Hey, its been a while but I just wanted to say thanks for some fine performances Ive recently witnessed at The Sesh.

First up, a huge shout to all the bands that have played recently at The Linnet. Too many bands to mention but the standards been very high. This week gone by, we had THE NEAT headline alongside endoflevelbaddie and Harry & James from AWFUL SCENES doing an acoustic set. Pure class. The week before TURISMO, CHERRY COBB CARTEL and 59 VIOLETS. Simply Awesome. Attendances have been high and Im really appreciative of all of your support. Thank You.

Ive said it from day one that The Linnet isnt a perfect live music venue by a long stretch of imagination, but nonetheless its tried to support everyone and tried to create a buzz about local talent. Despite being The Sesh promoter, Im constantly trying to push whats happening at The Adelphi (Home of Live Music in Hull), The Lamp, and everywhere else as long as it gives a platform to local talent. The Sesh to me aint just about Tuesday nights its about promoting the citys wealth of talent in any way it can.

I see theres alot of activity on the local live music front just of late and every bar seems to be reaching out for that live music dollar which is cool if theyre doing it for the right reasons and are willing to heighten the profile of the bands and artists theyre working with and not doing it to just fill their coffers. I read today in HDM that MAGMA are gonna try and turn their establishment into a live music venue. Mmmmm.

Competition is good because it means you have to raise your game, which I will always try and do, and of course it provides more choices for the general public. But I am little worried that the live music scene will get diluted with so many venues putting on practically the same nights throughout the week.

What will then happen, is we have twenty odd venues in the city putting on poorly attended gigs as everyones divided between each venue, and people will start to lose faith in the talent that currently engulfs us and stop going out. Which would be a shame.

As for any talk about a scene. Im not into this word scene but its one word to call a bunch of talented people, as in the live music scene, its definately not about who attends the gigs and what they wear. Thats all bullshit. Kids stuff. People who go to gigs will always evolve with time, faces change and all that malarkey.

What Im really interested in, and its the main reason why the Sesh has done alright over the last five years, is local talent itself. Yeah, theres a few dodgy bands out there and a few great bands that have fallen at the wayside just of late, but believe me, theres absolutely loads of talent left in this city of incredible stature. I could quite easily name 25 local bands or artists that should be on Jools Holland this weekend. Thats how much I believe in the local scene.

At present, theres some great new outfits coming through that deserve your attention and whats been so refreshing of late is genres coming together and local acts working alongside talented producers and remixers. Check out what Mr Beasley and endoflevelbaddie have done with The Neats Shoot Em Young track, and try and dig out some of Supercharges mixes of local bands - theyre ace. Also, if you can get hold of it, try and get Matt from Mr Beasley to give you a copy of his new side project, 2 Sides Of a Story with guest vocals on tracks from Sarah J and Hetty from City Ghosts - both songs are sublime. Beautiful. Theres so much more out there if you look for it.

On top of this, weve got some great club nights that we should be proud of having in this city and to my knowledge some really exciting festivals around the corner. I believe Lucy and Ted at Hullvibe have got something really special coming up which Im sure theyll let you know of in the near future, and I know Purple Worm Records have organised a 2nd Launch of their label to be held at The Welly in the near future. These really are events to attend if you wanna get a taste of local talent.

New developments are around the corner for The Sesh and for me personally and Ill keep you posted, but for now keep supporting local talent wherever its held. Most notably though - SUPPORT THE ADELPHI and THE LAMP. Theyre the citys little treasures - true independants that care and support the local community.

PLUS Great to hear that Springhead have managed to keep up their tradition of putting on some great nights. You go Damo, Square One on a wednesday is onto a winner up there.

......and of course, if you can make it down to a Sesh night, great, Id love to see you there.

Peace
mak x

If you get time ...try and find THE SESH GROUP on facebook for up to date details/playlists/discussions etc or check out its myspace page at myspace.com/maks33onions

I reckon places like magma are only doing it so theyll be viewed more favourably because of all the bad press theyve had

Their licence is at risk I imagine so theyre just doing something to try and make it look like theyre changing the place

Theyll probably do it for a few weeks, knock it on the head and itll be as you were

I really dont think Id go anywhere near the place with the current regime in charge there

Apparently hes doing it so he can sell the place, i heard that its not actualyl the bar thats properly awful, but the owner has a personal problem with the police allegedly.. so yeah.

Sgt Peppers Bar.. lets see what its like.

Fuels turnin into a venue aswell aint it?

Kenny

Taking your list of venues Ive adding my own thoughts plus adding one you have missed, I think some of the posts in this thread are overly negative but some do bring up some valid points, as a promoter of several gigs a week in 3 different venues I can answer Cranky Harold by saying I have played at The Lamp, City Hall & Adelphi and attended many gigs at The Sesh over the years including writing many reviews from venues as diverse as Ringside, Welly, Sesh, Lamp, Piper, Position and loads of places that dont even exist anymore or have changed names/uses so at least this promoter has a vague idea about music and audiences in the city of Hull

Adelphis numerous nights - not the force it has been in the past but I still have a soft spot for the place and have promoted gigs there

Sidekicks Lounge - never been to a Sidekicks gig as usually busy sound engineering on a Wednesday night

Sharkeys tues, weds and sunday - just about to kick off, Im looking forward to it and the venue is certainly in it for the long haul installing a PA, stage, lights, designing proper marketing/posters/flyers

The Sesh - I dont get here as often as I like, hate the venue/lack of stage, love the night/atmosphere generated by Mark and seen some great bands over the years

Square One - never been and heard they had moved to the Springhead?

Kick out the Jams - again never been and dont know much about them

Retros night - a new night, like Sharkeys, hopefully will do okay

Wellys live nights - seen some great bands in Welly but not a fan of the atmosphere, probably because I am an old git and dont fit into skinny jeans (never have actually)

Barracuda now and again - never seen the bands there and seems to have gone very quiet on that front

Dirty Nellies - horrible venue, layoutwise but with a good vibe, Dave Elf does his best to support local music

I would like to add-

The Lair - Acoustic Wednesday brings all sorts of great acoustic stuff to the town and supports local original acts as well, been going nearly 3 years after starting off at the Adelphi. Live At The Lair is supporting local rock & indie bands and providing a decent venue & fee for original & covers bands - but then Im biased

Music Exchange at The Dorchester, organised by The Harri-Watts band for all the right reasons, should be supported

Springboard at The King Billy, Cottingham - great minthly acoustic night support youg and experience locals acts and heading into the 3rd year as a mini festival in June

Looking at all the nights on the list plus the ones I have added, there is a large variety of styles/nights from indie, rock, metal (forgot The Goose from the list), acoustic and more but are there the audiences? The hardest thing I find as a promoter is marketing the nights, so many people who would be interetsed in gigs have no idea what a rich city we live in for live music finding out about stuff by word or mouth and mates in bands.

Audiences in Hull are very partisan when it comes to supporting bands they like/friends in bands rather than any particular scene the Sesh being one of the few nights to overcome this to a degree but look how long that has taken. We have a small core of regular supports of the gigs at The Lair and its taken a while to build that up but like the Sesh and other nights its the bands support and efforts that make the big difference to a nights success.

Sorry for the long waffle but after 20+ years on Hulls music scene I still find the same negativity now as I did when I started out playing & prmoting and it annoys me a bit but also spurs me on to not give up supporting and promoting local musicians, bands, DJs.

I hope all the live gigs mentioned in this thread find a level of success that means they can continue and bands want to play them.

Haha Damo the Master Debator.. The word "diluted" is going around a lot.. i thinkt hat part is hugely up to the bands, rather than the venues.. for example, say Band X were playing Tigers Lair on Monday, Sesh on Tuesday and Sharkeys on Wednesday, unless they have an extremely dedicated crowd, course its gonna be diluted.. bands have to take into consideration not to overbook stuff. Weve done it; we had a Battle Of The Bands which we were taking 50+ people to in Sunderland, took a lot of organisation and all that, and we had an Adelphi gig the night before which we intended to be a warm up but because people were spending there hard earned cash the day after, the turnout was pretty poor for an Adelphi gig...

I think if promoters pay attention to what bands are doing, bands pay attention to what promoters are doing, allll that, then itll be fine!

Kenny

Theres some great points on here but to be totally honest, i dont think there are enough good local bands in Hull anymore!

the only few i might actually go out and see would be;

The Holy Orders
The Sorry Loves
Someone & The Somethings

I aint bothered about many else!


Some of these new live nights should get some bigger out of town bands in, therefore saving gig-clashing on the same week

On the subject of original music, this Saturday coming (29th of March), theres a fund raiser gig on at the Adelphi which promises to be a beast! A lot of old faces are apparently making an appearance in aid of the club and its looking like it may be a fantastic Funky night of hip hop, funk, reggae, rock and much more...

Thanks to all of you that made it down to the Sesh last night. To my mind, it was one of the best of the year so far. I cant thank The Holy Orders, Kill Surf City and the legendary ... TOP GUN enough. Crackin turn out, considering most had spent up over easter, at least 200 + in, and the party continued down at The Grapevine too.
TOP effort all round - thank you - I really enjoyed it.

"All the way to cambridge, all the way to York !!"

Holzbolz, sorry you missed out.
Its a pain being a runt.
I know ..... ive been a runt all my life.
Or I think thats what people call us.

Just a quick un to say ta for last night.

Pretty special all round

JOHN COPLEY was pretty outstanding as per usual (Why does he always snap a string within his first song and always attract a nutter whilst playing - I say nutter, it was the rather horny Gemma who decided to dance in front of his performance whilst rubbing herself down ! Nothing wrong with that !)
GODS OF WHATEVER - As tight as they come - great Sesh debut full of quality songs.
and finally...
LAVELLION - you funky cock rockers - you had em eating out of your hands - you sexy mothers. Personally, I think a little bit of wee came out when you started digging the blues !
Top show all round.
To everyone who made it down, THANK YOU.
Plus a huge shout to all that ventured on afterwards to The Grapevine.
Full on at Linnet and Attic. TUESDAY Dreamland . Thank you.

TONIGHT
Liverpool V Arsenal - Champions League from 7.45 followed by my dodgy quiz night from 10pm. Lets just say a few tunes shall be played this evening.

Dont fancy that, then either get yourself to :

Sidekicks Lounge @ Lamp
for THE NEAT, THE WIRED and TOP GUN.
or
Its A Happening ! @ ADELPHI
with THE JAMES DEAN SYNDROME and THE FRANK SELLO BAND
or
Square One @ THE SPRINGHEAD
or
DURTY NELLIES with Digsys 59 VIOLETS