Buzz talks to gig promoter Rich Collins about coronavirus, its impacts on grassroots music venues and the raffle he’s organised in aid of the Moon in Cardiff and the Windmill in Brixton.
As an inveterate gig-goer, there is little more profoundly depressing than dwelling on the fact that music venues currently lie shuttered and silent, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. For grassroots venues in particular, whose long-term viability and even day-to-day existence was already threatened by a multiplicity of forces (from rates and rent hikes to gentrification), coronavirus has come as the cruellest of blows. That these spaces are vital for performers is widely acknowledged; that they are equally important for punters is a point underlined by Rich Collins, Cardiff-based promoter of all things noisy: “They are everything. Having somewhere to escape from real life and rock for a few hours is a special thing. There’s nothing greater than watching a band absolutely kill it while people go crazy and climb on the ceiling. It’s what’s life’s all about.”
Feeling he “had more to give to the scene” than simply going to gigs and writing reviews, Rich started Cosmic Carnage with his friend Lindsey while living in London. The pair began putting on varied but invariably eardrum-bothering bills at the Windmill in Brixton: “It has a special vibe and is the perfect spot to rock. I also thought there needed to be more gigs south of the river.” When he moved back to Wales, it didn’t take long to find a new place to call home. “Without the Moon,” he admits, “my Cardiff existence would be diminished dramatically. I’m lucky enough to live around the corner and there’s regularly stuff I want to see there. It’s intrinsic to the Cardiff scene.”
Venue and promoter soon struck up a symbiotic relationship: “A majority of the gigs we’ve done alongside Lesson No. 1 have been free entry. The Moon puts up the guarantees for the bands so Noel and I just have to turn up with a curry or lasagne. It’s completely taken the financial strain out of it on our side, so we can just plan great line-ups and shout about them without the stress. We’ve had free-entry gigs for bands like Big Lad, Sly & The Family Drone and Rainbow Grave. It’s been a bit of an open goal and I’ve loved every second of my time promoting gigs here.”
Which is why, with coronavirus casting a shadow over the survival of grassroots venues essential to the UK’s music ecosystem generally, Rich felt compelled to find a way to show his support for the two closest to his heart. Having reluctantly bowed to the inevitable and cancelled Cosmic Carnage’s annual Smash It Out all-dayer at the Windmill (“beers, bands, BBQ and noise acts in the shed”), he baulked at the subsequent suggestion of a fundraising live stream on the grounds that “it’s hard enough organising musicians for real gigs, never mind virtual ones”. The solution that presented itself was considerably more old-school: “I grew playing rugby in South Wales so you are never far away from a raffle. I guess they are hardwired into my brain.”
Buy a ticket to your average raffle and you run the risk of ending up with a bottle of stomach-corroding bargain-bin plonk, a sickly-scented candle or a jar of suspiciously dense homemade jam. Not this one. “I cheekily asked my favourite labels for prize bundles,” Rich reveals, “and they all said yes, so I cracked on. A huge thanks to Rocket Recordings, Hominid Sounds, Box Records, God Unknown and Riot Season records for that. The prize list is insane now. So many people got in touch and offered to donate, it’s hard to keep up, to be honest. It really demonstrates what a wonderful little scene we have. There’s even a pair of tickets for Raw Power festival in 2021. I can’t imagine there’s anything much better than winning festival tickets, especially to one with a crazy line-up that this festival always has.”
Raw Power’s organisers clearly have one eye on the future, and Rich argues that booking shows for as early as the autumn is neither wildly optimistic nor merely a matter of giving people something to look forward to – on the contrary, it’s a pragmatic and sensible strategy: “Nobody knows what stage of this pandemic we’ll be in by then, so if we’re fine to crack on and rock, there needs to be shows lined up to get back up and running ASAP.”
For Rich, as for many of us, that time can’t come too soon. “I hate to be negative but I’m finding all the virtual gigs and streaming stuff severely underwhelming. I appreciate the people who do it, but I just can’t get into it.” If lockdown is teaching music lovers anything, it’s that there’s simply no substitute for live performance. “Music needs to be right in your face, beers spilling, ears buzzing and people landing on your head,” Rich enthuses. “I’m missing the community vibe around live music. Not only the performances but chatting nonsense with like-minded people outside.”
But what will post-pandemic gig-going actually look like? “It’s hard to get your head around.” Rich admits. “They are talking about venues maybe being allowed to open at half capacity to allow people to socially distance, which doesn’t sound great. I’m not sure how the venues can sustain this, as they struggle to stay afloat even when the venue is packed. There’s also things to consider like the toilets. I’m glad I’m not making decisions on this stuff.”
About one thing, though, Rich is certain: “As soon as it’s safe, everyone will come back and rock harder than ever and appreciate it even more, as we now know how it feels for it to be taken away.”
You can buy a raffle ticket here: https://www.paypal.com/pools/c/8pm8HnC5Lg. The draw will take place via Facebook Live on the Cosmic Carnage page at 9 pm on 6 June.
Words: Ben Woolhead
Photos: Jose Caamano