Guitar music impacts on you

Nov 9 2007 by Phil Key, Liverpool Daily Post

As the 19th International Guitar Festival of Great Britain begins, Philip Key meets the organiser

LIKE many good ideas, it began with a casual conversation. Newly-appointed Wirral Arts Officer Rob Smith had a chat with local guitarist Brendan McCormack during a reopening of Birkenhead Priory.

McCormack was there to play the lute, Smith was there in his new official role. It was 1988. Smith had worked in the voluntary sector with organisations like the Birkenhead Arts Association and various youth choirs, but was looking for something special for the borough.

“Generally speaking, Wirral at that time had never been very good at staging arts festivals,” he says. “There had just not been the interest or support for them. I was interested in bringing something special to Wirral, something different, something it could call its own.”

During a lunch break at the Priory that day, Smith explained his problem to McCormack.

“Well, have you thought about a guitar festival?” suggested McCormack, a guitarist who had once been part of a double act with comedian Tom O’Connor as the duo Tom and Brennie.

“Not as yet,” replied Smith.

“It sounded like something a bit different and maybe something we could do something with,” says Smith today.

The following day, he began researching the project with all the professional bodies, including the Musicians’ Union, guitar magazines and the Performing Rights Society.

“As far as they knew at that time in 1988, there was not a guitar festival in the UK. So maybe this was something that was going to be unique.”

Smith is now head of arts and museums for Wirral – the day job, he calls it – but has been from the outset director of the International Guitar Festival of Great Britain. The 19th festival, running for three weeks, has just got under way.

“I never thought back then that I would be sitting here 19 years later talking about how brilliant the festival has been.

“We have developed something rather special in Wirral, particul-arly considering we are just across the water from Liverpool, Music City. It’s quite something, although we see the festival as complemen- tary to what Liverpool provides.”

McCormack was in the early years the man who selected the acts.

“Brendan was – if you will excuse the pun – instrumental in getting the contacts as he was well connected with professional guitarists; I was the event organiser and it was a combination that set the ball rolling,” Smith explains.

McCORMACK helped with programming in the early years and, while he still makes appearances – he is in this year’s festival – it is now down to Smith and his team to put the festival together.

They have been enormously successful, and the festival is now highly regarded across the world.

“We went for an international line-up from the start,” says Smith. “That set it apart from the usual local, indigenous festival.

“When we began, Europe was looming on the horizon, and in 1992 there was a European initiative in Wirral.

“Looking at our potential audience, we knew it was the right thing to do and the international flavour meant it developed outside the normal kind of event.”

The festival website now gets 30,000 hits a week, and those seeking information come from across the globe.