Monday 16 March 2009

MARGATE ROCKS?




An unusual item from 'Strife', this morning. As well as having 'Granny Smith' as our shopping correspondent, we now have a 'rock correspondent', "M" and this is what he has sent in.
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Margate Rocks

"Little did I realise when I attended the last ever gig at the Astoria in London back in January, that the demise of this grand old venue, could actually benefit Thanet! But with a major South East venue now closed, concert organisers have started looking further afield, and have finally rediscovered the Wintergardens.
First to slip in were Leicester’s finest ,‘Kasabian’ lined up to play on Mon 23rd March. If that was not enough, the feast continues with Welsh heroes , ‘Stereophonics’ coming in under the radar and playing the day after on the 24th! This almost amounts to a mini festival on the lines of ‘Give it a Name’.
Both bands are using these as warm up gigs for their bigger concerts the following weekend when they play the Royal Albert Hall for the ‘Teenage Cancer Trust’.
Still, if organisers can see the Wintergardens as being a viable alternative, perhaps we will see more current and up and coming bands coming here. Let’s hope so! Rock on... \m/ ".
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It is an interesting possibility that Rock Bands coming to Margate on a regular basis might attract more visitors to Margate than the pretty depressing Turner Centre. Perhaps the Dreamland site can be utilised between now and 'whenever' as an open air pop 'concert venue' during the summer week-ends. What a boost to Margate that would be!

5 comments:

Head, SMEG said...

Bertie, as the bottom has dropped out of record sales profits, the only sure-fire way of recording artists securing cash is through live acts.

Cliffs Pavillion in Southend has seen a jump in quality of performer and use as well.

Peter C said...

Much of the credit for getting some more contemporary acts at The Winter Gardens should go to the entertainments manager Paul Palmer (& I'm not just saying that because he's my boss!). Another modern act who played there recently was The Fratellis, though we've some top older acts too (Billy Ocean did a great 2 hour concert there a couple of weeks ago).

It's a pity that some older acts are under-appreciated though (my favourite concert in the 2 years I've worked there was a 60s package tour that included the great P.J. Proby amongst others, but the hall was little more than half full).

Anonymous said...

Peter, it's not that the older acts are unappreciated, it's the fact the youngsters will go to contemporary groups!

Myself, I'm the wrong side of 40 and would much rather see someone from the chart rather than from the classical chart!

Peter C said...

Older people can also attract large crowds (of all ages), but sadly not always in Thanet. I saw 73-year-old Jerry Lee Lewis in London in October (it was a sell-out), & the guy's fee is $75,000 for a 45 minute performance...& his last top 10 UK hit was 48 years ago!

Anonymous said...

Good to see these two bands down here, long may this kind of thing continue.

TB