Clubs / grassroots music
Venue upgrades club offering to support grassroots scenes
Lovers of underground music and nightlife in Bristol and the UK know that their scene is under threat. Last year’s report from the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) predicted that if nightclub closures continue at their current rate: “UK clubs will be extinct after last night out on 31.12.2029”.
Bristol’s already experienced this first hand with names like Blue Mountain, Dojo, The Crofters Rights and soon to go Motion all closed due to a litany of issues like rising costs, developers, leasehold changes, austerity and underinvestment on the arts.
Will doubling down on grassroots venues and nights help protect more clubs from closing in the future?
is needed now More than ever
Bristol 24/7 explored this question with the Exchange’s newly appointed club booker, Nick O’Neill, who shared the venue’s vision for 2025 and how they’re planning to incubate and elevate underground dance music.
Nick ploughs in his ten plus years experience as a promoter, venue manager and music lover to nurture the next generation of Bristol promoters, DJs and scenes. The mission: to create space and opportunity for grassroots club music to thrive.
How does your experience in clubs translate to what you’re doing for Exchange’s clubs programming?
Nick has been involved in Bristol’s grassroots club culture for a long time – photo: Nick O’Neill
“I started my first club night, Bodywork, 11 years ago and soon after was offered a DJ residency at The Crofters Rights. A couple of years into that residency they asked me to help them with their club bookings and I then ended up looking after all their music and turned it back into a music venue.
“Unfortunately, the lease holders of Crofters decided not to continue operating that site and thankfully I now have the opportunity with Exchange to continue supporting Bristol club culture and grassroots music.”
Why is it important that we invest in our underground dance music scenes and clubs in Bristol?
Nick’s Bodywork night ran at the Crofters Rights for ten years until the venue unexpectedly closed last summer – photo: @sophiafestelle
“There is an economic benefit to the city. Reports from the NTIA show how essential night-time activities are to the economy.
“We know creating spaces where people can come together to forge relationships and friendships is important. We need these spaces to stay available for the city’s economy, for the culture and for the communities they serve.”
What is Exchange’s vision for dance music in 2025?
“We’re reducing hire costs to make club nights more accessible to promoters. We’ve opened the 80 capacity basement to provide more opportunity for up and coming promoters.
“These days the economics of running an event are out of reach. You have to consider the hire costs, marketing and then booking a lineup that’s going to pull a good crowd.
“We’ve nearly halved the fee to make it easier for promoters to put on their events with us. We provide all the DJ gear, an engineer and security. We also support promoters by giving them advice on how to improve their event marketing and sharing their events via our channels.
“There’s also a happy hour with 20% off drinks for the first hour, to try and get people down earlier to support. As an extra incentive, we’re offering cash back on bar profits for promoters.”
Exchange already has a great live and club music offering: what can we expect over the coming months?
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“There’s going to be a healthy chunk of electronic dance music. Lots of it will be forward thinking.
“There are so many great nights which I’m really excited about, names like Elysium, Bad Cabaret and Bristol QPOC are on the bill. These nights range from jungle to UK garage, acid to electro and techno to breakbeat.
“We’ve also got Community DiscO-s on Saturday and SWU.FM’s Felix Joy & Friends, plus a vibrant Streets of Soul night and a soon-to-be announced event from Hot Buttered soul. Having two separate club spaces available from Thursday to Saturday now means we can experiment more and try new things.”
How can clubbers and music lovers help support the scene?
“Support Bristol grassroots music, they need you now more than ever. It’s really difficult to get the money together to open up these spaces. We need people to buy tickets in advance and to show up.
“Once these venues go, it’s so hard to bring them back. Put your money into artists and events that are supporting the Bristol music ecosystem.”
Check out the Exchange’s club listings here and contact Nick on clubs@exchangebristol.com if you are interested in running a night.
Main photo: Alfresco Disco
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