NEWS
FRANK TURNER PLAYS 200 CAPACITY VENUE and salutes ‘the lifeblood of any scene’.
Following an announcement that Southampton venue the Joiners is in financial difficulty, stadium-filling protest rocker Frank Turner offered to play a gig there to raise funds for the 200 capacity former pub. Tickets went on sale today and sold out in 90 seconds. In fact due to unprecedented demand the system crashed and oversold tickets. To save the day and avoid the venue having to refund fans Frank offered to play a second ‘matinee show’ the same day., which happens to be his birthday. On his website Frank said
This is a blog post about small venues. Despite having played at larger places in recent years, the vast majority of my time as a musician has been spent on the stages of small bars, clubs and pubs. They are the lifeblood of any scene and are vitally important to anyone who gives a damn about music, whether underground or mainstream.
Two venues that I know and love are, heart-breakingly, having a tough time, and I have two shows coming up which reflect this. First of all, the lovely club Abart in Zurich is, after a long battle, finally closing at the end of the year. That sucks, a lot, but the good folk there have asked me to come over and play one of the closing shows. So, December 27th, I’ll be playing there solo. Tickets are onsale now.Secondly, the Joiners Arms in Southampton. This is a venue that is really special to me. I saw my first ever show there (Snug, 1995, featuring one Ed Harcourt on guitar). Million Dead played there many times, including our last ever show in 2005. I have played there solo four times to date. The venue is having a tough time of late financially a common occurrence for small venues, as they operate on a thin margin. When I heard about it, I naturally wanted to help. So, December 28th (my birthday no less) I’ll be playing a solo show there as well….. See you there.
Support will be Sean McGowan, reviewed here,https://louderthanwar.com/sean-mcgowan-the-peoples-music-ep-review/ who recently sold out the venue also launching his second EP ‘The Peoples Music’. Sean was also mentioned, along with Jake Bugg by Billy Bragg in his John Peel lecture as being a great new artist to look out for.
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