Author Topic: Venue Cymru Arena  (Read 207593 times)

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Offline DaveR

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Venue Cymru Arena
« on: September 05, 2010, 08:47:23 am »
Transferring one of most current discussions over from the old forum:

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For those of you who are not aware,the arena is an all standing venue which can hold 2,500 people for concerts.Now it may look ugly but it could bring a lot of buisness into town if run properly,the lack of gigs[pop concerts to you old people]being put on has to be down to bad management,lack of interest or just lazy.There have been some great groups here so we know it works but why so few,we need to know how they book or try to bring these groups and why there are so FEW.  .Most you old ones must have noticed the que outside yesterday,youngsters looking forward to the Westlife gig,them being flown in to LLandudno football ground ,this is what may help to keep the towns youth here,unfortunatly we only had this gig due to the Bryn Terfel concert in Bangor being canceled,so by rights this has nothing to do with the managament.Keep Llandudno vibrant for the youth of the town not dull for the retirement brigade on the prom with their scooters[invalid carriages].
Rex

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The Pop and Theatre Industry operates on the basis of the Venue being able to guarantee a certain financial return if it is included in a show's tour itinerary.

I believe that Venue Cymru is unable to offer such guarantees and therefore unable to attract the best acts and shows.

Westlife was a pure fluke caused by cancellation of the Bryn Terfel concert, as Rex has stated, otherwise they would never have been seen anywhere near Llandudno.

To make any success the Venue needs a real entrepreneur at its helm who is willing to get totally involved with the industry and can demonstrate to everyone that Venue Cymru is a good place for the Class Acts to be seen.
Yorkie
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WHERE IS THE NEAREST BIG THEATRE FROM LLANDUDNO IF IT CHESTER WHAT A CATCHMENT AREA WE HAVE SO IF THEY HAD SOMEONE WHO COULD DO THE JOB IT WOULD BE FULL EVERY WEEK
Norman08

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Excellent post Rex, I wholeheartedly agree. I've seen some great shows at the arena and it is a quality venue.

When you look at the venues some of the top acts appear at I think Venue Cymru could knock them into a cocked hat. Lots of these venues are in the North West area so Llandudno is just a short hop for the acts.

Rex, put your money where your mouth is, you are the entrepreneur!
Paddy

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Sorry Yorkie but you are wrong,we have seen some excellent bands in the Arena so this proves the set up is good enough problem seem that management are not doing their work in promoting the arena in the right manor.
Rex

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I quite agree there have been some good bands and some good shows in all the number of years it has been open - now ask someone to name a dozen of them from the last 16 years!

Most things are one night stands, and without the coaches of kids at Xmas time, even the Panto would be a dead loss!

Have a look at this years budget forecast and you will find an estimated cost to the Taxpayer of nearly £1.5 MILLION. That is nearly £30,000 each week!

If your happy with that sort of subsidy then fine, but I ain't!!
Yorkie

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But remember....the mighy MOTORHEAD are coming !!

Nah Nah Nah.....NAH !!!

I can't WAIT......!!
Fester

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Yes this might be great to you fester and so it should,there should be at least one group a week that means something to them and makes them think we must go to LLandudno for the nite.
Rex

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I was talking to Fester about this only this morning and saying that Venue Cymru could stage a week long Rock Festival in either the Spring or Autumn and feature a mixture of new and old bands. Could bring a lot of people into the town.
DaveR

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Then all we would have to worry about was the other 51 weeks!
Yorkie

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Venue Cymru fails because it has low expectations and it doesn't realise it's potential. If I can speak from personal experience, I and my wife have spent a fortune travelling to Manchester, Wolverhampton etc to see bands which could safely sell out our Venue. WHY IS VENUE CYMRU MISSING OUT ON THIS?? We have an excellent venue in town with a huge catchment area. The nearest large venue to us attracting live music is Liverpool and Manchester. Chester haven't got on the case it seems so maybe it's time to trump them. So look at Llandudno as being central and then look at the wide demograph. Surely it should be a 'win' situation. We've have Status Quo selling out the theatre every year; Manic Street Preachers have played and brought the venue to it's knees. Mine and my wifes taste in music is hard rock/heavy metal etc, but don't let that dissuade. There is a huge following for this type of music in the huge surrounding area Venue has to offer (and at least Motorhead are coming!). We're not just after metal bands. We'd love to see a wide range of popular music in our town. For the cost of the venue we deserve this at least.

Also to add to this, Pontins Prestatyn host many festivals off season - Hard Rock Hell and Hammerfest (which we attend) happens December and March every year. Pontins also hosts Soul weekends and more. Surely Venue Cymru should capitalise on this.
RiffRaff


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MMMMM....MOTORHEAD...MOTORHEAD...MOTORHEAD !!!
Fester

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Fester, I saw Motorhead at Port Vale football ground nearly 30 years ago! They were suporting Ozzy who was my hero at the time.

I'm amazed (and chuffed) that they're still touring but I don't think I could put my ears through it again!

They'll be a huge draw though and I imagine they will sell out very quickly. Is it the same line up after all these years?
Paddy






Offline DaveR

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Re: Venue Cymru Arena
« Reply #1 on: September 05, 2010, 08:52:11 am »
Motorhead? Pffft. I saw the mighty Doctor & The Medics at Rhyl Events Arena last week!!!  ;D Beat that, Fester!  :o


The Doctor will see you now...
« Last Edit: September 05, 2010, 09:10:58 am by DaveR »


Offline Nemesis

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Re: Venue Cymru Arena
« Reply #2 on: September 05, 2010, 11:39:41 am »
I shall be at the PJ Proby concert--- how sad is that ? :-[ ::)
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Offline DaveR

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Re: Venue Cymru Arena
« Reply #3 on: September 05, 2010, 05:11:04 pm »
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If I can speak from personal experience, I and my wife have spent a fortune travelling to Manchester, Wolverhampton etc to see bands which could safely sell out our Venue.
Riffraff
Hi Riffraff, and welcome to the Forum. Could you give us a few examples of the sort of bands you would lie to see at Venue Cymru Arena?

Offline Fester

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Re: Venue Cymru Arena
« Reply #4 on: September 05, 2010, 07:28:30 pm »
Paddy !
I was at that very gig at Port Vale....it was a dreadful gig,  and bands like Dumpy's Rusty Nuts were on the bill...
Motorhead and Ozzy are always worth seeing though .....give those ears a battering one more time for old times sake.
Although these days its my knees that struggle to stand up for all that time !

 Z**
Fester...
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Offline wrex

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Re: Venue Cymru Arena
« Reply #5 on: October 23, 2010, 09:02:14 am »
 :-*  Congratulations too R L Davies for taking nearly as long as Dawnus just to  build a patio. Now maybe the manager of Venue Cymru may get a few more pop concerts in the arena to pay towards the patio.  ¢¢##  Don't help drive the youth away from this town by failing to provide decent gigs for them,it has been proved this Arena can fill and accomadate large artists so BOOK a few.

Offline DaveR

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Re: Venue Cymru Arena
« Reply #6 on: October 23, 2010, 09:20:01 am »
It's not so simple, Wrex. Bookings are controlled by the band's promoters, not Venue Cymru, and most of them are just not interested in coming to Llandudno. Even when the big names come, there is no guarantee that they will sell out - neither Westlife or the Rocky Horror Show sold out this year, for example. In addition, some Promoters wont considering booking their acts unless they get the venue for pretty much nothing - seriously!

Offline Fester

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Re: Venue Cymru Arena
« Reply #7 on: October 23, 2010, 10:50:49 pm »
Dave is correct.
The Top bands are controlled entirely by the top promoters and Management Agencies.... in turn they are tied in to the top traditional venues around Britain, (Hammersmith Odeon, Manchester 02 arena etc) ...  its like a circus, a mafia if you like, where I am certain that financial incentives change hands to maintain things that way.   After all, a lot of dosh is involved.
Some of the top promoters think that one gig in Wales (Cardiff) is sufficient for a tour ... and we all know that is ridiculous.

On top of that, many top acts are prima donnas, and can veto many venues for personal reasons.
Several top acts have openly stated that they don't like playing in Llandudno, or don't want to come here.
Fester...
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Offline wrex

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Re: Venue Cymru Arena
« Reply #8 on: December 19, 2010, 05:01:18 pm »
 :Having just spent a couple of hundred pounds in Manchester going to a concert,staying in a hotel,meal in a nice restaurant,lots of drinks bought in their pubs can no one see what Llandudno is missing out on by the lack of gigs in the Arena. :rage:

Yorkie

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Re: Venue Cymru Arena
« Reply #9 on: December 19, 2010, 05:11:45 pm »
The only people who can't see are the morons running the place.  Public Service employees doing as little as possible, it needs to be put into private hands.     $uk

Offline Merddin Emrys

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Re: Venue Cymru Arena
« Reply #10 on: December 19, 2010, 06:04:36 pm »
I've just said about this in another topic, they just never have anything I want to see, the last time I went was to see Jethro in October 2009 and he was very funny (and chatted to us for 20mins before the show, great bloke!)   _))*
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Offline TheMedz

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Re: Venue Cymru Arena
« Reply #11 on: December 19, 2010, 06:18:16 pm »
In the last year the Venue have had some of the current popular comic acts on there including John Bishop (x 3 by early next year) and Rhod Gilbert(x 2) ,both of which I though were excellent. I believe Ed Byrne (TV comedy shows etc ) is doing an arena tour (large venues) and is apparently going to use the Venue's concert facility rather than the Theatre. If that proves financially viable(sells tickets) there may well be more of the bigger Comic acts beginning to take an interest in coming to town.

Offline JasonW

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Re: Venue Cymru Arena
« Reply #12 on: December 19, 2010, 06:27:21 pm »
Earlier this year the management of Venue Cymru went out to public tender. This was required to fulfil an condition of funding for the Conference Centre extention.
Although there was some interest, only 2 organisations bid. 1 was the internal management team and the other failed to fulfil all the criterea of the bid, hence the tender was closed.

Before the tender was issued I did argue that the main issue was that the length of the tender was for just 3 years, I tried to argue that the contract should have been for at least 10 years with possible extentions if performance targets were met. I didn't think 3 years would attract any serious contenders, as it was very little time to invest and to see the benefits of that investment.
I did manage to get some support from Cabinet members but not enough, and the 3 years was agreed.

Feedback from organisations that di not bid was that the term was not long enough!!!

So the current arrangements continue with a new business plan.
The situation may be reconsidered when the catering contract comes up for renewal, but I don't there will be the poltical motivation to go out to public tender at that point.

The theatre results are improving and showing growth, but I would still like to see what a serious external agency could have offered.

Offline Fester

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Re: Venue Cymru Arena
« Reply #13 on: December 19, 2010, 07:24:06 pm »
Hi Jason,

I am personally interested in the business plan for impreovement at Venue Cymru.
In fact a colleague and I approached VC earlier this year with some business proposals of our own.

Is the new Business Plan available for public scrutiny? ...given that it is public money that funds this establishment...I am keen to peruse it.
Fester...
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Offline DaveR

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Re: Venue Cymru Arena
« Reply #14 on: December 19, 2010, 07:32:42 pm »
I'm reminded of a quote I saw on Jason Edwards' blog:
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."