Live music venue bid for Bradford's Odeon cinema welcomed (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Excellent. Let's support a future for a great building and another piece in place for a Bradford Cultural Quarter.

Great idea in theory. The next thing the Council should do is see whether Mr Craven can get a professional operator on board in principle.
So far he has many experts in restoration and funding but nobody who promotes concerts. If the figures need there to be 150-200 concerts a year with artists who can fill a venue of this size then it may be a non-starter as there are just not that many available. I will reserve my enthusiasm for when it has been properly assessed whether this is in line with what a professional operator thinks is possible otherwise all we have is what restoration experts think is possible and nobody wants this venue to close down and fall back into the council's hands to maintain.

Two questions:

When are we going to get an explanation why we've had 10 years of being told it's uneconomical to save the building?

Is there anywhere I can register my support/help for the scheme?

angry bradfordian wrote:
Two questions:

When are we going to get an explanation why we've had 10 years of being told it's uneconomical to save the building?

Is there anywhere I can register my support/help for the scheme?

Because the Council through its Bradford Regenertion , Yorkshire Forward and the T&A all wanted the building demolished.

It was said at the meeting that these expert people on the team had not been allowed to go inside and assess the structure of the building.
The T&A should be asking the owners the HCA why people interested in restoring the building who are experts on these old theatres and cinemas can't.
It is a public owned building by the Government so get asking please T&A.

Joedavid wrote:

angry bradfordian wrote:
Two questions:

When are we going to get an explanation why we've had 10 years of being told it's uneconomical to save the building?

Is there anywhere I can register my support/help for the scheme?

Because the Council through its Bradford Regenertion , Yorkshire Forward and the T&A all wanted the building demolished.

There's definitely something suspicious about the whole affair. Anybody who ever tried to enter the building for an inspection was told they couldn't for 'Health & Safety Reasons'

If it turns out that the building is OK for economical refurbishment the public servants involved should be brought to account and the companies producing the building reports prosecuted.

Shame it won't happen even if it was true.

There is an important missing piece in this plan. Where is the expert advice on whether there are 200 acts a year available to fill this space? 200 acts a year bringing 3500 people is an improbable expectation and needs careful substantiating. There are restoration experts and funding experts but no promotion experts. This is what the viability of this plan all hangs on. If this bid is finished then I hope the council look at this and don't feel pressured to run through something that won't work. I will be more enthusiastic when a major operator joins the claims that this can stay open.

MBoyle wrote:
There is an important missing piece in this plan. Where is the expert advice on whether there are 200 acts a year available to fill this space? 200 acts a year bringing 3500 people is an improbable expectation and needs careful substantiating. There are restoration experts and funding experts but no promotion experts. This is what the viability of this plan all hangs on. If this bid is finished then I hope the council look at this and don't feel pressured to run through something that won't work. I will be more enthusiastic when a major operator joins the claims that this can stay open.

Good point an act every other day to me seems a lot.
This leads me to think the restoration needs to have a flexible multi-purpose large auditorium capable of the 3000+ people being comfortably seated and the original stage being available for use as a theatre etc.
This then being able to be arranged with an extended stage and stalls area as the above proposal for live music.

Joedavid wrote:

MBoyle wrote:
There is an important missing piece in this plan. Where is the expert advice on whether there are 200 acts a year available to fill this space? 200 acts a year bringing 3500 people is an improbable expectation and needs careful substantiating. There are restoration experts and funding experts but no promotion experts. This is what the viability of this plan all hangs on. If this bid is finished then I hope the council look at this and don't feel pressured to run through something that won't work. I will be more enthusiastic when a major operator joins the claims that this can stay open.

Good point an act every other day to me seems a lot.
This leads me to think the restoration needs to have a flexible multi-purpose large auditorium capable of the 3000+ people being comfortably seated and the original stage being available for use as a theatre etc.
This then being able to be arranged with an extended stage and stalls area as the above proposal for live music.

The most similar venues to this proposal are the O2 Academies. A quick look on the website suggests that their venues in Newcastle, Bristol, Birmingham and Brixton host between 15 and 20 concerts a month. That would seem to stack up with the 200 events a year.

The article doesn't say that they expect a full 3000 crowd at every event and I'd be surprised if they'd expect a sellout every night.

Another consideration is whether acts would bring their own stage set-up? This often requires many hours to put up and take down so would be a problem if there were a performance every other day. Alternatively if tthe venue will be fully kitted out is this reflected in the cost?

JAtkinson wrote:
Excellent. Let's support a future for a great building and another piece in place for a Bradford Cultural Quarter.

It's about time our beautiful buildings are saved and used in Bradford,we have lost too many so far.

Well it's another step in the right direction, hopefully the momentum will carry on apace.

Have always thought that a music venue was the way forward for the Odeon. Don't understand why the Leeds Arena was mentioned as a stumbling block...surely the two would work together as not all world class artists would come anywhere near filling that massive place. At the end of the day whatever is happening else where Bradford being a major city has to make sure it attracts folk with money into the city centre, music concerts being an excellent way of doing that. LET'S GO FOR IT!!!!!

angry bradfordian wrote:

Joedavid wrote:

MBoyle wrote:
There is an important missing piece in this plan. Where is the expert advice on whether there are 200 acts a year available to fill this space? 200 acts a year bringing 3500 people is an improbable expectation and needs careful substantiating. There are restoration experts and funding experts but no promotion experts. This is what the viability of this plan all hangs on. If this bid is finished then I hope the council look at this and don't feel pressured to run through something that won't work. I will be more enthusiastic when a major operator joins the claims that this can stay open.

Good point an act every other day to me seems a lot.
This leads me to think the restoration needs to have a flexible multi-purpose large auditorium capable of the 3000+ people being comfortably seated and the original stage being available for use as a theatre etc.
This then being able to be arranged with an extended stage and stalls area as the above proposal for live music.

The most similar venues to this proposal are the O2 Academies. A quick look on the website suggests that their venues in Newcastle, Bristol, Birmingham and Brixton host between 15 and 20 concerts a month. That would seem to stack up with the 200 events a year.

The article doesn't say that they expect a full 3000 crowd at every event and I'd be surprised if they'd expect a sellout every night.

You're probably right. I'm no expert but big concert promoters are so let's see!

Bit embarrassed that I repeated myself by accident earlier. I posted and nothing appeared and now it has twice

MBoyle wrote:

angry bradfordian wrote:

Joedavid wrote:

MBoyle wrote:
There is an important missing piece in this plan. Where is the expert advice on whether there are 200 acts a year available to fill this space? 200 acts a year bringing 3500 people is an improbable expectation and needs careful substantiating. There are restoration experts and funding experts but no promotion experts. This is what the viability of this plan all hangs on. If this bid is finished then I hope the council look at this and don't feel pressured to run through something that won't work. I will be more enthusiastic when a major operator joins the claims that this can stay open.

Good point an act every other day to me seems a lot.
This leads me to think the restoration needs to have a flexible multi-purpose large auditorium capable of the 3000+ people being comfortably seated and the original stage being available for use as a theatre etc.
This then being able to be arranged with an extended stage and stalls area as the above proposal for live music.

The most similar venues to this proposal are the O2 Academies. A quick look on the website suggests that their venues in Newcastle, Bristol, Birmingham and Brixton host between 15 and 20 concerts a month. That would seem to stack up with the 200 events a year.

The article doesn't say that they expect a full 3000 crowd at every event and I'd be surprised if they'd expect a sellout every night.

You're probably right. I'm no expert but big concert promoters are so let's see!

Most of the O2 Academy venues have at least two rooms, one big, one small.The big room will often only be used once a week or so, with local bands, tribute bands and party nights using the smaller room, mainly at weekends. It would seem logical to adopt this model, otherwise....

In order to get more business in to the city the Odeon should be transformed into a Asian bazaar selling everything