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London venue news: Water Rats folks to open new Marquee
Posted: 04 Aug '04, 13:57
After Dave Stewart's minor catastrophy of having a rather posh Marquee club in Islington (which got bought up by the McKenzie group and is now the Islington Carling Academy), the good folks who run the Water Rats have taken over the name and are set to open a new club.
The new Marquee Club will open in September in as central London as you can get - Number One, Leicester Square - taking over the venue formerly known as Home. The new Marquee will be run by Plum Promotions, and should have a capacity of 900.
Their aim is simple "to restore the reputation of the Marquee as the first choice live music venue in the country - not just for the public, but for the bands and industry as well."
The venue is being kit out with a state of the art 25k P.A and lighting system that promises to be the best you'll find in a venue this size anywhere.
But on their website they're keen to make clear "We won't be giving up on the Water Rats or Betsey Trotwood either - this project is a crucial part of our dedication to new, original music, and we believe it will create an upward route for artists so we can provide even more support as they build their own careers. Because we'll be involved with bands from their very first gigs, we'll be able to make sure we keep our feet on the ground and never forget that we're in it for the music first and foremost."
We wish Alan, Sarah and the rest of the Plum crew the very best with this, they're good people and we can't think of better folks to be doing it.
DiScuss: What's your favourite London venue? What would your perfect venue be like? Is it a good thing that Mean Fiddler have some competition? What did you think of the old Marquee?
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London Venue News: Water Rats Folks to Open New Marquee
Excellent.
Sadly our venue (Moshulu) is at the polar opposite of the country.
AKA
Aberdeen
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London Venue News: Water Rats Folks to Open New Marquee
weird. who'd a thought theyd have the financial power for such a thing?
thing is, its stll gonna be overly sanitised, like the islington one. why's it gonna do any better? clearly the name doesnt actually have that much power any more.
and i assume you mean 25kW p.a.. or maybe £25k?
a 25000 system doesnt really mean anything. -
London venue news: Water Rats folks to open new Marquee
I love PLum Promotions - the Water Rats always has great bands on that you've only just heard of at best (constant noisy punters chatting over the bands which pisses me off is the only gripe about the otherwise excellent world of the Rat) - & the betsey T is ridiculous but lovely.
& I saw Vinny Miller at both of them and he's mental. -
London venue news: Water Rats folks to open new Marquee
i'm slightly worried about the 900 capacity.
new music will pull that amount of people? -
London venue news: Water Rats folks to open new Marquee
plum promotions really dont care so long as you get people in to buy drinks or pay their ground rent - they are not interested in the slightest about 'nurturing talent' - unless a pr company tells them so that is - any band starting form nowhere with no contacts should avoid their grotty venues and play where people who genuinely like music play as they are not interested in anything but running a business -they are also incredibly rude and effusive people - perhaps they should start a record company-
Re: London venue news: Water Rats folks to open ne
I totally agree, trying to make money out of punters is all they care about, they tend to put on the same sort of rubbish all the time and never really try anything else, and I also thought they'd be more likely to start a label ... I don't think they'll be able to carry it off, especially when there loads of venues round there already. They'll need big money and big names to even start to compete, we'll see pretty quickly how much new talent gets a look in....
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London venue news: Water Rats folks to open new Marquee
ooh a bit harsh I'll wager - they cant be that bad if you think about all the small bands that do play there - drink less coffee on a hot day I say! -
London venue news: Water Rats folks to open new Marquee
>What would your perfect venue be like?
Small. Smoke free. Low lighting. Cheap vodka.
Bands. PA that doesn't deafen the punters.
Room with a pool table upstairs. Tasty jukebox.
A boy can dream...-
Re: London venue news: Water Rats folks to open new Marquee
good pa - not too loud
aircon
non-rectangular
cheap drinks
not too big - not too small
naked female compere
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London venue news: Water Rats folks to open new Marquee
Ooh sour grapes from some. Really though, Plum are fookin alright. They're probably putting their necks right on the line for this, and I reckon respect is due.
And it's obvious they do have enthusiasm for original new music: Sarah from Plum manages the band Culture Industry just 'cos the thinks they're fantastic.
Aircon and non-rectangular sounds good though.-
Re: London venue news: Water Rats folks to open new Marquee
Oi! Arrgh. I think I fucked up.-
Re: London venue news: Water Rats folks to open new Marquee
oH. Ignore last post. And this one. Fuck.
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London venue news: Water Rats folks to open new Marquee
the venue takes 600 downstairs so is still a reasonable size for band who have outgrown the water rats.
why shouldn't promoters earn a living from the work that they do ? are bands going to sell records and give away their royalties ?
promoter bashing comes from bands who have no talent and want someone to blame. the majority of people who promote in london make bugger all money and do it because they love music. if there was lots of money in it then there would be hundreds of venues fully equipped to play out there......as it is there are a handful worth playing
good luck to plum who are the nicest people in music
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