We Are Leicester

Posted by bugrach on Wed, 21 Jul 2010.

The Auditorium is Leicester’s current promise to bring back a rise in the music scene. Owners Tim Sturgess who was previously an owner of The Charlotte during its final run, and Paul Collins hope to bring back headlining acts to Leicester with their venue as well as local bands.

It’s no secret that the music scene for Leicester has been dying out for some time now and with the hope that The Auditorium can help revive that with the £200,000 revamp, what do the owners think they can do to attract the bands to play there.

Well, one of the main features for the new venue is that it can be made into a place where different size capacities can be held depending on the acts performing. Rooms can be transformed into 300/500/700/1000+ capacities. When speaking to Tim Sturgess on Wiggle FM he told us that this would be key for many acts and their audiences.

Derek Hollingworth provides the Facebook page for The Auditorium with some history of the building.

“The City Cinema opened on Monday November 3rd 1924 and in 1929 was bought by the Gaumont organisation and became the Gaumont Cinema. In 1961 it was bought by the Rank and by 1964 it had acquired the Odeon name. At this time the lower arcade was created called The Odeon Arcade, which reduced the seating from 2000 to 772. In 1967 it was named the Cinerama and for a short time in 1975 it was known as The Liberty. When its life as a Cinema ended in May 1975 it took on a new role as the Cascade Bingo Club and later Top Ten Bingo, which closed in September 2009.”

On Saturday 10^thJuly the We Are Leicester festival was held at The Auditorium as predominantly its opening day. The official open day will be on the 7^th August but Tim was reported saying that he didn’t want to wait for the official opening day and wanted local bands to play there before. Wristbands were priced at £10 and for this there was an indoor and outdoor stage with 45+ local bands playing from the afternoon until the early hours of the morning. There was also a BBQ and bar available.

When first arriving at the venue we were directed to Cank Street where the outdoor stage was set up in a car park. There were many bands waiting to set up along with the support of their friends, family and fans. It was a little difficult to find where we needed to go at first but with the weather being as nice as it was I just grabbed myself a drink and set about watching some of Leicester’s local talent. Real ale and soft drinks were served, although by about 6pm they had ran out of water and I have to admit that the drinks were a little pricey but maybe I was underestimating the price of a pint these days.

Many acts flocked to perform and there were performances from bands such as Skinny Bones, Weekend Schemers, White Ashes, Sunflower, White Fix, The Hordes, Dobsons, Common Side Effects, Last Edition and many more.

I then decided to head inside and see what other bands were on offer. As the outside of the venue still said ‘Top Ten Bingo’ I had to make sure that I wasn’t heading in for an afternoon game of bingo, but after being reassured by the lady in the booth I went inside. None of the décor has yet been changed so I was faced with salmon walls, swirly carpet and mirrors all the way up the stairs – Either way I was there to see the bands play, not redesign the place.

Inside it was very loud and at some stages the sound levels became too much for my ears, all of which I’m sure will be amended by the official opening night.

I could easily see why the venue was perfect performing artists – it was very big inside and the space and layout was perfect. I can’t wait to see what it will be like once it has been finished.

Acts to grace the stage inside were the likes of Midbeats, One Suspicious Monkey, Carnival Clowns and Rasoodocks.

The overall impression that I got from the day was that if The Auditorium can pull in that many acts in one day (the last act of the day to play was Silent Resistance at about 3:30am!) then there is clearly a market and acts want to play there. The Facebook page currently has over 3000+ fans so the people of Leicester are clearly showing an interest. Also, with the opening of the 02 academy and the Leicester Tigers ground staging acts such as Will Young and James Morrison lets hope that The Auditorium will be able to do enough to keep those acts coming.