NWB - Community Blog

No big comment from us as weve been to see night train play lots of times ,we try to see as many bands as we can whenever we get the time off from playing & we do check out on NWB to see who"s playing where every weekend .
We dont expect NWB members to turn up all the time as people have things to do etc but its nice when they do .
Played a gig on friday which was one of our worst gigs ever for support (& they had good reason for staying away which we won"t go into great detail ) but 2 guys who follow NWB just for the sake of watching bands came in for the gig which was nice ....its not just about bands on NWB its also about the people who watch them ...just a thought ..

erm, from a band point of view, we really don't give two sheets :D

However

Its a bit sad that ...that after a serious appeal has been put out to keep a venue going * from a respected, NWB contributor) not one person on here rolled up :(

And talking to the lordlord, practically every band on here has been asking for gigs.....
well you'vr lost it.....

Solidarity amongst musicians?? No chance....
Hope y'all wash the sand from between your toes

:D

Wow powerful post Nige! I feel like a naughty schoolboy now. Should i feel guilty?
It was fathers day which i spent with my lovely family.
We try like everyone else to help out with charity gigs etc.
It is a shame when a venue struggles, tough times for everyone though,not just pubs.
oh well im off to do a weeks detention.

peace out

Scotty.

As said, it was fathers day for starters. Ive seen NT several times before and, as you say, they are great musicians and Alec seems a really sound guy. Maybe sunday gigs aren't destined to work at this venue? Sometimes you've got to just face the facts. If 50 people had turned up, would it have been full the week after?

Maybe I've missed something here so I don't want to speak out of turn but could it be that some of the NWB members were gigging themselves which would render them unable to attend?
Just a thought.
MN

Well on my behalf fuck you too Nigel - I go where I want to see whom I want, including Idle Promise.

You can't expect the NWB community to prop up venues, that's part of their job.

You can humbly ask and be grateful if you get, but to harangue people for not turning up to a particular gig you wanted them too?

What would one night have proved anyway? - it would just have been empty the next week.

To be fair, it was Father's day and the weather was gorgeous.
I think that very seriously affected turnout.

From a band point of view, I'd differ only very slightly from Alec in saying we DO give two sheets.
We like a good size crowd, it makes us play a lot better, though we still had a good blast
yesterday.

It's always in everyone's interests to go out to support venues and we had a decent number
of locals and a few mates of the band turn up to what is really a 'hidden gem' and a really good
venue in the middle of the estate, with a fantastic landlady and landlord who are really into putting
on quality live music.

I don't know how many bands were out last night and am certainly not going to have a pop at anyone
who had other things to do with their families. Venues need support or you lose them, so get down
there on a Saturday, watch a good band and buy a few pints and everyone will come away happy.
You may even get in the diary for next year.

I'm sure the Saturday nights there are buzzing and we're pleased to have taken 3 more dates, which
we are looking forward to immensely. This band now has all four cylinders firing fully and we're really
enjoying it.

Speaking purely for myself, I enjoy the community spirit on this site. If and when I get the opportunity I'll go out (usually local to me) and watch a band. Occasionally it's to "support" the band, but mostly it'll be because I like the music they play. I also have a social life outside the music environment, and it happens to be pretty important to me. I suspect that a lot of us do.

I don't go out specifically to support bands and I don't expect other bands to come out and support us. It's not as if we are a charity. It's not up to the NWB "Community" to go around in a bus, with capes on, making sure every venue or band is well supported. It's nice that it happens quite a bit, but it's not an expectation I will put on anyone else or will accept being put upon me.

For the record, I've seen Night Train. They are excellent at what they do. I just don't happen to like Blues Rock so they don't really get on my radar much.

the issue here isnt really about who was on, the point is that these afternoon sessions have been instigated by Nigel (and there aint that many people on here who have stuck their necks on the line like that..ok a few may have, but not many).
The first thing is that after he put an appeal on here for support, the first thing that happened was somebody replied immediately slagging the venue off...and mud sticks. For the record we found it a great venue...really! Very friendly, great landlord/lady,good acoustics, good real ale, great stage area, really appreciative audience etc etc.

" Well basicallly all I have to say is fuck you you missed a fantasrtic performance by a fantastic band which will probably be the last sunday now at the Beaumont Arms................."

a) fuck you too, nothing personal like
b) probably save the Beaumont Arms a lot of money in the long run as Sunday afternoon/evening gigs are quite obviously not working, and that means they will be costing them money. I'm sure that particular exit strategy is all worked out in their business plan? eh??

Secondly..the pub has been overwhelmed by bands from here wanting to actually play there, but nobody seems to want to support a new venture...oh yeh we'll play there but we wont go in. It takes a lot to put an appeal on here....ok, fathers day excuses/dont like blues/seen em before (although we're a very different band now)...but the gigs been running for a few weeks now as a trial and quite frankly its been let down by people on here. Surely people could have dragged emselves away from their local for a couple of hours at some point in the last month the gigs been running.
I'm sure if an appeal had been put out by one of the 'inner circle' of venues, it would have been answered....

Your appeal was knocked back as soon as it was put on, which was a shame...and just for the record, the first thing we did was switch the smoke machine on max :D No problems whatsoever...hahaha!....best bet is to keep it as a venue just for people who support the place...tell em any bands wanting to play should turn up personally to get a gig. Its a great venue and will happen....cant wait to go back!

What Mick said.

I am, however off to to the Brooklands Tap to see the Tofu Fighters on Friday, and if you don't come I'll get my big brother to give you a chinese burn.

From my point of view i tend not to watch other bands because i have enough other things going on in my life, which is pretty much what Mick said. I don't expect other bands to come watching me when i play.
I have a relativley busy life with the family and work, so much so that even practicing or Friday night gigs becomes a task in its self.

this wasnt about watching bands, it was about supporting a new venture and as Nigel says, there'll be a post on here in next few months along the lines of 'what can we do to support venues?'...nothing apparently!

we had a beach party on with northern riot.. first time for a afternoon gig, i can say all the advertising on NWB we did to plug the gig we also didnt have one NWB member... so what.... its the local people that have got to support a venue ..you cant expect outside supporters the keep coming a keep the venue open (they are just a bonus). in one of my earlier replies, when did the venue plug this gig or any other gig ?? apart from you nige no one would have know night train were on unless they looked and checked on the gig list.. i take it was on.. and if so did night train put it on or the venue or did both of them do it ??. on this one nige you did your bit but did the venue do anything to help ??

I put it on the gig list.

@ Nigel - yes, we should bother.

I went to support The Old Market Tavern AND Phoenix last night, as I do for many venues and bands on a regular basis.

"I appealed for a bit of support from this supposed wonderful community and what did we get a turnout of 0 A superb band of 4 of the best musicians on this site and nobody could be bothered supporting the band or the venue."

I have put blogs on before now and not had anyone else turn up - the difference is I didn't then come on here bitching and moaning about it.

As you said: you asked and that is all you can do.

Actually - you've never turned up have you Nigel?

The point is still this though:

even if 100 of us had turned up and it was the best night the pub had ever had in the history of nights, it would still be empty next week.

You cannot force people to go if they don't want to and I, for one, am disappointed that you have taken it upon yourself to blame the people who make up this community for the lack of attendance at a gig.

To be blunt:

I've seen Night Train. They were very good. I don't have any particular desire to see them again. The venue is nowhere near me.

Okay?

Just a thought, Im new to the area , but I try to see as many bands as possible, Im based in preston and have regularly travelled to a places such as Wigan,Bolton,Leyland,Accrington,Darwen,Blackpool,St Helens,longridge and many other places I dont even know the name of (as I said Im new to the area) there are never less than 2 of us sometimes as many as 5,,about 8 of us turned up to see the Gamtastic 4 the other week just to find out the show had an earlier start than we had expected, some of us saw 20 mins others saw nothing. ( to be fair the band put the times on a thread,I didnt see till later but it wasnt in the gig guide! )
My point is could we have a telephone number of the venue and a postcode of the venues address? and could we have starting times of the show,all in the actual gig guide
There are 3 main on line gig guides in my native NE and they all give this information. This would benifit bands ,venues and punters alike.
The hop Pocket for Eg . A short while ago NWbands had a band advertised on its gig guide. Went to the gig, they were never booked for that night.
We as bands have to be responcible using a site like this , look at Friday just gone, a band on the gig guide, I liked the name , looked them up on here which for me is mega useful as I said Im new to th area and need to know what Im going to see , its the day of the gig Ive told my friends they are their way to pick me up. I double check their site again only to find the gig is canceled on their site but not here! this was a out of town gig for us my friends had travelled from Blackpool to pick us up in Preston and now they are on route!!! AGGGGGGGG!
Just a couple of observations, as this information would be useful to everyone..... SO
We ended up in Accrington on Friday, saw 20mins of a first spot , not to our liking Im afraid, ( I was a in a well known North east NWOHBM back in the day also have sang in glam rock tributes, soul,WMC acts original indie,original acoustic and original blues R&B bands so my tastes are a fairly broad church.... so we drove to Darwen only for the band to have cancelled and a duo on, the pub was busy but not what I had I had planned to see.... bit of a wash out really, Sh*t happens i know. .
Preston by the way is a canny night out on a saturday,
The Bitter suite, Mad Ferret ( usually 3 bands on the same night 30mins each ,the last 2 acts are usually sighned!!!!), The Ship and the Olde Black Bull. all with in easy walking distance. I have seen for band sometimes on a Saturday night, ranging from Folk ,Americarna, Indie ,Blues and Classic Rock, Good times
thanks for rant My dogs in season driving me nuts ,Ive ran out of bread and the milk is on the turn!, hang loose my new north west friends and play nicely now!
PS while Im ranting can we have a spell check on here!!!!!!! my spelling Shi*e.

Am I missing something here?

Where have the locals to this pub been for the last month? Isn't it them who need to be asked why they didn't support this venture.

And how active have the venue been on promoting these gigs? On attracting 'their' locals?

I've said it before & I'll say it again. I believe that 99% of a live music pub's support MUST come from the 'local' area from 'local' people, otherwise it's not consistently sustainable. Any support from outside the local area should be seen as a bonus, it's nice for band/venue to attract extra support but it won't keep a business running.

You can't rely on a few NWB'ers to turn up & make a difference (at any gig). Just because there's a group of mates formed within the NWB community that go out every now & again to watch a band, doesn't mean they are to be relied upon when a venue's shit hits the fan. And comments like 'fuck you' don't help anyone, doesn't do the individual or their band any favours.

Night Train are a great bunch of musicians, not particularly my preferred choice of music but respect to them - in fact I even recommended them for the Blues Marquee to one of the organisers of the Farmyard Party rally over the weekend.

But this isn't about the band, they turned up & did a job...it should be about getting LOCAL people to support live music in their LOCAL boozer. It's the same when a venue asks you if you're bringing a 'coach load'....why would your average pub-goer who likes live music travel to another town to see your band when they can see you in their own town the week after?

Remember the 'supermarkets don't do live bands' slogan, well you wouldn't shop at a Tesco in a different town if there's one already in your area.

well I was was at the royal oak in blackpool and none of you buggers came to see me...so bollocks to all of ya...ha ha ha ha ha....I regularly support bands AND venues whenever I can...
Is this what it's come down to now ..instead of a "cheers for turning up" when somebody DOES come ,you get a "where the fuck where you" when nobody comes..
A few NWB'ers have been to see me in one guise or another, but if they don't come I aint gonna cry about it..everyones got a life..to do with as THEY please..

NB* not a RANT just an OBSERVATION . TM.

Hahaha that's Rock n Roll... what's NWB without a frequent rant? Come on we all love it.. or I do anyway. If anyone takes things like this personally then that's upto you!

Nigel...as you know I am one of the small percentage of NWBers who is willing to support other bands in far off pubs. I enjoy watching live bands and meeting the people, always have done. Even though I had a busy weekend with LGIT I went to a NWB venue last night to watch a NWB band...Phoenix at the Old Market Tavern in Altrincham. It's always a bonus if there are 'friendly' faces at the venue and last night I met AlYerPal and Ian.
My main point here is this...I went to see the Sugar Bullets a few weeks ago and Wick suggested they should return the 'favour' one night by coming to see LGIT.....I don't expect ANYONE to do me any favours. I certainly don't expect anyone to travel far to see my band, or any other...if people chose to do so then it's a bonus for the band and the venue. Everybody has a life beyond Friday and Saturday night gigs and Sundays are ofter a wind-down day before going back to work on a Monday.
Everybody is different and have their own lives and agendas...if people wanna come see a band, great...but you can't 'expect' them to. Besides, most people in other bands only look out for themselves and very few see beyond their own band.
And if a venue can't attract a decent local 'muso' crowd then they should think twice about booking live bands...
And 'fuck you' too matey...ha ha.
Which reminds me, I've not seen Idle Promise yet, but I intend to as soon as I can...
Gary

You get abuse?

You come on here and put 'fuck you' and then accuse us of abusing you?

And I clearly meant you have never turned up at one of the bands I go to see NOT Kingpin - I hardly ever advertise my own band just plenty of other peoples, so don't come on here stating things that are not true.

Nige, I admire you passion and salute your efforts and sentiment.....If I lived near Bolton I;d have been there on Sunday...however I'm a lot nearer Altrincham where I actually saw the excellent Night Train recently...
I'm all for supporting new, local venues...shame the Beaumont wasn't successful in it's Sunday night venture.
Like I said, very few actually care enough to support others...

And those that do get slagged......

Godwin's law. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law

[IMG]

If it's any consolation I didn't take it personally and I applaud your initial altruistic intention to seek to help a venue with a new enterprise. Your passion does show through, and, unfortunately it's that same passion that led to this "heated debate". I too have fallen foul of the "posting in a temper in the early hours of the morning" affliction that seems to do the rounds periodically. My advice would be to let it go. For all the reasons stated by others, everyone is right in their own way. There are a lot of people here who are passionate about helping others and they are bound to want to "defend" their viewpoint in much the same was as you felt compelled to make your point earlier this morning.

Bygones!

I've relented from commenting on this blog since I read it in the early hours of this morning. I decided to sleep on it and maybe comment today.

As somebody who has promoted events for many years (both big and small), advertising is a strange thing. I work on 100 flyers per 1 ticket sale. That isn't a lot. Sometimes you get lucky, other times not. As things currently stand, I organise or am involved with organising-

1) 1 monthly jazz night at The Black Horse
2) 1 monthly guest night at The Black Horse
3) 1 monthly jazz brunch at 3 in a Bar
4) 1 stage at Beatherder Festival
5) Darwen Jazz & Blues Festival
6) 3 of my own bands

All these events will happen in the next two months and then I have another project in September.

My point is that I will be surprised if anyone from NWB attends ANY of these events but I will still post them on here. Of course you get frustrated when there is a low turnout but you have to remember that it isn't personal.

When I was younger it took me ages to get my head round the fact that my closest friends and family would not come to watch (support) me perform. Then one day it dawned on me that 'maybe they don't like celtic music or reggae or blues'. It took me ages....years to get my head around this, even the kids couldn't be bothered to watch me when I was on telly!

Does it stop me trying to promote events? or gigging? Not on your nelly!

At the end of the day YOU CAN'T PLEASE EVERYONE and you can't succeed all of the time - so never take it personal.

Love this site ----- every month without fail

dj

I must be somewhere around the top 10% of NWB members when it comes to supportin NWB bands and venues so do find it offensive when a remark such as ''fuck you'' for not turnin up at a particular one that you happen to invite folk too !!
think you should really have considered yer wordin and before you pressed the submit button on this occasion buddy, wonder what would happen everytime I invited folk out n I went n said the same to NWB folk who didn't show ??
By the way Nigel, have you ever attended any NWB outing supporting a NWB band and an NWB venue that I've invited folk to on this here NWB site ? NO ? well fuck you ;-)
see what I mean !!!
Chill out bro ;-)

Put your six shooter back in the holster pardner and go to your happy place (which I envisage is an Orange County Chopper showroom with Guinness on tap in the water cooler and all the girly handlebar tassles your girly little accessorising tendencies can cope with). Stick a fork in the poor guys ass and turn him over, he's done. He's apologised already! Don't make me come over all darn tooting on yer arse.

lol, fair enough, the four comments above mine weren't there when I typed my say !!
n less of the girly shit too, don't make me come over there n hoss whip ya lady !!

@ Tex....promises promises....that might be just the ticket....I swear I'm getting an "I only play the drums because I was told I would get sex" T-shirt made. Though I did have sex nearly 6 times last week.....nearly on Monday....nearly on Tuesday......nearly on Wednesday.....

Don't tell me - you were resting on Sunday?

AYP

No I went to see Mick Nash. It wouldn't have been decent in public. Those Whalley folk are such snobs when it comes to flashing your baps in public.

nige....step into my office - again! lol x

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....................normally us that gets a slagging off !!!

last word from The Beaumont... thanks to Nigel for your support of our Summer Sunday's Rock campaign, your passion for keeping venues and live music alive is unfailing and we realise that what you were trying to do is organise a NWB night out as it were, we do understand that it's not up to the bands to keep a venue packed out, we have also had some great support for other events from some of the bands on this site (you know who you are)!! The Sunday campaign is a new venture and we know that sometimes these things take time to get established and it's not always easy to drag the locals out of their routines!! On that basis we will continue with our Sundays for the forseeable future as we have seen a lot of talented musicians and are sure we have a lot more to see. In the meantime no more flack for Nigel please his passion has obviously infuluenced his vocabulary this time and i think all bands and venues that know him will agree he will go out of his way to help and support in any way he can..

yes nige, or, I could start charging you for my therapy sessions...thatl make you think b4 you type lmao! have a good break matey, just as well there's no signal where u live in ireland haha, cya soon ; -)

Nigel, I've not commented on this blog yet but.....

Can I just say that you're a really sound guy and everyone knows you were just trying to drum up some support for your local and why not. I find that it's not what you say but how you say it that gets people together...... 99% of people on this site get on very well AND this site is the very best of it's kind.

That's all I have to say right now..... Apart from," mi mother used to say "Life is like a box of chocolates... lol,

Your Friend,

Rick.

3 cheers for nigel then ...........!!

@ The Beaumont.

Just to say once again, thanks for having us. Great venue, great people. We look forward to coming back and I'll
most certainly try to get down there to see what's going on when I get a chance when we're not out playing ourselves.

Cheers,
Ian

In recent weeks I have learned that, as many people have put in blogs about cliques and supporting NWB's over the past couple of days that it is the public you should try to get support from. Not other bands.

We tried for ages to drum some support for spiders gigs without success (not complaining, just sayin) but then again we have put fuck all back into the community. I have only seen about four other bands off this website so I am no nwb legend. As LGIT Gary says though it shouldnt be a favour though, you come to watch me and I will come to watch you.

Just like our own personal tastes in the bands whose albums we would buy I think we should have that same choice.

This weekend I am gona be making my first public appearance specifically to watch another band off here. Goin to see the much talked about "Johnny Meerkat" coz in a blog I put on last month "Who would you recommend" a shit load of people said that they are the muts nuts.

This blog is the reason I dont post anything controversial . I dont agree with this blog at all. Idle- mate I am not in a band anymore because I dont wont to be going out all weekend gigging. 8 years was enough for me. I cant believe you are slating NWB for a poor turn out . Fathers Day with the family or some 2 bit pub with everyone holding a pint with 6 fingers no contest. When I was in WHATEVER we turned up many a time to no one .

Stupid flaming blog .

One question did you still take your money or offer it at a reduced rate due to poor numbers? Did you FUCK!!!

And you can quote that wherever you want mate!!

Just putting my Yellow spandex back on . I need to get back in the game on here.