Well let me tell you about our week so far – yes I know, it’s only Wednesday but so much has happened already. So, this time last week we were approached by the Music Venue Trust about joining their campaign called #SaveOurVenues. The Music Venue Trust were so helpful to us last year when we were threatened with closure over our lease renewal. Their new campaign was to help the venues involved with the MVT to get them through the Lockdown and still have a business to come back to. They wanted each venue to agree to be named as a venue that artists can fundraise for on the #SaveOurVenues website and then set up a Crowdfunder campaign with a target agreed with our MVT coordinator. Any funds received in excess of this target would be swept into the central Crisis Fund which would be used to offer grants to venues under immediate threat of closure. When initially asked, we dismissed it – we knew we weren’t the only ones struggling for money, everyone is struggling and asking our customers and bands for money didn’t sit right with us.
Anyway, after that we sat down and went over our financial situation, we worked out that we had enough money to pay the bills until the end of June, which didn’t seem so far away any more. All of a sudden reality hit us in the face. So very reluctantly we agreed to take part in the #SaveOurVenues campaign because we believe in the cause so very much, it’s something we’re passionate about and know our bands, staff and customers are too, especially since our scare in 2018. It still doesn’t sit right with us, and we absolutely hate asking for money and I feel I should apologise for doing it. But if we don’t, it will almost certainly mean the end for our beloved Brickies. We set our target at £8000 as that gives us two extra months to manage with the doors closed. That takes us to then end of August, fingers crossed by then we should be preparing to open (touch a lot of wood here). *
The MVT want to encourage artists and bands to visit the site at www.saveourvenues.co.uk and adopt a venue from the“Save a Venue” map and organise an ‘at home’ performance for their fans to raise money for their chosen venue. We know that many local acts are already raising money doing this for the NHS which is vital, please don’t stop doing that! We do have some ideas though, currently we’re throwing the idea around about having a massive weekend marathon festival of livestreams on our facebook page, I just need to work out the logistics and delve into the world of live-streaming video, is it possible for bands/artists to stream to our facebook page? If any of you guys know if this is possible then hit me up on fb and educate me. I’ve only just learnt to stream the radio station hahaha. My brain hasn’t recovered from that one yet. We’re thinking about an online bank holiday bash… at least that way we’d get to at least have one this year!
So that’s how we ended up here today! I have to say, yet again you guys have totally knocked us for six. There have been so many heart warming comments and some crazy donations. We cant find the words to express how much we appreciate it and how much it means to us. We know times are just as hard for you all as they are for us and the words thank you just don’t seem big enough. It means so much more to us than thank you. All I can promise you all is that when we get through this, we pledge to have a very big party just for you guys, and we will strive to keep the music live and rockin’ here at The Brickies and B2 – as soon as they let us, we’ll power up that PA system and blow the bloody roof off! That’s a promise.
Anyway, now I’ve waffled on and filled you in on the how, where and why we ended up here, I’ll leave you to your day. If you fancy a giggle this afternoon – I’ll be chatting to local guitar legend ‘Terry Bunting’ ( Small Talk, Worlds Apart, Boys Will Be Boys, The Veil) on my radio show at 4pm. Tune in and fire some questions at us, he’s a great guy and having played at The Brickies for over 40 years has one or two stories to share.
THANK YOU ALL for your endless love and support, YOU are THE BRICKIES!!!
Stay safe everyone – We love you all.
Charley (Pam & Em too)
Xxxxx
#SaveOurVenues
* Our crowdfunder page currently says our target is £10,000, this is an error and we are waiting for them to change it to £8,000.
THE BRICKIES - BLOG N' ROLL 