Feature: The Auditorium 2010
The venue known as The Auditorium in Leicester has now closed down.
The Auditorium has closed down (September 2011)
This page is retained as an archive.
We are Leicester - the festival that brought you The Auditorium's opening event
On Saturday 10th July, The Auditorium hosted the "We Are Leicester" festival, in which over 45 local bands and artists took part, to give the public a preview of the new venue, which is due to open later this year.
It was an opportunity to check out a cross section of the bands currently active on the Leicester music scene.
Arts in Leicestershire spent the day there, seeing what went on.
Trevor Locke and Kevin Gaughan report:
It was a long hard day. I arrived at 1 p.m. and left well after midnight. When I left there was still a lineup of bands waiting to play on the main stage.
I started with the open air stage, set up in a car park off Cank Street. On one of the hottest weekends in the year, you either enjoyed the warm sunshine or kept to the shade. Even though there were a few cloudy periods, it was a glorious day for listening to live music out of doors.
The first band I saw was Skinny Bones.
Skinny Bones © Kevin Gaughan
A set of vibrant and engaging songs, delivered by three good singing guitarists. Listenable and entertaining, a band with a strong grasp of modern indie music.
One of Leicester strongest young bands, The Weekend Schemers have really made a name for themselves this year.
The Weekend Schemers © Kevin Gaughan
Their set of enjoyable and engaging songs contains some really catchy material and memorable melodies. Solid musicianship and sound vocal depth brings the songs alive.
Another young band that has played some astonishingly good sets this year is White Ashes.
Joe Walker's vocals and vigorous performances give the band its hallmark.
White Fix put on a sterling performance featuring strong vocals from lead singer James and a gutsy set of energetic rock songs, including their well known version of a Lady Gaga cover.
The Hordes playing at the We are Leicester Festival
Stomping, dancy songs with lashings of catchy beats were brought to by The Hordes. Despite the lack of backing vocals, singer Alex Oxley was on top form. Very fresh and upbeat they put on a fine performance.
Coming soon: the Dobsons, Ska Bands, The Midbeats, The Furies, Sunflower, Rassoodocks, Free Control, Roxum, Ictus and more.
Kevin Gaughan reports:
We walked around the market a couple of times looking for the Auditorium and eventually saw a building that looked like the one in the photo but it had a big sign on it saying 'Amusements and Bingo' so we thought that can't be it. Eventually we decided to go in the bingo hall and asked where the Auditorium was. The lady in the kiosk said 'yes this is it, you go in next door to see the bands'.
The lady then explained how to get to the outdoor part of the festival. Not being familiar with this part of town, we eventually found the outside festival.
This worried me, as if I wasn't so determined to go, I could easily have given up by this point and gone shopping - I wonder if anyone else had the same dilemma!
The outside festival was taking place in a car park, luckily it was nice and sunny which encouraged a few people to come to the festival early. The advertised beer festival consisted of only two different ales. At least you could have a decent pint of ale, beats the warm lager you often get at these things.
The car park was rather make-shift with no toilets and the stage looked like it had seen better days. However, the sound was actually very good for most of the bands.
The Hordes were on from 2.30 - 3.00 in the afternoon and put on a good selection of their own powerful sounds with some overtones of ska and I reckon more than a hint of the Cure especially in their new song which had a gutsy, but very enjoyable guitar effect all the way through With Alex adding to the effect on vocals. This song, in particular, left me wanting more, Alex said he was 'quite please with this song', so was I!
Having heard a lot about the Weekend Schemers, I was looking forward to seeing them. I was not disappointed, the songs were well crafted with solid rock guitar melodies that had been very well put together. The band sounded a lot more mature than they are. A good reliable performance - a band to look out for.
The Weekend Schemers were followed by White Ashes who came with their slightly less rocky guitar but a much more punkier sound. They are a young band and the vocals sounded like they were from a young lad, Joe who still did a good job. They sounded like an extremely good band in the making. Well paced songs with good, tight musicians and a bit of punk thrown in for good measure. Certainly on my radar now and I'd love to see them do a full set.
Next up were the Dobsons for a more alternative sound and very distinctive vocals, reminded me a bit of Siouxsie and the Banshees (for anyone who's old enough to remember them!). They packed a load of very catchy tunes with great riffs. For me this band stood out of the crowd with the distinctive but well mastered vocals and their sound seemed quite mature. They had a fairly distinctive look, which I didn't think was a particularly good as visually they didn't gel together and their look wasn't consistent. Still yet another really good band I look forward to see again soon.
Moving to inside the Auditorium, the stairs which went up from the front door were surrounded by tall mirrors which gave it a slightly trendy feel and a pleasant atmosphere, similar to a nightclub. Plenty of people stopped en-route to fix their make up and hair.
The main hall in the auditorium was an impressive size, I noticed an unused bar on one side and the main bar on the other side. There were three floors connected by a number of wide stairs leading down to the stage. Although it was very large the ceiling on the top floor was quite low creating a slightly claustrophobic feeling. The sound was very good if a little loud, the kind of loudness in which you can feel the bass reverberating in your chest with some of the heavier bands!
The first band I saw on the inside stage were the Midbeats, a four-piece from Leicester who bought their 60's rock and roll into the mix. This provided a nice 'pallet cleanser' from the heavier bands I saw earlier and provided some music people could dance to. The music was well executed with plenty of rock and roll rhythms that were well played. For me, though, I preferred the pace of the earlier bands, so half an hour was quite enough!
After the Midbeats followed the Rassodocks, again, not one of my favourites but I suppose you could dance to it, fairly rapidly tempoed and again sounding a bit like something from the 60's.
More coverage later this weekend; come back on Sunday!
One of the highlights of the evening on the main stage was the performance given by Roxum. This band always pumps up the atmosphere when they play. Their set of powerful, high energy dance songs is a great floor filler. A band featuring the captivating vocals of Dale Taylor and the stunning guitar playing of Jack Jordan, they pumped out an exhilarating set.
One of Leicester's most established bands, Ictus, put on a great set of their wonderful post-punk songs. They have been playing since the year 2000. A well known band, they gave us a storming set of their very likeable songs.
One Suspicious Monkey was an unusual but creative act featuring the well known drummer Chris Swirls on hand drums.
Carnival Clowns attracted a lot of attention. Strong engaging indie rock songs with a big sound, clearly appealed to most of the audience. Fast paced and backed with thumping beats, it was easy to see why they were getting the audience going.
Rassoodocks put on a good set with new bassist Dan Holyoak from Razmataz. Bouncy songs and funky beats, large and pulsating sounds, vibrant and modern, they drew a lot of interest from other band members in the room.
Free Control was very good. Musically varied, an exciting cocktail of influences, they put on songs that were atmospheric and full of colour. Inspiring and highly skilled, their set was welcome respite from the relentless offering of loud, samey stuff.
I found Sunflower playing on the outdoor stage. I didn't see all of their set but the songs I did see, I liked very much. This four piece featured a sax player and some deliciously jazzy and upbeat melodies, very listenable and enjoyable.
The night ended with Silent Resistence who, I'm told by lead singer Ryan Tailor, went on stage at about 3.30 a.m. Massively dissapointed to have missed this amazing band but hopefully Ill see them again soon when they play at the Surface Unsigned semi-finals, at the Asylum in Birmingham.
Read our news coverage of the We are Leicester Festival.
