Salisbury Live 2011

Wow! It's been a long minute since I last updated and I can't express my apologies enough! But we're back with an lovely little local interview with Colin Holton, Salisbury legend and co-ordinator of Salisbury Live.

How did you get involved in Salisbury Live?

In 2000, The Festival Director at the time (Trevor Davies) wanted to program an event that would involve the pubs, clubs and venues in the City and the surrounding area. The remit was to feature an eclectic mix of musical genres of music from local and national artists, free of charge to the public. Trevor asked me and two other local promoters to come up with a plan, and so Salisbury Live was born!

There's such a huge number of bands over the weekend playing all over Salisbury - is it an organisational nightmare!?

The event is now very well established and the acts and venues who participate are really passionate about being part of it so it's not too bad ref organisation/logistics. As long as we can make sure that as many musical styles are represented and don't clash then it's pretty plain sailing really.

I will 'remind' venues and acts at the start of the new year and ask them to put the dates in their diary. The Salisbury Journal also play a big part in getting the message out there, Anne Morris will run a piece asking for venues and acts interested in taking part in Salisbury Live to contact me. This will happen around the end of February. The Festival marketing team will also get involved, sending out press releases to the regional press/facebook/twitter etc.

Salisbury Live features numerous local bands, how important to you is it to showcase the talent that Salisbury has to offer?

This very important, we have a wealth of talent in the City and its not possible to include all of them but we do our best to showcase as many as possible. It's also really important to me to try and get as many original acts as possible in the program

So many different musical styles, was it your mission to make sure there was something on offer for everyone?

I think it's really important to expose the public to as many different styles and sounds as possible. It's important for the acts as they are 'in the shop window' over this weekend and winning over new fans is a big bonus

Salisbury seems to be a lot quieter musically that it did, say, 10 years ago. Why do you think that is and what part to you hope that Salisbury Live plays in getting people back out to see local bands play?

It's true that the local music scene has been through a rather lengthy 'quite patch' but I believe it's now improved and is continuing to improve. I think that Robb Blake at the Salisbury Arts Centre/ Winchester Gate does a great job as do the new venues such as Qudos and the Chapel Live. Put these along side the established venues such as the Ale House, Conan's, G&D, 5 Bells etc then I think we are clawing it back! A really special mention must go to Davey Crockett at and the British Legion for his cooperation with the 15 years + music showcase events. It's these venues that are as equally important to getting the punters back out their as Salisbury Live is!! The futures looking quite good.

 

There are a variety of events on for Salisbury Live - check out all the details here - and make sure you keep your local scene alive!