THE LOWER THIRD

OUR SOLUTION

Community outreach & empowerment, meets cross-genre curation

Denmark Street, also known as "London's Tin Pan Alley," is famous for its historic guitar shops, recording studios, and music businesses. It’s most well known, however, for its role as a breeding ground for music icons such as David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, and Adele.

The local community was sceptical of the Outernet. The street’s reputation as a hub for counter-culture music fostered a tight-knit community wary of corporate developments.

The Lower Third brought us in as facilitators and curators to gain the trust and support of the local businesses and community, as well as bridge the gap between the present, past, and future.

OUR STRATEGY

Heartfelt engagement dovetailing into thoughtful curation – with a focus on community collaboration, heritage preservation, and grassroots empowerment.

We went store-to-store along Denmark Street, embedded ourselves with grassroots communities across all of London, to curate a grassroots music series drawing in the best emerging talent from different genres.

The resulting curation was NOISE, a cross-genre, independent music showcase that ends in an open jam.

WHY THIS WAS INNOVATIVE

Until that point, underground musicians only performed on a circuit to their own community, in venues outside of Zone 1. Largely as a result of gentrification displacing grassroots culture.

NOISE gave them an incredible stage in front of a mainstream audience in the heart of London – and it exposed the general public to the pulse of the underground.

In this way, rooting the venue’s programming in authenticity we were able to confidently reassure the locals that the new venue was an authentic addition to Denmark Street, not a corporate intrusion. All while creating a critical foothold for grassroots music in Zone 1 – and giving genuine opportunities to undiscovered talent.

Curating in this way, with respect to the heritage of the area, we were able to smooth the way for the Outernet’s and The Lower Third’s reception.

NOISE lives on as a WDN-owned format which is making a comeback at The Ministry in November 2024.