Local venue to introduce a controversial booking rule...
Possibly a reflection of the sheer number of live music venues in the city at the moment is the decision by a local venue promoter to introduce a policy of expecting bands to observe a three week exclusion zone for local gigs: that means no shows during the three weeks before and after their gig.
The venue that has taken this decision is Royal Park Cellars, who noticed that too many shows in the city are failing to live up to their potential.
Promoter Steve Kind said, "Last year far too many shows failed to draw an audience to the detriment of the bands concerned as well as the venue. Some bands over-gigged to the point that they could no longer pull a crowd".
Steve points out that the most extreme case is of one Leeds band that played five gigs in a four mile radius within a two week period and three of them were with the same support act.
There is almost 100% support for the new policy from local bands questioned, most of which understood the venue's reasons for taking this stance and were happy to co-operate.
Steve added:
"I understand from promoters in Manchester that there, and in London, many promoters operate a guild system to filter out bands that over-gig the circuit. That isn't the situation with us. We're not even putting it in a contract at this stage - but we need bands to understand that as far as we are concerned there are no 'throw-away' nights - if we agree to do a show for a band, we give it our best shot, and we need to know that bands are giving their show at RPC the same priority that RPC is giving their show."
"The rule isn't set in concrete - and we're always prepared to discuss individual cases - but at the end of the day, if a band wants to play Leeds every week and expect the other bands on all their bills to provide an audience for them, then RPC is not the right place for them to play".
