Congratulations to all the SAE students and our team who took on opportunities at this year’s Liverpool Sound City to make the event such a success.
Many of our students helped make the event happen, working at different venues across Liverpool to support the extensive programme of live music.
This year saw performances from local stars Red Rum Club and Michael Head alongside plenty of emerging artists and bands.
As part of our partnership, SAE hosted a stage showcasing different acts, including Pomona, BL!SS, The Drivers Club and Sophie Ekins’ Red Coven.
Duncan Lewis, SAE Music Business Lecturer, also invited a panel of top Liverpool-based music industry practitioners to share the stage with him to discuss the Sound of the Future at a panel event at FACT in the city.
Commenting, Duncan said: “I was very proud to host our SAE panel at Sound City this year and the event was the next step in our relationship with the event, having been an educational partner for the last three years.”
“Sharing the insights of some of the industry’s leading professionals as part of the Sound of the Future panel meant we were able to expand our presence from the stages, where SAE students work, into the educational side of the event.”
“It was also a fantastic way for SAE to lead industry conversations and to show to any aspiring students the calibre and expertise of the industry practitioners they get to meet and hear from when they join us. We’re delighted with how the partnership is blossoming and already looking forward to 2025.”
Many students enjoyed experience working at different venues as part of the event, including Grand Central Hall, the Jacaranda, the Shipping Forecast and many more.
Joe Ellis worked as assistant audio tech at the Spanish Caravan, helping set up the bands, then shadowing the tech during sound check and mixing stages.
Joe said: “The experience was invaluable and I made some good contacts in the industry. I like to think I’ve increased my reputation within the industry as a hard worker and hopefully that will help me with future work.”
Student Josh Barnard said: “This opportunity correlated directly in line with all my future aspirations as I am looking to not only be involved in live event engineering, but also with running my own recording studio and my own bar in the future.”
“Gaining the knowledge not only provided by SAE but also with seeing how in real life this was used and adapted and the tricks people use to get the job done correctly was a huge bonus on building my confidence for this future. This, along with networking with people in the industry, and not only talking the talk, but proving I can walk the walk, really helped build this confidence even more, which wouldn’t have been available to me otherwise.”
Louis Brown was an assistant sound tech, with his main duties including helping loading in bands/artists, assisting in setting up the bands on stage and making sure all mics and instruments were set up correctly.
Commenting, he said: “My personal highlight was being able to mix a full (albeit simple) set. There was a considerable crowd and it was one of the most enjoyable things I’ve ever done.”
“This opportunity helped me get started in accruing some experience in the live sound industry, and verified to me that this is something I wanted to do as a career.”
Find out more about our industry partnership with Liverpool Sound City.
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