One in three Mancunians dream of being rock superstars following the footsteps of Oasis and Queen while chained to their desk jobs, according to a recent survey.
The research by the music education group, BIMM, found two thirds of people in the North West day dream when working, with 36% dreaming about a career in the music industry.
The majority of day job dreamers in the North West voted Queen as the band they would most like to perform onstage with.
Meanwhile North West legends Oasis, The Stone Roses and The Beatles were left out of the limelight, winning only 27% of the votes combined.
Yet around 7% revealed how they were dissuaded by their careers advisor at school to follow a path in the music industry and 13% suffered from a lack of relevant careers advice in order to pursue their dreams.
BIMM Manchester Principal, Vaseema Hamilton, believes people should be given more support to follow their dreams and not be told to follow more conventional careers.
“At BIMM, we want to encourage people to believe in themselves and to believe that their creative and vocational dreams of working in music don’t need to remain unfulfilled,” she said.
According to BIMM’s research, just under a quarter of the UK admitted that they gave up their dreams of a career in music as they didn’t see it as a proper job.
It also found almost a quarter of males admitted that they would pursue their dream of a career in music if they could go back and restart their career.
Founding member of upcoming Manchester band The Gramotones, Sid Cooper, confirmed the scepticism that musicians are often faced with.
“Whenever you’re asked by a human what you’d like to do as a career and you say ‘well I’d like to be a musician’, you always see that little look in their eye which just says ‘you’re an idiot’,” he said.
However, Theo Tobias, lead vocals and rhythm guitarist of the Easy Kills, has had the luxury of full support from back home.
“We all have fairly open minded parents who support and enjoy what we do,” he claimed.
The 23-year-old bassist of the North West’s Soho Riots, Tom Kelly, explained why he’s taken the leap towards a career in music instead of regretting it later in life, despite having to currently work two part-time jobs.
“When I was young I wanted to be a Doctor and A-Level Chemistry came along.
“I studied Law at Liverpool University and graduated last year and now I’m working two part-time jobs.
“Every now and again some people suggest that it might be more beneficial to focus solely on a non-musical career but the enjoyment gives you the drive to carry on.”
“Although it’s competitive, I think it’s worth spending time trying to pursue something you’re passionate about before you perhaps end up doing something that you don’t get much enjoyment out of.”
On the road to the top, Easy Kills’ Theo Tobias is also self-funding his career path into music working in hospitality.
“I finished my degree in English Literature last year and now work in a deli/cafe, serving very affluent people and hating the amount of time they waste when I could use it properly,” he said.
“God knows what drives us. I could say it’s something inherent, but I don’t believe in that stuff.
“I guess we just want to make music because that’s how we best express ourselves and we want our expressions to be heard or felt so we don’t really see ourselves doing much else at the moment.
“I don’t know if we let competition bother us that much because we know we have something special to say in our music, that only we can.”
The research from BIMM also revealed that a fifth of people in the North West dream of performing on stage and joining the £3.5billion British music industry.
The continuing worth and growth of the UK’s creative industry has, in recent years, been changing the opinion of young musicians, with 13% of 18-24 year-olds regarding the music industry as a viable career path – almost three times as many as a few decades ago.
It found 18% of people in the North West wanted to write the hits themselves but are chained to their desks instead.
Soho Riots’ Tom Kelly voted against the majority though.
“There are loads of artists I’d love to play alongside. The Beatles, Morrissey. I’d like to play with The Cribs as well because it’d be a bit of a teenage dream,” he said.
Sid Cooper explained why he continues to pursue a career in the competitive creative industry despite all the setbacks and effort involved.
“You continue because once you start, writing, gigging, recording etc it’s very hard to just stop,” he said.
“The feeling you get when you write a song, play a good gig, record your first tuba solo etc is what you’re constantly chasing and I think the day you no longer feel like that is the day you pursue a different career.”
Image courtesy of Carl Lender, via Wikimedia Commons, with thanks
