comment on club: Hippodrome
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The 'further Comment' section below contains a copy of a letter I've sent to the Colchester Gazette, and to every radio station, newspaper or website that might be interested.
To Whom it may concern
I'm writing to give you an audience member's reaction to the truly appaling behaviour of the Hippodrome Management and staff at last night's gig.
I'm a semi-professional Musician living and working in Colchester. Like a lot of people I went along to see the Newtown Kings for the first time recently on the advice of a friend who assured me they were the finest Ska outfit for miles around. Having seen them once at the Curve Bar and once at the Oliver Twist, I can confirm this is true. The band play a tight, fun and enthusiastic set and are known for their good attitude and proffesionalism.
So when I heard that they would be playing the Hippodrome, which is apparently trying to re-establish itself as a live music venue, I went along to show my support and generally have a bit fo a dance about and a good night.
I can honestly say, that in 15 years of gigging at Venues ranging from the humblest beginnings to the Mean Fiddler in London and playing on Live T.V, I have NEVER witnessed such an unprofessional showing by a Venue.
Having shown up just before 10pm I caught the tail end of Koopa's set. From the outset it was clear all was not well. Several key things were very clearly wrong and as the night went on everything just got worse. I'll list the points I'm sure of, but I'm sure others could tell you more and in more detail.
1 - There was no Guest List for any of the bands, which is totally unheard of in a venue of that size. This meant that the family members who had turned up to show their support had to pay 8 pounds for the privelege, which again is totally unheard of.
2 - We arrived to find the audience had been split into an over 18's area up stairs, and an under 18s area down where the bands were. This meant that if, like the majority of the Newtown King's fanbase, you were an adult and wanted a drink while watching the gig, you had to be up on a balcony away from the dancefloor and the band you'd come to see. I've never seen this in all my years on the music scene.
3 - To get into the downstairs area you had to present a blue wristband which none of us were given, nor even told about upon entry. The upshot being we paid to enter a venue to see a band that we then could not get within 300 yards of without being threatened by a bouncer.
4 - The ENTIRE staff of the Hippodrome presented an attitude one would expect if you'd turned up in their house uninvited and tried to raid their fridge. The staff were bullying, uncommunicative, rude and totally unproffesional. If a band plays your venue, the idea is to make them feel welcome and that their presence there is appreciated. This clearly could not have been further from the case.
5 - Having gone through all this, both the audience and the Newtown kings were told at the last minute that their set would have to be cut from an hour to 15 minutes!!! Again, this is COMPLETELY unheard of in the proffesional music community.
6 - Rathe than standing on the sidelines ready to intervene if trouble began, the Bouncers patrolled the crowd for the entire set, walking through the middle of the dancefloor eyeing their customers like criminals and doing their best to split them up and get all the people without the blue armbands nobody had been told about back up onto the balcony and away from the band they had paid 8 pounds to see. From my vantage point, all of this seemed to be done in the most unpleasant rude and surly manner possible.
7 - The Newtown kings quite naturelly felt an obligation to play as much of their set as possible to give their fans their moneys worth, but after 15 minutes not only did the bouncers begin attempting to physically remove the band from the stage, but the Hippodrome manager actually came and stood on stage with his back to the audience between them and the band for the entirety of their last song. Again, I cannot stress this enough : This kind of behaviour is so completely amatuerish, unproffesional and just downright rude that even in the seediest dives I've never seen it done.
8 - The staff then refused to let some of the musicians back into the venue to get their own equipment!!! I left before this situation was resolved so i do not know how it turned out.
To their credit the Newtown Kings did not create NEARLY as much of a scene as they had a right to, and attempted to take the event in good humour as much as possible. Their main concern was clearly for the fans who rightly felt cheated of the performance they had paid for. They apologised to as many of their fans as possible in person at the front of the venue and went on their way. When I asked where the promoter who had organised the event was, I was informed he had not shown up.
All in all my opinion, both as a musician and as someone who enjoys live music, is that the Hippodrome staff and management made an absolutely appalling mess of things, cheated the Newtown Kings fans of their money and showed very clearly why they should never again host a live act. The whole evening was marred by bad feeling and just handled in the most amatuerish, rude and unprofessional manner possible.
I'm by no means an activist in thiese matters, and tend to leave people to their own devices, but I was so shocked and apalled by what I saw that I not only felt the need to write this email to you, but I will be strongly encouraging every musician, Manager and Promoter I know to have nothing to do with the Hippodrome.
Should you wish to contact me for further information, my mobile number is 07842 891949.
Many thanks for your time.
Yours sincerely
Greg Blackman [Greg Blackman] [reply] -
true [read further discription]
i think that is so true! the young ones should be up at the top as they dont smoke either! myself a smoker find myself going out for fags alot when drunk in the hippo, and the young ones sholdnt be as they are too young to buy them for a start! And there would be more older people so the young ones upstairs and the older people `downstairs!!!!!!!!!!!! [josephine] [reply]