Leicester had a great music scene before lockdown and for many years Paul Collins has been a vital part of it. I recently caught up with him and he kindly agreed to an interview.
Hi Paul, can you tell us about your musical background, how you all got involved in promoting artists along with any other ventures you are involved in?
I started off as a DJ in 2002 until 2008 when I had the urge to put some live music events on but had no idea how to go about it. A conversation with a neighbour who had many years' experience of doing shows of all sizes led to us founding Melting Pot and for the next 3 years we mainly did free entry bar shows and built up a great following, especially for O Bar Sunday Sessions event. In September 2011 I decided to form Wake Up Promotions as I wanted to start putting on bigger events and artists alongside the upcoming local ones and 10 years later, I'm still going strong, but also hosting tribute shows and my Britpop Lives Forever events as well now.
Who would you single out as the nicest artists you have worked with?
Craig Charles/Mark Morriss and Chris Helme are all lovely people and a pleasure to work with every time. Also, Steve Diggle from The Buzzcocks was a real pleasure to chat to, There's a couple of people who I was unsure of what they would be like but they turned out to be great, including Preston from The Ordinary Boys and Donny From the Towers Of London. Ian McCulloch was a real character and a real rock and roller who put on an incredible show. There have also been a few who were the opposite and a real shame as I was a fan before putting them on but they will remain nameless....
Who are your music influences?
Britpop/Indie is my main love and I'm really enjoying building my 'Britpop Lives Forever' nights up and hoping to take it to others cities in the future. I have a date in September booked at the Hare & Hounds in Birmingham which is exciting as it's a wonderful venue.
Has lockdown impacted on your business at all, and how have you found the past few months? I have been lucky to qualify for the self-employed grants and I also took a day job on in October when I realised it was going to be a long time before shows returned. I managed to do a few all seated socially distanced shows last year with a greatly reduced capacity and I have some more booked in from the end of May which I'm really looking forward to.
Thanks for taking the time to update us with your projects Paul and I hope Leicester folks get to see you again really soon.
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