FMC Gig Circuit

The First Music Contact gig circuit was set up for a number of different reasons but primary amongst them was to get bands playing around the country. Bands were selected from different collectives and given a 12 day tour. The venues, local press and accommodation were looked after by local collectives and therefore gave each of them opportunitites to provide national bands to a local audience. Among the bands who participated were Petronela, (Sligo) Sugar Island (Newry) Rag Doll (Cork) and Urban Myth (Belfast).

The gig circuit was grant aided by The Gulbenkian Foundation

The Crossfader Project

The Crossfader project was conceived and designed by the First Music Contact in association with MusicBase and was funded by the International Fund for Ireland, The Peace and Reconciliation Fund, the T&EA and Fas.

The Crossfader group, 20 people picked from various music collectives in the Federations membership, studied different aspects of the music industry, in an intensive three month course in Dublin, Belfast and the Harris Institute for the Arts, Toronto. At the same time the process of recording, performing, engineering and producing a critically acclaimed CD 'Blah'.

Music Programme 98

Music Programme 98 was a twenty week music industry training course designed by the Federation of Music Collectives, which took place in Lurgan with participants picked from the Portadown Music Collective and the Re: Sound Music Collective in Monaghan. The group produced an album and a magazine at the end of the course. The programme was run in conjunction with the Monaghan and Portadown Partnership and was grant aided by the International Fund for Ireland, T&EA and FAS. The group produced a compilation CD of local artists, as well as songs written by members of the group, they also produced a prototype for a glossy music magazine for the area.