Swindon Music

I've been asked to help out with a list of gigs for the BBC introducing show which has forced me to search around for a few more gigs this week. Looking at these has got me thinking maybe we've missed a trick with the aftermath of the Big Weekend because apart from Riffstock and Old School Tie at The Vic there isn't a lot coming up this week. Lots of covers bands, nothing much for original bands.

The week leading up to the fringe we had a great set of events put on by playdead, monster shark promotions and sweet plumotions (love the name), but in that set of events the list of local bands has been exhausted a bit, which seems to expose a lack of depth to our music scene.

It might just be me but I can't help but thinking that the higher quality events should have been set up consistently for the next few weeks at least to give more of the big weekend crowd that wouldn't normally go to gigs somewhere to go and someone to watch.

If I'm missing any events, let me know.

i think that maybe its simply a mix of coincidence and timing as Riffstock will have a lot of bands that would have otherwise be doing other gigs. They wont (in theory) want to do 2 Swindon gigs in 1 week, so are just doing Riffstock.

I think it's a mixture of reasons, but certainly not lack of depth - we have a database of over 100 active Swindon bands, only 50 of these played on the BBC and playdead Fringes.

As Mark said, having Riffstock a few weeks after the Fringe Festival will have an impact, but you also have to remember that a number of bands have younger members who are sitting exams in the next month so have probably minimised their gigging, plus seasonally May always has a quieter than usual middle period due to having bank holiday weekends at the start and end.

From a playdead point of view we needed a break after the fringe and are now concentrating most of our efforts on the biggest Shuffle to date as the event to follow up on the interest generated by the Big Weekend.

Gigs from next Thursday's show:

THURSDAY
Carvin Jones + Fry - 12Bar
The Acoustic Sect - The Rolleston

FRIDAY
Riffstock - Riffs Bar
Jeff Like Usual - The Rolleston
Old School Tie + Broken Daylight + 3rd Storey Chemist - The Vic

SATURDAY
Riffstock - Riffs Bar
The Killertones - The Vic

SUNDAY
Have A Heart (ex annual GWR Kids event) with Hypermuse + Fry + The City Riot + Corinthian Casuals + Kicaberry + Si Hall + Ginger Graham + lots more - 12Bar
Riffstock - Riffs Bar
Ode & The Bebops - The Rolleston
Aspheric - The Vic

MONDAY
Riffstock - Riffs Bar

TUESDAY
The Enid + Elephant Talk - 12Bar
Teenage Kicks with Unfortunate Hero + Frosted Tea Cakes + Theo Altieri + The Debuts - The Furnace

WEDNESDAY
Brokencyde (you should remember them!) + Kill Paradise + Cure The Disaster + Winch House - The Furnace

Can't find any listings online for the Queens Tap or Regent

I think we should all go to that Brokencyde gig :P

yeah i want too go see why they are hated so much by every other band in their "scene". seems to be a report atleast once a week on sites like ap net where they have pissed anothre band off.

Brokencyde? Never heard of them

Oh...them.

It's just back to the status quo.

I think people were expecting more good to come of 1BW to the local scene, but in reality, people there to see Akon and Ne-Yo simply won't want to see what we have to offer, nor travel for it. There was no focus on Swindon by the event itself, just the occasional mention of where they were.

For once young Chemist I agree with you. Excellent as all of the fringe gigs were, there was little to connect the two events in the public eye. With the main event being a few miles out of town, the two target audiences, local giggers and radio 1 giggers, didnt really cross over. Its good that a spotlight was cast over the town but how much Swindon music will benefit from it gracing our postcode is questionable. Its a pity a few more local bands didn't make the main stages but then thats not really what it ever was going to be about.

I got to agree whilst its been a promotion for Swindon itself, Only time will tell and I hope it does bring positive changes, as so many people put so much effort, time and passion into what they do!

Whilst I too questioned whether the Fringe gigs would really be any different to any regular local band gig in Swindon, it did seem to be that being under the Radio 1 banner they did bring quite a few more people out.

Two of the four gigs were absolutely heaving (12 Bar and Rehab) and the attendances on the other two nights were also very healthy. And considering the Fringe took place from Monday-Thursday I think that's notable.

However I do agree it is basically back to business as usual now R1 have packed up and left town.

I think you have

We missed a trick..full stop, period, end of conversation....

The difficult part of marketing is to get people into your shop.....once you got them in if you don't sell them something you have no one to blame but yourselves.