The Skiffle Factory is a series of interconnected workshops, dreamed up by the Liverpool Arts Lab as a way to tap into the inherent DIY creativity in Liverpool. Paying homage to the homemade origins of the city’s music scene, the Arts Lab debuted the Skiffle Factory early in May at Liverpool Sound City 2018; offering the chance to build a song up from ground level in a collaborative creative process.

With a workshop to build instruments, traditional and updated; a lyrics mine, which uses humuments and Burroughs style cut-and-paste to generate lyrics; a recording station, where tracks are cut on the classic DIY recoding tool, cassette; an artwork station to create the tape’s inlay and further the mythology created through the lyrics; and a music video workshop, utilising VJ FX with live footage, the Skiffle Factory works like a production line.

There’s opportunity for the audience to engage in every aspect of each session if they stay for the duration, as well as opportunity to get involved in a specific part of the process. As many as can fit in the room are free to get involved in the workshops, with everyone’s contribution valued. There are moments that create unrestrained percussive soup, as there are moments that produce a focused and thoughtful jam.

Skiffle links directly back to the origins of Liverpool’s modern music scene. In the latter half of the ’50s, aspiring musicians began to make their own instruments, taking cues from the blues/blue grass bands Stateside. Gerry Marsden formed his first band, the Red Mountain Skiffle Group at The Florrie as an early teenager, whilst John Lennon’s career began with a skiffle group of his school-friends known as The Quarrymen (formerly Blackjacks).

Having laid the foundations for the seismic Merseybeat explosion in the ’60s, this vein of DIY creativity ran through the punk scene of the ’70s with Eric’s and the Liverpool School Of Language, Music, Dream And Pun. The baton was carried through the ’80s by the likes of Earthbeat and Urban Stress. More recently by Urban Strawberry Lunch have kept this spirit alive, even returning to the creation of homemade instruments.

With the Skiffle Factory, the Arts Lab looks pay homage to all that’s gone before, whilst adding a few new ideas into the mix; utilising electronics alongside the traditional to create ‘anarcho-techno skiffle’. The idea is to break down the creative barriers around making music, turning it into a fun and wholly accessible experience.

Here’s the cassettes we created over the weekend…

+ the lost and found ‘Mellow Yellow’ tape…

And here’s a couple of videos…