An Insight Into..:2519

Ian From Access Creative College

04/08/18

Many of us will know it as Access To Music, or to use its correct name Access Creative College (ACC). The glorious music hub, based on Magdalen Street, is very much part of the music scene within Norwich, so we met up with Ian Johnson to get the low down on what ACC is all about.

How would you explain what ACC is all about?

We are a national creative college specialising in music, games, media and events. We operate in seven locations across the UK, which includes a campus next to Epic Studios on Magdalen Street in Norwich.

ACC has a number of notable success stories including Ed Sheeran, Let’s Eat Grandma and recent fledglings Maya Law and Aphra. How do you do it?

We spend time nurturing relationships with local talent, often while they are still in school. Sometime we get them referred to us by other organisations and initiatives like our local BBC Introducing team. We then help them develop their career and offer them opportunities within the industry. For example, they have the chance to play and work at festivals such as Latitude and Sundown. We also introduce them to key players like labels, managers and agents. We recently had Laurence from Domino Records [Arctic Monkeys, Super Furry Animals] come out to see one of our acts. Although it’s early days, it’s important that students are signposted to trusted partners. Sometimes the acts will be signed while still studying with us. Let’s Eat Grandma are an example of this and they actually recorded their first album, I, Gemini, in our studios. We act as a go-between between label and parent and try to ensure that the students get an education that reflects everyone’s needs. Let's Eat Grandma have been very supportive and they recently returned to headline a Skynt night at Epic, which was promoted by music business students at the college.

July saw ACC supply acts for Latitude and Jimmy’s Festival in Suffolk. Is this an important output for ACC work?

Yes, it’s very important. We pride ourselves on being able to offer our students industry experience, both on and off the stage. Both Mullally and Ed Sheeran played our stage at Latitude at the start of their career. We aim to have eight festivals across the next year for our musicians to play at. We also have our student sound engineers working at festivals and events, while our Event Production students help with the management and organisation. New for this year was a Games Workshop marquee in the Inbetweeners area at Latitude. This offered teenagers the chance to create their own games characters.

ACC will also supply acts for Sundown this year, that must be exciting for your students?

Yes, this is our first proper year working in partnership with Sundown. We are going to run the new Platform Stage with Music Glue (who is another of our partners). We will have six acts playing on the stage, plus sound engineers working the desk. We are also helping with the VIP area. Our very own Maya Law is playing the main stage this year too.

ACC appears to be preparing young people for an understanding of life in the creative industries. 

That's the plan. We have some incredible friends and contacts in the industry. Because we have a track record of producing acts like Ed Sheeran, JP Cooper, Let’s Eat Grandma, Mullally, Rita Ora and many more, the industry takes an interest in the acts we are developing. However, we are very careful to only introduce our students to trusted partners.

Our staff are also very well-connected, so they bring their own networks into play too. That's the case with Robin Milton, our Games Tutor, who is well-known in the regional games scene, including Norfolk Games Developers. The college now plays a key educational role in the annual Norwich Gaming Festival which takes place at The Forum in late May.

Where can people find out more?

For more on Access Creative College, head to accesscreative.ac.uk.

Kevin