Soul trader
The founder of the Mobos on its move to Glasgow
By Sharon McKinlay
“WHEN OUR FAMILY MOVED TO LONDON FROM GALWAY THE SIGNS ON THE DOORS SAID ‘NO BLACKS, NO IRISH AND NO DOGS’, ” says Kanya King when we meet up in the Princes Square shopping mall in central Glasgow. “Our only saving grace was that we couldn’t afford a dog.” Clearly life for this family of nine children (King is the youngest) to a Ghanaian father and an Irish mother was about challenges right from the start.
“Work was hard to come by for my parents, so growing up we all had to pitch in to make ends meet. I remember selling whistles at carnivals with my mother as a child and that work ethic has stayed with me ever since.”
King has shown this drive for the past 14 years, turning her back on a career in television to found an awards show dedicated to ‘music of black origin’. Over the years King had approached every contact she had in the music industry with her vision, but had failed to persuade anyone to take on the project. Still, it didn’t deter her.
“The idea for the Mobo Awards was one that I’d had as a teenager listening to the likes of John Holt and Stevie Wonder in my bedroom. I suppose I always thought it was such an obvious and powerful business idea in an industry which was so saturated by pop music that someone else would do it. When nobody did, I decided to put my money where my mouth was.”
She re-mortgaged her home in Kilburn, north-west London, did a high-profile launch at London’s Ministry of Sound and won the attention of Carlton Television. King was given just six weeks to pull together an inaugural event to fit into the television company’s schedule – no mean feat for a novice in the world of major events. King delivered, on schedule, using £60,000 of her own money. The first awards ceremony was held in 1995 at Covent Garden’s New Connaught Rooms. Among the audience were Tony Blair (then leader of the opposition) and singers such as Gabrielle and Lionel Ritchie (who collected the first lifetime achievement award).
Up until then, did she ever consider that the event might not be a success?
“There was no plan B for the Mobo Awards,” she says simply. “I was putting my home on the line. Failure was not an option.” King’s steely determination ensured that her ceremony gained momentum at a phenomenal rate. Within two years the Mobos had moved to the 4,000-capacity Royal Albert Hall; by the third year the event had attracted its first headline sponsor with Malibu Rum, later followed by financial heavyweight Mastercard and a three-year deal with Western Union. Smaller sponsorship deals from the likes of Bebo and Napster continued to boost a healthy cash flow while the event attracted hosts such as Shaggy and Coolio and continued to sell out bigger and bigger venues, from the Alexandra Palace to the O2 Arena. In 2008 the awards took place at Wembley with an audience of 7,500. So with the Mobos being such an established part of the London music scene, why would she suddenly up sticks and move to Scotland?
Because this year King is taking the ceremony, to be broadcast to a worldwide audience of 250 million, to Glasgow. “We’re bringing the Mobo Awards to a city with a legendary thirst for great music. Glasgow has such a strong music scene, and has seen so many shows from so many great Mobo artists – it’s a perfect fit.”
The move also has the added benefit of strong public sector support: more than £400,000 of investment from EventScotland, Scotland’s national events agency, Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Government. In return, it is estimated that the Mobo Awards will generate an economic impact of more than £3.5 million for Glasgow.
“It’s always important to be commercially aware but especially so in the current climate. We want to get the most out of our money. Our move to Glasgow is, in part, a growth decision, it’s the next step in our strategy that will see Mobo become a global name. However, it also has to be commercially viable.”
This year will also see King strategically increasing the awards’ lucrative VIP area while maintaining last year’s impressive attendance figures.
But while business savvy King might be counting every penny, the artists attending the ceremony haven’t always been so frugal. Attendees at previous events have arrived by stretch Hummer, helicopter and even a horse and cart and this year artists are already rumoured to be arriving by seaplane and speedboat on the river Clyde.
However, it won’t all be as blingy this year: on top of the global recession, the music downloads era has been imposing financial difficulties on artists for a while now, difficulties which King and her contemporaries are all too familiar with.
“Banks dominate the headlines but music has been seeing a huge fall in revenue for years now. The music industry has been both at the forefront of change and a victim of it. The advent of downloadable music, the removal of key distribution channels on the high street and the layers of old bureaucracy have all served to diminish the returns on musical output. Artists are having to work harder for less money. Gone are the days when a singer could retire on one hit record.”
But some Mobo artists may be in a better position than most to diversify.
“Name dropping is a huge part of the urban music lifestyle and I think that will always give the industry an edge when it comes to allowing artists to diversify into clothing lines, fragrances, fast-moving consumer goods and affiliations with big brands.”
So what advice does the queen of urban music have for the next generation of urban musicians? “Mobo has always encouraged start-up initiatives and routes into the industry. And thankfully that entrepreneurial spirit comes naturally to many urban artists. Now they must take back control of their music and invest in themselves. If you own more, you can control more.”
King demonstrates this with the case of UK rapper Sway who started out by distributing mix tapes through independent record stores.
In 2005, despite still being unsigned, he beat off stiff competition from the likes of 50 Cent to win the Mobo Award for best hip hop act. He went on to receive a nomination for the Mercury Music Award in 2006 and was last year signed to US rapper Akon’s label.
It’s why she believes that there’s a positive spin-off: “More artists today are taking risks, which is producing some of the best urban music we’ve ever seen. More artists are collaborating to share the costs associated with producing music and the results are really exciting. It just goes back to what has always been at the root of urban music: success in the face of adversity and that’s what the Mobo Awards will be recognising in Glasgow this year.”
The Mobo Awards take place on 30 September at Glasgow’s SECC. For further information visit www.mobo.com
Photography: © Getty Images
