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By: Nick Duke
This weekend (31st Jan) sees the first Rifffest at the fantastic Ruby Lounge in Manchester as part of Independent Venue Week. We thought it would be fun to get Rifffest organiser Nike Duke and Ruby Lounge head honcho Jay Taylor together to ask each other a few questions.
Nick: Why are independent venues important to the UK music scene?
Jay: Generally as smaller venues, these are nurturing spaces when in the right hands, where emerging acts cut their teeth, learn their craft and arm themselves for the future; but also these rooms play their part developing the careers of sound engineers, stage managers, poster designers, promoters, PR people and all those other additional folk who aren’t stood up on stage. The best independent spaces have imagination and inventiveness in spades, and are mostly run by enthusiasts who often make cultural decisions over fiscal ones, making for more compelling events.
Nick: Why is the UK music scene important to you as a venue and personally?
Jay: Obviously, the fact that there’s a thriving live scene in the UK is great news for all of us. I want to live in the kind of city where there are endless venues, galleries, theatres – falling over culture whenever I walk. A vibrant national scene makes all these spaces possible, especially if a lion’s share of your programming comes from out of town.
Nick: It seems apparent that venues a suffering due to a wide array of issues, what for you are the biggest barriers to putting on live music?
Jay: We have it quite good. As a basement space, and in terms of loud noise being our business, we aren’t at the mercy of whatever nitwit takes up residence in the city centre then aims to alter the world around them; but when I was running the diary at Night & Day around the corner I spent a year battling just that kind of nonsense. It was time consuming and depressing. Pile a big problem like this onto a business model that struggles to make sense anyhow, and you have more than a venue can bare day to day. Spaces that open as daytime bars or cafes have it easier certainly, with added revenue to bolster their evening one – but those nighttime spaces have such a narrow window of opportunity to flog drinks, and often to customers who’s main interest lies elsewhere in the direction of the stage. Think of it this way… the very thing that has drawn people into the building is distracting them from the thing that’s actually keeping the place open – the show (that wonderful thing blazing away up on the stage) is hypnotically pulling people away from the bar (that thing in the corner that’s paying for everything). Add to that rising operational costs that can only be transferred to the customer so far, and it can be a punishing undertaking. That’s where imagination and inventiveness comes in.
Nick: Tell us a bit about your venue?
Jay: It’s a small-ish space that aims to offer a bit more than you’d generally expect from a compact touring venue. So we aim to have solid production, to be welcoming, hygienic, supportive and conscientious, with a well stocked bar sat on top.
Nick: Why is your venue taking part in IVW?
Jay: Simply, anything that raises awareness for independent spaces is a good thing. I’m happy to have shows here talked about in any forum, independent spaces need all the help they can get.
Nick: Tell us a bit about the events you’ve got lined up this year?
Jay: Business as usual really – it’s a week of events, culminating in a two day festival. Expect to see and hear… SAYWECANFLY, CHARLIE HEALY, THE HOUSE ON CLIFF, DANIELLE PROU, ADE ANN, STOMPBOX, BÊTE, JOHN AINSWORTH, THE UNASSISTED, TESLA COILS, LOST CASSETTES, RIFFFEST DAY ONE featuring TROJAN HORSE, ALPHA MALE TEA PARTY, PEDRO DON KEY, DUKE MERCURY, SWEET DEALS ON SURGERY and RIFFFEST DAY TWO featuring THE FIERCE AND THE DEAD, CLEFT, CYRIL SNEAR, UNDER, ALRIGHT THE CAPTAIN plus club events care of PUMP UP THE JAM and ULTIMATE ANTHEMS.
Right, swap seats please gents.
Jay: Tell us a bit about RIFFFEST
Nick: Its a weekend of 10 thoroughly brilliant bands, all housed in one of the greatest independent venues in Manchester, The Ruby Lounge. Its cheap to get in, and its going to be fucking brilliant.
Jay: Apart from riffs, presumably, what else can we expect?
Nick: There will be no riffs, its just a name….I jest. Yeah I think the premise is a simple one, you’ll be watching a large handful of the best of the UK underground has to offer at the moment, and you wont be paying an arm and a leg to do so.
Jay: What made you decide to put something like this on?
Nick: Rifffest as an idea was born out of the post ArcTanGent/A Carefully Planned Festival excitement I experienced in the latter half of 2014. Ive always had the idea of Trojan Horse doing a bit of a festival type affair, but I think those two events, and seeing the success of StrangeForms up in Leeds, its spurred me on to actually pull something together. The UK has a very vibrant underground musical scene, composed of likeminded people who play awesome music and have similar ideas that are executed in such diverse ways. I just wanted to do something that showcased that excellence, but keep it affordable for the audience. The things you hear people complain about most when talking about events is that theyre too expensive, its never any good bands and public transport/babysitters are hard to come by. So we specifically made it cheap/brilliant/sure it was finished by a reasonable time.
Jay: Why make it part of IVW?
Nick: We thrive on the support of independent venues, more often than not they are the ones who’ve taken a risk by booking us to play shows in the past. We just wanted to affiliate ourselves with this celebration of these vital creative spaces as a way of stamping our love and appreciation. Jay & The Ruby Lounge team have always given us those chances and now we are working together to produce an event thats going to be special and put a positive spin on that relationship. There are a lot of venues having to shut down these days, with a too many contributing factors to go into, but the bottom line is; if we lose these cultural focal points, then we run the risk of our cities becoming cultural wastelands. I think its really important that everyone does their best to prevent this sort of thing from happening.
Jay: The line-up’s pretty damn exciting. Why these bands? Was there anyone you really wanted to play who isn’t on the line-up?
Nick: Well we asked King Crimson, but they said they were pretty busy in the studio. Then we asked Body Hound and we were all psyched about getting them and they really wanted to do it but some of them are revising for exams so it wasnt to be sadly. I think the hardest part was to choose just who we wanted to play. We know countless fantastic bands, in the end it was a case of narrowing down bands who would compliment each other and just asking the first part of that huge list to see who wanted to do it. They all gave a straight up “Yes”, so that was that.
We still have a wealth of great bands who we want on the next one (theres going to be a next one) and even more people have approached us about it since we announced, it’d be ridiculous not to get another one sorted.
Jay: Do you have a favourite in the line-up? Who are you most looking forward to see?
Nick: They’re seriously all my favourites, I couldnt possibly choose one in particular. Cleft are always a pleasure to watch, so brilliant and it seems so effortless, annoyingly entertaining. Im really looking forward to checking out Under and Duke Mercury, as I have heard them both one record but I wanted to push a couple of newer bands with the lineup and by initial impressions i dont think anyone is going to be disappointed.
Jay: Where can people get tickets?
Nick: Tickets are available over the counter at Piccadilly Records Manchester, by following this link https://www.ticketline.co.uk/venue/manchester-the-ruby-lounge#contact
And also there will be some available on the door, but they’ll be a tad more expensive so its best to get ’em beforehand.
Jay: On a scale of 1-10, how gutted are people going to be if they don’t come?
Nick: Is 10 a big enough number? I dont think it is. Probably like 665 gutted, its all this and its just ridiculously fair priced. Its like when you see those ticket stubs back in the day for like Sex Pistols or Queen and they were £1 tickets…I know its a case of inflation but still. This is the Monsters of Rock festival for people who like brilliant music, then want to buy a couple of drinks and buy some merch at the gig.
Jay: Will you do it again next year?
Nick: Next year wont be soon enough….we’ll be doing it again THIS YEAR. TOO MANY RIFFFFFFFFFS.
