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The Great Leap Forward

About Me

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TGLF started when Giles' band huck did a gig for Oxjam. One of the support acts was the extremely talented Oscar Laurence. As he was under 18, the venue (as is their right) said he was too young to get in, so he couldn't play. As Tessa, the important half of TGLF and huck's manager, felt she owed him a gig, she decided to do something about it. The result was a great night at the Arts Centre with Smaller Than You, The Interpreters, The Triggers and Oscar. It was an under 18's event with a complete alcohol ban in the venue and the night was a sell out and we made a tidy sum for Oxfam and paid for the venue. Hurrah!!We sat down after Christmas and talked to the Arts Centre and decided that, with their help, we would put some more gigs on this year. We did one in March and there's another on te 19th of July with more to follow in the second half of the year. We may have to put some more on before the summer as it's proving pretty popular.One of the things we do ask of bands is that they let us know what sort of following they have and how many people they would expect to come to make sure the night covers it's costs, pays for the venue and gives us enough money to publicise the next one.Our aim is to pass on any experience we have that you may think is worthwhile about gigging, recording, songwriting and rehearsing. The gigs are set up with a backstage crew and stage manager who are there to make everything goes smoothly from making sure there are back up amps and guitars to re-stringing and tuning. All to make the gig as hassle free as possible for you.The name comes from, with his permission, a song by Billy Bragg (who told us he borrowed it from Mao Tse Tung) and encapsulates what we are trying to do – namely try to give bands/artistes a great leap forwards by helping them take their first (and sometimes second, third and fourth) steps in to performance be it by promotion, management or just plain old advice. Our current focus is mainly on younger bands as we stage under 18’s gigs at and in conjunction with Norwich Arts Centre but, we are happy to converse with any band from anywhere.If you are based in East Anglia, get in touch. If we can help we'll let you know. If we can’t help we’ll let you know.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 12/02/2007
Type of Label: Major

My Blog

Friday Night

We had a great time on Friday putting on our first night at the Jurnet Bar. A big thanks to Emily Creed, Jamie McNerney, Badger Go Rabbit, Ed Sheeran and Oscar Laurence. It was a great evening with so...
Posted by on Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:20:00 GMT

Just an update

Sorry for not adding anything for a while but Tess and I have been busy with our jobs, which pay the bills. We are finalising the publicity etc for the 25/10/07 and the line up should prove to offer a...
Posted by on Sat, 29 Sep 2007 02:24:00 GMT

Trowse

What a day. so amny people to thank first. Marc J, Paul, Jason and all the Trowsers team. Big Bry, Cate, Jamie and Florence for the tent. Martin for making it sound so good. Matt & Claire for help...
Posted by on Fri, 14 Sep 2007 06:54:00 GMT

The kabeedies in London

The Kabeedies have been asked by the BBC to play at their showpiece Blast event in Hyde Park on the 19th July. The first we knew was when the beeb got in touch asking for contact deatils for The Kabee...
Posted by on Tue, 10 Jul 2007 10:04:00 GMT

New web site

I have finally got round to putting up a website for TGLF at http://www.thegreatleapforward.org.uk. Please go and have a look. It's a bit basic but will get better over time.   Giles
Posted by on Sun, 17 Jun 2007 02:07:00 GMT

Flo Brown's review of our BBC Blast gig at the Waterfront 12/5/07

Review Of Saturday 12th May 2007 The Great Leap Forward/ BBC Blast The Waterfront                  What better way to shelter from the r...
Posted by on Wed, 16 May 2007 13:13:00 GMT

New backline courtesy of Peavey

On Sarturday, Virgil Lund of Peavey braved all the chicken shit on my lawn to present TGLF with two combo amps, a bass amp and a 4 x 10 cab. Peavey have very kindly let TGLF have this gear on per...
Posted by on Tue, 08 May 2007 08:50:00 GMT

An exiting week!

It's been an exiting week for us, actually an exiting couple of weeks! Firstly we had a meeting with a promoter and venue manager in London about taking TGLF on the road to 'the smoke'. The whole thin...
Posted by on Sat, 21 Apr 2007 00:09:00 GMT

Arts Centre Gig

Thank you to everybody who turned up to the TGLF gig at the Arts Centre gig last night. I'm sure you will agree that we had a great selection of bands and heard some brilliant music. Although I should...
Posted by on Sat, 24 Mar 2007 04:45:00 GMT

Friday on my mind

Well there's only a few days to go until the tglf extravaganza at the atrs centre. All the bands are lined up, tickets are selling and all the other prep has been done. This waiting bit is the bi...
Posted by on Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:45:00 GMT