Fully Backed.

If you give the slightest bit of a hoot about what is going on in South Wales (and Bristol) musically, then you need to take a look at the Joy Collective website. Not only do you need to look at it, but you need to bookmark it and invite it into your life on an ongoing basis. It contains a ton of information about upcoming gigs and has band features, and a really great blog. They accompany this with live clips, videos, interviews, and all that other good stuff.

None of it is a ‘token effort’, everything is done with lot of love and passion, and illustrates perfectly how vibrant, diverse and rich things are musically in this area. And promoter-wise they particularly back the underdog. They are not impressed by big promotion budgets, industry networking, and corporate schmoozers. In their own words: “We lean towards those independent promoters, full of passion and vision but empty pockets.”

There is a Flickr gallery of great live shots (by people who actually know how to take live shots) and the whole site has hit the ground running and fills a void that other South Wales basic music sites just aren’t capturing. It’s also a nice touch that they sneak Bristol into their catchment area too, for those of us who like the odd road trip or need an excuse to get the hell out of Dodge. Spend an hour on the site and you will learn ton of information about things happening right on your own doorstep that you were previously oblivious to, making you infinitely cooler than you already are – and all this for free! Joy Collective is fully backed over here at Fully Backed. Long may it continue.

Link: http://www.thejoycollective.co.uk