Pete Wise800 years ago the City of York was granted the Royal Charter – courtesy of the generally villainous King John – which represented the freedom to govern itself. Given the centrality of independence to the occasion, it seems only fitting that we celebrate our octocentenary with an event celebrating our home-grown musical talent, funded by our very own independent music shop MOR Music.
The premise of the York 800 MOR Music Festival is to have a wide range of local bands cumulatively perform 800 minutes of live music on Parliament Street. Such simple ideas are often the best, and if the first brace of acts confirmed to perform – Boss Caine & The Buccaneers – are anything to go by then we’re in for a pretty excellent day of free music. I spoke to long-term MOR employee/The Blueprints frontman/generally brilliant fellow Stuart Allan about the event last night, and in his words “Mor Music are sponsoring it because the shop is more a part of the local musical community than just a retail store. We have a great relationship with the musicians who are regulars and we help out wherever we can, and as a result people come back again and again.” Local performers frequent local music store, local music store rewards and nurtures local performers. This strikes me as exactly the right kind of relationship to have underpinning an event which is there to celebrate York’s right to look after itself.
The York Mor 800 Festival is taking place on Parliament Street between 10:30 AM and 11:50PM on Saturday 7th July. Visit here to bandy about suggestions regarding which local acts you consider to be deserving of a place on the bill and to generally keep updated on further details as and when they become available.
