Hi guys,
First of all, apologies if this could have been better posted in a different part of the forum, It's my first post, so figured best in the introductions area.
I'm one of the New Hellfire Club team here in Glasgow. We're a non profit, volunteeer group who are keen to promote and help new and unsigned musicians in Glasgow and further afield. Our main goal is to try and stamp out, or at least make more bands aware of the sort of dodgy promoters and pay to play deals that go on in the music business, and to offer an alternative and more ethical way of doing things, and we put on our own gigs to that effect. We also have our own music shop in the Finnieston area of the city, recently featured in Record Collector magazine, where we sell second hand CDs, Vinyl, DVDs, books, even the odd instrument that comes our way. It's all done by donations from our own collections and from friends. We also sell music and merch from bands who sign up with us - for a mere £10 for 3 months, we will stock their stuff in the shop and sell at whatever price they want, and the artists get 100% of that back each month. Some bands have been making a reasonable bit of money from this.
Where does comedy fit in to this? Well, we have live acoustic sessions in the shop every weekend, and can squeeze around 35 people in there, and they are becoming very popular. We're keen to branch out a wee bit, and we think the shop would be ideal for up and coming comedy acts to try out, or even established acts who want to try new material in front of a small audience. Other ideas that have crossed our minds could be a weekday teatime session, say 6pm... advertise it along the lines of "Want a laugh on the way home from a hard day at work" sort of angle... We can film, review, interview anyone who comes to the shop for a session, we have in house photographers as well, we will put out posters for any shop gigs, and basically make sure word gets around for anything we put on.
Here's our Facebook page if you're interested, and if any one out there wants to set up a gig with us, please just let us know! Weekend slots are pretty much booked out for music until the end of next month, but we're now booking April, May and beyond, and can still do midweek slots as well. Thanks for your time!
Campbell