Leaky Con!!!

So everyone knows that this weekend is Leakycon, the Leaky Cauldron's Harry Potter Conference being held in Boston.

I am really gutted to not be there. The conference itself looks fun enough, with round tables and workshops by the Pottercast staff and others and a healthy dose of social issues by the Harry Potter Alliance, without taking into account the truly awesome amount of entertainment being laid on. There will be live podcasts, and keynote dinners and, of course, Wizard Rock...lots of Wizard Rock.

This evening kicks off with Evil Night! which features Draco and the Malfoys, The Parselmouths, Justin Finch-Fletchley and the Sugar Quills and Swish and Flick. Tomorrow continues with Rock Night featuring Harry and the Potters, The Whomping Willows, Gred and Forge, and Tonks and the Aurors. Saturday afternoon has Wrock Afternoon - featuring The Remus Lupins, The Moaning Myrtles, The Mudbloods and RiddleTM and then there is the Rocking Charity Ball to end Saturday evening in style.

Add to this The Butterbeer Experience (and friends) one-off staging of her wrock opera - Fountain of Fair Fortune and a performance by the ever-popular Potter Puppet Pals, not to mention after-show parties with performances by people like Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldrons and you get an idea of exactly what I’m missing. It will also be during the conference that the Wizrocklopedia’s Wizard Rock People’s Choice Awards will be announced.

If I wasn’t already aware, excitement by friends who are going and a live concert (which I watched via blog.tv and didn’t finish until 5.30am this morning my time) at the Sidewalk cafe last night featuring Witherwings, Snidget, The Butterbeer Experience, Swish and Flick and The House of Black have helped to really rub in what I’m missing.

In retrospect I really wish I had just borrowed the money and gone. I know that I'm missing something truly momentous and listening to it on Pottercast or whatever just doesn't make up for it. Although in one way not being there is a good thing. With so many brilliant bands releasing new albums this weekend, along with t shirts and other HP goodies I’d probably need as much in spending money as it would have cost to get there!

Introduction

Welcome to my latest blog. This one, as you’ll have gathered from the give-away title is all to do with Wizard Rock – the Harry Potter fandom genre of music. The Harry Potter fandom was the first to create a whole type of music dedicated to exploring the world that Jo Rowling had created (although now Twilight and Doctor Who and probably other genres too have their own music, some of which has been created by Wizard rockers). It is also the case that some very talented artists who began with Wizard Rock have now branched out into Muggle music.

Wizard rock is a huge and ever-growing genre of music, with a large variety of bands and musical styles. You can find everything from the polished and professional bands to the home-taped filk producers and everything in-between. I discovered this world pretty late in Wizard Rock terms – only about eighteen months ago – but in that time I have been fascinated and impressed at the talent that the genre has produced and, as with everywhere else in the HP fandom, the friendliness of everyone involved in the scene.

As I’m in no way musical and I haven’t yet been able to convince Mrs H3 to start a Wrock band – she’s the talented one after all (although I’m still working on it) my intention is to use this blog to promote greater awareness of Wizard Rock through my writing as I feel that more people outside the fandom should have the opportunity to investigate this music. I’m hoping that people will be interested enough to read the blog and then to check out the bands mentioned within. To do this I’ll be talking about the bands I love, new bands I’ve discovered, albums I’ve bought and oldies but goodies that should be on everyone’s listening lists. I’ll be including other sources of information and will possibly be writing reviews on albums and bands, along with any concerts or general wizard rock news that comes my way.

To be honest there are so many Wizard Rock bands around these days that I’ve not even heard of some of them. So if you have a band that you want me to check out, or have some music that you think I should be listening to or reviewing then please feel free to contact me either by e-mail or by leaving a message on here. I’m also interested in your opinions on the topics I cover and if you have any ideas for things I should be blogging about feel free to leave a message about those too.