Our commitment to young, developing artists means we are now able to embark on a journey to embrace and support young people on the pathway to employment within the creative industries.
The creation of Studio One, 4 Fort Hill, Margate CT9 1HD (formerly The Dug Out) now makes us ready to further develop our ambitions and business opportunities for the benefit of our community.
Read what one of our young artists has to say about working with Olby’s below.
Oscar Saunders, 19, is a local self-taught musician. Success in a local talent show encouraged him to write, perform and release his debut single, ‘Darling Goodnight’. Since then he has worked in various aspects of the music business, not just on his own music but performing with, as well as managing, other local bands.
He cites Brian Wilson and George Martin as his influencers and aspires to pursue a career in music production. Oscar believes that by working with experienced and knowledgeable industry experts at Olby’s he will gain the necessary knowledge, experience and personal growth to progress in the music industry and become fully equipped to attain his career aspirations.
To date Oscar has worked across the varying disciplines Olby’s has to offer from live sound engineering, front of house hospitality to being part of the video production delivery team for Margate Soul Festival.
Kuda Mararike, 22, is a final year Bsc (Hons) Marketing student at Christ Church Canterbury University.
As part of his course Kuda was required to complete a two week work placement project and approached Olby’s CIC in 2019. He was taken on and tasked with reviewing their social media strategy, making recommendations to raise their profile and make them more accessible to a younger audience. Working closely with Eli Thompson and Clare Hollister he was given an overview of how a venue works and experienced first hand the restructuring of Olby’s CIC.
Kuda produced an excellent report and presentation outlining the changes needed to not only raise Olby’s profile but to offer a fresh perspective for a younger audience – he obtained a first from CCCU for this piece of work.
During his time with Olby’s, the management team identified him as a young person with great potential and have offered him a part time work placement during his final year at Olby’s working closely with the communications team to manage the social media aspect of the CIC.
Kuda has grown in confidence and recognises that working with the experienced team at Olby’s will not only help him gain his degree but will provide him with invaluable knowledge and work based learning for when he leaves university.
Our grassroots development programme offers young people the opportunity to improve their lyric writing and performance skills, learning production and recording techniques. This then progresses onto learning venue etiquette, booking your show and eventual paid performance.
