Field Day Countdown: TLOBF meets Field Day creator, Tom Baker

If you’re a regular gig-goer in London, the chances are that you’ve been to an event organised by Mr Tom Baker. He’s not only the mind behind East London’s Field Day festival, but is also for Underage Festival, an event which brings respectable music to the teens of the realm. As well as the many, many events that are organised throughout the year by his booking agency, Eat Your Own Ears, this year also sees the debut of a new creation of his, The Apple Cart. An extremely influential character in the British live music industry, The Line of Best Fit caught up with Eat Your Own Ears founder and thoroughly nice chap, Tom Baker to see how the preparation is going and what we should expect from Field Day 2011.

“It’s going well! Obviously, we’ve learnt a lot over the past four years. I think the line-up’s the best we’ve ever had, and the artwork’s the best we’ve ever had… just everything about it. We’ve got amazing, bespoke programmes that have got exclusive photos and interviews with loads of the artists playing this year – I feel like we’ve stepped it up across the board. There seems to be a real buzz, and a real excitement for it – I think the line-up has really connected…I don’t know how we’re going to top it next year. We’ve set the bench mark so high now, I don’t know what I’m going to do!”

Celebrating its fifth birthday this year, Field Day is a very young festival, but one which has already cemented its reputation as one of the summer’s musical highlights. As a festival which is still very much learning and expanding, the organisers have decided to change things around a little for this year’s edition.

“We’ve changed the lay-out of the site…” says Tom, “we’ve swapped the main stage with the Bugged Out! tent, so that the site works better. So that’s quite a major thing, and we’ve increased the Village Mentality area. Also, we’ve got some more fairground rides, and then we’ve brought some other partners on board. The Laneway Festival in Australia runs in February, and I hosted a stage this year. It’s a nice partnership, and I’m curating a stage at Laneway next year, as well.”

The festival has earned a reputation for producing unfailingly brilliant line-ups, year on year. 2011 is no exception, presenting arguably one of the best showcases of new music on offer in the country this year. How much of this is down to Tom’s own taste?

“I probably book 90% of it, and Bugged Out! And Bloggers Delight book the other section. It’s a collaborative thing, but I guess I’m the main programmer. But there’s a lot of dialogue – it’s a really great collective, we’ve been working together for 5 years and we all feed into the process”

This year sees performances from Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Electrelane, James Blake, SBTRKT and Twin Shadow amongst many, others. Having booked most of the line-up himself, it must be a bit of a struggle to catch everyone he wants to on the day. “It’s really hard” responds Tom. “The Horrors, they’ve played in previous years, and they’re probably one of the hottest bands around at the moment. So it’s exciting to see them, and they’re headlining the Laneway stage. But I’m really excited about John Cale, Konono No. 1, seeing Wild Beasts headlining the big Eat Your Own Ears stage, and then loads of others – Martin Creed and Faust, to Clock Opera. I want to see everyone, really, but that’s not going to be possible! John Cale, I’m very excited to see. He’s got an EP coming out on Domino later this year, so he’ll be playing new stuff as well…”

“I didn’t have a game plan as such, or a business plan.” replies Tom when asked about the journey to his current role. “Organically, things just happened and I was just obsessed with finding new bands and working with them, developing them and building relationships. Eat Your Own Ears started from putting on a regular night at 93 Feet East with record labels. I did my Arts Management degree in Leicester, and I did my dissertation on independent record labels vs. major labels. So I had quite a strong knowledge of the independent labels like Domino, Rough Trade and Mute, and I thought rather than just promoting bands randomly, I’d team up with a record label and put on ‘Domino presents…’ From that, I built up great relationships with the labels which I still maintain. Out of that, Eat Your Own Ears became more of a traditional promoter. I started promoting the artists on those labels, working with agents and managers, and then a festival seemed like an obvious thing to try and do. Then through building a team of people… it was like strength in numbers, all of us coming out and doing something that none of us had ever done before. So it’s quite incredible that it’s become one of the better festivals in London.”

With an anticipated attendance of 25,000 and (hopefully) the same beautiful weather conditions that graced the festival site last year, things are looking very positive indeed for 2011′s Field Day. So what’s the key to running a good festival? “I’d say enough toilets and bars, they are key.” replies Tom, “just punter experience, audience experience. Attention to detail, in terms of catering, toilets and bars.”

As our interview begins to wind down, conversation turns to the statement recently made by Glastonbury’s Michael Eavis, who claimed that festivals are on their way out. As the main programmer and organiser of one of the most highly anticipated, and most talked about festivals in the musical calendar, we wondered what Tom made of this claim.

“I think there are a lot of festivals, but I think if you do it right, and you know who you’re trying to target, you’re passionate about it and you believe in it, I think people will want to go and see live music.

People aren’t buying as many records, people spend their money seeing live bands – downloading one or two tracks, then going to see the band live so the money that they would’ve spent on records, is spent buying tickets. So I think if it’s the right event, the right festival… With some of the bigger festivals, the event is very much about the headliners. At Field Day, it’s not about a headline focus, it’s about all the acts – that’s how Field Day started, all about several parts and never about that one big draw, that one big act. The first year, we had Justice, Foals, Battles, Bat For Lashes, Fourtet, Caribou who are massive, but at the time, they were new bands – it was more that they were doing something a bit different, and I think that’s why they succeeded. You could see loads of bands, rather than just heading there to see that one big act.

There are all these festivals in Europe that are springing up with incredible line-ups. Festivals like Sonar are expanding – every year, they seem to have a new city that they go to. All Tomorrow’s Parties are doing one in Tokyo, and in New York, so I think if you have a strong enough brand and strong enough line-ups, and you trust in the event, then you’d hope that it will succeed.”

There are a few tickets left, but this year’s event looks set to be a sell out. With plenty to be preparing, we thank Tom for taking the time to chat to us, and ask one final question – who would be the ultimate booking?

“I’d probably say someone like Miles Davis playing Bitches Brew. I’d have that on late afternoon, and then Jimi Hendrix, and then Led Zeppelin would headline. Before Bitches Brew, I might have Bob Dylan playing Highway 61 and then Burial would DJ in between. There we go!”

Field Day takes place on Saturday 6 August in London’s Victoria Park, tickets are available here.