Pre-MOBO Awards event held to celebrate young talent
An event to celebrate music of black origin - Glasgow. Music. Now. - has been launched by Scottish Enterprise in association with New Media Corp to celebrate the MOBO Awards being held in Glasgow tomorrow night.
The event, held at The Hub in the city’s Digital Media Quarter - saw home grown troupes of bhangra, hip hop and break dances begin the celebrations ahead of the MOBO awards which will be held in Glasgow tomorrow night.
The event was designed to attract hundreds of young people and music industry figures and was attended by the creator of the MOBO's Kanya King MBE.
Live performances included the colourful Punjabi No. 1 bhangra group, S-Type and Scatterbrain, featuring Loki, Marrik and Depths with their hip-hop routine, The Flying Jalapenos with their break-dancing show, Chebe Suleman of Teaching Drums, an African drum school and Preston Reed, acoustic guitar virtuoso.
The lively panel debate, chaired by former editor of NME Stuart Cosgrove, considered the themes, ‘Where is Scotland's Cultural Soul in the Digital Age?’ and ‘What do you know about MOBO?’
The event was designed to motivate and inspire young people aspiring to make a name for themselves in the music industry – whether as sound engineers, composers of film soundtracks, recording artists, radio presenters or music producers.
Lena Wilson, chief operating officer for Scottish Enterprise commented: "It is a great honour to be the first city outside of London to host the MOBO Awards in their fourteen year history and we, in Scotland and more specifically, in Glasgow, feel very privileged to be associated with one of the most televised music award shows in the world today. This supporting event ahead of the MOBO Awards was a great platform for to showcase and debate what Scotland has to offer in the digital media sector."
Arvind Salwan, director at New Media Corp, said that the event was designed to focis on business, music, equality and the creative industries and also targeted colleges and universities in Glasgow to get involved.
Salwan continued: “Glasgow. Music. Now. organised by Scottish Enterprise, in conjunction with New Media Corp, Soma Recordings, Radio Magnetic and Open Ear, served as a platform to showcase sub-culture and the urban music scene’s musical talent and to debate cutting edge issues affecting the music and digital industry – a debate initiated through social networks over recent weeks.”