Northern Line Round 11

The Northern Line Application Portal is Now Open!

Portal closes midday on on Monday 11th December 2024

ZOOM advice sessions are available to support you with your application. Sign up through Eventbrite to join. Read on to find FAQ’s about the programme.

“Being on Northern Line has helped me reach new audiences nationally and opened me up to a wider jazz network, which includes mainland Europe. The support of the Jazz North team has been crucial.” Northern Line Round 8 Artist

Now in its 11th year, Northern Line is the leading live development programme for jazz and jazz-inspired artists in the North.

  • Northern Line is the roster of the most pioneering, bold and innovative artists across the scene.

  • It’s a roster of the best new talent, recognised by promoters, festivals, funders and management.

  • This is a sector-leading programme, offering northern jazz artists transformative support regarding live performance, careers & industry skills.

  • Northern Line involves intensive 121 support, mentoring and industry upskilling.

  • Artists will be invited to perform at our showcase at Manchester Jazz Festival, the North’s most celebrated jazz festival.

  • Crucially, Northern Line will provide bursary support to subsidise your live activity.

  • Northern Line ensures gigs can happen, despite the ever changing landscape.

Northern Line: The Offer

Touring Bursaries

Northern Line invests in your live career to get you performing in new places and building audiences.

You can apply for a touring bursary of up to £3,000 to support travel, accommodation, rehearsals, equipment and other relevant costs in addition to subsidising fees offered by promoters. 

We’ll work with you on a strategy for targeting promoters, festivals and venues. 

You don’t need to come to Northern Line with a project plan ready-to-go and you don’t need to play your Northern Line dates in a typical tour run. 

Showcase at Manchester Jazz Festival

As part of Northern Line, all selected artists are guaranteed a free showcase at Manchester Jazz Festival on Sunday 18 May 2025. You will be paid a non-negotiable MU-minimum rate per performer for this 45 minute performance. Solo performers will be paid at a higher rate. 

Jazz North will invite key promoters to this event, and it is a great opportunity for your music to be enjoyed by audiences and promoters in a typical gigging environment. We would like you to be able to commit to this date from the point of applying to Northern Line, but if you already have commitments on this day, please let us know in your application.

Career Development Plan

We’ll work 1:1 to pull together a career development plan that is unique to you. We’ll look at your career as a holistic whole - defining goals, ways to measure them and steps to get there.

You can access the full extent of Jazz North’s contacts and expertise to help you make that vital next step.

Industry Networking and Upskilling

Your music is a business. Over your time on Northern Line, Jazz North will support you in meeting and managing press, promoters, digital distributors, publishers and agents. 

You’ll attend workshops with key industry specialists, whether it’s publishing, financial planning, project planning or tour management - we’ll get those people in the room to help you upskill in the areas you need. 

Marketing and Assets

Marketing and assets have never been more important.

We will help you to develop all of your assets (images, copy, video etc…) and support you to develop easy tools to manage your press and marketing.

Mentoring

You’ll have monthly meetings with our Programme Manager, alongside other members of the Jazz North team. Northern Line will provide 1:1 support and guidance to ensure you meet your goals.

You get what you put in

The most successful artists are those who are open to all the opportunities offered through the scheme and who engage with the full Jazz North offer.

Advert for the northern line application workshop on

Timeline 

13 November 2024: Applications Open 

11 December 2024, 12 noon: Applications Close

15 and 16 January 2025: Offer interviews (on Zoom)

22 January 2025: Roster finalised

29 January 2025: All applicants notified

13 February 2025: Roster announced

w/c 7 April 2025 TBC: Induction Day (on Zoom)*

18 May 2025: Northern Line Showcase at Manchester Jazz Festival**

31 March 2026: All supported touring activity to be completed


*Please be aware of keeping some time available in this window. If you are selected by the decision panel, we will contact you to arrange an offer meeting and confirm the terms of your place on Northern Line.

**Please make sure you can attend the showcase and block out the date in your diary.  Performances will take place between 1pm and 8pm and will be in the form of one 45-minute set. Let us know in the application form if you already have commitments at this time. 

Applying to Northern Line

How ‘jazz’ does it have to be?

We want to see bands/artists with a highly engaging live performance.

If you connect to jazz, jazz-influenced genres or your music is improvised in some way, then we’d love you to apply to Northern Line. We know genres are fluid, sometimes irrelevant and becoming more so. We’re all about celebrating jazz in its many forms, whether that’s mega left-field improvised, contemporary jazz, neo-soul, electronic, nu-jazz, afrobeat, or jazz-influenced hip-hop.

Who should apply to Northern Line?

To apply, you should:

  • Be over 18 (no upper age limit)

  • Be based in the North of England (North West, North East, Yorkshire & Humber)

  • Have a high standard of performance that is ready to tour

  • Be playing original music

  • Have experience of booking and performing live shows to an audience

  • Be able to rehearse and perform with the ensemble applying to the scheme

  • Be able to commit time to Jazz North meetings, administration, practice and touring

  • Be primarily focused on live touring (this is the focus of the scheme)

In addition to the above, when deciding who will be on Northern Line, a selection panel will consider the extent to which your band addresses the following considerations, in line with our priorities for the scheme:

  • How does this band/artist demonstrate diversity in northern jazz?

  • How does this music demonstrate originality and artistic progression?

  • How ready is this band/artist ready to use financial investment in their work to take their live touring to the next level?

  • Is the activity proposed relevant to the fanbase and career status of the artist?

An advisory panel will discuss applications and help to choose the next roster of Northern Line artists. For the 11th round, the panel includes Rob Farhat (Contemporary Music Programmer, Kings Place), Jez Matthews (The Lescar, Sheffield), Hannabiell Sanders (previous Northern Line artist and Festival Director), and other jazz specialists from major UK venues and national radio. 

Artists applying to Northern Line must not contact panel members regarding their application.

We ask that you look carefully at our priorities for Northern Line, the content of the scheme and ask yourself if this is right for you at this time. If you’re not sure, you can get in touch with us at Jazz North. We might be able to point you in the direction of something more targeted at your stage and needs.

Applications should be led by the artist/ band-leader directly, or if you already have a team in place, the person who represents you.

What do we expect from you?

If you become a Northern Line artist, we expect you to make the most of the opportunity available to you. That means taking advice on board, being responsive and doing the work between meetings. We’re here to help and support you as much as possible, but for you to move forward you need to be willing to work hard and meet deadlines. We can only support a small number of artists per roster so we want to see you thrive while you’re with us and really move on to the next level in your career. Our newly developed Code of Conduct will form part of your artist agreement and will apply to artists and promoters working with Northern Line artists.

To succeed on Northern Line, we’d expect to see you:

  • Attend regular meetings with the Programme Manager and respond promptly to emails

  • Spend 8-16 hours a week (we understand this varies based on other time commitments) working towards your identified goals in project planning, marketing, promotion and network development

  • Ensure you are rehearsed to a high standard ahead of any tour dates

  • Attend the induction day and showcase day – attendance at these events is compulsory, but please let us know in your application if you already have commitments on these dates

  • Be prepared and willing to accept other showcase opportunities that may be offered to you as part of the programme e.g. at London Jazz Festival*

  • Take part in any evaluation of the programme afterwards

  • In short, you get out what you put in to the programme

*Showcasing is an essential work and profile development opportunity that is part of the Northern Line scheme. Showcases do not always offer the same conditions as stand-alone gigs, (spaces, timings, expenses, fees) but they should be viewed as valuable longer-term career investments. Your Northern Line subsidy is available to support you in cases where you may need to top up fees and travel.

Access

Jazz North is committed to fair access for Deaf and disabled artists. If you wish to apply to Northern Line but are concerned about accessibility issues you can contact us to discuss this at any time. We will work with you to meet all reasonable adjustments, in advance of applying and for artists who are part of our programmes.

How to Apply

We will ask you to complete:

  • Eligibility questions (whether you meet the criteria)

  • Basic information

  • Video upload (to assess your live performance) or media link

  • Project details (including up-to-date tech spec and high res images)*

  • Application questions

  • Equality and Diversity monitoring form (optional, anonymous)

Please do not submit a completed word document as your application. Applications should be submitted via the online application form unless you are submitting a video application. You are welcome to download the application questions in Word or PDF format to prepare your answers before submitting the application form online.

*Due to the turnaround time between announcing the roster and the Northern Line showcase on 21st May, it is essential we have your bio, tech spec and images at point of application.

For video submissions:

Please inform us if you need this information in a different format.

We are a Fair Access Principles partner and are committed to accessibility across all our schemes. Read more about the Fair Access Principles

Feedback

As a small team, it is not possible for us to offer timely direct feedback on unsuccessful applications.

However, we understand this is an important part of learning and commit to sharing feedback upon request from unsuccessful applicants within four months of decisions. This will be in the form of pre-determined criteria that are used during our assessment process and that have resulted in an unsuccessful application, decided at panel stage. We would like to be able to offer personalised feedback, but unfortunately Jazz North staff do not have the capacity to do this.

We strongly advise you to attend an ‘Applying to Northern Line’ advice session before submitting, where you will learn how to avoid common pitfalls and understand how to present the best case for your music. If you are unable to attend a session, please contact us, as it may be possible to record the session for you.

We look forward to hearing from you!