Craig from Open

During your time at Open, you have been committed to giving a platform for bands who are just starting out. How is this going?

I’ve continued to support the ‘local’ scene and this I think is best illustrated by our Open House event, where 8 bands play from 6pm alternating between the Club Room and Banking Hall with no gaps or crossovers. #OH5 ( Open House 5 ) takes place on August 4th.

Supporting Iocal bands is how I got involved with Open in the first place, so I am keen for this to continue and giving a musician their first opportunity of playing a show outside of school for example is one of the best feelings you can have.

You’re blessed with a wealth of space at Open; how does a gig in the Club Room differ from the Main Hall, apart from the obvious size?

Both are great and seeing a band pack out the club to circa 300 can be just as enjoyable as witnessing a band sell out the banking hall to 1400+.

What has been your favourite gig you have hosted at Open?

Sunflower Bean in the club was even better than I thought it was going to be and catching a band on the rise is always a thrill but hosting The Dead South was an equal match and especially when demand dictated a switch from the club to the banking hall.

Open isn’t just a music venue. It’s also the home for many other events like Gin Festivals, Norwich Body Art Festival, Corporate Boxing and so many more. That must create some interesting demands on the venue, as well as you and your staff…

Yes and especially when some of the events you mention happen on the same weekend or in very close proximity to one another but it’s great to have the support of a great team here and to have a venue that can adapt to so many different types of events.

You’ve recently had a tech upgrade. What difference has that made?

It’s provided so many more opportunities for us to host an even wider range of events including a full musical theatre production of Priscilla Queen of The Desert, plus it now gives us the opportunity to drape the Banking Hall resulting in flexible capacities for both seated & standing shows.

When you couple these improvements with a great Technical & Operations Team plus the recent addition of ‘in house’ catering you really have an outstanding facility for every kind of event you can think of.

Do you think that flexibility gives Open a point of difference from Norwich’s other venues?

Absolutely, we are an events venue even though people will know us for very different reasons whether that be conferencing, awards dinners, school theatre shows, live music or club nights and much more besides !

First and foremost you rmain drive is around youth projects, how does live music and other events help that objective?

Yes, the bottom line is we are a Youth Charity and we are here to help make a positive difference to the lives of young people in Norfolk through our Drop In facility coupled with delivering our many varied youth activities both within Open and through our outreach programme and all the profit we make from our commercial activities goes to supporting that.

What do you see as some of your “not to be missed” events over next 6 months?

I’m really looking forward to developing a great Halloween show on the 26th October. We will have The Urban Voodoo Machine returning to Open and we will be adding some more live bands & DJs too as we get closer to the date plus working alongside a theatre designer to turn the venue into something special.

Earlier in the same month we have Oktoberfest which we hosted for the first time in 2017 and was a great success and we are looking for this year’s event to be even better!

We will also continue to develop great club nights too so keep an eye out for some amazing guest DJs to follow in the footsteps of our most recent ones most notably being Sara Cox, Dave Rowntree, Huey Morgan and Rick Witter amongst others.

Food biased events will become even more popular here as we take advantage of our very own extremely talented Chef, Andrew Baker, so keep your eyes peeled as we reveal more over the coming months.

Craig, your time at Open was not the start of your career in the music and events industry. You ran the Tilting Sky as an independent promoter for many years of course, making waves in the Norwich music scene and beyond. How did that all begin for you?

A sheer lack of live opportunities for both my daughter ( then 15 ) & son ( who formed his first band at 11 ) resulted in me putting on shows for them to start with and then I quickly noticed that other young musicians where in the same boat and it simply snowballed from there !

Compared to when it began for you, how do you see the local music scene at present?

Like the type of music that maybe popular at any one time it goes in waves, when guitar bands are popular then generally that’s reflected in the number of bands playing locally but what’s great now about Norwich is there is a broader range of musical styles and as we speak I think it’s as strong as it’s ever been and I guess you talking to me and other Norwich venues here in Outline reflects that too.

On a personal note, you have more ‘proud dad’ moments than many parents do, with both your children making their own impact on the city. Are you pleased that you’ve all invested your time and grown something to be proud of in this city?

My daughter tends to dip in and out of music these days and that’s due largely to her involvement with fashion and her work at NUA but she knows that at anytime she wants to return there is support for her from the people of Norwich and that’s really positive.

Rory has also scaled down his involvement since the heady days of The Kabeedies but is now very much enjoying his time as a member of Morganway and writing & performing as a solo artist too.

I think it’s a testament to what they’ve both achieved and invested in that they can both now be proud of what they’ve achieved and continue to do even though it’s not quite as ‘full on’ as it has been in the past and that may have been more difficult to do in another town or city.

And finally, give us the inside tip: what are some of the local bands you would recommend people keep an eye on?

I’m always interested to see what Birds Of Hell are up to as for me Pete Murdoch is simply one of the most original songwriters we have. Morganway are creating waves both locally and nationally with their own blend of Americana meets ‘70s US West Coast Rock and their much anticipated debut album is I believe just around the corner. Sink Ya Teeth are on a roll with a string of great single releases receiving both local and national radio play. There are of course many more great artistes including The Wolf Number, Ducking Punches, The Thinking Men, Lightscape, Maya Law, The Vagaband to name but a few, best people just go exploring for themselves though and visit a show, we have quite a few of those in Norwich !