The reigning holders of Scotland’s Album of the Year title have urged fans to get into independent venues.
Edinburgh indie outfit rEDOLENT are backing calls to fund the small venues that provide the spark that can ignite the big bands of tomorrow.
The five piece are now very much on the up after doing the hard yards, playing gigs to tiny audiences as they honed their craft.
But they are now looking forward to getting back to basics, playing tracks from Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) “Dinny Greet” at Dundee’sBeat Generator on February 2.
Tonight’s gig – as ambassadors for Independent Venue Week, which kicks off today (MONDAY) – is very much a dedicated to paying back for the support the band has received from on more intimate stages during their 13 year progression.
Front man Danny Herbert said the funding for small venues is critical – as the relentless closure of grassroots venues effectively kills the spread of new music.
He said: “The funding is something you’ve got to keep going with.
“It’s usually the first thing that goes but it makes a huge difference to young bands.
“I suspect that when places shut down and you remove the kids going and meeting each other and talking about stuff they’ve seen you probably lose bands and music and art that just never happens because this stuff disappears.
“We all need to just keep shouting about these places and how they need money because we need to support this stuff.
IVW will see 22 gigs at 11 Scottish venues in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Stirling.
Danny said the passage of the band from being kids trying out instruments for the first time to making an album like Dinny Greet is a special thing.
He said: “We’ve been doing this for so long, like 13 years, and you have to start in these venues.
“People need to take an interest in you and that helps so much when you start doing the little circuit in your own town and someone who works at one of the venues says ‘oh I like that’ and then they’ll pass on your name to someone else.
“And all of a sudden people are like asking you to play things then you can go to Glasgow or wherever. I mean it really is amazing to to go through that process and work so hard doing that – and then 10 years later people to get in touch with us and say ‘oh do you want to represent that – and it’s really cool’.
The band – made up of brothers Danny and Robin Herbert, Andrew Turnbull, Robbie White and Alice Hancock – collected the SAY Award’s £20,000 prize at a ceremony in Stirling’s Albert Halls in October.
Starting today, 214 UK venues will take part in the much-loved annual seven-day celebration of independent music and arts venues – from a 14-cap room at The Grayston Unity, in Halifax, to the historic, 3,100-capacity Troxy in East London.
The aim of IVW is to celebrate the independent venue community – encouraging fans to show their support by coming out, buying a ticket and seeing a show.
Among this year’s highlights are five days of programming on BBC Radio 6 Music, a special independent venue tour by the legendary Gilles Peterson, and exclusive IVW shows from our Artist Ambassadors YolanDa Brown, Gwenno and rEDOLENT in London, Cardiff and Dundee
More details here: https://independentvenueweek.com/uk/venues/
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