In pubs, clubs and theatres, upstairs rooms and cellar bars, throughout the capital, something is quietly astir; the acoustic music scene, though perhaps hidden from the mainstream music fan or the casual listener, is alive and well, and drawing girls and boys out to play each night in their droves.

One of these musicians is Nigel Bunner, one of the members of the Morgensterns teleteam. Although he has been writing songs since he was about 10, he concentrated mainly on classical music as a youngster, and even had a piece for orchestra and choir performed at the Royal Albert Hall at the age of 19. While studying music at Kingston University, he formed a band as part of his last-year project and investigated retro recording techniques.

"The trouble is," he says, "at that age, you have dreams of getting a record deal and becoming famous, but you don't think beyond that. After I left the band, I formed sugardrum (www.sugardrum.co.uk) with drummer Nick Davies. I found I'd become much more cynical about searching out fame. Now I just write and play to have good gigs and enjoy what I'm doing. Strangely, when I tell people I play acoustic music, they sometimes imagine I sit in the corner in a pub and play Oasis covers, they have no idea about the popularity of the scene or what goes on there. We play for the sake of it, not necessarily to try to get somewhere. We enjoy playing and hopefully the audiences enjoy what we play, too."

Nigel's attitude is typical of many of the up-and-coming singer-songwriters on the acoustic circuit, which is what makes it so special and seductive. It has a dynamic and vibrant pulse of its own, ever changing and evolving, drawing converts weekly. Many stumble over the acoustic scene by chance and excitedly tell their friends they've discovered some new phenomenon, unaware that this "underground" music movement has been bubbling around for years.

Acoustic music in London is nothing new, of course. In fact, in the 50s and early 60s it was difficult to get away from it. Strumming could be heard drifting into the night air of the capital from many a dingily lit cellar or room in a back-street pub. Bert Jansch picked his folky blues on guitar, a young Bob Dylan played at places like the Troubadour, and the folk scene gathered pace, with the likes of Martin Carthy heading the way.

The 70s, 80s and early 90s, proved a leaner period for the acoustic musicians, though. While folk clubs continued to provide an outlet for the performers of traditional folk music, many musically minded young people picked up electric guitars, keyboards and samplers, wooed by pop, punk, indie and dance music as outlets for their creative talents. Though they still existed, the acoustic clubs became thinner on the ground.

As the 90s progressed and the mainstream music industry seemed to become more driven by the pursuit of an ever younger audience, pushing more cynically commercially created acts to the fore. Consequently, a new generation of young people picked up their acoustic guitars and began penning songs for themselves.

Clubs began to spring up, often not run for profit, but started by people who had songs to play and share themselves. Often these were Open Mic nights, where people simply turned up, played a couple of songs each to like-minded musicians. The atmosphere supportive and creative, and the events and venues multiplied.

Nowadays the types of nights and the venues has diversified dramatically, the number of musicians actively performing has mushroomed,and local acoustic scenes attract ever more budding performers out into the open.

There have been notable success stories; people whose early experiences were on the acoustic circuit. The likes of David Gray could, in the 90s, have been spotted among the budding performers of acoustic clubs like the Easycome in south London. Damien Rice, now taking England and America by storm, was just a couple of years ago playing in front of 70 or so people upstairs at the Enterprise in Camden. Most recently, Tom Baxter, a stalwart at the Acoustix sessions at the Bedford in Balham has been sought out and signed by Sony, and appeared on the Jools Holland and Jonathan Ross TV shows. So success seeks out the most talented, but that is not the driving force for many on the scene, who merely wish to have a platform for their creative output.

The open mics still exist in almost every area of London - among them the universally applauded Virtually Acoustic Club in Tufnell Park, whose website www.thevac.co.uk is a mine of information about venues, gigs and more, but there are also many places where people can perform whole sets, receive payment and sell their self-recorded CDs.

There are also more business-minded concerns, which promote gigs at a range of venues and charge entry fees, yet often pay less attention to the compatability of line-ups, more to the potential audience the artist can bring in. It is experience of these types of gigs that led Nigel Bunner and a group of his friends to set up an acoustic collective called Wupa Dupa (www.wupadupa.com) to put on gigs with like-minded musicians.

"A number of friends and I were part of a vibrant acoustic music scene in Kingston. We played the open mic nights at the Grey Horse and began being booked at other acoustic nights. However, at some of these, the promoters don't check the coherence of the programme they're putting on. There may be a band who is nothing like you on before you. They will have brought their own audience with them, and once the band stops playing, they all move away from the front and lose interest in the rest of the music."

"My friends and I wanted to create an evening of entertainment as a whole, where the audience would come to be entertained by a range of musicians, rather than by one band. A member of the band Semble had organised an Amnesty International fundraising festival at the Grey Horse. It proved to be a lot of work for one person, but was amazingly successful, and we all decided that we'd start putting on gigs collectively, sharing all the work, and making sure the ethos and the atmosphere is right."

And this they now do, with a core of acts (including Nigel's sugardrum, Martha Tilston, Semble, Weston Green, and many more).

One of their projects is a monthly residency at the Grey Horse, Kingston, where one of the collective is put in charge of organising and promoting each gig. The evenings themselves feature candles, free cake and lots of cushions on the floor, creating a chilled-out appreciative atmosphere and an audience who listen with a capital L.

The profits are shared equally between the performers on the night after 10 per cent has been put aside for Wupa Dupa. The idea has so far proved amazingly successful and is drawing big and loyal audiences.

"We have diversified away from Kingston, too, and have promoted gigs at larger, established venues in London, like Bush Hall. We all chip in – do the sound, distribute flyers, man the CD stalls, etc – and the venues have so far always been full.

"Various collective members have also moved to different parts of the country and we've been able to put on gigs there, too - like in Brighton and the West Country and we're always looking for new areas and venues to put on events."

A recent success was a tent at the Small World Festival – a little underground hippie festival that attracts about 500 people to its rural site in Kent.

"Our Wupa Dupa tent created lots of interest and was always busy – and we sold a lot of our CDs as a result."

The accessibility to cheap/home studio recording has also helped the acoustic singer-songwriter in recent years, with many financing their own eps and albums, which are duplicated and sold at gigs.

"One of our collective," says Nigel, "the band nun of the above – has even set up a studio as a commercial venture, and Wupa Dupa members have recorded there. There is always someone in the collective who can help out if some expertise is needed."

This, it seems applies to musical as well as technical expertise, with people playing on each other's albums, adding some cello here, some flute there, and getting up on stage to add backing harmonies when needed.

The apparent lack of ego and shared enjoyment in performing is typical of much of what is best about the acoustic movement at present. It allows young performers to make their debut without fear of offputting, strident criticism, and more established singer-songwriters to have an outlet for their output without the interference of the mainstream, organised music industry. Above all it provides musicians with a line of direct communication with an audience eager to listen. And for the audience, a brilliant and enjoyable night out!

Annie Windley

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