“It’s the most important Independent Venue Week that there has ever been,” says James Cunliffe, one of the co-conspirators of a grassroots music initiative conceived in lockdown to help support music venues and independent artists, which is about to embark on a UK tour.
Project: Leave The Capital was born more than a year ago to as a collaboration between four local music collectives – including Luton’s Vandalism Begins at Home and the Transmission Indie radio show on the town’s Diverse FM – to harness a DIY attitude for passion, not profit, by creating a vinyl EP of top regional acts to take them on tour.
And the opening night of an eight-date tour around the country takes place on Saturday (February 5) at Bedford Esquires, featuring Luna Rosa, Seven Sentinels, Seán Grant and the Wolfgang and Luton’s JW Paris, .
The night doubles up as the finale for the legendary Bedfordshire institution’s participation in this year’s Independent Venue Week, which is the annual, seven-day celebration of independent music venues around the United Kingdom, now in its ninth year.
Each year, Independent Venue Week celebrates hundreds of truly independent venues and their communities, across the UK. The initiative provides a huge spotlight on the grassroots ecosystem within the live music sector, which has experienced the toughest 18 months in its history.
This is an ecosystem which not only includes the venues and the people that own, run and work in them, but also artists, managers, crew, the kit, merch, ticketing, tour transport companies, and the all important music fans and gig-goers – much of who now need their communities support more than ever.
“After the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the live music community, it has never been more vital to support grassroots venues and artists,” says Cunliffe, who is the radio co-host of Transmission with Ben Barry, as well as our resident Luton Town FC writer on The Lutonian.
Both Lutonians are also part of the Vandalism Begins at Home collective behind the VBAH Records label – home to Luton’s SOURDOUGH and Dois Padres – and the town’s only music and arts ‘zine, which has just reached the fourth anniversary of its first edition.
Barry adds: “For year, we’ve been showcasing the talent that exists in our town and neighbouring towns and counties, and that music community is alive and kicking.
“But when the pandemic hit, everything stopped and many people were at a loss. Remarkably, we kept the ‘zine going throughout this horrible period when live music was essentially banned.
“Everything we are involved with to do with music carries that DIY ethos of passion, not profit. We do it all in our spare time, around our day jobs, because we love it.
“So, during lockdowns we started plotting for how, once restrictions started easing, we could help raise up this community we’d become a part of.
“We joined up with the like-minded thinkers behind blender in Bedford and Blaggers Records to form Project: Leave the Capital.”
The idea was to tap in to people power to show what can be achieved at a grassroots level, away from away from major label millions.
A Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund a four-track vinyl EP was launched, smashing its target as like-minded music fans donated to the cause.
Last week, Project: Leave The Capital took delivery of the vinyl, in time for the tour, which is no mean feat in itself as smaller artists up and down the land had to reschedule releases as major label recording artists swallowed up the limited available slots at vinyl pressing plants.
“We went to the good, old EU for the vinyls and Poland really came through for us,” said Cunliffe of the 12-inch record, with its distinctive sleeve which was designed by Jon West, the artistic catalyst behind Vandalism Begins at Home.
“It’s a thing of beauty before you even get to the music,” said Cunliffe, adding: “But we’re so proud of the artists we’ve been able to immortalise in hot wax.”
There’s two as yet unreleased tracks in Luna Rosa’s ‘Brutal Nature’ and JW Paris’ ‘Electric Candle Light (ECL)’, alongside ‘Bodies of Christ’ by Seán Grant and the Wolfgang, and to add some hip-hop, ‘I Am The City’ by Seven Sentinels.
Barry said: “We’re really excited to see Seven Sentinels live as they’re something of an enigma and the only act that we haven’t yet seen play.
“Luton music fans should know all about hometown heroes JW Paris, while the town has previously taken The Wolfgang and Luna Rosa to their hearts in previous raucous gigs we’ve put on in The Castle.”
And that’s where the Luton leg of the Project: Leave the Capital tour will take the foursome on Saturday February 12.
“The Castle’s our spiritual home,” said Barry, adding: “We’re collaborating with Luton Live/s Promotions on that show, so that’s going to be really raucous. We’ve seen the town turn up for these kind of events, and that’s really what we’re hopeful for at all the venues.
“We’ve all just had to deal with Omicron and the Christmas panic that saw gigs cancelled up and down the land over the busy festive period.
“So, the motivation behind Project: Leave The Capital are still as relevant today as it was back when everything was lockdown – except now we can go to gigs and, as fans of live music, start to resurrect this precious part of our culture.”
Cunliffe adds: “If there ever was a time to go and support your local grassroots music venue, this is the week.”
Barry jumps in saying: “And don’t think it doesn’t matter, because without people’s support, music dies.
“During lockdown, we had a glimpse of what life was like with no live music and it wasn’t fun, so it’s really important that people get involved. A £6 ticket really means the world to venues and artists.”
Speaking of going on his first ever tour, guitarist and vocalist of JW Paris, Danny Collins, said: “As an independent band we are nothing without people supporting us. We haven’t got those A&R heads, thousands of pounds of investment or some huge PR push, we have you lot who have pledged their hard-earned money to be part of something special. It shows that music is still made by the people that matter the most – fans.”
Project Leave The Capital UK tour tickets £6 advance, £10 in London (click the links below):
FEBRUARY
10 – The Castle Hotel, Manchester
11 – Jimmy’s, Liverpool
12 – The Castle, Luton
13 – The Hope and Ruin, Brighton
18 – The Water Rats, London Kings Cross
MARCH
You can follow Project: Leave the Capital on Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Tik Tok
Project: Leave the Capital is the start of a big year for Vandalism Begins at Home. They already re-released the debut EP by Peachstone and the lead single, ‘Mind & Body’ from the forthcoming SOURDOUGH EP, while new releases are expected from Dois Padres, The Barrys and a new artist that Barry says “has joined the VBAH family. All will be revealed soon.”
Sandwiched between the London and Milton Keynes dates of Leave the Capital, the music collective are also hosting an acoustic night at Little Red Arts, to help raise funds to help keep the Luton town centre venue alive.
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