Read the Fanzine Third Live Night:
Saturday 8th June 2006
@ Progress Bar, Tufnell Park
Lineup: Deathstar Preview, Hotel Motel, Exit Tahiti and Claire Toomey
Deathstar Preview (now Falon) Myspace Page
Hotel Motel Myspace Page
Exit Tahiti (Now Gravity Blue) Myspace Page
Claire Toomey (Now Larkspur Falls) Myspace Page
After the problems at the June Read the Fanzine, I was keen to put them behind me and start building this monthly residency into something sustainable.
Alas, the problems started before the night.
London Transport announced that the branch of the Northern Line that serves Tufnell Park was to be closed for engineering work, wait for it, EVERY weekend until the end of the year.
We already had people saying they would come but didn't want to go out to Zone 2, this was only going to increase that number.
The week before the gig, the mayor announced a free gig in Victoria Park with Graham Coxon headlining. Ironically there is a bus stop outside the Progress Bar and if you take a bus from there it's only something like 2-3 stops to Victoria Park.
I decided to try and turn a problem into an advantage and designed a new flyer along the lines of "The Northern Line is knackered this weekend, don't even bother struggling into town on rail replacement buses when there is this quality gig going on, on your doorstep - check out the bands on myspace", and found a guy on Gumtree to help me deliver through 1,400 doors in the streets around The Progress Bar.
I also came up with the idea of doing an all day thing. We'd DJ downstairs in the afternoon (and people could sit in the beer garden if a nice day) and hopefully build up an audience for the live bands upstairs in the evening.
I spoke to the manager and he was well up for the idea, and appreciated the efforts I was making flyering the local doors.
The Progress Bar was the only pub on a huge long residential road going from Tufnell Park to Holloway Road, so it's quite an achievement how quiet the place usually was on a Saturday night when our gigs weren't on.
I realised that Holloway Road tube is almost as close as Tufnell Park, and on the Piccadilly Line, so I started pushing this fact on the myspace.
On the day of the gig, the manager was in dual personality mode. One minute he was nice as pie and making sure we had everything we needed, next he was threatening to bounce people down the stairs.
Not his fault, he was working crazy hours, was working 7 day weeks without a break and the place was clearly failing.
He seemed ok at first, the sound man (again one of the guys from Nambucca) was setting everything up and sound checking the bands, and I popped out to the beer garden for a break. Next thing Chris comes out and says he's had 5 phone calls complaining that the music was too loud. If the soundman didn't sort it out he'd bounce him down the stairs and cancel the gig.
This was obviously bull, as he'd have come to see me on the first phone call, not wait until the fifth.
In any case, the pub was completely detached, Tufnell Park Road is very wide, there was a closed garage on one side, and a side street on the other, and a big beer garden behind. I seriously doubt that anyone was phoning to complain at 4pm in the afternoon because a band was playing too loud during a sound check.
But I had a word with the sound man and he promised that he would try to keep the sound down.
This month I found a girl on gumtree to collect money on the door. She was training to be a bouncer so was well qualified, and she wasn't in the least bit nervous about approaching people who tried to sneak in without paying!
Her counting wasn't great, but she was great at revenue protection!
Alas, the turnout was even lower that the previous month, with just 42 paying customers. Yet again the weather was beautiful (and Graham Coxon playing free 2 bus stops away versus a fiver to see 4 bands you probably haven't heard of, tricky!)
Flyering local doors worked in as much as we got about 8 or 9 people that way, but I'd paid the guy $pound;40 to help me hand them out, I'd spent an entire afternoon (taking abuse from people who didn't want my flyer through their door) plus the time and cost of printing and cutting them.
Claire Toomey was like the British Sheryl Crow. I don't even like Cheryl Crow, but there was something really polished about her Myspace demos, and she had over 120,000 friends, so even f 0.01% turned up it would be all we needed!
Alas, she obviously had a friend adder script of some sort, as zero people came to see her, other than her management team (aka Mum and Dad I suspect) who got in for free.
Good performance, but she seemed a bit nervous.
Exit Tahiti were fabulous and one of my favourites amongst the bands that have played the night. Jeff from the band had really helped me out when I was buying Microphones and stuff like that.
Hotel Motel were uber Glamarous, and Marika Gucci was a really nice girl who gave me a lot of tips as she ran her own night in Shoreditch. They had a bit of a human league sound about them, but it was very entertaining.
The keyboardist had to go to Czech as her dad was ill at short notice, so her replacement just mimed. But I don't think anyone noticed, especially not the blokes!
The manager came up a couple of times during their set to complain that the sound was too loud, and threatened to close the pub.
If he was complaining that a synth band was too loud, what was he going to make of Deathstar Preview, a loud Indie rock band?
We told them what was going on, so they played their set at double-speed, to ensure they got their set played before we were chucked out.
Just as well as The Manager said he was going to pull the power on the PA system and chuck everyone out of the pub.
I stuck my finger up at him when he turned around, and the bouncer saw me and chucked me out "until I learnt some respect". There is something bizarre about getting thrown out of your own night!
I phoned people's mobiles, but Deathstar Preview were playing so loud that nobody heard them (though outside the venue I could hardly hear them).
The manager had been looking for me, and found out that I'd been thrown out. He came outside, I apologised, we hugged! And he said "I'm not sure this is the right venue for this kind of music". I'd no intention of doing anything at the Progress Bar again, anyway so I agreed.
He let me off with paying for that night so I got my free night in the end, and the diversion of getting thrown out gave Deathstar Preview time to finish their set, then a pub that was dieing on it's arse threw out about 40 or 50 drinkers longer before closing time.
After the event, Jeff from Exit Tahiti who'd been a sound engineer and ran his own night pointed out that the manager was right - the soundman hadn't miked up the stage amps so had no control over them and it was louder than it should have been.
At least I didn't have to pay for that night, so I got my free night in the end.