a re-print from “The Record”
Stop! Pretending you’re somebody you’re not. Stop! Thinking you’ll become who you are by acting like someone else. Maybe that’s who you are. In which case continue being who you are. Confused?
“Stop!”, Radio Communautaire Missisquoi’s battle of the bands TV show which plays every week on Vox TV out of Granby, insists on young-budding and sometimes older-budding rock musicians to write their own songs if they want to be on the show. You won’t find musicians performing a song by Offspring for instance, but you might find an artist sounding like them. The challenge for regional artists is to create something musically their own.
Isn’t this what it’s all about when trying to build community? If people living in the Town of Brome Lake, for example, want to put on a music festival, should they spend thousands of dollars on great BIB (bigger is better) / internationally renowned talent thinking locals will pay the ticket price, or should they rely on good local artists to fill the bill? You all know what I think, but allow me to elaborate once again.
In all my years of events promotion in the Eastern Townships I must say that the performances most likely to guarantee a return are the shows that feature local talent. There is a networking benefit connected to having local talent featured on a Townships bill you can’t get with BIB talent. It’s called family and friends. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to work in the cities because people are not accustomed to knowing who their neighbours are.
Once a “ruralite” always a “ruralite”. Certain things just don’t make sense in today’s rural cultures. People have been told what to listen to, watch, eat and do for far too long by global interests.
The Montreal Symphony Orchestra did not prove to be the magic pill for Brome Lake’s economic woes and neither did Nagano, the international superstar conductor. Who we going to call? Star Busters!! Who are they? The community. And that means us! Everyone of us has the right to express our own opinions and present our own talented artists to the rest of the world.
Sooner or later we, the people of the Townships, have to start feeling like somebody. Yes we are talented! Yes we have something to say and yes we can make a difference in our lives and others!
The change we are looking for is not going to come from certified global million dollar selling artists. We bought into the BIB concept over the years and helped make the careers of great artists such as Frank Sinatra and the Beatles. We danced to them and as a result heralded a time of complacence and character dissolve never seen before. Sure the music was good, but ours was too. The only thing is, we never got to hear and see who we were. Even to this day we don’t always know who we are.
The culture vacuum left in the Townships by the global-media sponge has never been completely filled and it does us no good to keep accepting its existence. Memories are not reason enough for us to go to the grave without renewing a sense of identity in our communities. We have to embrace who we are at the moment. And believe it or not, this is what RCM is doing.
Unconditionally, we the people of the Townships have to love who we are by being who we are. This means giving ourselves the chance to be heard and to play our hearts out. How important is it for us as a community to reproduce the great global sounds and visions of the past and present? What multinational corporation is going to benefit from these actions? Is the Town of Brome Lake going to be better off for having supported Nagano’s career over the past two years?
RCM”s Stop! show will be expanding into a piano competition as well as a rock band competition in the near future. With a Steinway piano at our disposal, music students in the Townships will be able to experience an instrument professionals are accustomed to playing on. This will no doubt lead to more of our young composers expressing themselves and encourage them to pursue creative interests. How else can we realize our sound and likeness as a community without arts development programs?
Nothing beats living in the Eastern Townships within communities such as Abercorn, Bedford, Bromont, Brome, Cowansville, Dunham, Farnham, Frelighsburg, Granby, Shefford, South Stukely, Sutton, The Town of Brome Lake, Waterloo and the Boltons, East and West and South. And, nothing beats participating as a member and volunteer in RCM.
Being who we are is CIDI, lots of great shows, lots of wonderful hosts and terrific volunteers. Give us a listen (99.1 FM), send us your comments and suggestions, we always want to hear from you all and play the stuff you want to hear.
For those of you who can’t pick us up on the radio, go to our website (www.rcmmedia.org) and click on the live-streaming button. To watch the latest Stop! shows go to the same address. To become a member and contribute to being who we are call us at the numbers below.
Maurice Singfield is a Radio Communautaire Missisquoi volunteer. Tel: 450-242-9873 / 1-888-539-2098.
Tags: culture vacuum, Eastern Townships, Knowlton festival, Nagano, Town of Brome Lake
