Carving a Career in Live Music (with James Spence)

It's 2022 but tour postponements, cancellations and reschedules feel depressingly 2020. Jonathan Almond, promoter with Scottish rock and metal booking giants, Triple G (Deftones, Fall Out Boy, Meshuggah, Queens of the Stone Age...) discusses the challenges of holding a calendar together with an ever changing landscape of lockdowns, covid variants and fed up fans, now reluctant to hand over their cash for shows that might never happen. Why did Knocked Loose and Terror agree to stick with Gla...

25 Jan 20221h 39min

From playing on broken stools in The Red Lion pub in Stevenage before the pandemic to being offered Bloodstock, ArcTanGent and Damnation post-lockdown, Pupil Slicer have caused a stir in isolation with the release of their debut album, Mirrors. Singer, guitarist and "band Führer" Katie Davies joins Damnation Vs to talk about the insane reaction to the record, future tour plans and that one time they played "internationally"... in Cardiff. #damnationvs #pupilslicer For further info on Damna...

5 Jan 202259min

Few bands had a 2021 like Conjurer; levelling the main stages of both Download and Bloodstock before returning to their natural habitat of a packed indoor show at Damnation and leaving no one in any doubt that they are one of the finest metal acts the UK has to offer. Guitarist Brady Deeprose joins Damnation Vs for a mammoth two-hour stint to pick through the bones of those sets, his feelings on open air performances to 10,000 fans compared to packed "sweatboxes" and the possibility of being...

1 Dec 20212h 2min

Routing a tour can be a dog-eat-dog world, riddled with "avails", "holds", "first pencils" and "challenges"... and that's just in "market one". Venue boss, promoter and booking agent Ian Shaw is a man with his fingers in all the pies and he cuts through the jargon to explain how best to his bands from Brighton to Aberdeen without a ten-hour jaunt. We also discuss the problems facing venues currently booked for tours that are unlikely to happen this winter, promoters who won't pay up and mak...

9 Juni 20211h 16min

Will Pig Destroyer make it to the UK this winter to headline a sold-out Damnation and if so, where else are they planning to play on a rare overseas venture? Blake Harrison, the band's electronics maestro, tour manager, manager and social media voice joins Damnation Vs to lay out the 2021 plans for the US grindcore kings. He also takes a trip down memory lane to revisit the band's first taste of Britain - and haggis - on tour in 2004, their previous Damnation show in 2012 and the Temples do...

26 Maj 20211h 1min

ArcTanGent 2021 is cancelled. Organiser James Scarlett explains why the decision was made, the fears about hosting events without government-backed insurance, the response from bands across the world and where the festival goes next. Plans for an indoor event to mark the loss of 2,000 Trees and ATG this year, refreshing the line-ups for 2022 and the depth of talent emerging from the UK. We get in about it all. We go again, every Thursday morning.

21 Maj 20211h 1min

Andy Farrow, manager of Opeth, Devin Townsend, Paradise Lost, Katatonia, Bloodbath, Anathema and The Wildhearts, unpacks three decades of experience in an episode that digs deeeeeep into the business. The importance of bands getting their master tapes back, licensing deals, filling in those PRS sheets, 'syncs' with gaming companies and, finally, an explanation of what 'publishing' actually means. Pulling festival favours from Devin, setting up a merch company with Opeth, Zoom calls about An...

10 Feb 20211h 26min

Tom Taaffe - the hero responsible for Nails at Damnation - is this week's guest to discuss being a booking agent for the likes of Sleep, Exodus, Pallbearer, Higher Power, Every Time I Die, Loathe, Vein and... Vance Joy. He discusses the imminent decisions facing the major summer festivals which could cost them "millions of pounds" if they don't call it right, the shock of being dropped by bands who "fancy a change" and the love/hate tussle between promoters and agents. And why getting...

20 Jan 20212h 9min