Satisfying a music craving

Eat Up! For Starters was founded by music collective Eat Up!. Co-founder Vicky Hobbs explains what it’s about:

What is Eat Up! For Starters (EUFS)?

It’s a programme of workshops and events designed to promote musical skills and share knowledge within the DIY music community. It’s made up of the Eat Up! collective, who put on queer, feminist punk nights bi-monthly at Exchange, and friends from the Bristol DIY punk community, who led the workshops.

The workshops are aimed at groups we feel are under-represented on gig lineups in the Bristol punk scene and try to create spaces where people can learn new music skills and experience making DIY music in a friendly and accessible environment.

Eat Up! For Starters worked with local people from Bristol’s DIY music scene, who led workshops

When did EUFS start?
Autumn 2018. We realised there was a need for more queer, feminist bands from our city amd there were lots of people out there who wanted to get involved in bands but not sure how to start.

How did the idea come about?
We have been inspired by events such as School of Frock in Exeter and First-Timers in London who have helped some amazing bands form, such as Young Adventurers, Charmpit and Big Joanie.

It’s something there has been a need and desire for in Bristol for a long time. We were really happy to have a supportive platform at Exchange and many amazing people who wanted to be part of it to be able to put something into place.

Why did you set up EUFS?
The punk scene should be inclusive and diverse, but this isn’t always the reality. We want to see diverse people on our lineups and we think other promoters should be seeking those bands out too.

In order to directly address the lack of diversity in the make-up of some bands within the DIY music community, the endpoint of our workshops was a showcase to encourage new bands to form as part of the workshops. The gig happened at Exchange in March and saw eight new bands forming and performing – with the whole crowd cheering them on.

In order to sign up to play as a band the band as a whole had to be able to say they’d never played before or identify as one or more of the following: disabled (visible or non-visible), trans, queer, non binary, LGBTQIA+, a person of colour or a woman.

All of our workshops were financially accessible – no one was turned away for lack of funds. It’s really important to us that everyone can access our workshops.

Eat Up! For Starters ran workshops on everything from drumming to songwriting

Why is EUFS important for the queer and feminist community?

We want to build our community even more. Learning musical instruments is expensive, with the cost of equipment and lessons. We aim to make all of our workshops as accessible as possible – equipment was provided from Factory Studios.

Also, it’s important to have a space to speak your mind, but also to see yourself represented up on stage. It’s empowering to hear people shouting about things you care about and speaking about issues that matter to you. The bands that came out of the workshops this year really did that.

What is EUFS bringing to the DIY punk music scene in Bristol?
As organisers, Eat Up! personally identify with some of the groups we want to support and we definitely want to see more brilliant bands who represent us and our community on stage; it’s felt as though some of the gatekeepers within the punk scene don’t always reflect us, our views or things that matter to us.

We want to see other music promoters booking more diverse musicians on their line ups. EUFS helps this to happen by offering people support to form bands and have a platform to present what they’ve come up with in a really positive atmosphere.

A couple of the bands formed from the workshops, General Jinjur and Nervous Rex, are already popping up on Bristol lineups which is very exciting.

What’s been the best bit of running EUFS?
Seeing everyone who attended the workshops learning skills and having fun, and how much the workshop leaders enjoyed teaching other people. A lot of them had not done anything like this before either and really got a lot out of it.

The showcase was incredible as well – full of talent and so impressive that some bands were completely made up of people who had started learning their instruments only a few months ago.

What’s in store for the future? Will you run the workshops again?
We would love to. Our plan is to start again this autumn with a showcase again in early 2020; we’ve had so much positive feedback from people who’ve valued meeting like-minded people, building their confidence up by performing on stage and finding a new outlet in writing music or playing together.

Eight bands formed for the showcase on March 9 – credit @gj_ckson

Find out more events on the Eat Up! collective’s Facebook page and upcoming workshops on the Eat Up! For Starters Facebook page.

Main photo courtesy of @gj_ckson

Read more: Eat Up! is helping to diversify Bristol’s local music scene