB (Bring Your Own Baby) choir performed at the network’s first event in March, which also featured local artists Beth Rowley, Rachael Dadd and Rita Lynch, and Radio 2 Folk Singer of the Year Rioghnach Connolly – photo: Emma Rice
The idea was born from conversations at the bi-monthly Mothers in Music meetings at the Bristol Beacon, attracting women across the industry from performers to producers, composers and women working ‘behind the scenes’.
“Mothers are fantastically resourceful, they work around problems every day with their children. So this was no different,” says Alice, a mother, musician and women’s life coach.
The network’s first daytime music event, at The Mount Without in March, was hailed a huge success.
“There’s just not an audience or an expectation that performances happen during the day,” says Alice, “but I’m very happy to say that is changing really rapidly.
“From an artist and audience and venue point of view, it makes really good business sense to start understanding how to build that audience.”
From the first event which featured punk figurehead Rita Lynch, roots musician Beth Rowley, experimental artist Rachael Dadd, BBC award-winning folk singer Rioghnach Connolly and a new opera from Emma Butterworth, as well as 5pm DJ sets from Queen of Pressure and Black Astral, the series showcases a diverse range of sounds and styles.
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New wave jazz artist Samantha Lindo headlines on November 16, while future performers include Sailing Stones launching Colours, a consideration of postnatal depression and new motherhood’s technicolour world; Welsh artist Angharad, whose album Motherland is an honest, visceral take on motherhood’s dislodging of career and identity; and My Midnight Heart, an electronic ‘sonic spellcaster’ exploring matrescence.
Not only are these events providing musicians with an opportunity to perform once again, they’re also presenting motherhood as a valuable story.
“A lot of the mothers in the network have wanted to turn their creative lens on motherhood – and it’s not only a bit of a taboo, it’s also seen as commercially unviable, not a very interesting subject matter – an issue rife in the arts for millennia.
“But we’re building an audience that will absolutely lap up the question of motherhood. They would be delighted to have their experiences reflected through art.
“If women are limited from pursuing and sustaining their careers in the arts when they reach motherhood then we don’t hear those stories which is a real shame. We’re losing a really valuable voice.”
It’s part of a wider question about women’s place in the industry. Music’s lack of accommodation for mothers renders their experience invisible, and children are not granted access to female musical role models, a problem exacerbated by the industry’s ‘cult of youth’ where older women artists are dismissed and overlooked.
“The arts world is not supporting and managing to keep women beyond the age of 35-40, and it’s a loss to our cultural identity,” continues Alice.
“By talking about motherhood we are also encompassing questions of age and ageism, gender disparities, the paygap, how women are treated – as referenced in this year’ huge Misogyny in Music report.”
Alice acknowledges the ‘systemic issues’ and highlights the lack of accessibility for pushchairs and breastfeeding spaces in venues, as well as the Arts Council’s refusal to accept funding applications to cover childcare costs.
She says the network is attempting to tackle the structural issues one pragmatic step at a time.
“We’re saying the industry could be more patient, and willing to accommodate some slight changes and differences, and through that they could retain and benefit from a wealth of expertise,” she says.
“We’re calling into question how we as audiences want to access and consume our art. Let’s be abit open-minded, that actually a daytime gig is as high status, as high profile, as gigs in the evening. We’re shifting the audience expectation and then these opportunities merge that are win-win for everybody.”
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Lighttime Music kicks off with Samantha Lindo on November 16 at St George’s: find out more here.
There will be dedicated wheelchair/buggy space; room inside and out for young members of the audience to play quietly; softer seating; and shorter set times, with more opportunities to change nappies, get refreshments, and move around. While a listening audience is encouraged, the artists are primed to expect more noise than at a ‘typical’ gig.
The next Mothers in Music network meet up is at Bristol Beacon on November 22, from 10.30-12.30. Children welcome. Find all details at bristolbeacon.org/whats-on/mothers-in-music-network
Main image: Alice Ballantine Dykes
Read next:
- ‘Women in music are not treated the way we should be’
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