CityLife

The kids are all right...

SINCE holding their inaugural indie-disco at the Contact Theatre in June, the six teenagers behind Same Teens, Manchester's first ever under-18s indie-disco, not only aimed at teenagers, but organised by them too, have been busy.

They've been headhunted to DJ for gigs as diverse as DPercussion to providing the aftershow for leathery legend Iggy Pop.

Inspiral Carpets keyboard player turned DJ, Clint Boon, who manned the decks, was even moved to comment: "This Same Teens lark is probably the biggest thing to happen in Manchester music-wise since the Sex Pistols came here in 1976."

The second night is planned for next month, and features an impressive line-up including The Answering Machine.

Designer Magazine, meanwhile, has built an enviable reputation for staging gigs in Manchester, highlighting teen talent such as El Policia. They even held the first gig of singer-songwriter Kid 4077, aka 15-year-old Nile Marr, son of Johnny.

Tonight, London's Victoria Park will play host to Britain's most cutting-edge music festival. If you want to get in to the event, you'll have to bring along ID. However, it will be needed to prove you're actually under, rather than over 18.

Billing itself as the world's first 'credible' music festival for 14 to 17-year-olds, the aptly-named Underage Festival is the NME Brats meets Bratz.

"There are no adults there so youngsters have got a sense of freedom in terms of no parents," explains Tom Baker, who co-promotes the event with enterprising 15-year old Sam Killcoyne.

"It's great for a 14-year-old to be able to go to a festival with all his mates and not have to go back to a tent with his mum at a certain time."

All-age concerts

The event represents a culmination of the burgeoning all-ages concert phenomenon which has allowed a new generation of music fans to watch their favourite bands, unimpeded by licensing laws.

The cliché about social networking sites being responsible for the upsurge in youngsters' interest in new bands is a cliché only because it's true.

Whereas in the '90s, teens were directly marketed to with cookie-cutter pop groups such as S-Club, and fanbases cynically constructed through relentless school tours or launched by Monkees-esque children's TV programmes, the likes of MySpace have levelled the playing field for emerging indie outfits on minnow labels, encouraging word-of-mouth recommendations in school.

"People are getting into music younger and younger," agrees Marcus Ardere, frontman of rising New Cross art-pop trio Pull Tiger Tail, who are appearing at Underage Festival and are regulars on the GCSE circuit.

"The kids are so savvy. And the explosion of internet access to music as well has really helped that.

"It generates excitement and kids can get into new music and then, obviously they want to go and see the bands live. Plus, MySpace enables kids to get into the whole personality of the band, and they can email them direct. That direct contact is important."

Generation gap

There's also a tangible feeling that for the first time in ages, the generation gap is being prised open. Fifty years ago, rock music started as a teenage rebellion, but now it has been colonised by the middle-aged, using their purchasing power to see 'catch-all' groups such as Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand or The Fratellis.

This year, organiser Michael Eavis, complained that Glastonbury had become too `middle-aged'. However, groups such as The Horrors, Enter Shikari, and Hadouken! seem strictly for the MSN Generation; witnessing one of their gigs transports you back to a time when you fretted about the torpor of double-maths the next morning.

"If you go to a Horrors show, the audience are all kids and they're all dressed up in tight jeans with back-combed hair, vintage waistcoats and skinny jeans; exactly the same gear as the band themselves wear," says Baker. "If you go to a Hadouken! gig, they're all in mad fluorescent colours. It's the young kids finally wresting their own scene away from the control of adults."

"There are so many bands that I want to see on at the Underage Festival," enthuses Ardere. "It actually makes me jealous I'm not under 18. And I feel very, very old."

He's 24.

FOR details on the next Same Teens, visit myspace.com/sameteensmanchester. For information on upcoming Designer Magazine all-ages gigs, check out myspace.com/designermagazine.