new society

Hi there

 There doesn't seem to be a society dedicated to blues musicians and listeners. So, I want to start one. I need members before it can become an official society which is why I am posting here.

 My aim is to bring together a group of people who want to go to gigs in the city, jam together or simply go on a pub crawl and talk about the blues/jazz/rock and roll.

 Anyone who is interested please send me an email - jcd1v07@soton.ac.uk

 Many thanks, joey

Posted at 19:19:43 on 06-05-2008

You need 25 members to be exact, though i'm not sure you guys will be significantly different enough from the Jazz Orchestra and Live Music Society that we already have. Both of these have the ability to play and stage Blues, in the Union and around the local area.

As for  - "bringing together a group of people who want to go to gigs in the city, jam together or simply go on a pub crawl and talk about the blues/jazz/rock and roll." - I have to say that this is not really sufficient grounding for the establishment of a Union Society, particularly not when there exist a great number of societies - musical, departmental, international even - who can all achieve this within their range of activities.

Sorry about that, but a new Society has to really fill a niche!

Posted at 01:41:55 on 07-05-2008

So the rock society is sufficiently different from the indie music society, but a blues society would be too similar to the jazz band.

This is getting confusing. 

Joseph, If you did a pub crawl, would you go to 12 bars?

Posted at 03:50:41 on 07-05-2008

Haha, very good. I'll have to use that one I think!

 Yeah it is a bit confusing. It seems to me that, as long as they're doing something constructive (i.e. performing arts society performing the arts or a blues society playing the blues) then that is 'sufficient grounds'. 

 I understand that when starting a society you are not aloud to duplicate any other society's intentions. But then, as you pointed out, Joel, the rock society and the indie society would be far more similar than blues and jazz. Equally I'm sure the Jazz orchestra and the live music society cover much of the same ground. At the end of the day I'm very passionate about the blues and I'm sure there are others around. I think a society would be a great way to bring these people together in a easy, fantastic environment.

Posted at 08:19:50 on 07-05-2008

Thank you for your unendingly helpful input there Joel - Rocksoc and AIM are perhaps not as different, but they were affiliated sometime ago, by a different Officer under different rules and constraints. We currently have 143 Societies, almost twice as many as there are AU Clubs, and we cannot go on growing forever.

For this reason, if someone wants to set up a society, they have to be offering something that cannot already be offered regularly by any other group. As far as I can see from the aims that Joseph has set out - going to gigs, jamming, talking and appreciating - there are a whole raft of existing groups that fit his requirements.

The point is that whilst we may not have a group that deals specifically with Blues, we cannot possibly allow a group for every kind of music - just as we cannot possibly consider having a national group from every nation of the world. I would love to be able to, but with a miniscule budget that gets smaller every year and no full time members of staff working in the department, it simply is not humanly possible to do so.

There are various routes you can take - becoming a sub-group of an existing Society for example, or perhaps running yourselves independently of the Union, or through the Staff Club if you have staff members. However a group for the appreciating and playing of a specific kind of music cannot be affiliated at the current time.

Posted at 13:38:34 on 07-05-2008

I'm more a fan of the 16-bar crawl myself

Posted at 15:57:17 on 07-05-2008

Thanks for all your input. It's a shame but if that's the way things are then I completely understand.

 Thanks again

Posted at 16:10:21 on 07-05-2008