… some reflections from Alan Dearling
I have many friends and acquaintances who promote and attend live gigs and Dj events at least once a week. Indeed, some of my mates go virtually every night to some sort of music event. Not all the gigs are ticketed; many are free. A lot of the artists I go to see and photograph are at charged-for events. They mostly sing and play their own original material, but there are also hundreds of gigs nightly across the UK in pubs, restaurants and smaller venues available for FREE! Some of the performers are in tribute acts, some play audience favourites. Some turn a performance space into a dance club, a rave, or, a lively gig set into a loud, raucous and thoroughly enjoyable sing-along.
Such were The Dockneys, performing live on a sunny Sunday in the outside area behind the Teign Brewery recently in Teignmouth in Devon. A great afternoon for the punters, with much audience participation in the town that gave the world, the mighty Muse. Pub bands and performers are the bedrock of live music, but their gigs are often dependent on good drinks’ sales for the pubs involved.
The Dockneys and many of their musician mates are amongst a number of artists who have produced some of their own original tracks, but have most probably concentrated on the pub gig circuit simply because it is better to get £100, £150, or £200 or more for performing two or three sets of live covers rather than trying to struggle to break even at ticketed gigs. Many musicians also depend on sales of their merchandise – vinyl, Cds, T-shirts and even cassettes. Sometimes they make more on the profits from these sales than on their share of the door takings. Luckily, a lot of publicans, venue owners and managers are often real music fans and do their level best to support live music and Dj events.
A famous example of venue for live music is the Boogaloo, near Highgate tube station in London where on a Sunday afternoon many really rather fabulous live acts strut their stuff – ranging from jazz to rhythm ‘n’ blues through country to rock ‘n’ roll and hard rock. The Boogaloo has even hosted the Pretenders, Chrissie Hynde, James Walbourne and some years ago, Shane MacGowan held a packed Boogaloo audiences spellbound. James is the lead guitarist in the Pretenders but also performs in other outfits including His Lordship and in the aptly named Mother’s Little Helper (mother, of course, being Chrissie!).
Another legendary live venue in London is the Hope & Anchor pub in Islington’s Upper Street. Most gigs take place in the small basement – think sweat and beer – especially during punk gigs! Here, the gigs are mostly charged for, but at reasonable prices. This was Derek, aka Dr Strangelove, singer from the Satellites performing some of their peculiar brand of Eeyore music at the Hope & Anchor.
Near where I used to live in the borderlands of Scotland and England, the Radio Rooms on the outskirts of Berwick upon Tweed have put on a wide range of bands and performers, but are probably best loved for their popular rhythm and blues nights. I was lucky to be able to take photos of, and meet Focus from the Netherlands when they played a live gig there. It’s currently closed, hopefully only temporarily.
Issues facing live music venues and performers…
Throughout my lifetime (so far!) I’ve enjoyed chatting to the organisers of gigs, music artists and venue owners. Here is a sample of some of their comments:
“Despite advertising live gigs, many of our customers will only attend if it’s free, and if it’s a covers or tribute band. They know what they like and vote with their feet.”
“It’s much easier for us to have Djs on, rather than bands who need more accommodation, food and drinks, lots of equipment and hassle with sound checks. And in our venue, more people come to dance and will pay for Djs more readily than for many bands.”
“We’ve had some amazing nights these last few months but we’re not in a financial position to continue for the time being. If any investors, magic wand holders or community-minded entrepreneurs are out there, please get in touch to save our venue.”
“We get lots of complaints from neighbours both about noise from gigs and from punters leaving the premises…some neighbours have bought houses and flats near the pub knowing full-well that we do gigs, yet they then complain to the council or even the police.”
“Paying for licenses for live gigs is an extra drain on our resources, so we don’t advertise our live gigs much.”
“We tried to put on some pretty big names at our bar and club venue, but we lost money and have had to scale back to mostly local acts which are nowhere near as costly. It’s a shame for the town and those who did support us.”
“We’ve sadly closed our live venue…it just wasn’t making any money…it’s gone back to being a night club.”
“After over 30 years in the business, including the stage for live stuff…our pub in the town centre has closed and is up for auction. The company who we worked for as tenants couldn’t find new tenants. It may end up as flats.”
Locally to where I live now in West Yorkshire there are quite a few music venues catering for a range of music, some quite big names, new and up and coming bands, covers bands and Djs. One of the most intimate is the 3 Wise Monkeys in Todmorden, which doubles as a Thai restaurant and live venue for music of a variety of types, but especially the more acoustic acts, blues, folk, jazz, world and open mic nights.
The Trades Club in Hebden is socialist members’ club, but the bar and gigs are open to all. It’s a world famous live music venue and in particular attracts a lot of performers on tour. The music at Trades is eclectic from Indie to folk, rave to jazz and ‘alternative’ (whatever that means these days!). Here is Jonathan Wilson in concert at the Trades after his tour with Roger Waters from Pink Floyd. The Trades advertises gigs well in advance to its members via emails and is a very popular venue with disabled access via a lift which is handy.
The Golden Lion in Todmorden offers a quite heady mix of Djs and dance events, live bands and performers and often has gigs on concurrently upstairs and downstairs. It can get very busy indeed. Personally, I am more interested in the live music, but the Djs bring in the big crowds. Jarvis Cocker, Steve Davis, The Orb, Leftfield, Goldie, Andrew Weatherall, Jane Weaver, Andy Bell and Wolfgang Flur from Kraftwerk are amongst the recent guest artists.
.