‘I just love a bit of music and a party’: Keeping the beat with Humber Street Sesh supremo Mark Page
‘HULL IS QUITE SPECIAL WHEN WE ALL GET TOGETHER’: Mark Page
Chewing the Fat, out to lunch with Phil Ascough
This week’s guest: Mark Page
Venue: Furley & Co
Hull City legend Ian Ashbee had one fleetingly. Author and journalist Brian Lavery’s is something of a trademark. Years ago, a prominent Hull business figure told my kids that mine was the most famous in in the city.
Maybe, maybe not, but in a modern-day contest of beards in Hull I would undoubtedly yield to Mark “Mak” Page. I’ll also doff the cap too because he’s got a better one of those as well.
Mak explains that the whiskers were a modest goatee that got out of hand, and he reveals the cap was acquired purely to cover up a small cyst on his head. It’s long been part of the brand of the Humber Street Sesh Festival Director.
Watching him over the years running around, organising stages, tackling tech, adjusting microphones and generally herding cats, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him slow down, never mind sit down, which he did over lunch at Furley & Co. The two hours flew and it could have gone on and on, so we’ll have to do it again to cover some of the bits we missed.
The headlines are where Humber Street Sesh came from, how its developed and where it’s going, with big plans but also a commitment to maintaining the accessibility of a remarkable festival and all the side projects around it. And then there’s Mak himself, and confirmation that he’s never really had a “proper” job.
Mak comes from Paignton, went to school in Torquay and played football to a decent level, including the odd reserve game with Torquay United. He studied PE at college for two years as he dreamt of playing the game professionally, with the consolation prize of possibly being a PE teacher.
MUSICAL CITY: A packed crowd enjoying a performance at Humber Street Sesh. Picture by Jason Shipley Photography
But two alternative careers competed for his attention and destiny played its hand.
“At 18 I went abroad to DJ in Majorca, and then after a summer as a lifeguard at a water park in my hometown I wanted to join the fire service – I applied to every brigade in the country and I came to Hull as part of the recruitment process,” Mak revealed.
“I actually first came to Hull in 1990 through an advert for DJs in Record Mirror to work in Corfu. I auditioned at LA’s nightclub, got the job and spent two seasons out there.”
On his return, Mak passed his Fire Brigade theory test in Hull and was told the physical would be in six months, so off he went for a third season in the sun.
He said: “I met some amazing people from Grimsby and Hull, and I came back with them to see if I could get in the fire service. But by then I was smoking 20 a day, couldn’t run for toffee, and decided to stick to the DJing.”
That led to Mak getting his first gigs in Hull at the legendary Bass House, and meeting his wife Deb, who worked round the corner in the iconic Sydney Scarborough record store. Three kids later, it all adds up to a permanent Hull residency.
MAJOR EVENT: A view of Humber Street during the Sesh festival that bears its name. Picture by Tom Arran Commercial Photography
“Hull is like a cultural fishing net,” said Mak.
“When I speak to people in our production team, a lot of them have come to study at the university and all have got caught up in that cultural fishing net that Hull seems to have. We could be here for the rest of our lives!
“It’s a great place to live. I love the honesty and integrity of people here. People say it as it is up here, and that’s the way it should be.”
We’d picked the perfect place for lunch. Menus are flexible and cater for any size of appetite at any time of day. Mak chose the Reuben toasted ciabatta from the specials board and I enjoyed a pulled pork wrap with chorizo loaded fries. Two lattes for Mak and two cokes for me took the bill to just £31.
The music is modern and fine and distracted us less than the array of gig posters, including some from Sesh events. A newspaper page from 2016 highlights Hull’s changing social scene at a time when investment in the city centre, and in this case specifically at Furley & Co, was creating serious competition for the Avenues destinations which had boomed since the early 2000s. Mak was at the heart of both phenomena.
“Bass House gave me a really good grounding. Landlord Tony Roberts and his wife Andrea took me in like family. I set up the Revival Mod night and that embedded me with different social groups in the city. I moved to the Linnet & Lark with Tony after the World Cup in 1998. When he left and Nathan Newington took over, live music was high on the agenda but it was cover bands and tribute acts and really not my bag,” Mak recalled.
PLANNING AHEAD: Mark Page
“I knew young kids who were in original bands like Raywells, Ernest, Sidewinder, and Diablo so I got them involved with a new night called Sesh at The Linnet.
“I find there’s a conveyor belt of talent coming through every three years and audiences that change every three years too. From the original burst we got to the point where The Paddingtons broke through BIG, and there was an upsurge in new indie and garage punk bands like Turismo, Dirty Dreamers, The Favours and The Bonnitts. It really took off from there, building a vibrant community. It felt as though Hull had a really strong music scene again, like it had with previous decades and this time fully supported by the great Raw Talent team at BBC Humberside – the precursor to BBC Introducing.”
Hull has always had great bands and performers creating memorable music but it hasn’t always made the most of that. What made the difference this time, notably in the socio-economic sense, was the pace of the emergence and development of the new bands. Their predecessors were still in the trade and people worked together to shape a homegrown industry, a culture around the music and a route to the top for the on-stage and off-stage talent.
Collectively, they created the infrastructure essential for a thriving music scene. In the past if a local band couldn’t take its success to the national level it merely faded away. That’s changed. There’s a network of more places to play now – including exciting outdoor events – and the Sesh team are central to that.
Mak understood the hunger for performance. He’d been collecting records from the age of 12, and started DJing around the South West from the age of 15, clocking up over 5,000 gigs and a healthy record collection. The early success of Sesh set him on course to complete his journey from the English Riviera to the Humber Riviera.
“From that moment we never looked back,” he said.
“New bands, different styles and genres breaking through, and within a year or two we started inviting bands from outside the city to come inspire their peers in Hull.”
A change of landlord at the Linnet & Lark prompted a move in 2014 to the Polar Bear where the growth continued with Dave Courtney and Dave Mays and their team, who also had the Welly on Beverley Road and Fruit, an old warehouse on Humber Street.
“The people behind the venues were creative and were invested in the local music scene and I knew they would support us. I wanted to work with that team and from there it’s gone from strength to strength.”
It was a pivotal move in the development of Humber Street Sesh – the game-changer which was missing when previous generations of bands needed a centrepiece to showcase their sector.
It began with a flirtation with the Freedom Festival in 2010, but when they decided not to repeat the Sesh stage the following year Mak spoke to some Humber Street businesses and introduced the Sesh Freedom warehouse.
“We ended up with 60 bands playing over the festival weekend as a fringe event. In 2012 I felt I could expand on that and try to create a festival on Humber Street.
PLATFORM: The BBC Introducing Stage at Humber Street Sesh. Picture by Tom Arran Commercial Photography
“We initially expected to attract about a thousand people to celebrate ten years of the Sesh and come to watch around 60 of our great bands and acts. Lo and behold about 10,000 people turned up to be welcomed by about six security staff and eight toilets!”
The 2013 edition gave a sign of things to come with an estimated crowd of 40,000 and the recognition that help was needed, bringing in Justine Peacock and her team at Prestige Support.
“We realised quickly it was a bit of a monster,” said Mak.
“With Justine’s support and experience we learned how to stage a safe and enjoyable festival, and we continue to learn.”
The City of Culture year in 2017 brought the opportunity to expand to the west of the Marina and to extend the fun over a second day. It worked well and was repeated over the next two years, but then the world shut down.
“Covid hit us all hard and we were on our knees as we didn’t receive any support from the Culture Recovery Fund,” said Mak.
FUN UP FRONT: Fans getting into it at Humber Street Sesh. Picture by Jason Shipley Photography
“We haven’t fully recovered from Covid as a city either. It’s disrupted that three-year cycle and although the venues are being supported by some of the people we saw before the pandemic we are still trying to entice others back while also trying to build new audiences.”
That process has included new ideas and events. Trinity Live, introduced in 2019 in Trinity Indoor Market with the backing of Hull City Council, bounced back post-Covid and will be a mainstay of the music scene this year.
“Trinity Live was launched to showcase the Market, bring people into the city centre to support the evening economy and provide another platform for bands and artists. It was a great success and we managed to get back in 2022 with a series of gigs.
“Now we have got funding for the rest of this year – three acts every week, all original, and going right through to December. It’s a warm, community haven and accessible to all, for all age groups with the Market having some fantastic independent bars and food stalls.”
Social, a 300-capacity venue in Humber Street, is broadening the base.
Mak said: “Opening Social during the pandemic as the latest addition to the roster of great music venues had its hurdles but we are slowly and surely establishing it again with great gigs, cinema, comedy and theatre. We are also doing club nights and a lot more corporate stuff as we try to build our audiences up again.
ON DECK: Mark ‘Mak’ Page in his DJ days
“We’ve also got local bands now playing live on the concourse before Hull City’s home games, and what we hope will be an annual takeover of the stunning bandstand in Pearson Park on selected Saturdays during the summer with the support of the Pearson Park Trust and the city council.”
The value to local musicians, bands and venues is immense, and it’s become a two-way street with performers putting back in to help others, and building sustainability as a result.
Mak name-checks Martin Knight from the Favours helping to bring in the bands for Sesh in the early days, and Duncan “Digsy” Fletcher from 59 Violets who played a key part at the gig in it’s infancy. John Copley took the reins for a while, with long term Sesh partner Daniel Mawer of Low Hummer leading the nights to new heights over the last ten years.
Mak said: “And then there’s the people who really make it happen LIVE from behind the sound desks and large speakers, people like Mike Wilkinson, Lee Drinkall, Tom Howell and Paul Sargeson. There really is no ‘I’ in team Sesh.
“They’ve helped us take everything to a whole new level with the weekly Sesh, the festival and everything else. When we started Humber Street Sesh our mission statement was first and foremost to bring the community together, have a good time and celebrate our city’s bands and artists.
“We are sitting on some incredible talent and we have some amazing people behind some great venues. There’s more diversity than ever, with all genres well represented now. For instance, we have a great hip-hop scene brewing, with the inspirational Beats Bus a big influence on that.
LATE NIGHT MARAUDERS: An evening crowd at Humber Street Sesh. Picture by Tom Arran Commercial Photography
The collaborative approach has secured a huge pipeline for that talent, and Mak credits the hard work, passion and belief of Paul “Jacko” Jackson and Paul Sarel at the Adelphi, the team at Polar Bear and the people at Dive and O’Rileys.
Mak said: “There’s some great new promoters breaking through and some amazing young people’s organisations like Goodwin and Warren, and music departments at colleges that are all committed to creating more exciting opportunities for young people.
“It’s their first experience of live music on their home turf, seeing professional shows, coming down and networking at the gigs, getting confidence and inspiration, and then trying to find work in the field. We are really proud of a lot of the people who have worked alongside us at Sesh who are now working in the industry.”
The links with education, offering guidance, encouragement and mentoring, are evidence of a business-like approach which is needed because music is big business.
Mak said: “An example is the way that culture has helped to drive the regeneration of the Fruit Market area, and by investing in the venue Social we have shown we’re in it for the long term. There’s no denying Sesh has helped the Fruit Market – it was used extensively for the City of Culture bid and it’s brought people together.”
The immediate future is about marking two big anniversaries, with Sesh celebrating 21 years and Humber Street Sesh staging its tenth event including the 2021 Inner City Sesh, which Mak confirms was a test for something on a much grander scale.
‘IT’S A TEAM GAME’: Humber Street Sesh Festival Director Mark Page
He said: “With Sesh we want to do a series of gigs to recall those early years, and try to get some of the old favourites back together. Get the great local bands of the noughties to reform. Who’s in?
“Humber Street Sesh will be much the same as 2022 until the A63 is completed, with its compact location and a sharper focus on making sure things run more smoothly. But longer term we want to join the dots between the marina and the rest of the city centre using the Fruit Market and other key areas such as Queens Gardens, Zebedee’s Yard, Trinity Market, Princes Quay and Queen Victoria Square.
“It’s a lofty ambition which can only ever happen with the support of the city council, the business community, arts bodies, and the general public themselves. It can be done. A city centre-wide festival in five years’ time with multiple stages and activities attracting in excess of 100,000 people.
“That will help visitor numbers, the local economy, truly putting Hull on the music map. It’s got to be a concerted effort – we all have to believe that we can do this as a city and that means finding the funds for it.”
For now costs don’t even enter into the discussion. The budget for the first Humber Street Sesh was around £18,000 and this year it will exceed half a million. A mixed economy of ticket sales, sponsorship, funding and food and bar revenues make up the numbers. A city centre-wide Inner City Sesh festival would need serious investment from public and private enterprises, but will only be delivered if it can maintain the commitment to financial accessibility and sustainability.
The key is partnership: “The strength of community at the festival is there for all to see. It creates a sense of wellbeing. I have seen 13 or 14-year-old kids at the marina during the festival saying they can’t believe this is happening in their ‘town’.
“That’s the great legacy of it all. People start believing in their own city. It’s driven by passion and the belief that we as a city possess something quite special when we all get together. But I can’t do it on my own. I never could. In my heart I am still a failed footballer-cum-pub DJ who just loves a bit of music and a party.”
The 10th anniversary festival of Humber Street Sesh will be held on Saturday, August 12 at Hull Marina
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