We have had a lot of live shows with all of our artists at Trust Management these past few months but on Saturday 14th May, we did a show that was unique for us. Borne out of a conversation with our booking agent, Matthew Cooper at Candy Artists, concerning how to fill out the Bug Club’s weekend around The Great Escape Festival in Brighton; the idea that we needed to bridge the gap between the band’s last London show at The Lexington in April and the forthcoming show at Scala on 26th October, and the number of punters sharing their stories of their kids loving the band, we worked with the promoter, Bad Vibrations, to organise an all-ages matinee show at The Moth Club. The band thought this was a good idea and we confirmed with the intention of putting it up on sale just four weeks before. Thanks to pure nepotism from our side, and the band’s good-natured willingness, my youngest daughters, Edie and Ivy, were more than happy to provide the promotional artwork.
Even though we had a short amount of time to promote the show, we received a positive reaction to the event and, as always, were helped by the fabulous Marc Riley on his show for BBC 6 Music.
Come the day of the show, ticket sales were really healthy but we didn’t really know what to expect. Around 2:15pm, Dan and I moved downstairs to the room and realised that there were a lot of younger children within the venue, so much so that we discussed what to do about the swear words that feature in the lyrics. At 2:45pm, the support band Hussy played a great set, watched by a mixture of adults and their young children. If this audience threw them in any way, they didn’t show it.
When, at 3:45pm, The Bug Club came on stage, they were surrounded by a big crowd of families who were clearly enjoying their day out.
The band’s usual hour-long set was met with the usual dancing, singing and partying, except that this time the crowd was a mix of children (from around 3 to teens) and their parents. It was such a humbling experience to see young music fans singing along to their band’s music and loving the experience. By the end of the performance, we were all asking ourselves why had we not thought about doing this before. From the comment by one parent, who shouted out ‘Best afternoon out EVER‘, to another who told us that this was her first show since the birth of her two daughters (aged 6 & 9), we knew that the show had been a total success from both the band’s and their fans’ perspectives.
The take-out from this was that we sometimes take it for granted that shows should always happen in the evening and that we have to work around venues’ age limits regarding their licensing laws. This show proved that parents of young children will jump at the opportunity to take their family to a show if given the opportunity, whether because they find it hard to arrange child cover or to feel motivated to go to a show at night, or just because they want to share a common love and a dance floor with their little (& not so little) ones. Going forward, when we do this again (& we will do it again) we will think about a family ticket price to provide families with a cheaper day out. Take the plunge and try an all-ages matinee show.
Edited by Claire Linfield