About the club
Behind the Scenes
Darlington RnB Club have been running now since 1995. We have a tremendous record of selling out our gigs, something like 93% are sold out before the night of the gig.
We are of course blessed with a great venue, The Darlington Arts Centre - but we are run independently from it. A committee of six people run the club, giving up quite a lot of their spare time in order that the club can function. We are also able to use the Arts Centre’s facilities, [where the gigs are staged in either The Garden Bar or The East Hall]. Their box office facility sell our tickets and we also have the use of their sound equipment along with resident and experienced sound-man ‘Captain’ Ian Rutland.
Of course choosing the right band is also an important factor in our success. We work hard at getting the right blend of bands that cover the wide umbrella of “Rhythm ‘n’ Blues.”
We don’t always get it right but we have a good idea of what our members like and don’t like, and we try to balance this when introducing new bands that we feel will suit the majority of people.
The club receives dozens of demo c.d.’s from bands throughout Britain who have heard of us and would like a gig. This means that we listen to quite a lot of material - some good, some not so good. Once in a while we find a pearl in an ocean of mediocrity which makes all the hours of listening to crap music worthwhile!
This side of things however, can be a bit tricky when trying to explain to musicians that their band wouldn’t fit into our requirements. There’s no point in putting a band on when our members wouldn’t enjoy them and the band themselves would not enjoy playing to an unhappy crowd.
But the truth is; some bands don’t help themselves. If only they would spend more time and effort in promoting themselves and not blaming promoters for not giving them a chance, when they haven’t done themselves any favours when supplying poor, or no information about their band. They should realise that if they haven’t enough belief and confidence in their music, then why should a promoter take a chance on them when there’s plenty of bands who do have up-to-date biographies and well recorded demo’s.
However, the best way to choose new bands is to see them performing live. This we do nearly every week. [I suppose on average we must see two or three bands weekly]. Some we have seen many times before, and others never before. It’s our hobby, so I guess we enjoy it. [And it gets us out the house, and from under the wife’s feet!].
There’s nothing better than finding a new band and knowing instantly that they would be great at our place. We check-out the local scene and also the major blues festivals like Burnley and Colne and usually come away with a few contact numbers.
But at the end of the day it’s the people who come through the doors who are the biggest influence on which bands we invite back for a return gig. We encourage our members to let us know if they have enjoyed a band, and if they haven’t we respect their views. These people are, after all; the paying customer and we want to keep them happy.
Even if a big-name band have not gone down as well as we feel they should have, and our members too don’t like them, they won’t be coming back!
It’s not some big ego trip for us. We are only successful because we consistently put on bands that play well and our members trust us to continue to do this.
Fortunately, we don’t have many overheads. After paying the bands our biggest outgoing bills are on publicity. We firmly believe that this is an important factor. If you don’t advertise your gigs - then who’s going to know about them! It’s simple enough really, but some venues don’t believe in spending too much money on publicity and then wonder why their rooms are only half full and not enough revenue coming in to pay the bands fee.
In this respect our ticket prices reflect the bands fee. We keep the price’s low to encourage as many people as possible to come and enjoy a great night out, and for it not to cost too much. [Sometimes, even though we run a raffle we still make a loss. At other gigs we make a little profit - so we don’t worry too much].
Finally, our belief is that a band plays well if their needs are catered for. We do our best to look after them with refreshments and comfortable changing facilities. And we always provide comfortable overnight accommodation for any of our bands who require it - and we always pick up the bill!
We know from talking to bands that we have a great reputation on the R’n’B circuit for putting on good gigs and looking after their requirements. Henry Ayrton on his BBC Radio York 'Northern Blues' show said a couple of years ago, “Darlington R’n’B Club are one of the successes in the North due to great promotion and imaginative programming.” Paul Jones also said in 2006 "Darlington R'n'B Club - a great venue and a terrific atmosphere"
What better praise could we ask for? But like I said before; we’re not on an ego trip -we don’t do it to be praised, [although that’s nice!], we do it because we enjoy it and when it stops being enjoyable then we’ll pack it in. But until then - long may we continue!
