Artist, promoter and producer Ned Beckett first started out at WARP records managing all their online activities and editing the WARP website. Ned was involved in the first test runs of selling mp3s back in the day when there were no online mp3 stores such as I tunes. Ned was soon drawn to the events side of WARP due to his passion and interest in djing and promoting club nights. Soon after WARP moved from Sheffield to London, Ned started monthly WARP nights called ‘NESH’ where he was fortunate enough to be the resident DJ. This was a great opportunity to invite WARP artists to perform alongside other likeminded artists. Mixing visual work, exciting new forms of ‘computer performance’, dj’s and live bands the events gathered momentum and provided a solid platform for electronic music in the capitol. Due to the success of NESH events WARP agreed to support Ned to take the formula over to Europe on the WARP Magic Bus Tour which played 40 shows across Europe.
After leaving WARP in 2003 Ned set up his own live music agency Littlebig based in Brighton, soon to move to Berlin.
The Littlebig company is the link between the artists and the live industry who want them to perform at venues/festivals/special events etc. Ned works closely with all the artists on his roster (many on the WARP label) to plan their live careers, design the shows and generally try to get them the best shows possible in Europe. He believes that it is a very interesting time for music due to massive technology advances over the past 30 years, “laptops give the artist complete control over production combined with portability enabling them to work and perform anywhere. As a result there is more music around today than ever before, more artists, more experimentation and live performance. This goes hand in hand with advances in communication, networking, information via the web which gives direct, immediate access to music and art…most barriers to exploring music have disappeared and people’s ears and eyes are open to new arts forms.” Ned summarises his main passion as “exposing people to these new art forms, which can often appear extreme, but are fundamentally fun.”
> www.littlebig.org.uk
Appearances:
> CTM.09 > BRIGHT TOMORROW
> CTM.07 > FESTIVAL WARM UP
