Support Your Scene — Off The Record

Support Your Scene

Words by Matt Johnson

It’s the last gig of my first tour and I am on a side street of Inverness, hauling amps up steep stairs into the smallest venue I have ever laid eyes on. It’s called Market Bar and it features vintage wood panelling that is covered in old gig posters and faded football strips. The stage is the size and shape of an ironing board and so small it can fit the singer or the microphone, but not both. There is a PA; two sad speakers and an unbranded microphone that the bartender pulls out of the cupboard like she’s conducting an archaeological dig. The closest thing to a sound engineer is the drunk regular who keeps telling you to turn up the bass. The drum kit sits amongst the tables and the bassist stands halfway out the door. The room is tiny and sounds awful if anyone plays anything louder than a kazoo. It is the best venue I have ever played at.

Over five nights and four Scottish cities we played at several similar dingy basements, attics and halls. We had been invited on the tour by One Big Fuse, a band that we had met some time before at Nice N Sleazys in Glasgow where they had been playing a show. As many of our band friendships began, we had got talking over a pint of Tennents, and not long later, we were heading off on tour with them, excited to play rooms packed with people shouting things like “who are these guys?” and “when’s the pub quiz on?” If we hadn’t decided to jump into Sleazy’s for a pint we never would have made new pals, been invited on our first tour and seen glamorous locations such as Inverness and Elgin.

At the start of this year my band had planned to do another similar tour up the east coast of Scotland but due to Covid-19 we had to cancel the entire thing - much to the disappointment of our two fans. It was even worse for the venues that were forced to close without knowing when or if they would open again. Government support continues to be spotty, with grants being hard to secure and some places having to rely on crowdfunding to survive. I’m worried that when we get a vaccine it’ll be too late for a lot of these venues and they’ll have to close. The music scene would die, we’d struggle to play any shows and the only pubs left would be Wetherspoons.

I don’t just miss gigging, I miss these venues. My bandmate says that the main reason we gig is food; getting a post-soundcheck meal as good as playing the show. I miss seitan noodles at Hug and Pint and free pizzas at Bloc. I’m sad that Conroy’s Basement in Dundee has started doing vegan food and I’ve not been there to try it. So what if the bathrooms look like a 40 man melee kicked off in them, and the floors are so sticky every step is an effort? We embrace these little idiosyncrasies - where better to perform than these little hallowed halls of noise? And thank god they’re small; some of these places can be wall to wall with just 5 people in them which is both a huge ego boost and makes lying to the promoter about how many tickets you sold much easier.

These venues also give you the tools to avoid the nastiest of promoters. For a relatively low price you can rent out most of these places and put on your own show. Find a couple of other acts and sort out the backline between you, maybe charge a couple of quid for entry and make back the cost of the venue. No longer will you have to play a show with 3 other bands who sound nothing like you, and you can finally throw off the shackles of pay-to-play promoters who threaten to take you to small-claims court (but that’s a story for another time).

I urge you to support small venues before it’s too late. Maybe you’ve started a band in lockdown and you’re hoping to play a show when we’re all finally vaccinated, maybe you just want to go for a pint and watch a gig. If you’re missing the atmosphere of going to shows or the buzz of playing them, you have to be proactive about supporting the places that have supported you. There are plenty of ways to support these places despite lockdown - go and get some take-away or merch from your favourite venue. Then when things eventually get back to normal you can feel good that you supported your scene when it mattered.

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