Welcome…
WELCOME… to Gourmet Gigs, the mainly music website. Our focus is on emerging artists and festivals along with reviews and recommends. Why ‘gourmet’ gigs? Because this site started with food and music, but the music won out. Still – we love a gig that’s gourmet standard, and we’ll still feature food so bring it on.
Independent Venue Week – hopefully you headed to a small, grassroots venue in celebration. Gourmet Gigs was in Hebden Bridge at The Trades. Saw the brilliant English Teacher plus Splint, a forceful post punk outfit with Jake Bogacki on guitar and vocals (he used to be in Working Men’s Club before branching out with his new band).
Grassroots Venue Watch…
As always, a note about grassroots venues… Moles in Bath recently closed its doors… as did a tiny venue called The Film Atelier in Catford, south London. Read about it here. Better news: thousands signed the ‘Save Brixton Academy’ petition and it will now reopen on 19th April.
Check out the Music Venue Trust, who do a tremendous job. Together with Skiddle, they have just embarked on a game-changing initiative to support grassroots music in the UK. They’re introducing a 50p ticket levy, and match-funding, with all proceeds going to MVT’s Pipeline Investment Fund to help venues nationwide.
Our history
Gourmet Gigs began on June 3 2012 with Field Day festival in Victoria Park where I saw the elusive Mazzy Star, review here. I’ve had some memorable moments like seeing David Bowie in Hanley, Staffordshire in the Ziggy Stardust days. I saw him once more: after a tip-off, a friend and I dashed down to Jack Docherty’s chat show at the Whitehall Theatre where Bowie was his guest. My first festival was Buxton ‘Pop’ Festival, in 1972, with DJ John Peel. It took place on a freezing cold moor. I remember Roy Wood running along the top of the stage. Or am I imagining that? We parked our tiny two-man tent on some uncomfortable stones almost in front of the stage. It was a life-changing experience that set me up for a lifetime of festivals – although today’s meticulously organised, health and safety infused events are entirely a different beast.
Please write for us…
Get in touch if you’d like to recommend bands, DJs, gigs, new releases, festivals or venues. And also if you’d like to contribute and offer a guest blog piece – the chances are that we’ll say yes. Emails are checked on a daily basis.
You can help Gourmet Gigs too…
The site is managed mainly by me plus occasional guest writers. We prefer to use our own band photography so, PRs please note: we’re grateful for opportunities for pit access at gigs and festivals.
Please support the site running costs by tweeting, messaging, generally spreading the word, and buying tickets on our very occasional affiliate links.
And… a big thanks to our guest bloggers.
Back in the day…
No punks or skinheads
Treat for today.
Been listening to Liege & Lief (Fairport Convention) on these speakers. Such a good system it was like listening to it for the first time all those years ago…
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I have and now need to upgrade a Nikon d40 a basic 6mp camera and it has improved my life greatly, even going upto a 10mp will make no difference as the sensor is exactly the same,and we all know that Mpixels are only to do with how big yr blowing up an image,for blogging it’s not needed. before my nikon (Baby) i used a simple Fuji film s1000 and as you may see with my Kitty Daisy and Lewis pics they’re the best I’ve taken no credit to nikon.. it really is important NOT to use flash,as I’m sure you prob know? hope this helps 🙂
Totally agree about no flash, for many reasons. I decided to get a good point and shoot, as wielding an SLR around at gigs, if you aren’t there as a photographer, I found to be annoying and can detract from enjoyment of the gig. I got the Canon XS240 and it’s a lovely little camera (12mp and 20x zoom) but so far my results (on King Charles, from Tier 1) are not exactly to be commended! iphone can work just as well. Love those pics of Kitty Daisy and Lewis!
and it’s about what you see or what do you think the reader likes to look at in a photo
Thanks for your comments. I think capturing the atmosphere is the main thing. And if the photos don’t work out too well I still think it’s better to have something on the page rather than nothing. I prefer to take photos at festivals, you can usually get closer to the stage, and there’s the opportunity for random shots. Have you decided what camera to get?