The Fall at the Charlotte: Touch Sensitive

Next on our quick trip back to Leicester in 2006:



[Part of The Fall at the Princess Charlotte]

The Fall at the Charlotte: Blindness & The Princess

More from Mark E Smith in a back room in Leicester:



[Part of The Fall at the Princess Charlotte]

The Fall at the Charlotte: Wrong Place, Right Time

Back to Leicester:



[Part of The Fall at The Princess Charlotte]

Embed and breakfast man: The Fall at the Princess Charlotte

Something of a treat today, possibly: some chunks of The Fall playing The Princess Charlotte on March 24th, 2006. Presumably this was part of a tour to support the mighty number 115 smash Fall Heads Roll.

First off, here's the The Theme From Sparta FC:



More bits to come...

Downloadable: Meursault

Oh, yes - there's free downloads from Meusault here - Blindfolds and 2007.

What's more important is that - if you're anywhere near Leicester - you can see thema totally different band with the same name play live tomorrow night. What else would you do on a Sunday night in Leicester?

Charlotte plan: Pay to play

Hurrah! After having closed earlier in the year, the Charlotte in Leicester is reopening. Excellent news, right?

Um... up to a point. Simon T emails with details of the new regime operating at the venue:

Out of curiosity someone from a local scene forum emailed the new owners about their request for unsigned bands to come forward and got this response:

"Getting a GIG !

The Charlotte is now being run as A Social Enterprise, the local community acting together to provide services needed by local people. The Charlotte will try and generate an income to ensure it covers its running costs and is self sustainable. Also The Charlotte will qualify for grant support. Any additional money that it generates is reinvested back into The Charlotte and no one makes a profit. We are hoping that this will make the venue more accessible to the community enabling us to use it to its full potential.

You will now be required to pay a deposit of £33 to play at the Charlotte or £45 as a headliner.

In return you will receive a minimum of 11 tickets (15 as a headliner) with a £3 entrance fee

Your fans will pay on the door and return your tickets. Every ticket collected up to your deposit amount will be refunded. Every ticket after your deposit amount will earn you 1.50 per ticket.

Example on £33 deposit

11 fans with your tickets pay £3 on the door we return your deposit
3 fans with your tickets pay £3 on the door we only return £9 and retain £24 of your deposit
17 fans with your tickets pay £3 on the door we return your deposit and give you £ 9
25 fans with your tickets pay £3 on the door we return your £33 and give you an additional £21
0 fans pay you get no deposit back!!!

Please complete the attached form and secure your GIG now.

We now open for hourly rehearsal hire (Main Stage) from 12th October 1030am-430pm 7 days a week

We charge £10 per hour Mon-Fri and £15 per hour Sat and Sunday

Q&A

Why do I have to pay a deposit?

One of the reasons The Charlotte closed was poor attendance at its unsigned nights, we have to ensure we cover our costs or we will close again.

What if I don't agree?

At this time you won't get a GIG but you can request to become a member of our Management Committee who advise us on how we run."

So, pay to play, then - but a socially-aware pay to play. You can understand the thinking behind this, to a point, but doesn't it undermine the extent to which it is a social enterprise if only the bands which can afford the entry fee can get to pay: what about broke bands looking for a first step on the stage?

The trouble with pay-to-play is that it favours large bands with big families rather than the great. If you're a six piece nu-jazz act, you might find it slightly easier to hit the point where you make money back than if you're a singer-songwriter on your own.

Fine, have a rule where the bands only get paid if they bring in a certain number of fans. But asking for cash up front? Isn't that less a community endeavour, more pushing all the risk onto the bands?

What next? A two-drink minimum for all lead singers?

Darkness at 3AM: Kasabian on tables

The worry is, I rather think we're meant to be impressed with this:

Diners at the swanky Gilgamesh bar in Camden got more than they bargained for when Kasabian's Tom Meighan got battered on champagne and started jumping on top of the tables.

The boys forked out £3,000 for Christian Audigier champers for the band and their mates Stephen Graham and The Enemy, after their "emotional" iTunes performance at the Roundhouse.

And with Tom shouting "Come on let's have it," the boys were necking it at a startling pace.

You would have thought spending all that money, the one thing you could be sure of was you were in the sort of place where Kasabian wouldn't be honking on the tables. Leicester have much better bands - can we have one of those instead, please?

Venuewatch: Charlotte shutters

It's not unexpected, but it's still sad to hear: The Charlotte in Leicester has failed to find a buyer and will close at the end of the month.

There's a glimmer of hope: Punch Taverns have repeated that they'd like to reopen the pub as a music venue, and bands are lining up to play a benefit gig, if anyone wants to organise one.

For now, though:

Speaking to the Leicester Mercury yesterday [Andy] Wright said: "It will definitely be closing at the end of the month.
Click here!

"That's when the company officially ceases to trade.

"Then it's up to Punch Taverns as to what it wants to do with it.

"I will be gone at the end of the month and it will be closed until further notice."

Leicester will feel the loss.

[Thanks to Simon T for the link]

Venuewatch: Charlotte in administration

With The Astoria now closed, and attracting the attention of the Today programme [8.24, near the bottom of the page], there's grim news from a far more important venue.

The Leicester Princess Charlotte has gone into administration:

Andy Wright, who has run the venue for 20 years, has put its operating company, The Princess Charlotte Public House Ltd, into administration, because it did not have enough money to continue.
He is now seeking talks with Punch Taverns, which owns the building, about a possible financial lifeline.

Mr Wright said: "Basically, if they are not prepared to support it and prop it up, it's the end of an era. If Punch decided not to support the venue, we would need someone to come in, and put in some money.

"Something has to be approved by the end of the month or it will close. It's a legendary venue. It would be a big shame to see it go."

It would be much more than a shame to see it disappear - there aren't many venues outside of London which have successfully supported live music for decades, and a list of bands who have played the Charlotte would be, pretty much, a list of any British guitar-based act who did alright for themselves - and every band from Leicester since the late 1980s. It was that mix of support for local acts with bands quivering on the brink of national breakthrough that made venues like this so special.

I once went there two nights running, despite living in Liverpool, due to a mix-up on a band's touring schedule which said they were playing on the wrong night; and I have vague memories that at one point to gain access to the venue part at the back of the pub you had to more-or-less walk through the gents' toilets. But surely that can't be right?

Let's hope that something turns up for the Charlotte - and it doesn't involve being swallowed into a soulless chain which slaps a sponsor's name outside. There is some encouragement:

A spokeswoman for Punch said: "The Princess Charlotte is an important venue to the Leicestershire area and we are committed to its future."

But then Punch isn't having the greatest time of it, financially, at the moment.

[Thanks to Simon T for the tip]

Where is the love, asks Mark Morrison

For some reason, the original Leicester Mercury story detailing Mark Morrison's feelings of alienation from his home town have disappeared, but luckily our friends at My Chemical Toilet caught it before it disappeared.

Morro, it seems, can't work out why he hasn't been clasped to the Midlands bosom:

"I showed Leicester the love and that city never showed me the love back. That place has shown me nothing but contempt."

Well, perhaps, but I suspect you're confusing indifference with contempt, Mark.

He's particularly upset that Gary Lineker and Engelbert Humperdinck are lauded by the city while he's... well, he thinks people are snickering at him, behind his back:

"I will always be the all-time musical great of your city. I'm The Beatles of that city."

Ah, yes, and 'Return Of The Mac' is Leicester's Yesterday, and... some other song by Morrison is the Helter Skelter, and... did he do three songs? If he did, the third one would be the city's Ballad Of John And Yoko, probably.

The City of Leicester has reacted to Morrison's claims that he will never visit the place again by building a massive tourism advertising campaign around the theme 'The one place you can be certain of never seeing Mark Morrison', although the Top 40 has been using the same slogan for several years.

[Thanks for the tip to Simon T]

Capital of Culture update: Number one in some sort of poll

The Liverpool Echo is delighted that Liverpool has been voted number one in an Arts Council poll designed to find out which city the Beatles came from ("find the most musical city in Britain").

10,000 people - not all from Liverpool - took part in the online poll which is in no way undermined from a credibility point of view by Leicester ("home of Kasabian, Showaddywaddy and Engelbert Humperdinck") coming in fourth place.

I Was A Clubbed Scout

More cancellation news: I Was A Cub Scout have pulled tonight's gig; a lame-ass hit Todd Marriott in the face with a glass at the Joiners Arms in Southampton on Saturday. The tour is expected to resume tomorrow.