#musicpotential

Capital XTRA’s Music Potential helps young people aged 18-25 who are not in employment, education or training to improve skills, develop talent and enhance their employability prospects. 

This year our director Nikki Crowley will be sharing her experiences as a music professional - particularly as an international DJ and event promoter - on the ‘Live Panel’ as well as working with young people involved in the project.

Want to get involved? If you have a passion for radio, aspire to be a performer, like creating your own music or are just really keen to learn about the music business, then Capital XTRA's Music Potential is for you! Coming to Manchester and Cardiff this year; Music Potential is a short course which gives you the chance to work with the best music industry professionals including our Capital XTRA presenters & DJs to develop your skills and confidence!

Music Potential is made up of creative workshops, work experience, one to one industry mentoring, employability training as well as the opportunity to showcase your talent at the Music Potential UNLEASHED live gig at the world-famous KOKO on the 31st August. If that's not enough, Capital XTRA's Music Potential will also support you to gain a nationally recognised qualification.

Check out Rae, Vanel and Chad’s Music Potential experience to see how the opportunity benefitted them!

So, if you are aged between 18 and 25, not currently working or studying and have a passion for the music and the creative industries then get involved with Capital XTRA's Music Potential now.

Wednesday 16th September 2015

Hey everyone!

This week I got the oppourtunity as part of my Music Potential experience to head to London.... only this time, it was not as an audience member but as part of their TEAM at the event.... AAAAAAH!!!!!! *cue lots of happy dancing!*My job was to be their Media Aisstant and it really was going to be a night to remember, because not only was  I going to get the audience’s feedback, I was going to interview the MPX Musicians which would then all be put into a podcast ready to be put onto the Capital Xtra website in a few weeks. Oh, and Krept & Konon and Melissa Steel were performing as well which was just the absolute cherry on top of an otherwise enormous cake of joyfulness!

....ANYWAY, I digress, I was so happy to be chosen to act as part of Capital’s Team for the night. It also helped I had a very lovely partner in a girl called Laura. I hadn’t met her before as she had done the MPX course in London but she was lovely, and really easy to work with! I was a little apprehensive when I was told I’d have a partner only because I wondered if she may leave me aside to get alot of the interviews alone, which, being as there was only one mic, meant that only one of us would get to use it at a time. I thought she may hog it a bit in truth. But I needn’t worry, we both took it in turns and she was more than willing to share.... WHICH WAS EXTREMELY HELPFUL!

And thus, as we were given the grand tour of KOKO’s venue, I started picturing all these possible run-ins we may have with Krept&Konan as they rushed around preparing for their upcoming performance. Or even maybe bumping into Melissa Steel just as she came off stage from doing her bit. No such luck on the night though, unfortunately, as we were told we weren’t to knock on their doors or even try to talk to them incase they got a little ticked off....Understandable, as it could have been very irritating two high-pitched squealing girls trying to grab 20 selfies with you and talking 1,000 miles per milisecond but it was still a... tad gut-wrenching! Afterall, who wouldn’t have loved to ask the boys if they could be their freak of the week?!

Once we’d been given the tour and shown how to use the mics, we were then given our Music Potential T-Shirts....OMG. Yes. The ones which you only get if you are part of the Experience....And this was it. It was Legit. I was part of it! My god I didn’t know wearing a T-shirt could feel so good. But it did.  But it was about to get better when wait for it....They handed over to us the Capital Xtra recording mic..... AAAAAAAAAH. It was more beautiful in real life than the photos and honestly I thought I’d hyperventerlate at the sheer site of it. I officially in that moment felt very much like a real presenter and utterly at home. All dolled up, mic in hand and a few touches of reapplied make-up later, me and Laura were ready to go and just in time, as the gig was just starting to open its doors.

Audience members piled in and what was a relatively big theatre space soon became small as everyone crowded around the stage in preparation for the night to commence. Jez Welham and Abrantee were hosting the event tonight and really did make the crowd hyped up with what was already shaping up to be an incredible night. The first thing on the bill tonight was the performance from the Music Potential Participants both from London and Birmingham. Unfortunately, because I was busy interviewing people I did not really get to watch that many performances by the acts themselves however from what I did hear and see it was an unprecedented amount of talent coming from the main hall. I was quite gutted I didn’get to see more of it however I thoroughly enjoyed the oppourtunity to mingle with everyone and get their feedback all of which was extremely positive. Ultimately, I had the best night. I got to interview people I’d never met prior to coming, I learnt so much from so many proffessionals and thoroughly enjoyed each moment of the night....Even the end where I may have had a little too much tipple from the free bar... But we’ll keep that between us yes!?