Bands At Stripes [Archive] - Griffin Park Grapevine

Braemar Bloke

30th July 2004, 09:05

Stokie Boy

30th July 2004, 09:41

...good idea but don't forget decent tribute bands cost a lot of money (many are £1-2,000 plus per gig) plus you need doormen and that's more cost. You have to remember that Stripes is using club money not some brewery's like pub venues and has to be near certain it is a sell out/beark even. But having said that Saturday nights would be good for a tribute band and thet are some in the pipeline thanks to the tireless efforts of Pete Johnston (possibly the Madness one again).
Friday nights are for newer bands and if they never get the chance to play they will never get anywhere! Many venues are now 'pay to play' or only pay bands once say 100 people have been through the door. Hence it is killing off live music bar festivals and getting supports to established bands (which again costs money!).
I will personally guarantee you will enjoy Metalhead/Humanity tonight if youmlike metal/rock music or Scared Heart (melodic rock a la Bon Jovi/Def Leppard) on 13th Aug or the fantastic blues rockers the Chevrons (Rod Stewart/Faces/Ottis Redding covers) on 20th Aug & don't forget the author/Rock God Robert Rankin on 6th Aug.
The two best nights I've seen at Stripes this year so far have been Jeff Scott Soto (120 plus happy punters) and Casual Affair (again 120 plus). The latter were regulars at the Red Lion in Brentford & just play damn fine music. There are many execllent bands out there you just need to be brave and try a few :)

31st July 2004, 10:00

Why not change the Music nights at GP? Move them to a Saturday after a home match and go for tribute bands instead of bands that people have not heard of. Remember One Step Behind sold out really quick and there are loads of tribute bands in the London area. If Shannons in Hounslow can get a decent list of bands attending then we should be able to. Also it would give people something to do after football. Any thoughts?

On a separate issue are One Step Behind being invited back?

ONE STEP BEHIND will be appearing again at Stripes, hopefully in the autumn. This will be on a Saturday after a home match.

Also planning to book THE BEETLES on a Sat night, just need to sort a date out. These guys are top drawer judging by their videos and CDs they sent us.
http://www.beetles.uk.com/

Hopefully both the above will sell out.

Some tribute bands are very pricey and won`t do % of the door deals (which is how we pay most bands and we make it as "attractive" for them as possible). There are a number of bands we would love to have but they won`t budge on their financial demands in some cases.

The limited capacity of Stripes means it is a juggling act financially re estimated interest and uptake, as 180 = sellout. Some bands want £1500-£2000 which makes it unviable from our perspective.

Dont think we can go above a tenner for a ticket really, although Nick Lowe (top man) gave me a friendly rollicking when saying we could have charged a lot more for his. In hindsight he was right as that night sold out in hours and we could have probably sold 2000 tickets if we had the room ;)

As Stokie points out, some London venues are unbelievable with their fee structures. A regular band who play Stripes and regularly draw 100+ recently played at The Borderline and didn`t get a penny until the 151st punter was in - they were also prohibited from playing anywhere within the London region for 4 weeks either side of their gig there. The Half Moon also take £x before any band earns.
They are better off playing at Stripes and getting a decent percentage of the door, even if the venue isn`t (yet ;) ) as "prestigious".