Barstool Music
About Us
A Multi – Media Platform That Showcases The Best In Unsigned And Independent Music From Across The UK
21
Podcasts
22
Reviews
Our Story
Founded back in 2018 under the name Barstool Sessions, our original aim was to create a singer/songwriter showcase evening at a small Social Club in Erdington, Birmingham called, Hollywood Social Club.
Unlike most acoustic evenings it wasn’t run like an open mic but instead three acts would be booked and then given a sizeable set time, anything from 20 to 40 minutes. All acts were booked and sourced by creator Luke Knowles. On the evening of the fortnightly event, sound and set up would be performed by his dad, Robert Knowles. Both worked together to create a unique performing experience, appreciated by the many acts that have passed through the doors.
Not long after the 1 year anniversary, Luke created the Barstool Green Room Blog, where he reviewed and interviewed local artists, again unsigned and independent singer/songwriters, covering a range of different genres, from Pop to Metal and everything in between. Discovering all this great new music Luke once again took his plans further and approached a local radio station to create an offshoot show that would be part of the Barstool Sessions. After receiving a positive response from local station Switch Radio in Birmingham, Luke began gathering up new music in anticipation of his first broadcast.
Sadly however as he was about to go through the process of recording his first show the Pandemic hit causing the station to close its doors and limit its ability to support Luke, who suffers with a visual impairment in using the stations programming software. So things were put on hold as the world went into lockdown.
Still receiving submissions and working on reviews for the Blog, Luke took the step to create his show from home and release it as a podcast, thus Barstool Airplay was born 2 months into the Lockdown. With this show he aimed to bring new music, and even conducted interviews for bands with new releases via Zoom. Generating a small but regular following as the shows moved on, Luke decided to use the down time between live shows to rebrand and pull all aspects of Barstool together, hence the new name Barstool Music UK.
Now we hope to use all aspects of what Luke has created to spread the word in any way we can about the incredible music being created up and down the country.
Founder
Luke Knowles
Born in Birmingham in 1989 Luke spent much of his early life growing up around musicians. His father, uncle, and cousins all played instruments or sang and many family friends were part of regularly gigging bands.
He always had an eagerness to listen to music however his passion for performing came later, when he turned 13 years old. This escape into playing the guitar came around the same time as he suffered a medical condition which resulted in him losing most of his vision in both eyes.
Finding music the one area of his life that did not depend on his sight, Luke threw himself into playing and soon took to the stage alongside his father and his band, and then later by himself. Having no real passion to become a recording artist, playing and writing songs was treated as a hobby, and instead Luke found his true passion came in discovering new music. Spending hours dredging through music streaming sites for what lay beneath the headline artists.
Doing this has led to him gaining a broader taste in music and hearing the quality of the music being created locally decided to become an advocate for undiscovered talent.
He produces and presents the podcast himself, sourcing the music, recording the program and then publishing it.
His main aim it to create a place that can springboard artists into people’s playlists across the UK.