Feature: The SoundHouse one year on

This page is part of the Music Section

23rd June 2011

Leicester live music venue the SoundHouse reaches its first anniversary soon. So, Artsin went there to find out how they have got on at the end of their first year.

In this interview, the SoundHouse staf talk frankly about their first year and some of the issues it has thrown up for them.

Martin, Sue and Joe. The SoundHouse is a family run business.

Artsin: So, I am here at the Soundhouse with Mark, the Bookings Manager, Sue one of the licensee owners and Joe the Bar Manager. Tell us how the past year has been for you as a live music venue?

Sue: Challenging.

Joe: Exciting and challenging at the same time. We have had our ups and downs but, yea, it's been fun.

Sue: I do think at the minute we are moving forward. January and February were a bleak couple of months.

Joe: We are starting to see the light.

Mark: We had a terrible winter, all that snow, and we lost a few gigs because of that. September and October last year were pretty good really.

Joe: We weren't really ready for the weather, so it was a bit of a blow to us. But we've managed to get back on top.

Artsin: Can you remember your first gig when you opened, last year?

Mark: It was on the 3rd July [2010].

Joe: It was a week before our actual opening Weekender. We had a pre-weekend to see how we would get on really. We learnt a lot from that first weekend.

Mark: The very first bands to play on our stage were Crisis Confirmed and Black Page Turns. We were busy as well, which was nice.

Artsin: So, looking back what do you see as being the highlight or highlights of the past year?

Joe: The Weekender when we launched, that was good. It was a busy weekend throughout, it gave us the experience and confidence to carry on, really.

Mark: That show with Ashdowne and Us Wolves, that was good. Since then, we have had all sorts of bands. We've had the weird and the wonderful. The first touring band we had was Bromhead. That was good.

James Ferraby of Us Wolves in peformance at the SoundHouse.

Joe: We've had a lot of highlights, good nights, good bands, there's been lots.

Artsin: So what is the most difficult part of running a live music venue?

Sue: I think the most difficult part is actually getting the bands. Getting the bands together and keeping the calendar full. Keeping it running.

Mark: It's about getting to know which bands are the most reliable, which bands are likely to pull decent numbers.

Joe: It's often about getting a good line-up and getting the numbers in through the door.

Mark: It's about having the right contacts and developing good relationships with the booking agents. It can be difficult making contact and getting bands to contact you.

Joe: I think we have done well with the touring bands we have actually put on. We might not have been so busy but they have been good acts.

Mark: Kids Can't Fly, that was a good night.

Arabella playing at the SoundHouse.

Artsin: How easy or how hard has it been to book good quality bands?

Mark: You know what, you can spend a lot of time putting out enquiries and getting nothing back, you feel like you're smacking your head against a wall sometimes. Some bands we have a good relationship with. We get loads of enquires every week from bands wanting to play here.

Watch Tribal Riot's set at the S/H (courtesy of ArtisticDaz)

Artsin: What has been the most productive method of publicising your shows?

Joe: It's about trying to find out who your target audience is. With some of the bands, the crowd that follow them are not the sort of people who are using Facebook everyday. So you have to find out where they are going to be in the city, which pubs they go to, to get the info out to them and pushing advance booking sales. It's really on a show to show basis. People don't go out to gigs on spec. They go out to see a band they know.

Mark: You have as many places, sites, as you possibly can, where you can leave flyers. You can go round some places and find flyers for shows still sat there. We use online as much as we can, Facebook, our own web site, everywhere where people are likely to pick up the information about our shows.

The bar area of the SoundHouse

Artsin: Let's talk about the Leicester live music scene. What are its good points, its strengths?

Mark: It's about strength in numbers really, there's no end of bands.

Joe: ... and there is a lot of good bands in the city. There are a lot of good bands out there and they are doing the right thing with it. It's not like we have got a lot of poor bands. A lot of local bands have got talent, so that's one of its strengths.

Mark: We have had a lot of talented artists turning up at the open mic nights. People you have never seen before just turn up.

Joe: They are that talented, if they had a following you could easily put them into a main stream show, because they are good enough.

Mark: There are a lot of people involved in the music scene who are passionate about it.

Joe: There are a lot of people trying to push the local scene, with the Leicester Music Collective and so on.

Mark: There's a lot of festivals going on. There seems to be some support from the Council, we've got the Oxjam event coming up later this year. There's a lot of people involved.

Watch SuperEvolverat the S/H (courtsey of ArtisticDaz)

Bands and their followings.

Artsin: What are the bad points about the local music scene?

Sue: Getting the people out.

Joe: Audiences I guess is the one thing. Doesn't matter how good a band is, whether it be local or touring, it doesn't matter how hard you promote the show and publicise it, you sometimes just cannot get the people in. It doesn't matter how the bands are. Some really good bands just don't have a following and some poor bands do.

Mark: There aren't many people who take a chance and just go out to a random show. It's mainly about name recognition. A lot of the problems are with local bands who play too often. There's a lot of people putting on shows at the minute so they are getting a lot of offers, which I can understand. But they have to get their fans out to all those shows. If they could spread their appearances out a little more, their audiences might be a bit more consistent.

Joe: I've seen people come down here to see their friend's band and it's almost like they are not too happy about it. Like, they have had to go out the previous weekend with them and they have had to come out again.

Mark: ... and they've had to come down to see their friend's band and they don't want to stick around to see another band they aren't friends with. So when the band they have come to see has finished, they leave.

Joe: Yea, its like they've come out to see them, like they are doing them a favour, they haven't come out to enjoy an evening of music, so when their band has done they leave.

Sue: Which I find quite irritating.

Mark: Well, I'd rather they did that than not come at all [laughter and "yea"]

RyanTailor of Silent Resistance on stage at the SoundHouse.

Is Leicester a good place to be?

Artsin: Let's imagine that you could teleport the Soundhouse to another city, put it on a magic carpet and drop it somewhere else in the UK, would you, theoretically, like to do that, or would you say 'no, Leicester is the best place we could possibly be?'

Joe: It's a tough one. It might be that people enjoy music more in certain cities, but a lot of venues are still struggling, aren't they, no matter where you are in the UK.

Mark: I think we have got a good feel for this city.

Joe: Yea, It's like we have built our reputation in this city now, we are getting somewhere now, we are recognised as being one of the better venues. That's nice to know.

Watch Haich at the S/H (courtesy of ArtisticDaz)

Artsin: We hear from bands that come to Leicester from Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham ... they say how good the scenes are out there in other cities. Is that what you hear when you talk to bands that have come in from out of town?

Joe: Every band that comes has got its favourite city to play, whether it be Leicester, Sheffield or London.

Sue: It's not just music. It's just that other cities have banging, bars, clubs, restaurants, everything.

Joe: I'd like to think that as a venue we are putting some life into Leicester's music scene.

Sue: That's it. It's a challenge.

Joe: I wouldn't like to move now.

Mark: We've have had some fantastic acts. They've gone home and said what a fantastic place Leicester is. We have worked with other businesses to increase the profile of the area. The more people hear about that the more people are likely to come out.

Sue: When we first opened, we thought, we'll probably make a few mistakes. As people get know the scene and hear about it's reputation, it will work. We joined the Cultural Quarter Business Association, we went to one of the meetings. It was informal but it gave us a chance to talk to other people in our area. It was interesting to get to know who people are and what they are doing. I think it was good for us.

Watch Final Coil at the S/H (courtesy of ArtisticDaz)

Artsin: Do you talk to the other live music venues nearby, The Musician, The Shed, The Exchange Bar?

Sue: Yes.

Mark: Especially the Musician and the Exchange Bar.

Joe: We get involved with the LMC meetings which a lot of the venues in the city are part of. It gives you a chance to share your ideas, get to meet people which is always good. It seems like a lot of venues do actually want to work together, as opposed to going against each other.

Sue: It's difficult in practice.

Joe: You don't get a lot of feedback from other venues.

Mark: We hear from promoters who are working at other venues. But there is too much going on.

Joe: It's nice that people are actually thinking they would like to work together, without actually linking us up in some official way. It's near enough impossible to find out what everyone is doing. We've all got so much going on, booking different bands, we are very busy doing work here that there isn't much time to look at what other venues are doing.

Liscana Lane of the Black Tears at the SoundHouse.

Promoters or not promoters.

Artsin: You book most of your shows yourselves. Mark, you do most of the bookings for the venue but you have worked with some promoters. What's your take on the promoters you have experienced so far in Leicester?

Mark: It's been a mixed bag. Very much so. Anyone can call themselves a promoter. It's like the bands ...

Joe: ... yea, some are serious about their jobs. Some people just call themselves a promoter and have a crack at it.

Mark: We have got a few things coming up. People don't actually call themselves 'a promoter'. They are coming in to put on a band that they are passionate about. That's great, it's make us so much more confident it's going to work.

Joe: It makes it so much easier for us.

Mark: Yea. That's a great way of working. If people really want to see a band, they are really going to work on the night and we can work with them. It's an extra set of hands.

Watch Hells' Addiction at the S/H (courtesy of ArtisticDaz).

Artsin: Whilst you've been open this past year, other live music venues have opened - O2, Sub91, The Auditorium - do you think these venues have made much impact on the quality of the local music scene?

Mark: I don't think the O2 is a competitor with us.

Joe: They are putting on established acts. So that doesn't really affect us.

Artsin: They are much bigger venues. The nearest comparable venue to yourselves is Lock42. It's about the same size. Do you think that's made much of a difference?

Mark: Lock42 is associated with Stayfree so they are going to get a lot of the new bands. We like to give bands a chance, but some of the really new bands, aren't established enough.

Joe: We prefer to play bands that have reached a certain level of talent and ability.

Mark: We have developed a reputation for putting on quality acts.

Joe: As far as putting on quality acts is concerned, it can only be good for the scene. You have to think about the reputation of the scene as a whole. It's OK to give new bands a chance but that's not always going to appeal to a wider audience.

Mark: We have seen Sub91 putting on some really big acts, which is good for the scene as a whole, but it's about whether they can fill the venue. We can put on a touring band and agree to pay them so much, and it's a risk, but in these bigger venues you can multiply that risk by ten.

Artsin: You've got eight live music venues in the city. Do you think the market for live music is about right or is it over supplied?

Joe: The bands are certainly there but working in a live music venue, it's going to be hard, because the more venues that are open, it's spreading your livelihood across the city.

Mark: It's about the gig-going public. If they want to go out, there's plenty to see.

Joe: If there are plenty of people that want to go out to see live music, as an off-chance, then there are plenty of opportunities. But, if not then you are going to struggle to get people in, aren't you?

The Weekend Schemers on stage in 2010.

Artsin: The SoundHouse has never gone in for Battle of the Bands type competitions. Why is that?

Mark: I think there's too many of them. They tie bands up over so many dates. The bands that don't win through to the final are going to be disappointed.

Joe: Someone had the idea that all the open-mic nights would put on a competition and then each winner would go on to play at big show somewhere. I thought that was a better way of doing it. This could be a good idea for people who are entry level and want to see if they can get somewhere with their act.

Sue: A bit like the 'X-Factor.'

Mark: There are too many competitions going on, national ones, local ones, I think there is too much of it.

Advice to bands.

Artsin: What advice would you give to Out of Town Bands who contact you wanting to play in Leicester?

Mark: I would suggest they get in touch with local bands here that are similar to them. See if you can arrange some sort of a gig swap. That way you're appearance in Leicester is more likely to be successful. Or try to get a recommendation from somebody that's in the city, someone who can vouch for you. We get literally dozens of requests every week from bands wanting to come and play. We can't put them on because we can't get the audience for them. No one around here has ever heard of them.

Artsin: So, if they can pair up with a popular local band who can pull in the crowd, then there is more chance they get an audience to play to?

Joe: If you get a support slot with a similar local band, the chances are that their friends are going to stick around and watch it, if it's similar to their mate's band.

Mark: Well we get bands saying that their record label, press, PR will do a lot to publicise the show and they all want to make an impact on the local scene because they know it's an important city to play and pick up fans in. They should be able to get some people down if the local fans have heard of them. But they have to put the effort into it. By doing a gig swap, bands get to know each other and can work out if playing together is going to work with each other's fans.

Artsin: If a band wants to get paid for its show, whether its a local one or a touring band, what do they have to do?

Mark: We have to be confident that there is going to be an audience for them. On a first performance with a local band we wouldn't be looking to pay them an absolute fee. If they are a touring band we would want them to be signed or at least to have a booking agent. We would want to see they have had a degree of success in the past. We would want to see their press pack. If they play it right, they should be able to get 30 to 40 people down but this requires a lot of advance work. They can't just turn up and play.

Joe: You do get some bands that think "we are worth this amount but were are not prepared to really push the show." You even get bands that would be happy to come, take the money and play to an empty venue. We can't afford to do that.

Artsin: Is there an expectation on the part of bands that it is the venue or the promoter who is responsible for getting the crowd in?

Roxum playing on a Saturday night.

Don't expect to get paid for playing to an audience that someone else has paid to put there.

Mark: We get asked by bands whether it gets busy on a Friday or Saturday night. We cant' stress this enough, if you're in a new band you don't have a right to an audience. They have to build up their fan base. It is the band that people will want to come to see here. People don't come for the venue, they come for the entertainment. We have seen bands who have done nothing to push their show and just expect to get paid for playing to an audience that someone else has paid to put there. We provide bands with promotional material; we get posters and flyers printed but it is only the bands that can get them out to their fans.

Artsin: The Soundhouse normally puts on three bands a night, as opposed to other venues which sometimes put on 4,5 even 6 bands on a line up. Do you think that the three band line-up works better than having a big line-up of bands?

Mark: It's easier to manage. We are a small venue and with that many bands bringing in their kit we wouldn't have any space left for the fans. We provide a full back line and drum kit but still bands insist on bringing their own stuff. We have to find somewhere to put it all.

Joe: The people of Leicester, they don't tend to come out till 8 o'clock at the earliest. With a long line up of bands, the last couple would be playing to an empty hall. People have to get buses home and a lot of them stop at 11 o'clock. So a night out is confined to a pretty short space of time. So if you want to put seven bands on you need to start a lot earlier.

Mark: We like to sound check properly and if you have seven bands on, some of them are not going to get a proper sound check, there just wouldn't be time. One of the things we are noted for here is the quality of our sound system and the people who operate it. We have a top sound engineer (Steve) and we want to make sure that bands get the best experience we can give them when they play here. We have brilliant lighting system too, the only venue in Leicester to have a dedicated lighting engineer (Martin) at every performance.

Joe: We try to put on a show at every gig, if that makes sense.

Artsin: Some promoters have said to me that they book five bands because if one drops out the night can still go ahead. But if you book three bands and one or even two drop out, that can loose the entire night. Is that your experience?

Mark: Yes. We have lost nights because bands have dropped out on the day of the show. But then, most people will be happy to sit through three bands. They can cope with that. But seven bands? People don't want to sit through that much music, especially if they don't know all the bands.

Artsin: What have you got coming up that's new?

Sue: Our Tuesday open-mic nights are taking off nicely and we are looking at putting on a jazz and blues night on Wednesdays. They might pull in a difference audience to those who normally turn up on rock nights.

Joe: That's what we are looking at, trying to pull a different crowd.

Mark: When this place was the Queen Victoria, it was known for putting on that kind of bands. It might attract back some of the crowd that used come down here.

Joe: Yea, lots of people come in and say we used to drink here when we were younger. If we could get some of those old customers back it would be ideal.

James Mabbett of Superevolver.

Artsin: So how would you sum up the past year?

Sue: It's been a steep learning curve but on the whole we have loved it. It's taken time for people to know where we are located. Now we are established, I think our reputation has taken off. People like coming here. The venue has character and we like to think we are a friendly group of people that do our best to make customers feel welcome.

Mark (left) on stage with his band More Amour.

To celebrates its first year, the SoundHouse is putting on a Weekender festival of live bands, from Thursday 30th June through to Sunday 3rd of July. Get the details.

Gigs at the SoundHouse

Our pick of the most memorable nights

2010

10th September: Tall Orders, The Furies and the Pennyhangers

17th September: Stephen and the Heathens and SuperEvolver.

21st October: Citizen Smith, Rooster and The Twist

6th November: SuperEvolver

3rd December: Rassoodocks.

2011

15th January: Skam# and Forgotten Sun.

2nd March: The Detriot Social Club.

19th March: The Headstarts and Random Hand.

31st March: Aurora and Hybrid Trend.

8th April: Haich and the Black Tears.

9th April: Roxum

2nd June: Edition Skateboards launch

See some of the these nights on our Gig Reviews page.

Other pages you might like:

Leicester's live music scene, 2011

News about Leicester venues.