UNFORTUNATELY STILL HAVING PROBLEMS GETTING PICTURES INTO THE BLOG MOST CAN BE FOUND ON OUR FACE BOOK ALBUMS PAGES LIVE AT THE TRADES HERE AND RAE HERE
So much
seems to have happened since I last got my fingers working on the keyboard,
some of it good, some of it bad.
It had to
happen, didn’t it? No sooner had the ink dried on my last Blog
and the “rant” about the local Band issue brought to a head by The Trades
Management than everything was again thrown into the mixing pot by a fantastic
show put on by Ian Huddleston, Live at The Trades which attracted a
paying audience of well over 130 (inc. guest lists) and also helped us prove
the market for a mixed genre show involving music and the spoken word.
Credit to
Ian for being brave enough to mix up the music with Ben Renwick representing the acoustic scene; Polybius provide an amazing set of high class electonicana music; while Be The Revolution produced an amazing set launching their new EP
which is now available on Amazon HERE Rarer still there were people
dancing.
Spoken word
was provided by Wayne Dyson, the
Northern Poet, was making his debut as a performing poet. Judging by the response to his offerings it
will not be his last. A really polished
reading of some super writing. And I
hope it will not be long before son of Rotherham The Buddhist Punk is back in Rotherham to provide us with another
reading of his great material.
An unusual
evening, a great success and five very different Rotherham acts demonstrating
the depth of talent we have.
So why the
extra interest in this show of local talent to previous attempts to mount shows
with local talent? Answer – each of the acts worked hard to promote the
event along with RAE. And why do
tickets have to be sold? Because the
bands want paying and the infrastructure from sound to posters have to be paid
for – of which sound is by far the biggest expense.
And of
course last Saturday we were treated to another amazing show from our local
Metal legends ODS Saxon. It was a great night with The Monte Carlo Safe
Crackers coming out of retirement for a one off special, all more than ably
supported by the Bar Steward Sons of Val Doonigan – all the way from
Barnsley.
BSSVD have
played Rotherham many times, and did comment that they had not realised that so
many people lived in Rotherham. A couple
of cold lonely nights in The Bridge spring to mind.
Our final
Live at The Trades for October had us rocking to the music of the “Boss”
through Rotherham’s very own Bruce Springsteen, Steve and the East Street Band,
making their second visit. There was a
super turn out for the Band with people coming in from as far away as Mansfield
to be part of the night. The East
Street Band is an established act travelling the Region performing their
numbers.
I’ve a lot
of respect for Steve who is Department Head at our local College, as he is
always looking for ways to provide students with real performance experience,
and three of the Band members are either current or former students.
Thanks to
all the Bands above and all those who came out to support them.
Not all good
though.
So tell me
please – when was the last time that you went shopping in Tesco and discovered
to your delight that they were advertising in their main window goods from
Sainsbury and Aldi? Never? Well I think that would be a close
approximate.
RAE prides
itself upon being open to all organisations and we’ll post posters for most
events, even those that are publicising dates that clash with our own.
All we ask
in return is that people should help us promote our events to their client base
and co-operate by avoiding the promotion of similar genres upon dates we have
already published.
You can
imagine my surprise when this week Mick and I have had to take a heap of abuse
from a Promoter and his cohorts for 1) Agreeing to put his event posters up –
yes you read correctly, AGREEING, that in addition to the listing of his events
on our Web Sites. 2). Simply requesting
that we should avoid putting similar events on the same date, given that the
venues were only 20 meters apart, in the interest of strengthening audiences
for both venues.
I also made
reference to the complete “co-incidental” / “accidental” booking of events to Christmas
which sees this Promoter’s events clashing with Live at The Trades nights,
including a Friday which is not a normal date for LATT. Strangely this Promoter apparently had not
seen our published Autumn / Winter programme that we had published in June well
before he decided to enter the Promotions arena again.
However, his
reply to my quite reasonable request was to throw his toys out of the
pram.
Respect and
co-operation has to work both ways.
We are not
into a “mine is bigger than yours” argument at RAE, as our programme for Winter
/ Spring already demonstrates RAE has it’s own agenda for Live at The Trades
and Slamfest where in addition to promoting some of the very best Bands playing
out of Rotherham / South Yorkshire and providing the music lovers of Rotherham
with some top class Nationally recognised Bands bringing the best of their
genre to the Town.
It’s not
that we feel under pressure. We know
what went wrong with the Summer programme at The Trades and it won’t happen
again and we’ll also aware of the problems we caused ourselves with a few of
our promotions that failed to make the mark, this too will not happen
again. As said in the last Blog that is
not to say we are deserting our local Band base, far from it as we are looking
for suitable alternative venues in Rotherham
from where we can Promote the new cutting edge Bands who are seeking to
build their fan base and get their music heard.
Our only interest
is to build a strong vibrant live music environment across the Borough.
Competition
is good though, it keeps you on your toes and sharp and RAE Live at The Trades are
in no way frightened by it, and if evidence is required RAE are in fact competing
with itself on 22nd November when on the night Badness are playing
Live at The Trades, we are also supporting Diamond Velocity at The Old Market
Galley with their semi acoustic promotion.
RAE does
this and a lot more in Rotherham, including the Street Art Festival – Acoustic Rotherham
and Slamfest mainly supported by a % cut
of Ticket sales and the Bank of Mick and Dick.
We take nothing from the Bands we Promote. Neither do we rely upon Breweries / Landlords
to subsidise or cover the cost of our Promotions unless in Free music
pubs. Of course the Free Music Pub
event is always far easier to sell than a pay event, especially in South
Yorkshire where because of the WMC market where Free music was and for those
remaining, a stable method of selling beer.
If it wasn’t
clear before then I hope it is now. To keep in touch with everything that RAE is involved in go to our extensive Web Site HERE
When you put
events on there always knockers, for some no matter what you do is wrong. However, what upsets Mick and myself is the
behind the hand stuff that goes on. It
always gets back to us. What I say to
these people is that if you have a problem with us come and talk to us, both
Mick and I are always prepared to listen, doesn’t mean we’ll agree with you,
but we will listen and put our side of the argument or provide proofs that you
require.
We can’t be
friends with all – it’s a fact, you cannot create things without stepping on a
few toes or upsetting people.
I really
hope that if the knockers have something positive to offer that they will come
along to the Slamfest Open Meeting this Thursday at 8:00pm in The RAE Drop In Centre,
where we will be discussing plans for 2014.
We need people to help Manage the Event, especially those with some
experience.
It was our
week for it. Another part of the Arts
decided to have a go, this time we got a full public apology. Again the allegations were based upon urban
myth perpetuated by people who should know better, and we got a full apology
that was accepted in wholly and we’ve even had a man hug on it. So I will say again, and I know I cannot be
loved by all, eggs have to be broken to make cakes, but if you have a problem
with me or RAE or even with our main event Slamfest, come and talk to me. Don’t let
it fester or believe the rumour mill.
But there
has also been some excellent talk. Once
things were sorted I popped along to Lee’s (Bouncing Numbers) meeting at the Cornlaw
Rhymer last Monday. From the meeting it
was suggested that we should start to find out what the feasibility of taking
on the full lease for the Old Market
Gallery might be. RAE will be right
behind this initiative and will provide help wherever we can.
It’s
interesting that in the same week that seeking finance for the Old Market
Gallery was discussed Gallery Town – the people who put up the huge facsimiles’
of Master paintings and some local artists around Town, have advertised for
what is essentially a fund raiser. A
coincidence? This is full of problems
for me. I appreciate that Gallery Town
has helped with the past two Busking events by adding the Urban Piano project
and expanding activities this year to create a Street Arts Festival, BUT, if
they have the money available to fund a full time role to raise funds then I
think that it might be more usefully used to raise money for arts projects
across the Borough and in full Partnership the all the other Arts organisations
in Rotherham: indeed why not lead on the Old Market Gallery project?
I have one
other concern. Gallery Town are the only
organisation that has the financial clout to make this sort of appointment –
and given it’s current funding source maybe has a duty to think about it’s
impact upon other Arts Organisations.
If you fancy
applying for the job, go HERE
Talking of
the Old Market Gallery we are involved in helping Sylwia and Diamond Velocity mount their very
special Concert at The Old Market Gallery on 22nd November. Tickets are limited strictly to 100 for this
semi acoustic Concert that will be filmed and recorded live by their Record
Company. It promises to be a feast of musical and
visual rock and roll. You can get tickets from the Diamond Velocity site HERE
You can also reserve and place an order for tickets at the RAE Drop
In Centre on Wellgate. Tickets are only £5 and include a free
download of the evening’s music. This is going to be a great night, with
Gav Roberts as host and loads of surprises.
Live at The Trades takes a little two
break before coming back for a very busy November, check out the full programme HERE
Tickets on sale at The Drop In Centre,
The Trades or On Line HERE
Just after I
had published the last Blog came the sad news that “The Rock” was leaving it’s home at the Wesley Hall, Maltby, and
moving to an eventual resting place at The Ukrainian Centre in Doncaster. Apparently the Club can no longer be
sustained by the poor audience levels at Maltby. For those who don’t know, The Rock was a top
quality Music Club offering the best of Folk and Roots music, but audiences of
40 – 60 even with ticket prices of £10+ meant that the Club was simply not able
to continue.
More sad
news. The Chairman of the Rotherham Culture Group (Diversity
Festival) will be leaving us from the AGM at the end of November. Sameer has been a tireless worker in many
capacities on the Rotherham Arts scene and his transfer to Manchester leaves
Rotherham that little bit poorer. I’m
sure that we’ll be able to twist his arm, cross his palm with silver to come
and make a noise with his drums come the Rotherham Show in 2014.
Unfortunately
it times with the loss of Hamid to the Group due to special projects at RCAT
and Nameer who has been the Groups Treasurer for many years due to a lack of
time. So it’ll be all change at the
AGM. The date of the AGM will be
publicised soon.
Rotherham
Culture Group Meetings will now start at 5:00pm normally on the first Monday of
the Month.
But better
News of the Braithwell Club that has
found a new home at THE SHEPPY, GRANGE
LANE, MALTBY ROTHERHAM S66 7DN
John says that he will be testing the water for a couple of months
before deciding if the Club has a future.
The Club runs the first Tuesday of each month.
One of the
massive draw backs of this damned condition that I have is that a). I can’t
drive to get out to open mics etc and b).
not having the energy to get out let alone be able to concentrate enough
play my guitar for longer than two or three minutes. This means I’m not getting to see the
emerging acoustic and folk talent out there – which means booking acts for
Acoustic Rotherham etc, is getting harder and harder. The next ACOUSTIC ROTHERHAM is due on the 27th October. 2:30 – 5:30 pm. Anyone wanting to play? please hold your
hands up and volunteer by Emailing me HERE. Or if someone who attends a
lot of Acoustic events would like to act as a scout for Acoustic Rotherham
please get in touch via the Email HERE
I also have
guest spot at the monthly Titans Acoustic
Warm Down hosted by Swansong Acoustic, on the same date 27th
October from 8:00pm going free. Volunteer quick.
There’s
plenty going on in and around Rotherham over the next couple of weeks and you
can keep up to date by book marking the listings page HERE or find the events HERE Just to say watch out for what might be one of Rotherham’s finest playing at
The Bridge next week, Tom Killner –
and judging by what he has recently been saying on his Facebook timeline this
could be a rare appearance as he is planning to take his Band out and about on
the road.
Get Creative our crafting partners have published their fantastic programme of Workshops running up to Christmas - you can find the full programme HERE on The Drop In Centre pages.
Stop
Press : Carnival of Thieves CD Launch +
an incredible support line up and Lena
Lovich added to Live at The Trades programme for 2014. On line Tickets will soon be
available. Watch the Facebook page for
more details.
We’ve just
heard that the Son’s El Roacho gig at The Titans Club on Friday has had to be
postponed because a Band member has an injury.
They have been re-booked for the
31st January.
But time to
go………. Probably said more than enough.
Whatever you
are doing this week have great fun, support your local artists and venues and
Keep it LIVE.