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Artist News Gigs & Festivals
Jail guitar project heads for SXSW
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 6 January 2009
The people involved in Billy Bragg’s previously reported prison outreach project, the Jail Guitar Doors scheme, have been invited to programme a strand at South By South West this year, to mark the arrival of the interesting prison programme in the US.
They know a thing or two about programming things, given they are also the people behind Glastonbury’s Left Field. They are still finalising a line-up for their event contribution, but say they’ve spoken to Foo Fighters and Reverend and The Makers, amongst others.
The prison scheme, which is operating in twenty UK institutions and which gets prisoners involved in music projects in an attempt to reduce rates of reoffending, is to begin in two US jails in 2009.
The scheme’s Geoff Martin says of their invite to SXSW: “We are dead chuffed that South By South West, one of the biggest of the global music festivals, have given us the nod to bring our blend of great music and social justice campaigning across the ocean.”
Elsewhere in SXSW news, a number of acts have been announced for the March event in Austin. Primal Scream are amongst those set to appear, as are, Ben Harper, Relentless7, Ra Ra Riot, Friendly Fires and Courteeners.
