onec
onec biography December 2009
In the beginning onec was simply the address of a flat in a rural south Devon village, a flat above a butchers and chip shop that had a spare back room. Starting in August 2005, this spare room was turned over to art events that happened every 6 weeks, of course these events soon took over the whole flat! The events had a mix of artists; performance, video, sonic, and installation, and had various guest curators to experiment with ideas. One of the most memorable events had Rose Kemp (daughter of Steeleye Span’s Maddy Prior) playing a full electric set in the front room, this had to be cut short due to the psychopathic neighbour objecting to the volume! Each event had a zine specifically produced and underlined onec’s DIY approach to doing things.
onec then took the decision to work in other non-traditional art venues that ranged from a village hall to a music venue, a bookstore basement and a hotel. The events ranged from hiring a boxing ring for a one-night Dada versus Fluxus performance clash at South Brent Village Hall, to a billing of live bands and performance art at the Cavern Club in Exeter. A cardboard box filled basement of a book store and an onec curated wall based and performance show at the Broomhill Hotel in North Devon.
In July 2007, onec worked in collaboration with Low Profile to organise the PL:ay festival held in Plymouth. A one day extravaganza of adventure, anticipation and encounters, showcasing artists predominantly from the South West. Towards the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008 onec was invited to attend and speak at two symposiums, one hosted by The Exchange in Penzance and the other held at Plymouth College of Art. Both events focussed on exploring DIY arts practice/culture in rural, regional, remote and emerging cities.
Over 3 years, onec organised 14 arts events predominantly in Devon. These events were wide ranging and some very ambitious. The learning curve was very steep, some projects worked extremely well, others not so. It is also worth noting onec never received any funding and so had to find creative ways to find money but more often than not had to self fund or simply not get paid.
Early 2008, onec relocated to Plymouth and decided to metamorphose into an independent record label!
In September 2008, onec, along with other Plymouth based artists and groups, were invited to take part in a group exhibition by Plymouth Arts Centre, this became known as the Proximity Effect show and enabled us to release our first record. We decided to try and put together a compilation album of local bands singing either their own ‘sea shanties’ or versions of traditional ‘sea songs’. Working in close collaboration with the Plymouth Music Collective’s recording studio set up, we managed to get 10 bands/musicians to record their songs over quite a small time scale. We were quite taken aback by the enthusiasm and commitment to the project by the bands and musicians, some even using their own recording time to finish off their particular track. With this in mind we really wanted to do the best we could with the design and quality of the packaging that comes with a vinyl record. The day arrived, 28th November 2008 when the show would be opening and the records duly arrived at our house at noon, nothing like having the release date as the actual date the records arrive! Of course many will say that was the easy bit, the hardest part being trying to get people to part with their money in return for your wares! A week later and we had the launch party for the Songs From The Dogwatch, as we had titled the record, a three hour boat cruise, with 3 bands from the album and around 100 people on board the Spirit of Plymouth. Quite a typical onec event in many respects, a sense of positive collaboration and an ‘oily hands’ approach.
We have often taken the ‘if you want to see something particular happen then organise it yourself’ way of doing things and this has really continued as the record label side of things has evolved. We are now onto our third release with Neil Rose’s “Wilbur Whateley / Psychopomps” LP. The launch party was held at the monthly Café Concrete night at the Voodoo Lounge on the 26th October 2009. Choosing Café Concrete as a launch not only connects to the release but combines our passion for art and music.
In November we were proud to announce that our first split release with UPR Records was available to pre-order from the onec shop. The nationwide release date is 01/02/10 and pre-orders will be sent out week beginning 14/12/09. The Rooftop Gambler- Turned Out The Light 10” 4 track EP on yellow vinyl, limited x 300 with a free download. (onec/UPR001EP). The EP has been positively received being the ‘demo of the month’ in the South West magazine 24/7.
We are fully committed to putting challenging and interesting records out on a variety of formats, Plymouth has a vibrant music scene that in many ways and because of the geographical nature of Plymouth, is quite unique and exists without any great outside influences.
Visit our website at www.onec.tv for past, present and future details of our activities.