"Independent Venue Week should last longer than a week"

Image: Fighting Caravans

Independent Venue Week focuses on independent music venues across the whole of the UK for seven days, highlighting the importance they have within local music scenes as well as the hard work that goes into making them a success. A celebration of not only the venues themselves, but the people who own, run, use, and work within them, as well as the music fans who populate their space and keep them alive. 

We spoke to Dan Clark of Leeds alternative-rock sextet Fighting Caravans, who plays a gig with Sam Wilde and Glass Mountain for alt-rock outfit Dusk's EP launch as part of Independent Venue Week on Friday 27th January in his hometown venue The Library. He talks about the importance of dedicating an entire week to the smaller but significant destinations for music. 

Tell us a little bit about Fighting Caravans?

There's not much to tell. We're just a bunch of five (sometimes six) guys with equal amounts of free time and equally perverse views of how to spend that free time; being in a band. We use to spend our time being bluesy but, as our minds have warped, started creating more psychedelic sounds.

Hailing from Leeds, how do you feel about the city's current music scene? 

I once told someone I think the Leeds' music scene is probably the best music scene in the world outside the U.S. He told me to "fuck off". IMO the word 'scene' denotes a humble group of music creators and organisers that unionise for the purpose of delivering semi-organised music events to the area's cohort of music fanciers.

Leeds is much more than that, it's several scenes rolled into one to form an eco-system of mass musical productivity, fed by the city's many creatives that file out of the concentration of universities here and nurtured in our excellent independent venues and festivals.

Why do you think Independent Venue Week is important?

There is great importance in recognising the necessity of independent venues and, more importantly, the individuals that dedicate their time and efforts to running them. If it was up to me, Independent Venue Week would last longer than a week.

How do you feel as a city, that does Leeds support the independent venues within it? 

In Leeds, we have lots of venues and many of them are (as far as I'm aware) 'independent', so the gig-goers here don't know any different. It's a model that's obviously worked for years and has meant that places like Brudenell Social Club have continued to thrive whilst in return adding character to a world that's becoming increasingly corporate.

How do independent venues support bands and vice versa? 

Independent is quite a broad category that contains many different types of venues, each operating slightly different models. Most, however, do have more autonomy than 'non-indie' venues when it comes to programming, therefore, are more likely to take a punt on an act whether they're local, out of town or just a bit weird. In Leeds, there's a huge appetite for live music and the music fanciers here genuinely gravitate to the venues that program the type of acts they fancy and provide an environment that meets their needs/tastes.

Tell us a bit about the Library pub as a venue? 

It's cool. It sits right in-between the city centre and Hyde Park/Headingley; studentville. It's a large building which houses a neatly designed gig room that is separate from the main section of the pub which adds a bit of gravitas to proceedings. The stage and sound system are everything you could possibly hope for when first starting out and the engineers there really do work with you to create the best possible sound. It's no wonder it's busy most Friday and Saturday nights.

What are you most looking forward to being a part of independent venue week and this gig in particular?

In all honesty, I'm not looking forward to our any of our gigs during IVW more than any other; we love playing live no matter what the celebration. However, it is an honour to be chosen to represent The Library and any increase in attendance in recognition of IVW will open help stoke our fire.

You can catch Fighting Caravans along with Glass Mountain and Sam Wilde for 360 Club as part of Independent Venue Week on Friday 27th January in the Library, Leeds. 

Tickets are no longer available for this event