Memories of 4Talent @ Gigbeth

A bit delayed this post, but anyway. Running the 4Talent stage at Gigbeth was the first time I’ve ever run a live night. I’m incredibly lucky it went as well as it did, I reckon. Here are some miscellaneous memories:

1. Headliners Einstellung’s manager calling at about 14:00 to say their drummer was injured and that they therefore wouldn’t be able to play. My heart fell out of the bottom of my stomach, since this would be the second band to pull out – equipment failure prevented The Icarus from playing. However, I got a call back about ten minutes (of panic) later to say they would find a replacement drummer, which they did. So we had six acts from 19:00 til late.

2. During Einstellung’s soundcheck, Stuart, who was generally helping me out with everything, was asked if he could play bass for their soundcheck. Could he ever! Seeing “Stustellung” playing his heart out with the Krautrockers he programmed at his Audioscope festival a few years ago, and pretending to be cool, whilst obviously dancing with glee inside, was superb.

3. I got semi-cussed out by an angry man from goth-rocker Anathema’s retinue, because the Barfly venue promo material made it look as if Anathema were supporting Ashby-De-La-Zouch’s finest, The Young Knives, and he had mistaken me for someone in charge of the Barfly. Brilliant. He was much more polite when I explained I had nothing to do with it.

4. The attitude of one of the older Barfly venue managers sucked. He kept referring to one of the acts as “fucking hippies”, and compared their violins to cats having sex or something, and was just generally a bit of a tool, pre-event. I’m guessing here, but he seemed to be vaguely of the opinion that if you weren’t an established pull-the-punters-in outfit then you probably weren’t worthy of playing the venue.

[EDIT, 2nd Dec: I've just had a very courteous email from the lovely Aimee Hardwick, Promotions Manager at the Barfly, saying she was dismayed to read that we had a problem here. It transpires from her email that the chap with the sniffy attitude wasn't a regular Barfly staff member - so my flagging up here of this one grumpy hired hand really shouldn't put other promoters off this venue. I'll also note that the rest of the staff were lovely and very accommodating. Aimee suggests that I could have mentioned this problem at the time, but it honestly wasn't that big of an issue, and it's also my feeling that during a live event you have to simply get on with things unless a problem is serious, which this certainly wasn't. Indeed, if he'd been tetchy with me myself I wouldn't have really minded - grouchy techies come with the turf - but in this case I felt a sense of protectiveness over the musicians who I'd  invited to come and play Birmingham for the first time.]

5. Pete Ashton’s first Thingamagoop set was a minor wonder to behold. He had a small but attentive crowd in the palm of his hand as he showcased some crazy sounds at 6.30ish. Props also to Pete for laptop DJing between sets later. I’m very much looking forward to seeing how his set develops – it’s still a work in progress at present.

6. We had loads of Anathema fans through the door early on. I expected them to take one look at lone pianist Rich Batsford playing his sweeping, elegantly structured compositions and leave. Some did. But the ones that stayed were a joy to behold, as they appeared to appreciate Rich’s set with an intensity that equaled that of the people who had turned up specifically to see him. I was so glad we had a good crowd for this set, and so, apparently, was Rich, who said on his blog: “The crowd were very responsive too – you could tell they they there to listen to music (even the goth/rock fans of Anathema who had come up from downstairs seemed to get quite into it). One of the most satisfying sets I’ve done so far.”

7. Iain Woods & The Psychologist totally repaid my faith in them. I really wasn’t sure it was a good idea to book a group who hadn’t played together live before. But I loved them. Iain’s onstage persona is hilarious – part rude boy, part strutting cockerel, with a whiff of high-class drag act, and a definite aim to subvert macho stereotypes – like the complementary opposite of what Lady Sovereign does for feminine cliches. Not that he was dressed in drag, but that raised-eyebrow vibe was tangible and backed up by his friendly, open personality off-stage.

On a separate but related note, not sure the drama queen schtick has very wide appeal in Birmingham (he’d go down a storm in Soho etc). Obviously it’s hard to generalise, but Brum audiences (so far as I can tell) sometimes seem a little suspicious of anything that looks pretentious or preening or flaunts its sexuality (Fierce Festival being the noble exception). Or maybe I just haven’t found the right places yet. Where should one go for the lurid sexy arts in Brum? Or is it all computers and metal and black & white photography of desolate buildings? I love me a bit of design-led tech, post-industrial edginess and geek-art as much as the next gal, but you need some deftly executed campery too sometimes. At least, I do. A little Almodovar with your Kubrick, if you like.