Read the Fanzine Third Live Night:
Saturday 8th June 2006
@ Progress Bar, Tufnell Park
Lineup:
Deathstar Preview,
Hotel Motel,
Exit Tahiti
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
I was keen to put the problems of the June Read the Fanzine behind me and start building this monthly residency into something sustainable, alas the problems began long before the night.
London Transport announced that the branch of the Northern Line that serves Tufnell Park was to be closed for engineering work 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 make the situation worse.
Not one to be easily defeated I decided to try and turn the problem into an advantage and designed a new flyer along the lines of "The Northern Line is off 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.
Also realising that Holloway Road tube is almost as close as Tufnell Park, and served by the Piccadilly Line which didn't have engineering works I highlighted this fact on all the promotion.
| "they announced a free concert that day in Victoria Park with Graham Coxon headlining" |
To make matters even worse still, the week before the gig they announced a free concert that day in Victoria Park with Graham Coxon headlining, indeed there is a bus stop right outside the Progress Bar that would take you there in something like 2-3 stops.
| "We'd DJ downstairs in the afternoon whilst people sat in the beer garden and hopefully build up an audience for the live bands upstairs in the evening." |
Addressing the possibility of another hot sunny night, I thought of doing an all day thing. We'd DJ downstairs in the afternoon whilst people sat in the beer garden 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 a bit of a strange place" |
The Progress Bar was a bit of a strange place - the only pub in a huge long residential road between Tufnell Park and Holloway Road but was never busy. Apparently it used to be really popular but it gained a reputation for fights at the weekend so locals started to avoid the place. I deliberately popped in on a Saturday night to check it out and there were only a handful of people at the bar. I felt that they should have given us more support than they did as we seemed to be the only night that had a reasonable turnout.
| "If the sound man didn't sort it out he'd bounce him down the stairs" |
Chris seemed to be in dual-personality mode. He was nice as pie at first making sure we had everything we needed. 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 five phone calls complaining that the music was too loud. If the sound man didn't sort it out he'd bounce him down the stairs and cancel the gig.
The five phone call thing was obviously nonsense, 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.
You could tell Chris was over-worked, he seemed to be there 7 days a week in a pub that was clearly failing.
| "Graham Coxon playing for free just 2 bus stops away was always going to be tough competition" |
Alas, the turnout was even lower that the previous month, with just 42 paying customers. Both Tris and Glyn had dropped out, me and JG had used up all our favours to get people along and besides the weather was beautiful (no matter how good the bands are, if your settled at a BBQ it's hard to motivate yourself to go and sit in a stuffy pub), and Graham Coxon playing for free just 2 bus stops away was always going to be tough competition.
Flyering local doors worked in as much as we got about 8 or 9 people that way, but I'd paid the gumtree guy £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 at the Indy Awards
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!
Unfortunately she must have had a friend adder script of some sort since 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 done his own nights in the past and was a trained sound engineer so he really helped me out with advice when I was buying Microphones, Stage Monitors and stuff like that.
Hotel Motel promo video for their single 'Sucker man'
Hotel Motel were uber Glamorous, 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.
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!
Chris came up a couple of times during their set to complain uet again that the sound was too loud and threatened to cancel the gig and 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 warned the band about what was going on, so they played their set at double-speed, to ensure they got their set played before we were chucked out!
| "There is something bizarre about getting thrown out of your own night" |
Just as well as Chris was on his way to pull the power on the PA system and chuck everyone out of the pub, causing me to stick my finger up at him when he turned away. 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).
| "I apologised, we hugged!" |
Chris 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 think we both realised that I needed to find another venue.
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 already struggling threw out some 40 drinkers long before official closing time.
Incidentally, after the event, Jeff from Exit Tahiti pointed out that Chris was right - the sound man hadn't miked up the stage amps so had no control over them and it was louder than it should have been. It's definitely a lot less hassle when a venue has their own Sound Engineer.