Music

It’s a practice derided by the righteously hard rockin’ but, every now and again, we all want a bit of a sit down. Now, this is not an excuse for those neo-hippy tossers who sit cross-legged on a venue’s floor gazing up at the stage, demonstrating not only their nerdy obsequiousness but also their spatial greed; nor is it about having reached the arthritic eventide of your life. A sweaty game of crush-and-shove is only to be expected at Wolfmother or Lightning Bolt gigs, but the same can hardly be said of artists like Cat Power, say, or M Craft and José González. Sometimes, attentive, contemplative listening is what’s required and for that, you need a Fred Astaire. Feature continues

A number of London music promoters clearly agree that something needs to be done about the fact that, in the West End, there are just two seated venues – Ronnie Scott’s (recently reopened after extensive refurbishment) and the Pizza Express Jazz Club – both of which have genre-specific booking policies. Come the end of July 2006, there were no fewer than three new, seated, music venues up and running in central London.

In April 2006, the Pigalle Club in Piccadilly opened its doors. Styled as an intimate, 1940s supper club (complete with mirrored walls, soft table lighting and staff dressed in period uniforms), it was inaugurated with a performance by burlesque queen Immodesty Blaize. Punters can pay to see the show alone or stump up more for a combined dinner and show deal; either way, they get a comfy seat (280 capacity permitting).

Cultish Parisian band Nouvelle Vague appeared at the Pigalle Club on July 10, 11 and 12 2006, the brainchild of producers Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux, together with a hired raft of young chanteuses. Their second album, ‘Bande A Part’, like their debut, features sophisticated but properly soulful, bossa-driven reworkings of classic pop songs (eg Echo And The Bunnymen’s ‘The Killing Moon’, Buzzcocks’ ‘Ever Fallen In Love?’, New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’). Given their über-stylish mien, it’s hard to imagine Nouvelle Vague playing any of our sticky-floored basement toilets and, indeed, their previous London shows have been at the ICA, the Jazz Café and the (seated) Queen Elizabeth Hall. Collin, however, has mixed feelings about his project being booked into seated venues, especially those where punters might be wining and dining while they watch.

‘Each time we’ve played in the UK,’ he says, ‘we’ve had very good feedback, with people singing, dancing and clapping, but when the audience is seated, like in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, it’s totally different – very quiet and more like a classical concert. Too serious, I think. We do prefer to play in a rock venue.’

Do Nouvelle Vague suffer from typecasting as a kind of novelty act with lounge overtones? ‘I think we are not a lounge band,’ Collin declares. ‘It’s exactly like on the album – people can just take “Love Will Tear Us Apart” as a bossa nova number for drinking cocktails to, but if they listen carefully, they will also hear “Human Fly” or “Fade To Grey”, which are not lounge tracks at all. There are moments which are very strong and dramatic. Cabaret is a good word, but definitely not lounge. It’s difficult to imagine that people might be eating their meat while watching us play “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”,’ he laughs.

More musical chairs have been set out at the Bloomsbury Ballroom over in Southampton Row, which opened on June 22 2006. This 1920s building boasts a revamped art deco interior with original flooring and can hold around 900 people (including 300-350 seated). As promoter Mark Walsh points out, in a city centre where venue capacity jumps from around 250 to 1,500, ‘The Ballroom sits nicely in the middle.’ He claims its booking policy will be flexible, ‘although it’s quite a grand setting, so a thrash metal band probably isn’t going to work.’

Back in the heart of the West End, Barry Everitt – promoter of The Borderline since 2000 – is preparing to introduce The Arts Theatre in Great Newport Street (built in 1927) to the world of amp stacks and band riders. This theatre’s licence allows 60 per cent non-theatre programming, which is where Everitt comes in. For years, he’d been looking for a seated venue to stage the kind of acts he puts on at The Borderline, ie ‘Americana, blues and singer-songwriter acts for a more mature audience – by which I mean 25-plus. A lot of that music demands a concert show where the audience can concentrate and focus – and a lot of artists prefer to work in that environment, too.’

The 350-seater Arts Theatre boasts two bars and is licensed until midnight. ‘It’s not as ornate as somewhere like the Lyric Theatre,’ he admits, ‘but it has a very strong vibe to it. Its name really does describe it well.’

He’s working on booking music acts for the whole of September and October, as there are no plays scheduled for those months, but, with interest in the venture peaking, he intended to put on the venue’s first gig in mid-July 2006. Does Everitt admit that there’s still an argument for the sweat and sawdust tradition over the supposed civility of a seated venue? ‘There is that, but it works both ways. Some artists demand that jostling, stand-up experience, but with quality singer-songwriters, the concentration and intensity of a seated venue is hard to beat.’

‘Bande A Part’ by Nouvelle Vague was released on Peacefrog.