Music

‘We’re so nervous!’ grins Roy Stride, standing on the balcony of a tower block in Bethnal Green, beer can in hand. Roy and his best mate from school, Greg, are about to take the ‘stage’ at their first living-room gig. Given that their band, Scouting For Girls, has just been recording its debut LP for Epic, making fancy pop videos and attracting the celebrity patronage of Michaela Strachan, you’d think Stride would take this kind of thing in his, erm, stride… ‘But this is different isn’t it?’ he says, wrinkling his nose. ‘It’s more intimate.’
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It’s true – as far as gigs go, this is basically as up close and personal as it gets. While SFG should, by rights, be playing showcase gigs at Koko in front of hundreds of vacillating industry folk, today’s show has an audience of about fifteen people sitting squished up on the sofa or kneeling on the floor, about a metre away from Roy’s electric piano. For an audience, it’s bliss. How many times have you been sitting in the comfort of your own living room, cup of tea, comfy trousers, when you realise you’ve got a gig to go to, on the other side of town? But imagine if you could have your favourite band playing, there and then, right where your telly usually is! With all your best mates there too!

Scouting For Girls

As nervous as Roy and Greg claim to be, from the moment they launch into the ecstatic piano-pop of ‘She’s So Lovely,’ the room is captivated. Their songs are heart-blushingly sweet, Roy pounding at the keys while Greg (usually the bassist) leans against the wall singing back-up vocals, hands in pockets.

As the first set ends, singer-songwriter Sam Isaac, who’s actually topping today’s mini-bill despite his relatively low profile, explains how living room gigs work – in the past year he’s played gigs like this one all over the UK with his mate Luke Leighfield on a kind of never-ending tour. ‘You just put a message on your MySpace that says, “Would you like me to play in your living room?” People get in touch, say that they’d be happy to have you perform, and you’re all set,’ he says. ‘The person who’s having the party gets to feel special because they’ve got an artist who they are a fan of in their front room, and we get to actually go and meet nice people rather than playing toilet venues to no one.’

According to Sam, the benefits to unsigned independent artists are massive. ‘It means we don’t have the hassle of dealing with wanker promoters across the country who mess us around or don’t pay us properly. People come to living-room shows and tell us that as well as the music, the actual process is very inspiring and is making them think that they can tour and get out there independently rather than waiting to be picked up by a record label or whatever.’ Indeed, Sam’s self-starting commitment to touring Britain’s sitting rooms drew him to the attention of Sam Duckworth (aka indie recording artist Get Cape Wear Cape Fly), who signed Isaac to his Mannequin Republic label.

Sam

And it’s not just good for the struggling independents; big-hitting acts like woozy US folkster Willy Mason see the benefits of living-room shows, too. Mason finished up a UK house-party tour earlier this year, where he’d turn up on his own at fans’ houses with a five-foot sound system strapped to his back. What are the perks, for him? ‘Well, when we’re talking about tours with the record label and stuff they call it a promotional tour, you know, and that’s really what it is,’ he says. ‘But as far as travelling, you’re not really seeing very much. Whereas with the house-concert tour I get to see things other than backstage and I actually get to meet people and spend time with them. The performances are more of a two-way dialogue.’

Mason is one of a growing number of artists who’ve hit the sofa trail in the name of spreading the word, meeting the fans, living the dream and getting in the papers. As well as the less-established acts who depend on the support of their MySpace, Facebook and Bebo communities to get bookings, more popular acts such as Shitdisco, Foals, and even Noel Gallagher have played living-room gigs in recent months.

‘I did a gig at a fan’s house in Pointon [Lincolnshire], with all his mates there, and all their mams and dads and all that,’ recalls Noel G. ‘On a scale of one to ten of weirdness, it was approaching 11! It was good though, y’know? I gotta say, the place did look like it’d been done up the day before. Seriously man, it looked like fuckin’ Changing Rooms had just been in. And they had more cakes and biscuits than I’d ever seen in my entire life.’

Although in an industry where bands’ incomes increasingly depend on tour receipts rather than album sales, playing living rooms, home offices or conservatories is unlikely to replace the customary gig experience we know and love, these impromptu shows are seen as a good way to connect with fans and score publicity for the latest release.

A word of warning if you’re thinking of hosting a local scene of your own though – a gig in your living room is still a public performance in the eyes of the law. This means if you charge people to get in – or even let in uninvited members of the public – without having secured a temporary entertainments license, you could be in trouble. That means orange squash and biscuits must be free too. Bitter teenage experience suggests you might want to warn your neighbours about the noise and lock up your valuables as well.

Back at the flat in Bethnal Green, Sam Isaac stands in the middle of the room and starts singing – cutting clean through the chatting/drinking/crisp-munching hum. You could hear a pin drop, were we not sitting on carpet. A cellist, violinist and pianist squeeze in for the next song, and the sound fills up the room with a sweet, melancholy haze as the sun begins to set outside. What a way to hear music.

Sam Isaac and Luke Leighfield are currently on their barbecue tour of the UK. If you’re interested in hosting a living-room gig but scared of breaking the law, contact your local authority for advice.