Independent Venue Week celebrates its 10th anniversary this year and to honour that milestone, we have linked up with Fire Records to support their tour for the event across the UK with acts Amber Arcades, Hater and Thala on the bill.
Lionheart and Digbeth were the backline of choice including the L20T-112, one for each guitarist and the DB500H and DBV410 bass cab.
The fact that ‘IVW’ is now getting the recognition it deserves is testament to the passion and importance of the work done by both the organisation itself and collaborations with BBC 6 Music and of course a big name in the game, Steve Lamacq. He has been a pivotal figurehead in making sure people understand the importance of the smaller independent venues around the UK, as we must remember, without these venues, you don’t get the big name bands playing the biggest shows. These are the stages that bands and artists cut their teeth on, their apprentership if you will.
Artists from across the world flock to the UK to cut their teeth, we have a prominent history of supporting the next generation of stars and it is time to give something back to the venues that have allowed so many of us to have them formative moments in our musical journey. One of the venues who are involved is the legendary ‘Joiners Arms’ in Southampton. We went along to see the tour and catch the bands on the bill.
Ricky Bates, venue owner & booker: “We opened in 1968 but the record of who played back then is very blurry. There’s a story of Jimi Hendrix dropping in and jamming with people on his way to the Isle Of Wight Festival in 1970, but nobody had cameras and whatnot back then.
“These days, we have walls of photos and posters – but before the pandemic we were doing 275 shows a year, so we had to start choosing the ones that had a story behind them.
“Manic Street Preachers is a big one. They played here back in the day when talent scouts actually came to shows, and that night there were all these Rolls Royces parked outside the front door – which is nuts if you know the area. Anyway, the Manics played an incredible gig and they signed their first major label deal in the basement with all the graffiti afterwards.”
“And then there’s the Cranberries. Back in the 1990s, people used to book shows by fax, and they would sometimes sign contracts a year in advance. And in the time that passed between booking the show and playing it, they’d become huge and they were on Top Of The Pops and whatever.
“So they turned up to the venue and they didn’t like the PA system and they cancelled, on the day of the gig. And so all these people turned up, obviously, and the band just sat upstairs refusing to play.”
Check out the bands on this tour, they are:
www.instagram.com/amberarcades
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