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Club Fandango was started in March 2001
by Simon Williams and Andy Macleod. The
former runs fierce panda records, the latter
the Pointy Record label. Between the two
of them, these intrepid rock travellers
had already promoted such neo-legendary
nights as Club Spangle!, NME "On"
nights, Club Pointy and Club Panda at a
slew of renowned London venues including
the Water Rats, the Falcon, the Monarch
and the Bull & Gate.
The bands they have booked resembles a
who's who of talent since 1994, ranging
from The Bluetones, Super Furry Animals,
Catatonia, Placebo, Ash, The Cardigans,
Babybird and the Britpop (ahem) massive
at Club Spangle! through to early shows
by Doves and Coldplay at Club Panda.
The original Club Fandango plot was fiendishly
simple: to use their collective knowledge
to set up a weekly event at Camden’s
Dublin Castle where new bands could showcase
their sounds without fear of pain or retribution.
Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs, 22-20s, British
Sea Power, Dogs Die In Hot Cars, The Killers,
Polyphonic Spree, Razorlight, Death Cab
For Cutie and Keane are just a handful of
such bands who have since trodden the fandango
boards.
Four years on, and Club Fandango has expanded
beyond all original expectations: as the
flow of phone calls, tip-offs and demos
from eager new bands became a deluge, more
weekly nights were set up to attempt to
cope with the demand; and as the Fandango
word spread across the nation, monthly showcase
events were set up in Manchester, Bristol
and beyond. This means that each year Club
Fandango will be responsible for a minimum
of 200 live shows throughout the year, with
a capacity for showcasing between 450 and
600 bands. This doesn’t include special
Fandango one-offs at larger venues such
as Lock 17 (aka Dingwalls), Camden Underworld,
Islington Bar Academy and the ICA. Nor does
it include planned nights in Brighton, Leeds
and Glasgow.
Club Fandango aims to be as eclectic as
possible: for the sake of the punters' sanity
we shall endeavour to ensure that bills
flow smoothly and logically, but each week
could well see the mood swing from post-rock
to electronica to nu-metal to new acoustic
and onto lovely, lovely indie schmindie.
Club Fandango will contain surprise guests
and secret shows. We love launch gigs and
concept nights and record release parties
and general good time vibes, and when it
comes to booking big names for small rooms
we are VERY discreet. Your secret gig will
be safe with us.
Club Fandango will be utilising a substantial
industry-wide mailing list as well as building
a punters' mailing list. All press previews
and reviews will be handled by us also:
for any queries please e-mail us.
All walks of music industry life have
tapped their toes on the Club Fandango boards:
A&R men, publishers, managers, journalists,
press officers, DJs, lawyers, agents and
even rival promoters are often to be found
checking out the entertainment. Other punters
include rock enthusiasts, generally clever
people and, most important of all, new band’s
burgeoning fan bases. The basic truth is
that you can go down to the Dublin Castle
on a Tuesday night and see three to four
carefully hand-picked new bands for £6.00
(or £5.00 with a cheap downloadable
flyer from the website) and if that doesn’t
represent value for money, we bally well
don’t know what does. |
