Why does Leicester struggle to attract big bands?
It's doubtful whether Richard Haswell is dangerous, but he is armed. "How are you?," he asks, wary smile pointedly juxtaposed with the big socket spanner dangling from his gloved hand.
There's an explanation for the spanner. The De Montfort Hall manager has been putting up fences for tomorrow's Summer Sundae festival.
Together with the workman's scruffs, it sends a message that here is a man pulling his weight to bring top music to Leicester.
It might also be a subliminal warning to tread carefully with the line of questioning.
That won't be easy and Richard knows it after our bumpy telephone conversation last week.
Who books the bands for De Mont, we asked? That one's not very good. You need to get someone else in.
After much exasperated sighing and a few choice expletives, Richard gave us an answer. He books the bands.
We agreed to talk again, face to face, in a few days. So, here we are, braced for round two in the DMH foyer.
The case against DMH is this: Summer Sundae is fantastic, one of the best boutique music festivals anywhere. You can't knock an event with more than 100 acts over six stages, featuring the likes of The Streets, The Zutons and The Charlatans.
But after the summer comes the winter of discontent. Look to DMH for a decent band in the run-up to Christmas and the cupboard is almost bare.
There's Massive Attack, Bowling For Soup, the pineapple-haired woman from M People, if we're being charitable, and, well, that's about it.
For much of the next three months, the house lights will dim to the crunch of Werther's Original on denture.
There's lots of good comedy and prestigious classical concerts, plus plenty of multicultural events, but the rock and pop bill has brittle bone disease.
This autumn, ladies and gentlemen, we'll party like it's 1939 with the Glenn Miller Orchestra (again) or tap a natty slip-on to the superannuated sounds of Memories Are Made of This, Dancing in the Streets, Spirit of the Dance, Jack Jones and the Billy Fury Story.
There's nothing wrong with any of those, but where's the music for the under 40s?
Nottingham's Rock City, a similar sized venue, has them in abundance and so does Wolverhampton's Civic Hall.
Under 40s pay their share of the £700,000 a year DMH gets from the council, but it looks as though they're being short-changed.
Richard's eyes do a barrel roll.
"The starting point for your comparison is wrong," he says.
"Nottingham has Rock City, the Royal Concert Hall, the Theatre Royal and the arena. They all do elements of what we do but we're trying to cram them all into one venue.
"We've been here before," sighs the DMH manager.
He's right, we have, but it's never been properly explained why the DMH can't shoehorn more bands into its schedule.
That question normally leads to calls for a new arena. But we're not talking about Oasis and Coldplay enormodrome acts here, we're talking the likes of Paolo Nutini and Lily Allen.
"I don't buy the view an arena is what Leicester needs," says Richard, breaking with the established orthodoxy.
"Nottingham, Birmingham and Sheffield all have major venues within 60 minutes travelling time. Big bands tend to play one regional gig.
"I don't think the potential for an arena is there in Leicester. What we need is the equivalent of an O2 Academy or Rock City."
Over at Wolverhampton Civic Hall, manager Mark Blackstock says booking bands has never been easier. With record sales in freefall, bands are desperate for lucrative live income.
"It's not for me to criticise other venues," he says. "Leicester used to be really good for bands."
The words "used to" speak volumes.
So why is Wolverhampton getting the likes of Ian Brown, Jet, Franz Ferdinand and Ray LaMontagne when Leicester isn't?
Having the Little Civic (capacity 120) and the Wulfrun Hall (capacity 1,134) helps a lot, explains Mark.
Wolverhampton can give emerging acts a leg-up at the smaller venues. By the time they're ready to play the Civic Hall, strong bonds have been established.
Getting gigs at DMH is made harder still as most of the major promoters now have stakes in venues and a vested interest in filling their own houses first, leaving the likes of the DMH fighting over the scraps.
Rock City, an independent venue, keeps its leverage with promoters because the owners have other nearby venues to bargain with and Nottingham is seen as too big a music city to miss off the map.
Promoter Tim Hill, of Outside Promotions, takes yet more of the heat off Richard.
Leicester suffers from a lack of venues and an audience that too often stays at home, he says.
Put on a half-decent band in Northampton or Wolverhampton and the place will be packed.
Do the same in Leicester and there will be enough empty space to hunt wild buffalo.
Consequently, if a band is going to do one East Midlands show, promoters will tend to look elsewhere.
"Richard is a good bloke," says Tim. "He'll do everything he can to help you out. I'm forever hassling him with bands, but there isn't the space."
Rock and pop bands are nearly always the last acts to become available to DMH, Richard explains.
By the time they do, perhaps at a couple of months' notice, that night has already been filled. The big musicals, which guzzle dates, are often booked 18 months in advance.
So why not remove some of the scheduling bed-blockers – Blood Brothers and the big Christmas show Scrooge – from the diary?
Why not let Curve handle those?
"Curve and here are different animals," says Richard. "Curve's smaller. It's not a place to see major West End musicals. If we don't do them, no-one will.
"Twenty-eight thousand people came through our doors to see Evita and Joseph last Christmas. They're hugely popular."
Okay, so how about leaving, say, 50 diary dates blank a year, for the last-minute booking of bands?
They tried that a few years ago, says Richard, and many of those "dark dates" in the diary never got filled. If that happened again, he points out, we would be banging on his door wanting to know why the closed signs were always up.
Ironically, Richard could save himself a lot of hassle by not bothering with bands at all.
Comedy, musicals and family-friendly kids' shows mean 44.8% of the DMH audience is aged between 16 and 44 – enough to justify continuing taxpayer support as an all-things-to-all-people attraction.
He doesn't want to do that because he's a music fan.
"I want more bands," says Richard. "I wanted Ian Brown and Franz Ferdinand and it would have been fantastic to bring The Specials here.
"You're asking the wrong question about why bands don't come here. The question should be why is Leicester so under-served for venues?"
Full Summer Sundae coverage in The Week today.
11 Comments
View all
by Tim Hill, Leicester - Outsider Promotions
Monday, August 31 2009, 8:18AM
“Response to Mike's post, DMH isn't that much bigger in capacity than Rock City. and in response to all those commenting on the University of leicester venue, if you did your research you would know that the reason they are not currently putting any live music on is because they are in the middle of spending £15,000,000 refurbishing the venue. Before this refurb started they were working with SJM to put on plenty of live shows. Ash who used to run the venue and held the diary did a great job of getting bands back in leicester!
I 100% agree with The Musicman, if people botherd to come out to the shows smaller promoters work hard to put on, then more would happen. But when Dodgy play to 100 people at the musician then a week later Athlete play to just the same number of people last december it has to be said that it is joe public that is the problem.”
by Ed B, Aylestone
Monday, August 17 2009, 10:03AM
“This is a very poor piece. If the journalist gave the state of the UK live music scene a passing glance then they would know that it's the band's that fill the 500-2k seat venues that are struggling to make money at the moment. At the top end of the market Oasis & Coldplay will always sell tickets. At the other end of the market, which is represented in Leicester by the Musician, the Donkey, Sumo, the Donkey, Firebug etc., music fans flock to smaller shows. The middle market is suffering through the economic downturn as people say "no, I don't like band X enough to pay to see them as I would have done 2 years ago as I don't have a disposable income any more."
These middle bands are touring less with any venue willing to stick them on putting more money on the line.
Leicester is served by Nottingham and Birmingham for bigger venues. An arena would have happened here years ago if it were financially viable. I suspect that people calling for an arena in Leicester are the same people that would use it once a year.
Finally, I would have replied to this article earlier but I've just spent the weekend at De Montfort Hall having seen 30 odd bands through the weekend along with 6k other festival goers. Tell me, where are Wolverhampton's & Nottingham's Summer Sundae? Stick the boot into Richard a bit more and I'm sure he'll wave the white flag eventually, admit that you're right and SSW will go the same way as Abbey Park & the Charlotte.”
by Chris F, Knighton
Thursday, August 13 2009, 2:48PM
“DMU deciding to get rid of its music venue was a bodyblow for the city, losing the Charlotte was the killer blow.
The Donkey and Musician do fill in the smaller gaps, but there's nothing inbetween them and the De Montfort Hall - that's why bands don't play here anymore.
I thought the Half Time Orange would step up to book some of the bands, but seems they aren't interested, despite a triumphant Bees performance there a couple of years back.
The University doesn't appear to be bothered abot putting on any regular gigs. Sad times for this city.
But this gap in the market must mean an opportunity for someone, somewhere to start up a venue. Please!”
by Mick Fock, Leicester
Thursday, August 13 2009, 1:21PM
“I agree with themusicman, there's a lot of people working hard (DMH included) to ensure that Leicester has a rich and varied music scene. I've learnt that those who complain that not enough happens in Leicester are the same people who don't come out when something is on. This was particularly evident when The Charlotte closed down - thousands of people got upset but how many of them hadn't been there for years?
Besides, if you're judging the city on the fact that Jet haven't played here then you probably don't deserve to listen to music anyway.”
by R, Leicester
Thursday, August 13 2009, 12:40PM
“The Summer Sundae line-up last year and this year has been made up of acts whose popularity is in decline; Supergrass, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Kevin Hewick, Magic Numbers, The Streets, etc. Hardly worth the expensive entrance fee.
What happened to the big names like Patti Smith and David Byrne? ”
by Mark, Huncote
Thursday, August 13 2009, 12:37PM
“Richard Haswell is right - you are asking the wrong questions here. Putting aside the major arena-size bands and artists like Springsteen, Oasis and Radiohead, the 'rock circuit' consists mostly of privately-owned and privately run venues - Rock City and the Rescue Rooms in Nottingham, the O2 Academy and other smaller venues in Birmingham are the closest. So the question is not why De Montfort Hall doesn't put on more rock acts (answer- because it's there to cater for a much broader audience base) but why there is such a lack of support in Leicester from the independent sector to develop venues aimed at this audience. Yes, we have the Musician - not a brilliant venue but they put on a pretty good programme - and we have the Shed, the Y and one or two other minor venues. We had the Charlotte and the story behind the Charlotte holds the key to the problem. Whilst it was never an A1 venue, it had a reasonable capacity and a long tradition of booking emerging bands that went on to do good things. But if the Charlotte couldn't make a go of it, then maybe that gives us a clue to why the city doesn't have anything else. The answer to that question must lie with the willingness of young (and these days not-so-young) people to make an effort to get out of their sitting rooms to see these bands.
Realistically the private sector will only show an interest in Leicester's music scene when the people of Leicester show an interest in it - and our history isn't that promising. However, there does appear to be a light on the horizon. The new venue being developed at Leicester University will certainly have the capacity to attract the sort of bands we all want to see. It's a bit of a throwback to the old days of the sixties and seventies, when the university circuit was THE place to see good rock bands and all of our local universities played an important part in bringing great bands to a local audience. It would be so good to see that again and I really hope the new venue is a success. But part of me still thinks that it will struggle - simply because people in this part of the world don't really feel strongly enough about supporting venues like this.
So let's not criticise De Montfort Hall for trying to cater to a wide audience base - it's there for everyone and everyone deserves to see something on the De Mont bill for them. And Summer Sundae needs to be recognised as a major element in the hall's programme that acknowledges the importance of rock and indie music. I bet the Wolverhampton Civic Hall doesn't put a hundred different rock and indie bands on during the course of a year. Just because they all appear at De Montfort Hall over the course of three days shouldn't be read as a lack of willingness by the hall to cater for that audience.”
by BOB, DMH
Thursday, August 13 2009, 12:10PM
“Nice to see managment get their hands dirty, instead of standing at the bar”
by John Stitch, Leicester Town
Thursday, August 13 2009, 11:57AM
“Not only are record sales down, but the total number of performing bands doing the rounds is down too - which is why the Charlotte closed down at the end of the day.
It's no good hassling the De Montfort Hall - who's going to put on a band only likely to pull in 300 to 500 people there. I'd rather see such a band in a poky sweaty venue than in DMH anyway.
Get on to the University of Leicester and De Montfort University student unions instead, Mercury - ask THEM why they're not putting live music on so much anymore. I don't think you'll like the reply you might get off them, but it'll be interesting asking anyway ...”
by Mike, Leicestershire
Thursday, August 13 2009, 11:43AM
“DMH is too big for a lot of bands - if it's a quarter full there's no atmosphere there. Nottingham gets the bands because it has built up a track record of putting on rock and pop acts over yearsand has got on the circuit - rock city and the rescue rooms are better rock/pop venues than anything we have in Leicester. Leicester has struggled because it hasn't had a venue of the right size - DMH is too big, The Charlotte was too small for a lot of bands. The Musician is great for acoustic acts but isn't a great venue for rock acts. You can't blame the Council or DMH - Rock City and the Brum Academy are not run by the Council.”
by Martin, leicester
Thursday, August 13 2009, 11:41AM
“It's claer that the DMH cannot fulfill a role to suit all tastes. Hence it should concentrate on the shows etc and leave the live bands to go else where. Else where is the issue not the DMH. We need another venue. Richard might think that Leicester doesn't need an arena but he's not doing a very good job at attractig the bands and his excuse is that the palce gets filled with other activities. An aerna isn't just for bands but could be used for sprting events and exhibitions. We need an arena.”