AMP collective plugs in for the very last time

Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell – tribunegroove@live.ie

After 17 years as Galway’s premier music course, the Access Music Project is closing its doors. The class of 2016 will play their end-of-year show in the Loft, Bridge St on Thursday next, September 8. The annual showcase is always a gig to remember, but this one will have an added poignancy.

Students on AMP receive tuition in voice, music theory, sound engineering, piano, guitar and percussion, as well as taking exams with the Royal Academy of Music.

“It’s more expensive to run than other Community Enterprise schemes, because of the quality and amount of people who are tutoring,” says Richie Byrne, who is the current chair of the AMP board. “We were nearly finished four years ago, before we got a very generous grant from St Vincent de Paul, the Maureen O’Connell fund. That basically kept us going until now.”

Funding challenges were then compounded by changes in how the Department of Social Protection deals with Community Enterprise schemes. AMP was once in a position where 60% of applicants were turned down, but this year it struggled to fill the 18 available places.

“Because of the new set up with the DSP, if you’re long-term unemployed, they’ll say ‘ok, we’ve found this training scheme for you, you’ll go on it’,” Richie says. “And it doesn’t matter if you’re a musician an artist or an engineer, you’re going to end up doing retail or whatever box they want you to fit in.”

Previous AMP graduates include John Conneely (from the sublime Róisín Dubh Sunday residency); Miriam Donohue (who will soon be releasing her Gavin Glass-produced debut album); and Ultan Conlon, a songwriter currently on tour in the US.

“I think AMP gave a lot of people a lot more confidence,” Richie says. “Maybe they were gigging, but they didn’t have a theoretical background so they didn’t feel comfortable about talking to other musicians. They mightn’t have felt confident about the way they played, or their voice, or their rhythm.”

“But the key thing, I think, was the support they got. From AMP, but also the people on the course with them. There’s a huge amount of groups and conglomerations that came out of the course. Nearly every band in Galway has a member that’s been on it.”

It’s not over just yet, however – for the class of 2016, there’s music to be played, songs to be sung, and a year to be celebrated.

“It’ll be a tough gig, in some ways, but I’m really looking forward to it,” Richie says. “It’s the same every year – you just can’t believe what’s happened with these musicians over 12 months.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.