01/06/2026
I put an "I am racked off" ( I am over it, it was just a I am pi**ed off rant) post out last week and would like to thank everyone who commented, all very supportive and with some valid points that I replied to some but couldn't to many cos I would be stuck at a Computer half a day which is one of my pet hates. here are some points that I can clear up here....
"If you started earlier I can get transport home, the headliners are on sometimes after the last train"
R. I would love to start early with a great crowd, but no one seems to come out until about 8.30pm and I want the bands to have an audience above all else. But my primary reason is I couldn't. I sort our lighting but know nothing about the sound desk. Our sound guy is fantastic but works during the day installing venues for Companies, he is up and down the Country finishes work and comes straight here, he gets here for 6pm at the earliest and could be later if stuck. Bands come at 6pm, sound check asap after that and then like the bands he gets his tea comes back and does the show. I can certainly put bands on at 5pm or earlier if they turn up, bring everything, and control the sound themselves, I am always here to sort lighting (that's a lie, I can install lights and cables and trouble shoot a bit, but if programs go down i have to get our lighting girl from Manchester down to do it) but I feel that it is a step backwards in terms of what we offer and then it's just a pub gig. Also we like a 10 minute change over and do the set times on the night. If it was ticketed it would have to be strict up front times because customers have paid their hard earned money to see who they like. I do it this way because when you book bands they can do 45 mins but on the night it could be 30 mins in reality so it's to avoid long gaps between shows. No one can complain when it's free.
Q. "I don't like rock and metal bands"
R. So far this year we have had rock, metal, punk, pop punk, pop, dance, ska, acoustic, indie,folk, rappers and more and even had a well known guy from Finland singer viking/medieval ballads.
Q " Where do you advertize"
R. Every local group and 30+ music groups for every show also billboards outside on the wall with posters
Q "Why not put just 2 bands instead of 3 or more per night"
R "That would be perfect however we get so many cancellations and i can run with 2 bands but unless it's very short notice I can't justify 1 unless they can do something like 2 x 45 because our costs for lighting, sound engineer, leccy, gas in Winter etc are still the same. Hard to believe but totally true we had 74 cancellations in 2023, I know because our Promoter at the time kept records, I don't but there are still a lot.
Q "Run Battle of the Bands/ Metal to the Masses type competitions"
R " I don't like em simply because the venues charge entry and the bands play for free" I could because the bands still do these events, Charity I don't mind but not Competitions can be biased but I appreciate it is difficult to choose between them on many occasions and someone is always going to feel aggrieved.... I would want all of them to play Bloodstock or wherever because they have put a lot of effort in to be in the running in the first place.
Q. "If you put covers or tribute bands on, or DJ sets I would come in"
R. We try to cater for the best new bands from the UK and around the World whatever the genre and yes we do put on perhaps a couple of covers bands on a year (Radioactive for eg who are young people from Shropshire) but our choice is Original music. I am not knocking covers etc because many have great singers and musicians but i also hear a lot not so good singing to a laptop track and again it's not what we are about... no original artists= no covers/tributes in the future and all of those singing along to Brown eyed girl, Summer of 69, Sweet Caroline, Mr Brightside and the like will have kicked the bucket. We are putting many DJ shows on this year with 6 DJ's per night.
There are probably more to answer but this has taken me a soul sapping 1/2 hour to type....so over and out.
