Wiltshire off the map for bands

By Will Walder

The Motherload: Andy, Piers, Rob

Although Wiltshire is awash with some brilliant new artists, some find it hard to admit where they are from.

If the website says their location is Bath, Bristol, Andover or Southampton, there is a good chance they are from this county.

It almost makes you wonder what is so good about these places in comparison to Trowbridge, Salisbury and Swindon.

So now seems to be the time to stand up for where you live and put Wiltshire firmly back on the map.

Where am I?

For bands like I Said Yes who are from Pewsey, it would seem confusing when their MySpace says they are from Edinburgh, Oxford, London and Bristol.

There is a good reason though, as this is where the band members went to their respective universities and the place where they played their first ever gig. The part which remains unexplained is why Wiltshire remains off the list.

Promoters just have a natural reaction that if you're not from the city, it's a lot more difficult to get in Rob - The Motherload

The same can be said of the Trowbridge band The Blunders who say they are from Bath like other bands from West Wiltshire (The Volt, Silhouette Showgirls) who say they are from a city outside of the county.

One of the only bands who could genuinely make this claim is Malmesbury band The Motherload.

They lived together in Bristol for six years under their previous guise of Stone From Delphi and have just moved back to the area to regroup and prepare themselves to assault the city again.

Home Turf

They consider themselves to be a Bristol band despite their roots in Wiltshire, and say that promoters discriminate against artists from outside of their local area in favour of musicians who are more likely to bring in a crowd.

They also think that by having a concentrated area of venues makes it a lot easier for artists to create a scene and to be part of that scene, you have to pledge some sort allegiance.

So it would appear that the best way to get noticed if you are in a band is to say you are from a place which is bigger than where you actually are.

If you looked at the examples of The Alfonz and Beatbullyz (Swindon), Sion (Middle Wallop) and City Stereo (Salisbury) who have all been successful and proud of their origins.

So the message is simple: be proud of where you are from and good things will happen.