Chichester's newest music venue aiming to open seven days a week

SussexWorld

Chichester singer-songwriter Chris Simmons is masterminding the programming at the city’s newest music venue.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers.

00:06Always lovely to speak to Chris Simmons.

00:08Now, Chris, fantastic new venture for Chichester, a new music venue.

00:12It's Room 12, used to be the vestry in Southgate.

00:16And tell me how it's going to work.

00:18It's up and running now, isn't it?

00:20Yeah, so Smitherine, my label, we took over the programming,

00:24all the bookings and the artistic direction of Room 12

00:28on the 1st of September.

00:31And yeah, it's really, really exciting.

00:34It's going to be a dedicated music venue,

00:37open to touring artists, local artists of all ages.

00:43And we're looking for sort of to build a collaborative

00:46and exciting experience for the city.

00:51So we're four weeks in and already it's looking really positive.

00:55So yeah, it feels really good.

00:57Fantastic.

00:58And you're doing Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday at the moment,

01:02but you're wanting to expand to seven days a week, aren't you?

01:05Yes, yeah, yeah.

01:06So at the moment, we are looking to build sort of the weekends up.

01:11But as the months progress, we'll be opening to external promoters

01:17and more shows throughout the week.

01:19And yeah, the plan is to be a live music venue seven days a week from next year.

01:24And the key thing is, it's people at all stages of their career, isn't it?

01:28You want the established touring bands, but you also want people making their debut.

01:34Yeah, well, that's that, you know, that's the whole key to live music

01:38and the live music sort of scene is to have that grassroots element

01:42where people can play and learn their trade,

01:46make contacts and build up, you know, towards being sort of bigger touring artists.

01:51So, yeah, we're looking to sort of be a venue that caters for all.

01:57So, for example, we were starting a regular under 18s open mic and full band showcase.

02:04That's going to be every Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

02:07And what that will be is an open mic night for the first two hours.

02:11So if you're a solo artist, if you're a youngster, a solo artist in a band,

02:15if you play bass, come along and either soak up the atmosphere and be around musicians

02:22or get up and play a song, a song or two.

02:27And if you're in a band and you're looking for a show and you're under 18,

02:30your options are really limited, not only in Chichester, but, you know,

02:33around the country, really.

02:34And so that's not going to be the case anymore for people in Chichester

02:38because between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. every Sunday,

02:43there'll be under 18s bands playing here.

02:45We'll have two bands every week playing 25-minute sets.

02:49Fantastic.

02:50It sounds like you've got a really flexible venue too.

02:54You can have 320 standing, which is a decent number, and seated.

02:58Yeah.

02:58Theatre style, 80.

02:59Yeah, so we can have around 80 seated and, yeah, 320 standing.

03:06So we can cater for all different kind of audiences.

03:09You know, we're looking at doing comedy, acoustic style shows,

03:14and, you know, every kind of genre, really.

03:16But I'm really excited that we've got a home now and we can sort of,

03:22all the sort of artists I know and my friends know who are randomly touring

03:26or, like, in the area, we can now sort of get them on shows.

03:29We can obviously make plans for a bigger artist to come here

03:34and make Chichester a stop on their tour, which is already happening.

03:38We're already seeing that happen in bookings for next year.

03:42And, yeah, we just want to make sure that, you know,

03:46as many genres as possible are represented,

03:48all age groups are represented.

03:51And the Chichester's got a place where they can come

03:53and watch some really good live music on any day.

03:57And I'm really proud of, like, the calendar we've built.

04:00It's really strong.

04:02You know, you're not going to – every band you see here is going to be really good.

04:06All the artists we've got are, yeah, unique and really, really talented.

04:11So we're already seeing a real kind of upturn in the feedback we're getting.

04:17And, yeah, it's just really exciting to be part of something like this.

04:19Fantastic. Well, congratulations on starting it and good luck with its continuation.

04:24Sounds brilliant. Thank you, Chris.

04:25Thank you, Phil. Thanks so much.

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