Really exciting news as BBC Radio 1's Academy have announced what their plans are for the week leading up to the Biggest Weekend at Swansea Grand Theatre. We're also incredibly excited to announce that we're part of the week running some workshops, curating some live music and more! We'll get straight to it, it's impossible to list everything that's happening (as there's just so much going on - check out the website) so we'll give you what we're really looking forward to:

Monday 21st May - Thursday 24th May

Oh yeah, and everything is free!

• On Monday Not3s will be playing live and will then join us for a very special lyric writing workshop. 
• Greg James will be hosting a radio workshop on Monday.
• Horizons are putting on an evening of live music with Pretty Vicious, Adwaith, Bandicoot & Stella Donnely on Monday. 

• On Tuesday Marmozets play live and then join us for a special guitar workshop.
• Rachel K Collier is DJing and doing an ableton live workshop on Tuesday
• We're also hosting a 'Get Started In Music' workshop on Tuesday
• James Bay is playing live for Clara Amfo's Live Lounge on Wednesday tickets here

• High Contrast is doing a music production workshop on Wednesday 
• We host a special songwriting workshop on Wednesday 
• Sigrid is playing live on Thursday and will then join us for a second songwriting workshop on Thursday.

• Get behind the scenes with Nick Grimshaw for his Breakfast show on Thursday.
• Emily Eavis will be making an appearance to talk all things Glastonbury

And so much more. We really recommend you check out the website to find out more. See you there! 

We're back with our featured gig of the week this week, a little later than usual, as things our end have been ridiculously busy! We've been working on lots of exciting things that we can't wait to share with you! 

This week we're featuring not one, but TWO gigs of the week we highly recommend. Both mark the start of the really exciting live music events that are coming to Swansea as part of the #BiggestWeekend! Both events are FREE and take place this coming Saturday and mark the launch of the BBC Academy at the Biggest Weekend! If you come down to these gigs, you'll also get exclusive first picks for workshops, artists Q&As, exclusive gigs & more that will take place during the week leading up to the biggest weekend. We're also putting on some workshops that we can't wait to announce that you'll be able to sign up to! 

Anyway, let's get down to what's happening this Saturday. 

Huw Stephens presents: Piano Sessions

Join Huw in person as he hosts intimate, stripped down performances by some of his favourite acts featuring: Marmozets, The Amazons & MRPHY (High Contrast has unfortunately had to pull out of the lineup!). Ticket link here: http://bbcradio1sacademy.skiddletickets.com/event.php?id=13196517

BBC Introducing Gig

This is a whopper. We are incredibly excited about this one. Trust us, get your tickets for this one - it'll be a gig you go to and in a few years time, when these bands are really kicking off, you'll be able to say "I was there".  Ticket link for this one here: https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Swansea/The-Garage-Whitez/Abbie-McCarthy-presents-BBC-Music-Introducing-gig-/13196774/

Hosted by Introducing's own, Abby McCarthy, the lineup includes:

Monico Blonde (Cardiff)

Candelas (Llanuwchllyn

Beach Fatigue (Swansea)

Who's Molly? (Swansea)

This week is Independent Venue Week. Independent Venue Week is a seven day celebration that salutes and recognises the importance of small music venues across the UK. This goes from the people that own them, the people that work in them and the people that get the bands and audiences in week after week.

There was some incredibly exciting news this week for Swansea – it was announced that as part of BBC Music’s Biggest Weekend, Radio One will be hosting two days of live music in Swansea’s Singleton Park bringing two absolute giants of pop music with them in the form of Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift.

This is absolutely incredible for our city and for musician’s in the city.

Whilst this announcement may seen far away from the fact that this week is independent venue week it’s actually very poignant and links very closely.

Take Ed Sheeran.

I remember seeing videos of Ed Sheeran in my first year of university playing his tune “You Need Me Man I Don’t Need You” and hearing about his shows in small venues in London thinking, wow this guy is pretty cool. I never expected him to become this worldwide powerhouse that he is now.

My point is, all these huge artists that are now making a name for themselves worldwide had to start somewhere. I’m sure Ed would agree that those early live shows in small venues were crucial to his career as a musician.

**31.01.18 - Update ** After posting this blog Sin City got in touch to let us know that my point actually comes a lot close to home than I first thought! In May of 2011, Ed actually played Sin City, in their top room to just 250 people! Amazing! Here's a video of him playing You Don't Need Me from that very gig!

In Swansea we’ve seen lots of independent venues come and go over the last few years, but we’ve also seem the emergence of some new venues too. Top venues to check out for gigs include Sin City, Creature Sound, Mozarts, The Garage, Cinema & Co, The Hyst and 8Bit to name a few.

If, like me, you’re planning on celebrating independent venue week by heading out to some live shows in Swansea you’ve got the select following happening:

Wednesday: Billy Lockett & Holy Home Video in Sin City. (£6.00)

Friday: The Swansea Musician’s Forum (hosted by the Swansea Music Hub) with live music from Bandicoot, Craze The Jack, The Riff, Picsel, Emily Merry & King Goon. (Free Entry)

Saturday: Piranha Punk Rock presents Sigiria, The Groundnuts & Independents and Iron Gosling in The Garage. (£6.00)

Sunday: Swn Presents Spring King, Fizzy Blood and Bandicoot in Sin City. (£10.00)

If you’re living in Swansea we’ve also created an artist directory, so if you see a local band’s gig advertised you can look here and check out the bands prior to see if it’s something you may like.

So get out this week. See a gig. And then next week, see another one. And so on…

You never know. You may discover the next Ed Sheeran, the next Arctic Monkeys, or the next Radiohead and be able to say “I saw them in a really small venue in Swansea before they got so big!”. Without your support we may lose these potentially great artists. 

Written by Simon Parton