Launched in January 2021, Rush Hour Records UK is the creative endeavour of Jay Roberts, Joshua Campbell and Steven Barclay – students from the second year of our HND Music Performance. We spoke to Jay about the launch of the new music blog and how they see it developing in the future…

Tell us about the launch…

We just launched the (Instagram) page and will be starting to post reviews, Q and A’s, articles and various extras such as; songs of the week and behind the scenes videos. We launch with 2 articles – Part one of The Chosen Lonely’s talk throughs about writing his Ep (Pt 1 of 3) and our favourite Albums/Singles from the top 50 bestselling vinyl records in 2020 in this country.

What was the inspiration behind the blog?

Myself (Jay Roberts) and the other founders, Joshua Campbell and Steven Barclay, came together, to write about the current scene in the UK and help fellow music fans discover new, exciting bands as we love to do ourselves.
We also have the intention of using this as a platform to release new music, promote new releases and offer a professional output of content for people to read, watch and enjoy.

With the current situation affecting music so negatively, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to reach out and try to support fellow bands and artists through this tough time and indeed beyond.
Jay Roberts
Rush Hour Records UK

We very much enjoy a new challenge and this seems to be an ideal route to go down.

How do you see the blog evolving in the future?

We want to continue to build the platform, writing and promoting online, with the loose idea of being able to start a podcast, host live sessions and, hopefully, put on gigs when we revert back to normal!

Finally, how has studying at Riverside helped you with the project?

Riverside has not only given each of us a much deeper understanding of how to become musicians but has also supplied us with the knowledge of how to organise projects which is benefitting us, in this case, to make the platform a useful tool for fellow artists, giving them a boost but also giving us experience, contacts/relationships and know-how to take into our own music careers.