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There is new venue in town
and by my reckoning it could soon be THE place to play. That venue
is The Tunnels.
It is situated beneath the
incline at Bristol Templemeads Railway Station and is brainchild and
project of Bath and England rugby legion Gareth Chilcott.
The Tunnels
is very much described by its name and has two long halls that run
in parallel with entrances leading into each other; it looks for in
all intent and purpose like an enormous double barreled shot gun.
However; this is a venue
that has had a lot of thought and money ploughed into it.
The right hand tunnel is
dedicated to live music, with a decent sized stage, built in PA and
a professional light rig to die for.
This side has a small bar at
the back of the hall by the state of the art mixing desk and music
station.
The left hand tunnel is
given over to a larger bar and a selection of comfy chairs and
sofas.
The bar has speakers that
connect to the main PA, which creates the only negative I can think
of, it was too easy for the audience to stay in that side to listen
which leaves the poor artiste performing playing to half the
audience even though the other half are sat listening in the bar.
That being said, it means that any artiste can't just rest on their
laurels but will have to work hard to win an audience over. This can
only be a good thing for any performance.
The whole venue has been
decorated to create a plusher atmosphere than most of us are used to
playing in. The floor has been completely re-paved with a quality
quarry stone with a substantial wooden dance floor in front of the
stage, No sticky beer soaked floors here.
Both tunnels have wheel
chair ramps to all the exits (which made for loading all our 4 x
12's from the truck to the stage. so much easier)
Behind the stage is a small
changing room, which was way too small for two bands. Hey, but at
least it had a changing room, with a separate loo and dress mirrors
and it was clean and tidy.
The Tunnels
capacity is about 360 people, which as local venues go is a good
number.
Physically The Tunnels
has a lot going for it as a music venue. That being said, the thing
that really sold the venue to me is how incredibly friendly, helpful
and enthusiastic the staff at the venue were to those that are
performing there.
From the man himself Gareth
Chilcott, who made myself and my band mates feel like we were
extremely welcome and valued as artistes, to the guy on the door who
couldn't do enough for us and advised us on parking and kept an eye
on the truck whilst we loaded.
The promoter Steve took the
time to chat to us and was eager to show us around and to introduce
us to Gareth. With that much enthusiasm for a place it’s difficult
not to want to get out there and perform our socks off.
The biggest surprise and a
real treat is just how friendly, accommodating and helpful the
resident sound guy Kevin was. We all have had experience of the in
house guy making you feel like you have just trodden in something
unwelcome and traipsed it right across the stage and over his kit.
Being a covers band we have often been treated as if we were germs
with no more right to exist on God’s clean earth than a weasel.
And yet, the words that came
out of Kevin’s mouth were “It’s your gig, I want it to go as
smoothly as we can for you so you can really enjoy it”. That
statement alone encourages me to recommend The Tunnels as THE
place to play in Bristol at the moment.
As it stands at the moment
The Tunnels is set up purely for music and as such will only
open on the nights that they have music on.
Because of this the venue
will not be in the business of putting on five bands in the blind
hope of getting 50 people. Anybody wishing to play at The Tunnels
will need to have already gained a certain level of standing within
the Bristol area, although they will be using local bands for the
major artistes they will be putting on.
For more information and
contact details go to.
http://www.thetunnelsbristol.co.uk/
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