Read the Fanzine First Live Night:
Saturday 29th April 2006
@ Progress Bar, Tufnell Park
Lineup: Kaputt, Parke Davis
Kaputt Myspace Page Parke Davis Myspace Page
The Extra Time Bar gig went better than any of us expected, particularly considering it was our first attempt. I was keen to keep the idea going, and knew that I needed to strike whilst the iron was hot, or it would just be something we'd talk about doing again but never actually do.
We felt that doing something monthly would make too much demand on our time and so we discussed the idea of passing everything over to someone else, then they'd pass the mantle on to someone else and so on. It would be a sort of cooperative monthly night where we could learn from each others experiences and ideas. Passing back to us in 6 months or a year or so.
It seemed like a good idea, and at the Extra Time bar people showed an interest in the idea. But after a few weeks nobody had been in touch and those we spoke to were busy with other things - so I decided to take the bull by the horns as it were.
Tris wasn't keen to do another night so soon, but JG showed an interest, so we decided to do a joint night.
There wasn't a lot of enthusiasm from anyone for the Extra Time, although it was centrally located, there was zero passing trade (not a problem that would effect the Barbican centre or Fabric) and they only did private hire Monday-Wednesday. Many people said they would have come if it was at the weekend, but we discovered as time went on that people always had some kind of excuse for not coming!
I started to check out other possible venues - and the general story was that established venues were either very expensive or would only work with full time promoters with a proven track record. Venues off the beaten track with little or no passing trade were more affordable and less fussy about who they hire to (and so their reputation spirals down!)
I started to receive promotional stuff from bands, and one band called Kaputt asked if we book live bands as well as the DJing. There was some talk at the Extra Time gig about live bands, it turned out that Glyn being from Stoke knew a band called Big Cash Prizes who'd sent me a demo and I'd played a couple of their tracks. But it seemed like a huge leap at the time to go from DJing to putting on live bands.
I discovered a venue on the Internet called the Progress Bar at Tufnell Park (2 stops from Camden) and was knocked out by the hire fee for a Saturday night - £250! Eek!
But ... it had a stage, and facility to put live bands on. The thought process moved quickly - we'll see how much Kaputt will charge to play, and charge people to come in. We thought it would be easy to make the outlay back as Silke from Kaputt had been in the Go Team! So all their fans would surely come ... you can tell we were new to this game!
When Kaputt confirmed they were up for playing and wasn't going to charge too much, we checked out the Progress Bar, liked the place and booked it on the spot.
All was going well, until one of the band asked if the venue had any DI boxes. Not knowing what it was, I had a word with the venue and found out that not only did they have no DI boxes, but no microphones, XLR cables, or Sound Engineer. A slight snag in our plans I feared!
At panic stations we decided our options were either to a) cancel the night, and if they wouldn't give us a refund, go halfers on the £125 deposit I'd already paid and put it down to experience. b) Cancel the band and do a DJ night, risking the loss of £250 if no paying customers turned up. Or c) shell out a load of money for equipment etc.
Tris offered us another option. He had a mate who had put on raves in the 90s who had equipment he could bring out and use, and in return all he wanted was to try out a new light show he'd created. Double bonus!
Alas, there was a breakdown in communication. The guy said that drums don't need to be mic'd up in a pub venue, the guy from Kaputt said they did, I'd no idea, but if Tris had mentioned this guy had wired up U2 at their Australian gigs then I might have realised he knew what he was talking about.
It was going to depend on Tris driving down to Southampton or somewhere, back to London with the guys and their equipment, take them home again then come home himself. And Tris wasn't even that keen on the band.
There were also questions in my head about whether a rave system was going to be too loud for a 125 capacity pub venue?
Around this time I received a royalty cheque for an ebook I'd written, some £500. Being in a well paid job at the time, I'd have had to pay 40% of it in tax. Ok £300 or so is still a lot of money, and I could have put it towards double glazing or something. But when you look back on your life, if double glazing is one of the high points then you've seriously gone wrong somewhere.
I received another demo from a band called Parke Davis who I really liked and were keen to play North London.
I decided to go ahead and book a sound man with top notch PA system, and since I was splashing out, some lighting too, and book Parke Davis to make the expenditure worthwhile.
I mean people spend £500 on going up on balloon trips and stuff, I don't like balloons, I like bands!
On the day everyone else was busy so I headed down to the Progress Bar to meet the sound guy. He had ton of equipment we carried up the stairs between us, but it was worth it to turn a grotty upstairs room in a North London boozer into a proper looking gig venue. The lighting really gave it that extra touch (though our bands were lightly baked by the end of the night).
After sound checking we waited with baited breath - would anyone show up?
Me and JG stood on the door, expecting people to form an orderly queue. Alas a load of them just pushed past us. But I was just glad to see people, I mean if I was going to be spending about 500 quid on a night out, I wanted it to be a good one with a bit of a buzz.
Our DJ sets which we'd named: Beggars and Ninjas (JK) - a run through the back catalogues of the Beggars Banquet group and Ninja tune went down really well and had quite a few people asking for the track listing. I had been working on it for a couple of months right enough!
JG did Twisted Indieground, Glyn did Tonic and Tris did Council House Transendence, which all wend down really well.
Both bands made a good effort to get people down there, and we hadn't worn out our favours amongst friends and colleagues at that stage, so we ended up with over 100 people.
The bands were great, the audience loved them, and the night went without a hitch.
Well, almost. During our DJ sets we had problems with the amp cutting out, and during Glyns it went off all together.
We complained to the management, who offered us a free night as compensation, and Tris's mate came to the rescue and had it fixed in a matter of minutes, so even the bad stuff worked out well!
