Own Your Stage are a North East live music performance group that provides open access to live music performance opportunities for young singers. Lee Allcock caught up with head honcho Sean Condon to find out more about the group.
So, tell me about Own Your Stage (OYS) and why it was set up/your overall aims…
I set up OYS with a friend and her performer daughter in the spring of 2018. We are a totally open access, no entry fee, no entry qualification, no diva, totally for the love of music, family-friendly, everyone’s equal, mutually supportive and respectful, positive ethos, nurturing, accepting, encouraging and smile on the face young person’s live music performance group.
What’s your background in terms of working in the music industry/supporting young adults?
I am a secondary school Modern Languages and RE teacher who can sing a bit but who has NO talent as an instrumentalist. My wife is a very accomplished multi-instrumentalist and we are both passionate music lovers who brought our 3 sons up in a house and car filled daily with a variety of music. Unsurprisingly, the 3 boys showed a great interest in music and dabbled with a range of instruments until they settled on wanting to play electric rock ‘n’ roll with a dash of punk attitude, and formed their band The Maverick Rejects (TMR) in 2008, and started gigging publicly when they were 11 and 14 years old!! They were lucky that the people on the Tyneside live circuit took them to their hearts, and in less than a year they were an established part of the gigging scene. I worked as chaperone/ roadie/soundman/booking agent/manager/driver and have continued to do so until the present day as TMR became one of the most popular and in-demand function/wedding/event bands in the NE and beyond.
How did you get into this?
I “tried” to retire from full-time teaching in July 2018 to focus more on developing quality performance opportunities for young people – like my sons – and watched the popularity of OYS grow quickly as young performers heard about what we were offering. The monthly Thursday Showcases at our ‘spiritual home’, The Voyager’ in South Shields, soon became oversubscribed with stunningly impressive singers and players aged 8 to 18 – and the family atmosphere and ethos of OYS became established. Bedroom performers now had a public outlet and were flourishing. We now have demand from venues to provide entertainers/gigs and are proud to say that a group of our 14+ members are now regularly being offered full gigs at various venues having served their OYS apprenticeship. We offer support and training to develop gig-ready skills and repertoires so that the performers present themselves as viable choices alongside older, well-established performers.
What do you have planned for April?
As well as the monthly Thursday Showcase, we have four Sunday Next Level showcases in different venues for our more developed members as well as several Third Level events for the fully gig-ready group. There’s a lot going on.
And how can people get involved?
We would love to hear from anyone aged 8-18 who wants to sing/ play/both. Everyone is welcome so come as YOU are – that’s enough. We’d love to meet and hear you.
To find out more from Own Your Stage, head to facebook.com/Own-Your-Stage.
