What was the first gig you ever attended?
Blur in Belfast. Think the Happy Mondays were supporting. I can’t remember much as I was definitely drunk and underage…
What made you want to work in venues and how did your career start?
I just felt I found something I got and excelled in. There wasn’t a defined path that I took, it was just a load of luck!
What’s the most valuable thing you’ve learnt whilst working in venues?
Surround yourself with experts in each department and never be afraid of having your opinion changed. There’s no point employing people and not trusting them to run their own department.
What’s the funniest moment you’ve had at a venue you’ve worked in?
The funniest moment during my career came when I worked for DF Concerts and did a show with a high profile artist (who shall remain nameless) in a town hall in the west of Scotland. The artist’s main request (among many) was to have access to a shower immediately after the show due to health reasons but the showers were located on the other side of the venue and the artist could not have passed through the audience to get there. I had my friend Stephen O’Neill as the runner, and we spent the morning working out the options and even went to the lengths of contacting a council swimming pool across the road from the venue who we managed to convince to open at 10.30pm to allow the artist to shower but the TM knocked that back. We resorted to making a makeshift shower in the toilets using a small child’s paddling pool, a shower slip mat, one of those shower attachments 80s parents had in baths before showers became the norm, and a mic stand to hang the shower attachment too. I stopped short of buying a rubber duck. We had to leave the venue immediately as soon as the show came down so to this day we have no idea of the artist used it…
In your opinion, what does the next 5 years look like for live entertainment venues?
We’ll continue to have the same challenges as we have now – some will come and some will go unfortunately – but we are all waiting to see how the landscape looks in the post-brexit era. It’s a competitive market but I try to programme in such a way so that we don’t rely on one source to survive; the diversity of our programme and the wealth of promoters we have using our venue is our true strength.
Glasgow has lost some really iconic venues over the years and we all have to do what we can to protect and preserve the venues that we have at all costs. We need to do more to protect culture, art and music.
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