NME LAUNCHES 2012 SEARCH FOR BRITAIN'S BEST SMALL VENUE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH JACK DANIEL'S J.D. ROOTS

March 21, 2012

NME today announces a cross-platform partnership with J.D. Roots to support local music and search for Britain's Best Small Venue.

The search will be in association with J.D. Roots - Jack Daniel's music campaign that celebrates the importance of where you're from and the role home plays in the creative process - and will involve a series of three shows across the UK that takes alternative music acts back to their hometowns for one-off intimate gigs during May.  

This is the second year that NME will be rewarding Britain's Best Small Venue but the first time the search has been carried out in partnership with Jack Daniel's.

Michael Boaler, Jack Daniel's brand manager, says: "Jack Daniel's may now be a world famous name but it remains rooted in its hometown beginnings and in the people of Lynchburg, Tennessee. Home is incredibly important to Jack Daniel's; the people, the ingredients and the care that goes into production are at the root of our Tennessee Whiskey.  JD Roots honours the importance of where you're from by showing the value of home in the creative process and recognising the immense contribution of people across the UK without whom there would be no music scene. It's where you come from that makes you who you are".

NME publishing director Emily Hutchings adds: "This nationwide search aims to highlight the hugely important role played by small venues in encouraging and nurturing new music talent - a matter very close to NME's heart. J.D. Roots shares those values and recognises all that small venues do for grassroots music by providing hubs for local music scenes so this partnership makes perfect sense."
Music fans will be invited to nominate their favourite small venue. The entries will be judged not just on the building itself, but also on the music scenes they encourage, in the search for the venue that goes that extra mile for fans and bands alike.

Regional winning venues will form a list from which Britain's Best Venue will be chosen by an NME assembled panel of experts, including artists, promoters and agents.

NME editor Krissi Murison says: "Obviously selling out huge venues is a sign of a massively successful band - and rightly so! But most successful artists wouldn't have got where they are today without playing smaller venues at the start of their careers. They play an extremely important role in nurturing talent, which NME is very proud to support. It's in all of the UK music industry's interest for small venues to prosper."  

As well as being named Britain's Best Small Venue, the winning venue will also play host to a popular band who will perform as part of a special celebration later in the year.

The partnership was orchestrated by media agency UM London and Adam Bulleid from IPC Men & Music's Creative Media team.

Daniel Putland, planning manager, UM London, says: "The partnership we established between NME and Jack Daniel's is a fantastic way to celebrate J.D. Roots and to tap into NME's brilliant reputation and expertise in the music industry. It's central to a wider multi-media campaign we've developed to support the J.D. Roots platform, spanning digital and press. As an extra touch, we'll also be stripping media back to its own roots with some fly posting."

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FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT NME PLEASE CONTACT:
Anna Gawan, PR Manager, IPC Media on 020 3148 5405, 07816 316432 or
email anna_gawan@ipcmedia.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT JACK DANIEL'S PLEASE CONTACT:
Lewis Jamieson, Loudhailer Press, on 020 8254 7875, 07718 652582 or
email lewis@loudhailerpress.com
    
About NME
NME has become a truly unique multi-platform media proposition. Across the magazine, nme.com, NME Radio and the brand's live events and awards, NME reaches over one million music fans every week. NME is the longest published and most respected music weekly in the world. Every week it gives its readers the most exciting, most authoritative coverage of the very best in contemporary music, including award winning features, the latest releases, live reviews, the definitive guide to the best new bands in its Radar section, as well as a regular look back through the magazine's incredible 60-year heritage.

About Jack Daniel's
Officially registered with the U.S. government in 1866, Jack Daniel Distillery, Lem Motlow, Proprietor, is the oldest registered distillery in the United States.  Based in Lynchburg, Tennessee, it is the maker of the world-famous Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 Tennessee Whiskey. Your friends at Jack Daniel's remind you to drink responsibly. www.jdroots.co.uk  
 
About UM London
UM London is a leading media communications agency located in Clerkenwell, the creative heart of London. We employ over 100 Curious Minds and have UK media billings in excess of £250m.  Our new brand positioning, Curiosity Works, fuels our successful partnerships with many UK & Global companies including Microsoft, MasterCard, Dairy Crest, Xbox, H&M, Burberry, General Mills, Bacardi-Martini and Brown-Forman. In 2011 we were awarded the prestigious Media Agency of the Year Award at Marketing Week's Blades Awards and we won a total of 18 major industry awards across the period. As part of the Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG), UM has 151 offices in 130 countries and employs 3,600 creative thinkers and doers.

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