
Music / Interviews
Thekla runner-up in Best Small Venue award
Interview with Thekla promotions manager Pat Somers
Tell us about your NME Best Small Venue in the South West award win…
We’ve won the South West regional heat of the Best Small Venue three times now, which goes some way to recognising the huge amount of hard work everyone in Team Thekla has put into the venue – especially this year, the 30th anniversary of the venue’s opening and also a dry-dock maintenance and refurbishment year. We’d love to take the overall award.
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What other awards have you had in recent years? And why are they important to you?
We were very lucky to win Best Venue Teamwork (under 800 cap.) at last month’s Live UK Music Business Awards, up against the well-respected Brudenell Social Club in Leeds which was a very pleasant surprise. As part of the DHP Family, we have also won Best National Promoter at those same awards in 2012 & 2013. It’s great to win and even be nominated – it means that someone recognises the hard work that goes into running and maintaining a venue and club space.
Why do you think Thekla is so well-loved?
Thekla is such a unique venue and has been in the city for a long time. It has a great back-story, with eccentrics like Bonzo’s Vivian Stanshall, sailing the boat around to Bristol with dreams of taking it to New York. We at DHP Family took over in 2006 and, following our initial refurbishment, have tried our best to present a thorough and eclectic programme of live music events, backed with club nights covering a variety of tastes, and I think we try and appeal to as many music fans as possible.
What other local venues do you think work well? And who do you see as your biggest rivals?
Whenever I’m asked this question, the first venue that jumps to mind is The Louisiana. It’s a great little family-run venue with a top sound set-up, great facilities and a really friendly and helpful team. As DHP Family, we run shows all around the city and work with almost all venues, so it would be hard to call any our rivals. It’s great that Bristol can support the number of live music venues it does – you’d be hard to find as many in any city outside of London or Manchester.
What three acts would you love to get to play Thekla?
Personally, I would love to get Gotye back, following his show to around 80 people here back in 2008. I’d also love to see FKA Twigs and Weezer to hop on board and play a few songs (not together, unless they wanted to, of course…)
How important are your non stand-alone gig offerings to you – we’re talking Dot 2 Dot etc.
Very important. The award-winning(!) Dot To Dot Festival had been running in Bristol since 2007 and is now a central part of our calendar and gives us an opportunity to work with a huge range of the city’s venues and also a chance to promote local acts – last year featured over 40 Bristol bands and solo artists. In the last couple of years we have also brought D2D’s alternative rock sibling Hit The Deck to Bristol which has been a great success too. Alongside our own festivals, we also work alongside the teams at events such as Harbour Festival, where we have programmed up to three stages in the past and will look forward to more of that in 2015.
What’s been your favourite ever gig at Thekla?
It’s hard to pick just one, shows with Band Of Horses, The Maccabees, Bo Ningen, Babyshambles, Squarepusher and Yeasayer all stand out in my mind. Also, having the opportunity to see heroes of my youth such as The Dismemberment Plan and David Yow (The Jesus Lizard) fronting Qui in the past has been amazing.
Why do you think Bristol is so supportive of small venues?
Bristol has an incredibly active live music scene which seems to bubble just underneath the national radar, which is backed by dedicated music education facilities such as BIMM, ATM and dBs meaning there is a real demand for music. This is backed by great local promoters and national promoters with good bases here who are responsible for bringing the vast array of touring talent to the city which keep the venues vibrant and stop them going down the tribute band / pub rock route which can kill the creativity in a city if that’s all there is on offer. It’s a great time for live music in Bristol, long may it continue!
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