From The Pub Festivals and Looking to the Week Ahead NEW VENUES

I return to a subject that gets a regular airing in our Blog, namely the loss of Pubs to our Communities.  

Driving around South Yorkshire with my “Learners” I get the opportunity to see just what is going on and it’s sad to reflect that if the “Council Curtains” have not been screwed into the Window frames of a pub marking it’s death or temporary closure, then there is a huge Lease For Sale sign hanging from it’s side.   Many classic drinking Palaces are being destroyed and whole new housing estates built on the huge amount of land these buildings once stood.

Those Pubs not closed, pulled down or in danger of imminent closure stand out now and if their Land Lords are to be believed are surviving by the skin of their teeth and only by offering something different to the public, be it food, music or specialist beers.  

I am a bit of a pessimist concerning the Pub Trade, I don’t think that Community Pubs as my generation knew them can survive any longer, and it’s for a mixture of reasons.  Most Land Lords point to two things, the price of the beer that they are in many cases forces to buy via Tied House agreements against the prices charged by Supermarkets, and of course the smoking ban. 

From my perspective the smoking ban was no more than the catalyst, with all sorts of negative economic consequences and affects then kicking in until we have the current very weak market, with the knock on affect that musicians are finding it harder and harder to find a place to play, let alone paying gigs.

But some positives.  First locally in Parkgate where we reported a wipe out of pubs a few weeks ago, where I note the Alex has reopened, and The demise of the Parkgate Inn was just a little prematurely announced as I don’t think they ever did close their doors. 

For us music nuts there seems to be a new growing trend as well.  Many Pubs are now running their own one day mini Festivals, mainly for Charity, but I’m sure the extra beer sales help as well.  Could this be the way forward for musicians? 

This week I went along to The All Day Spring Charity Event at the Bridge, Rotherham on Bank Holiday Monday.  I got in a bit late in the day due to work commitments so missed out on a chance for The Masher to do his thing, but the pub seemed to be buzzing.

I did catch two excellent sets though.  

Searching For Sylvia did an acoustic set of their own material, brilliant stuff, strong musicianship supported by some brilliant vocal harmonies.   It’s not often I get the chance to see their full set and I enjoyed every minute.  

Then of course the growing legends on the local music scene Papa Legbas took to the stage.  A mixture of blues classics and what I recognised to be Tim Cleverly penned songs making up a brilliantly energetic set.  The overall sound was as usual brilliant. 

Earlier in the day I’m told that Paul Pearson did one of his impromptu spots to great acclaim, it’s so good that he gets out and about to freely give of his art to these events. 

And so to Saturday night and the Domino at Kimberworth, a venue that I had somehow not got to.  Here Joe and Rudi hold fort, Friday nights for their Jam Session, and it was the stalwarts of the Friday session who put Saturday’s day long Festival together.  

And it’s nice to report another Pub doing a healthy trade off the back of some brilliant music.  I arrived, late once again because of work, to catch a set from a young local Band.  It’s great to see Joe and Rudi giving these young musicians a chance to show case their talent, and talented they were.  

Then it was the turn of the Masher to do his thing, completely under rehearsed but no one seemed to notice, well perhaps they were just too kind to mention it.  

I’m enjoy so much playing events that are essentially electric, I find that coming on as a bit of light relief to the heavy Blues rhythm is great fun, and so this set proved, with an audience tuned in and seemingly enjoying the songs.  

The Mashers light show was again a success, despite Joe’s comment at the end “very entertaining even with a crap light show”.   

Following The Masher  came Richard and Julie, collectively Eskimo Kissed.  Their songs blow me away and their on stage performance is always energetic and interesting.  If you’ve not caught up with them yet head for the Demo Page HERE where you’ll find three tracks of their self-penned music.    I have to say that they seem to get better every time I see them. 

Then it was the turn of Joe’s Blue’s Band, "BIG THRIL" I didn’t quite catch the name of the Band, but smokin’ they certainly were.  Brilliant musicianship and the lady, (heavily pregnant I think) vocalist had a blues voice to kill for. 
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I had to leave mid set, but I’m assured that the boys from the Friday Jam session finished off the evening in great style. 

I also missed Martin and his crew at and Steph doing her thing at the start of the show, apparently they were all in great form. 

But alas I had to head off to keep my lovely Wife company at the Club, can’t have too much fun can I, where Bad Fingers were in residence doing there soft rock cover material so popular on the Club scene.  Great staging and technical music skill, but boys, I was sat at the back of the Club and the main slider was up far too high for the balance of the instruments and more importantly the vocals, result, not a great sound, if you can’t be bothered to set the balance of the instruments and vocals correctly at the outset then you ain’t giving your music a real chance, and simply slipping the main volume slider up is not going to correct the problem. 

So that was my week.   However, slipping totally under my radar was another local Pub Festival, MagFest at the Magpie in Brinsworth.  My spies tell me that this was another well attended event over the Bank Holiday weekend, with some great music. 

 

SO A REMINDER – if you’ve got a local music event going on then please send an Email.  We hit a lot of folks these days, and our mailing list and general distribution is for ever growing.  We might be able to help to get the word of your event out there.  We might call ourselves Acoustic Rotherham but we do support all events that involve live music in the area.   Email HERE

Which brings me to a WEDNESDAY NIGHT Open Mic that has started at The Cavalier, Ravenfield.  There’s plenty of opportunities to play at this weekly event, with everyone encouraged to come along and take part, be it acoustic or electric.  This is great addition to the weekly calendar as Wednesday has always been one of those dead night’s.

Speaking of which I’m told that The Master Brewer, Bramley on Thursday nights is back on the agenda.  I’m not quite sure what’s going on here as it is now in direct competition with “Left Handed Andy’s” Open Mic at The Travellers, Bramley.   With everything else that goes off on a Thursday night, musically speaking, I can’t help feeling that these events are not really the overall cause, but hey, any musical outlet has to be good.  

There are also other additions to the Diary so head off HERE to the listings page where you’ll find it all. 

I’ve had no negative reports concerning the new software I’m using to generate the Web Site – so I’m assuming that it’s all OK. 

As to the sites themselves.  Well it’s great to report that tracks from the Acoustic Rotherham Player have now been accessed 40,000 times, brilliant.  The Acoustic Rotherham Player features artists that have featured at our events and it’s great to think that their music is being discovered by new people.   

The Mashers hit a 40,000 landmark as well, with 40,000 people having now accessed their Myspace page, I won’t tell you how painful the last five thousand hits have been in collecting the views, which is down to the fall away in the popularity of Myspace.   Indeed Myspace continues to have many problems. 

As to the Acoustic Rotherham site, we are maintaining 150 – 200 hits per week.  It depends upon what figures one chooses to believe, there is a marked difference between the views picked up by the various stat collecting programmes out there.   It would be nice to kick things on a bit, so again I ask friends on Facebook to share any links from the site that they might find useful, click the LIKE BUTTONS and generally put the word out there.  Your help would be appreciated.

You’ll find more pictures from The Bridge and The Domino HERE on the picture page.

The Myke Barritt Music Trust Wandering Minstrels are again on the move, they’ve been invited to The Cross Keys, Handsworth for a Summer Solace Special, on 21^st June.   If you can make it you’ll be sure of a warm welcome.  Full details can be found HERE

And the week ahead.  All the usual gatherings, including The Three Tuns at Staithes (That’s near Maltby) on Tuesday, and Saturday is looking busy with Ray Hearne playing at The Royal Oak at Deepcar, The usual offerings at The Bridge, Rotherham, and Papa Legbas heading out to The Cavalier at Ravenfield.    All looks good to me.  

So whatever you’re doing this week have fun and keep it LIVE.