WERL is one of the most diverse societies at the University - film-makers, journalists, sound engineers, designers, animators, aspiring businessmen/women and even those who just love listening to live music can all get involved and help to shape WERL's future.

WERL Records is the University's first ever record label - designed to expose, promote and market the music of new bands both on and off campus in Leamington, Coventry, Birmingham and the surrounding area.

By joining, you can get involved in

• A&R (scouting for new bands at gigs whilst enjoying lots of drinks!)
• Design (everything from animated music videos to web design)
  
• Promotions and PR (for the aspiring businessmen/women and journalists!)
  
• Live bookings and liaison
  
• Recording.
  

A & R go to as many gigs as possible, geting to know the University and local music scene. They review demos that get sent to them and help bands improve their demo package. They hope to establish a team of people to review different types of music They find the bands to play for the record label and keep in contact with them. If you're interested in finding new bands and going to plenty of gigs, this is the dept for you!

The Design dept are responsible for the artwork connected to the record labels. This includes posters and flyers but also includes making videos for singles, promotion photos, set design and venue decor for gigs, and even merchandise for the stall in the form of badges and comedy t-shirts. You do not need to be able to draw at all, and don't worry if you're not particularly artistic or never done anything like this before, if you're interested in film-making, creative work or just want to find out more about the artistic side of a record label then get in touch!

Events is all about where and when things happen. We need people to keep their ears open for good and bad times to have a gig (i.e. there is no point in doing a gig in Leamington the same night as crash in the union!) and for people to scout out and contact good venues for gigs. As WERL use local as well as Uni bands, gigs tend to be held in Leamington, but we're hoping to expand in Coventry, as well as exploring other ventures such as acoustic nights in smaller venues. Events is also responsible for socials! Any ideas you have for socials, from going to gigs to mass ice skating, get in touch. We hope to organise some joint socials with other societies, so we're on the look out for 'contacts' with the other music based societies. If you're interested in the organising side of gigs, or just want to get socialising let me know!

Marketing are, in short, responsible for promoting gigs and the society. The stall runs one day a week in the union and at every WERL gig. Last year we had a 'minimalist' stall selling cds. This year we hope to make it much more intersting and possibly sell more varied merchandise such as t-shirts, badges, stickers, lighters and so on. Marketing really needs poeple to run the stall and to be enthusiastic in getting people to join our society, buy our stuff and most of all come to our gigs! Marketing also need 'sleeper cells' in halls, Coventry and Leamington to distribute flyers and posters near where they live. This is a great opportunity to be creative, some of last year's promotional tacks included lollies with the WERL website on them and a balloon drop in Top B with flyers stuck to them! So for anyone considering a career in marketing, here's the place to start.

We're hoping to release a single per band this year and this is where the recording dept comes in. However, at the moment we don't have the facilities to do this on campus (though we are in talks with the Sabbs and union employees to make sure a media centre gets built with a recording centre!). Resourceful people are needed in this dept to work round this! Other purposes of the recording dept is doing the sound engineering for gigs and recording our gigs live! If you have any interest or experience in doing sound engineering for live gigs, or want to learn how it all works the recording dept needs you!

Head on to our website to share your comments, thoughts and reviews with the WERL community. The web team are also looking for new talent. If you have web skills and an interst in website design, this could be for you!

http://www.werlonline.co.uk