Swindon Music

The 12 Bar is in business under its new owner. Please come along and support us this Sunday (11th December) With BILLYJON (Full Band), GAVIN BUTLER (Vocalist of THE BLACKOUT), JIM LOCKEY & THE SOLEMN SUN + RHIANNON ELLIOTT.
also looking for bands to play + live acts of all kinds. Contact info@the12bar.co.uk

Hurrah! Good to see it carrying on as a venue!

'Swill be there for ol' Jim Lockey!

So it's been a couple of months and apart from a couple of open sessions and one or two gigs all seems pretty dead on the 12 bar front. Anyone shed any light? Is there going to be a relaunch - I think it would need to come back out all guns blazing even for people to remember its even there. I do check the website (which still ranks lower in google than the old one, not good!) and there dosn't seem to be anything coming up. What do we all reckon to the situation?

Saturday 28th January 2012 at 12 Bar
Description "What more could you want for 3 Quid??!"

<b>Mortdelamer </b>
A 3 piece, female fronted rock band hailing from Wiltshire. The trio have spent the last 3 years relentlessly gigging and racking up studio time perfecting their live performance which is described in reviews as powerful and wall breaking. With catchy riffs, soaring guitar solos and melodic vocal melodies, they are often told they sound too big to be a 3 piece.

http://www.mortdelamer.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/mortdelamer

<b>Ascent </b>

Berkshire Alternative/Rock Band

http://www.ascentuk.bandcamp.com
http://www.twitter.com/ascentuk
http://www.youtube.com/ascentTVuk

<b>Tides of Change </b>

Experimental Pop-punk, Alternative, Rock, Noise from Swindon

http://www.facebook.com/tidesofchangeUK

<b>So Am I </b>

"Slow heavy mellow lushness in a box"

http://www.soami.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/soamiband

More info:

http://www.facebook.com/events/193325834096128/

I wasn't even aware there was a new site...!

http://the12bar.co.uk/Home/

but there isn't much on it, not even the gig Oli has listed above. Also when you rummage around sites such as Ents24 (goes with my journo territory) they still link back to the old site. I just hope that it will kick into gear soon as it is potentially too good a venue to sit idle.

Dare I suggest that the limited success or possibly smoother transition between Dave + Liam, compared to Liam and Clive, was that Dave had 2 or 3 months of events booked, with an extensive list of contacts ready for pillaging... Clive has no such luxury. And will have to build it up again - is he the sort of guy to do it (I genuinely don't know) or could this be a job for an in-house promoter? ?

very true will probably take a while to pick up the pace again, but fingers crossed we will shortly be seeing a return to some bigger bands gracing the stage again.

The Ashun played there on the 4th all the problems with the PA are sorted , real good sound on stage and out in the room .

I think their biggest obstacle (as seen from the outside) is promoting the gigs they do put on. The website seem to only advertise one gig at a time and then is often only updated on the day of the gig. (I think the Cancer Research gig actually went on line about 3 hours before the doors opened)

Not only is advertising through the venues website and things like Facebook, as well on dedicated sites like this one, the first place punters are going to be checking to plan their live gig needs, there is also the loss of advertising by missing out regional listings (The Adver/Ocelot/Frequency has a combined circulation of over 50,000).

I wonder how many people even realise that the place is under new management and is up and running with gigs.

I echo that sentiment, I couldn't tell you without to the website who was playing. There doesn't seem to be any pushing or promotion - no excitement in the change of owner and new direction. There's no angle to the venue... What does it do that others don't? What are it's dedicated nights? etc etc

Really good news that it got it's PA sorted, but from my perspective, why should I use / go to the 12 Bar right now, when I can use The Vic or The Furnace? Come on 12 Bar - Tell Us Why You're Great!

yeah we done our own promo on facebook.
i do it for most gigs

This made me smile!

I dont know the new owner but he seemed very helpful when i bugged him for a possible slot later in the year. The problem is the website, facebook and promotion.
We have a gig at 12bar in April... I'm a bit worried about it because it seems that all the promotion is down to the bands at the moment which isnt really very fair. Infact, the only gigs i've seen advertised have been the jam nights on a Sundays and the gigs that "Tides of Change" have put on facebook.

Does anyone know if the new owner has any intention to update the website etc? I'd love to see the 12bar back to the thriving venue it once was and i think hes actually got alot of support from locals.. he just needs to tap into it by advertising.