It was Tim Jibson, He brought Elton John to the KC and I think all the other acts. Asked why the concerts stopped he said different people are in charge now. Also a couple of the concerts lots money which I put down to appalling bad luck with the weather, it pissed down at almost all of them and Adam Pearson decided to cut the ticket price at the last minute for walk-up's for the Elton John Concert. He was lucky that night, it didn't rain, but for every concert afterwards people waited until the day of the concert for the announcement that tickets will be reduced, then it pissed down at tea time and people didn't bother attending. Also the WHO concert was hardly advertised anywhere except in Hull. I saw every one except REM, and it pissed down that night too, shame we haven't seen anything like them since in Hull.
Really, where? Welly, Adelphi, Ringside, Fruit...etc are all significantly smaller and don't have seating. The Ice Arena costs too much to convert into a concert venue and can't be used everyday because of the time it takes to convert. Hull City Hall is probably the only one that's close to that size but its still a lot smaller, can't be used regularly and is a terrible music venue. Am I missing any?
Depends what you define as 'BIG', the O2 Academy in Leeds and the Manchester Apollo have Sam Smith, Katy B, Passenger, Basement Jaxx, Johnny Marr, Public Enemy, John Newman, Alt-J, The Saturdays, Lauryn Hill, The 1975 and Paloma Faith playing in the next few months. We don't have a venue capable of booking any of those artists and their all either current chart acts or music legends. I'd much rather that than have a venue that books Miley Cyrus or Katy Perry once every few months.
As the Ice Arena is about to shut down, it shouldn't have any bearing on anything. I quite like the City Hall, I've been to some great gigs there.
A city of this size and catchment area should have both a 3,500 and 10,000 capacity arenas. I know we don't live in ideal world and we're in tough economic times
This is correct. Perhaps if Hulls fortunes continue on an upward trend, of which this development will contribute, we can look to then build a 10,000+ capacity indoor arena. Also, this is more than just a music venue. It's for attracting conferences and other events. That can only be a good thing. Surely the Labour party owe us the hosting of their annual conference.
It's shutting for some maintenance works now, but it's planned for demolition in the next couple of years, the place is falling apart.
Leeds and Manchester can host both due to them having both types of arenas (Large and Small). We have City hall and Ice arena for smaller events. We have naff all for larger events. (KC stadium is a non starter as I have already discussed).
Is Brid Spa 3500 capacity ? I didn't think it was that big seems quite an intimate venue , but anyway they don't seem to have much problem attracting top bands
If we already have venues to host the listed acts then why don't we? Either the venues aren't suitable or promoters don't believe Hull is a worthwhile place to put on shows. If its the first reason then we need a new venue (3,500 seats would be fine) if its the second reason then its pointless building a new venue of any size because it won't get used.
Brid manages to pull in bigger acts than Hull. Wolverhampton is joined on to Birmingham yet it gets bigger acts than Hull, on a more regular basis than Hull gets acts. Plymouth is a lot more remote/out of the way than Hull is and gets bigger acts than Hull, on a more regular basis than Hull gets acts. There are many places that are smaller and more out of the way than Hull that manage to attract acts regularly, so being 'out of the way' as a reason for why no acts come to Hull is a load of rubbish. I agree - the council don't seem to have anyone who works for them that is dedicated to booking musical acts people want to see. They're great when it comes to comedy and tribute acts, but gigs.... the last act to play Hull Arena (I believe) was Ed Sheeran in November 2012! When the council book an act, they do naff all to promote what they have on! You have to go out of your way to find out what they have on, which is completely backwards!
i'd seen that too, what happens to BHS and the Hull Mural above it though ? is there really room for an arena there or would the old edwin davies store be getting demolished too ???
I think we have the small and mid-sized venues market sewn up... though an O2 Academy wouldn't be bad. If we can attract close to 25k to the KC for City matches... If Hull FC can attract 10k for a match again Widnes.... why can't Kasabian (for example) attract 10k from Hull, East Yorkshire, North Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire for a gig?
It shouldn't be down to the council, that's not what happens in other cities, usually venues and promoters are responsible for bookings. There clearly isn't enough money in using the current venues or promoters would use them far more frequently than they do.
Haha bad example! Depressing though that its one of only two gigs booked at city hall in the next 7 months that's not a cover band or some something for the over 50's.