This week is Independent Venue Week. Independent Venue Week is a seven day celebration that salutes and recognises the importance of small music venues across the UK. This goes from the people that own them, the people that work in them and the people that get the bands and audiences in week after week.
There was some incredibly exciting news this week for Swansea – it was announced that as part of BBC Music’s Biggest Weekend, Radio One will be hosting two days of live music in Swansea’s Singleton Park bringing two absolute giants of pop music with them in the form of Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift.
This is absolutely incredible for our city and for musician’s in the city.
Whilst this announcement may seen far away from the fact that this week is independent venue week it’s actually very poignant and links very closely.
Take Ed Sheeran.
I remember seeing videos of Ed Sheeran in my first year of university playing his tune “You Need Me Man I Don’t Need You” and hearing about his shows in small venues in London thinking, wow this guy is pretty cool. I never expected him to become this worldwide powerhouse that he is now.
My point is, all these huge artists that are now making a name for themselves worldwide had to start somewhere. I’m sure Ed would agree that those early live shows in small venues were crucial to his career as a musician.
**31.01.18 - Update ** After posting this blog Sin City got in touch to let us know that my point actually comes a lot close to home than I first thought! In May of 2011, Ed actually played Sin City, in their top room to just 250 people! Amazing! Here's a video of him playing You Don't Need Me from that very gig!
In Swansea we’ve seen lots of independent venues come and go over the last few years, but we’ve also seem the emergence of some new venues too. Top venues to check out for gigs include Sin City, Creature Sound, Mozarts, The Garage, Cinema & Co, The Hyst and 8Bit to name a few.
If, like me, you’re planning on celebrating independent venue week by heading out to some live shows in Swansea you’ve got the select following happening:
Wednesday: Billy Lockett & Holy Home Video in Sin City. (£6.00)
Friday: The Swansea Musician’s Forum (hosted by the Swansea Music Hub) with live music from Bandicoot, Craze The Jack, The Riff, Picsel, Emily Merry & King Goon. (Free Entry)
Saturday: Piranha Punk Rock presents Sigiria, The Groundnuts & Independents and Iron Gosling in The Garage. (£6.00)
Sunday: Swn Presents Spring King, Fizzy Blood and Bandicoot in Sin City. (£10.00)
If you’re living in Swansea we’ve also created an artist directory, so if you see a local band’s gig advertised you can look here and check out the bands prior to see if it’s something you may like.
So get out this week. See a gig. And then next week, see another one. And so on…
You never know. You may discover the next Ed Sheeran, the next Arctic Monkeys, or the next Radiohead and be able to say “I saw them in a really small venue in Swansea before they got so big!”. Without your support we may lose these potentially great artists.
Written by Simon Parton