At the start of the lockdown, you launched a fundraiser campaign, what has the response been like?

The response was great and really unexpected to be honest. We set ourselves a target of £2000 but realistically hoped for £1000. The fundraiser was primarily for the studio rent which we rely on to put on our events – it really helped out at a time we really needed it. No rehearsals/events/gear rental meant literally no income for a grassroots organisation that is already running a tight ship! 

The venue was pretty quick in setting up a series of livestreams, starting with the Soft Jocks/LUMER performances, was this something you’ve been planning a while? How have the livestreams helped the venue during lockdown? 

We’ve had a production outfit/channel in the set up for about 6 months, stock piling material to release with interviews/podcasts, etc. The Soft Jocks/LUMER was basically just a burst of creative energy in the wake of a realisation of “oh shit lockdown could easily be around the corner”. I think we recorded it 5 or 6 days before official lockdown came in. 2 of our favourite bands that are very much part of the community down here. The livestreams have helped us remind people we still exist over the last few months. It also shows a snippet of the amazing atmosphere our shows have in the intimate space. 

You’ve also set up a Patreon page, which is something that others areas of the arts use but you don’t see many venues using, do you think it’s something that the industry should consider more? Do you see Patreon/similar online patronage playing a more important role in the future?

We arrived at Patreon after deliberating the most efficient ways of distributing a ‘monthly subscription for exclusive content service’. Patreon seemed like a good way for us to get different mediums of content out quickly all under one service. It also obviously means we can reach people outside of our locality who can pay £4 a month for a wide open window of what we get up to.

With the latest government advice continuing to offer little relief for the music sector, what needs to be changed to help support venues like yourself? 

It all comes down to how onerous the social distancing measures are. And also floorspace/capacity. Being a small intimate venue we just can’t open as a venue under any kind of social distancing measures. Unfortunately we wouldn’t be able to get enough people in to make it work financially (or create any kind of venue atmosphere) and we’re not going to push the point when it comes to safety. 

Aside from this we have been tentatively booking some top secret touring acts for post-lockdown and also putting together some T Shirts and a compilation LP to support the space. It will feature one track per artist from our Dark Daze festival (Leeds psych & post-punk festival). Hopefully this will be out in the next month so watch our socials for more announcements on that and dates for Dark Daze 2… 

In the most, part due to the lack of support and guidance on re-opening for music venues and other creatives from the government, we are working with our landlord and neighbouring businesses to transform our outside space into a bookable beer garden on Fridays and Saturdays. Given that we use a different local brewery’s beer for each event we are looking to feature craft ale, good gin and wine with street food, etc. In the current climate we are having to very much think ‘outside the box’ in the hope of bringing some money back into the space. It’s tough times – but we’ll have even tougher times in the future if all our creative independents are allowed to dry up. 

Finally, what’s the 3-band line-up that you’d most like to host once live music returns? 

We’re going fantasy line-up on this… Protomartyr, Tropical Fuck Storm, RATM. 

Support Bleach

To support the fundraising, follow: https://www.gofundme.com/f/jar-mills-mabgate-bleach-fundraiser?fbclid=IwAR0CYvNHoG-zbEzEGjd4_Bz7MD2zS2HGwzIiqZgU4deTli2cjdM06wwuieM 

And for Mabgate Bleach’s Patreon page, follow: https://www.patreon.com/MabgateBleach?fbclid=IwAR11RLEbl8nKuNzgTSVvL7tUCOFPZpVL99ypOcMDojpXYBVFnLbtFxhI50I 

Bleach is close our our hearts here at Pretend as we hosted a party with Loop and Dance Disease there back in 2019.

The post How the fiercly DIY Mabgate Bleach has been surviving lockdown, and how you can help it stay open. appeared first on Pretend.

When chancellor Rishi Sunak announced his £1.6 Billion investment in the arts there was a moment of hope. Some of that hope still remains but the near miss we saw in Manchester with The Deaf Institue and Gorilla saved from closure at the last minute has shown that this bailout was not designed with Grassroots music venues in mind. We must continue to support these spaces around the country if they are to keep the doors open post lockdown, looking at Bristol today, Leeds tomorrow and London on Friday.

Now that the lingering spectre of redevelopment has been replaced with the new threat from coronavirus lockdown, many live music venues and local businesses have had to adapt in order to stay afloat during these times. United by the efforts of the Music Venue Trust, the live music community of Bristol is putting up a fight. Here are some of the venues that have been affected by the lockdown, and how they are coping with the new pressures put upon then.

The Old England

An alternative live music pub situated in Montpellier. Known for its warm and authentic atmosphere, this iconic venue has played host to a wide range of local bands, and has played a significant role in sustaining the DIY music scene in Bristol for a number of years.

On the Music Venue Trust website, the team at The Old England explain that the venue is gradually accruing debt, and that they need your support to help stay afloat. In order to do this, they have been producing T-shirts and a now mixtape which you can purchase online. On 12th May, they announced on Facebook that the crowdfund setup early on in the lockdown had reached its £5,000 target, and that ‘Should we sail through lockdown bloodied, but not dealt the knockout blow, and have funds remaining, we will invest them in improvements to the venue to improve its user experience.’ In order to ensure that The Old England is able to continue providing Bristol with an ongoing supply of new local talent, head to their website, where details concerning how you can help can be found.

Exchange

First opening in the summer of 2012, Exchange has since welcomed a plethora of artists through its doors, including Four Tet, Sleaford Mods, Haim, and many more. The venue is a non-profit Community Owned venue, and has battled continuously to remain standing since its opening. Following on from a campaign in 2018, the team have stated that whilst the lockdown will have an inevitably large financial impact upon the business, they should be able to reopen at some point. They have, however, stressed the point that there are many other grassroots venues in Bristol that are at greater risk, and are looking to assist them through the Music Venue Trust. On their website, the Exchange was stated that they will be making the most of this downtime to complete improvements to their venue, including a large awning installation.

The Louisiana

Dating back to 1987, The Louisiana has been at the forefront of championing local talent. After a fire at the Fleece, The Louisiana took over many of the gigs due to occur, and has since maintained its role as a staple Bristolian music venue.

In early May this year, the fate of The Louisiana was not looking at all bright, with a £5000 target Crowdfund set up to rescue it from closure. With just days till the Crowfund was due to close, this figure was doubled to £10,000. However, The Louisiana have been running a pizza takeaway service form the venue, ensuring that they have been able to maintain a source of income, and, since they have reopened their doors with social distancing measures in place, it is hoped that the business will be able to recover to the strength it had before.

Pressure upon music venues is nothing new. Rather than seeing this pandemic as a cause for a temporary increase of support, we should see this as a new start; a new level of permanent consideration for the value of our nation’s music venues. If we can use thissobering close shave to increase the protection of venues for good, then we may be sufficiently prepared for the next challenge that the industry may face.

The post #SaveOurVenues: Bristol appeared first on Pretend.

The post What’s Going On – An Interview With Craig Evans appeared first on Pretend.

This week we’ve seen flurries of excited shoppers brandishing banknotes descend upon Manchester’s retail stores but the fate of some of the cities’ greatest live venues still remains as unclear as before. While Caroline Lucas gave an emotional speech in Parliament this week urging the government to develop a dedicated programme of support for our creative industries, the government has failed to put forward a coherent plan.

Our identity as a nation is inextricably bound to cultural innovation, and the permanent closure of these venues would have a detrimental effect on Manchester’s grassroots music scene. As well as hurting venue staff, promoters and sound engineers (to name but a few), the loss of these venues would also seriously restrict opportunities for artists and audiences to connect in a meaningful way at a local level.

To help fight these closures, Music Venues Trust has launched the #savourvenues campaign, which aims to prevent the permanent shutting of these vital venues due to COVID-19. So far, the campaign has managed to save over 150 venues, but there are still over 400 which remain in the red as the music industry continues to weather out the devastating impact of the pandemic.

Night People/ The Twisted Wheel/ The Rose & Monkey Hotel

Toeing a perfect balance between musical culture old and new, Night People hosts an eclectic mix of live music, presenting grassroots bands alongside the legendary Twisted Wheel Club. As well as being Manchester’s longest running club night since 1963, Twisted Wheel was also key in launching the Northern Soul movement in and around the city. Under the stewardship of new management (Chris Slater and Leigh Handford, who also run The Rose and Monkey) as of 2017, Night People is best known today as a popular student dive renowned for its great sound, cheap pints and quality club nights.
You can support Night People/Twisted Wheel/ The Rose & Monkey Hotel here.

The Stoller Hall

Based alongside Chetham’s School of Music in the heart of Manchester, The Stoller Hall presents a bit of everything from chamber music, international touring artists, home-grown folk, contemporary takes on classical music, jazz, family concerts and the best of young musical talent. We spoke the General Manager Fran Healey about the impact lockdown has had on the venue: “Our way of life has been broken, for now. But we must keep the music alive! If we can afford to keep a low level of staffing during lockdown, then we can continue to engage with audiences, we can plan our programme for reopening, and we can hopefully provide socially distanced space in the short to medium term for artists to rehearse individually and together, where they can record, and where they can create broadcasts for people to enjoy at home.”
You can donate to The Stoller Hall here.

Castle/ Eagle Inn/ Gullivers

Having first opened their doors back in 1776, 1846 and 1865, its unsurprising that the Castle, Eagle Inn and Gullivers are such a vital part of Manchester’s current cultural identity. The establishment of music halls within the venues has seen many young bands and artists cut their teeth within their walls, which have consequently become cornerstones of the city’s music scene. As well as providing a platform for grassroots musicians, the venues are also home to some of Manchester’s best spoken word, comedy and theatre performances. “As a collective, Castle Hotel, Gullivers and Eagle Inn embody the ethos of traditional pubs focusing on good beer, community and creativity. Working with local breweries, all three pubs have been updated while remaining true to our historical roots in appearance and atmosphere; All enhanced by our friendly staff and great jukeboxes! In converting the various existing spaces we extensively made use of original and character features to create unique and beautiful venues in which to experience live music and performing arts with great, modern sound quality.”
You can support Castle/ Eagle Inn/ Gullivers here.

Band On The Wall

Harking back to the venue’s infant years during the early 20 th century, this venue takes its unusual name from the area regulars referred to as the ‘Band on the Wall’, where house musicians literally played on a stage halfway up the back wall to make room in the hectic pub. During its two century long stint we’ve seen the venue win multiple awards, gain a reputation as the best bar in Manchester for jazz, folk and blues, host early Buzzcocks and Joy Division gigs and become an integral part of the city’s musical and cultural landscape.
You can donate to Band On The Wall here.

The post The Manchester venues that need your support right now #saveourvenues appeared first on Pretend.

Burrowed into an old Victorian warehouse on a murky Newcastle side-street is World Headquarters, the epicentre of the city’s pulsing alternative nightlife scene. The club’s owner, Tom Caulker, started putting on inclusive, clandestine parties in the 1980s, as an antidote to the oppressive fog of racism and violence that hung over Newcastle. In Tom’s own words, anyone who didn’t conform to Newcastle’s white, cis-macho-male image risked ‘getting their heads kicked in if they went into town’, and the glaring lack of a safe space in the city centre ultimately led to Tom taking matters into his own hands.

After cutting his teeth running illicit gatherings, Tom became Newcastle’s first independent and non-white license holder, transforming local boozer ‘The Trent House’ into a staggeringly cool soul-utopia, before cementing “Worldies” as the pounding heart of the North East underground.

Tom explains that, since its inception, ‘the club’s sole purpose has been to make Newcastle a better, more inclusive place for young people’, by inspiring ‘racially harmonic, global perspectives’ and through the celebration of the success of a black-owned business.

Following the murder of George Floyd, it has become depressingly clear that this work is still essential, as the veil of ignorance that covers and protects systems of white supremacy and institutional racism across the Western world has begun to slip.

World HQ understands the importance of education and empathy in dismantling these systems. Throughout lockdown the club has been involved in the Let Us Breathe campaign, a series of live-streamed online protests for racial justice that, as the campaign’s Facebook page says, ‘is facilitated through discussion with community leaders, debating the way forward for eradicating racism from our communities, policing and political systems’. Tom himself speaks in one of the protests, drawing attention to the failure of the school curriculum in addressing Britain’s colonial past, and the conscious omission of black history in the classroom.

The club is one of thousands of independent venues across the country who have had their souls ripped out by the pandemic, and are now lying dormant, with faint echoes of nights past falling limp onto once loaded and vivacious dancefloors. These places don’t only play a vital role in the development of new artists, but also offer an invaluable centre for young people in their community. Tom recognises this, ‘it very much effects young people, and it is the places where young people really want to go that will be hit the hardest’. He also worries for the business owners and venues themselves, predicting that there will be a ‘phenomenal number of places that will close’.

The preservation of independent venues is paramount to the wellbeing of the communities that they serve. It is no coincidence that it is often venues such as World HQ that are at the vanguard of social change. Via their very nature they have evaded the invasive tentacles of profit-driven franchises that rule over the entertainment industry, a progressive stance in itself. It may, however, be these stances that prove to be the downfall of these venues, as money dries up and landlords stand firm on rent payments.

The UK’s late entry to lockdown and the continued irresponsible handling of the virus has no doubt harmed their chances of recovery… it is unlikely a solution can be found without significant investment into music’s grassroots venues, and across the arts more widely. The power of community organisation will be ever more important after the “return to normal”, and the examples set by groups such as World Headquarters will be resources to draw upon in the inevitable process of rebuilding that will have to take place.

If you want to know more then check out the World Headquarters website: https://www.welovewhq.com/
And the Let Us Breathe Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/letusbreatheuk/

Get to know some of the artists who’ve played at World HQ over the last few years

The post How the World Headquarters has been leading the way for parties in a better world #saveourvenues appeared first on Pretend.