Patrick Somers
Promotions manager, Thekla
What does the new year hold in store for the Thekla? 2012 will see a bunch of great new shows here. Already confirmed are M83, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs and Spiritualized, to name just a few. The Dot To Dot Festival returns to Bristol's best live music venues in 2012, this time on Sat 2 June. Thekla will also be launching a brand new club night for Monday nights – more on that soon.
Away from the Thekla, what else will you go and see/do? Tickets are already booked for OFWGKTA in London and I'm fully expecting to see The Weeknd make a live London appearance this year too. Other than music, I hope to say hello to my adopted Shetland pony at HorseWorld (Arrow) and learn how to speak Spanish.
Any wider predictions for 2012? Dubstep will get worse and people will still pretend to like it, and Notts County will win the play-offs and be promoted to the Championship.
 Ian McGlynn
Director, Rondo Theatre, Bath
What does the new year hold in store for the Rondo? Now that the Arts Council grants issue has settled down, there’s a real upsurge in touring theatre, so The Rondo will be welcoming some brilliant companies, such as Rogue with their brilliant multimedia musical-infused theatre and Angel Exit, with their stunning hybrid of movement and storytelling. Autumn was very busy – we’re expecting spring to be manic!
Away from the Rondo, what else will you go and see/do? Looking forward to the American season at the Ustinov – ‘The Surprise Of Love’ was cracking: very much looking forward to what Mr Boswell does with the invention of the vibrator!
Any wider predictions for 2012? Despite difficult times, theatre audiences will get stronger, as live performance becomes one of the best media for conducting the national debate. More riots. And Reading to get promoted back to the Prem.
 Chris Sharp
Owner, The Fleece, Bristol
What does the new year hold in store for The Fleece? The Fleece will continue its relentless challenge of opening seven nights per week, providing quality live bands – a feat we have managed since August 2011 with the exception of Christmas Day! We will also be launching The Monthly Tribute in Jan: after a completely tribute band-free 2011, we had a deluge of emails from those who used to love seeing their favourite tribbers in The Fleece over the years so we decided to compromise a bit and put aside one night per month to bringing back the cream of the crop.
Upcoming highlights already confirmed for 2012 include King Creosote & Jon Hopkins, James Vincent McMorrow, Misfits, Helmet, Lambchop and the return of The Wurzels to what many people consider to be their home venue.
Away from The Fleece, what else will you go and see/do? The one thing we really want to see is the return of a summer music festival at Ashton Court so we're really hoping BrisFest manage to pull it off this year. Other obvious things not to be missed are the Harbourside Festival, Dot To Dot, and the annual Zombie Walk is starting to become an unmissable highlight too.
Any wider predictions for 2012? It would be fantastic to see some of the hundreds of local bands who have played The Fleece in 2011 break through into the national scene in 2012. Believe it or not, we have acquired a list of 600-odd bands mainly from within 30 miles of Bristol over the last 18 months. A survey last year found Bristol had the highest percentage of musicians/bands in the UK and from what we've seen this year we can't really argue. Watching four locals on a Monday night is a very cheap night out, and with budgets set to be stretched in 2012, it would be great to see people getting out to support local bands.
Clare Reddington
Director, iShed and The Pervasive Media Studio at Watershed
What does the new year hold in store for you? We have just moved and expanded The Pervasive Media Studio from Leadworks into Watershed and signed a new collaboration with the two Bristol Universities so are looking forward to welcoming in lots of new residents and making work that is more visible to our audiences in the café-bar. We are also running a lab in Feb with the British Council – bringing five of Japan's leading digital artists to Bristol for a week on the theme of the “playable city” – watch this space for some spectacular and unusual interventions. Later on in the year, we are very excited about Watershed's 30th birthday party in June and are currently planning celebrations, stunts and programmes that both look back to 1982 and ask what will the next 30 years bring?
Away from Watershed, what else will you go and see/do? The Bristol theatre scene is hugely exciting at the moment so I’m looking forward to Mayfest and the re-opening of Bristol Old Vic. I am hoping to go to Moscow in the summer to speak at their creative entrepreneurs’ summer school and I try to never miss Port Eliot Festival – a cross-artform extravaganza in Cornwall with amazing camping and food.
Any wider predictions for 2012? This will be the year that Bristol takes the tech hub mantra from Shoreditch and shows the world what it’s made of. And it will be the year of the 3D printer – with more and more people able to design and make their own printed objects. If anyone wants to donate one to the Pervasive Media Studio, we promise to make lovely things...
Emma Stenning
Executive director, Bristol Old Vic
What does 2012 hold in store for Bristol Old Vic? I’m looking forward to the Pinter/Beckett double-bill of ‘A Kind of Alaska’ and ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’. These will be directed by our returning prodigal son Simon Godwin, who joins us from his new position at the Royal Court to direct these two incredible works from two titans of British theatre.
Bristol’s very own Tristan Sturrock brings a re-working of his popular one-man show, ‘Mayday Mayday’, returning by popular demand and another of the exciting works from our Bristol Ferment.
The only thing that could overshadow the work we’re generating is our amazing jewel of a theatre, currently mid-way through its major refurbishment. In the second half of 2012 we’ll be inviting all of Bristol to a very special celebration as artists, audience and theatre are reunited once again to continue our 245-year relationship into the next 245 years. Watch this space for that one.
What else will you be seeing/doing? Now we’ve forged all these new partnerships around the city, it’s given me a chance to really take in all the great work Bristol has to offer away from theatre. Through the first part of 2012, I’ll be taking a bit of time to finally see Damien Hirst’s work at RWA and the Bristol Museum exhibition of Da Vinci’s drawings on loan from the Royal Collection. There’s also an exhibition of vintage fashion photography by Norman Parkinson at M Shed and I am a huge photography fan. St George’s have the Cecil Sharp Project and the fantastic Joan Baez is at Colston Hall – it will be strange seeing Colston Hall without the 150-strong ‘Coram Boy’ cast on the stage, but Joan will make up for it.
And I can’t leave out the wonderful Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory. I’m keen to see their next Chekhov, ‘The Cherry Orchard’. I have fond memories of ‘Uncle Vanya’, which was a Bristol Old Vic/SATTF co-production and looked stunning in the theatre.
And wider predictions for 2012? One thing close to my heart is next year’s Mayfest which is also the kick-off project for a new independent company called MAYK. MAYK is made up of Matthew Austin and our Bristol Ferment producer (and Venue award-winner) Kate Yedigaroff. Expect to see big things from them.
It will be interesting to see what challenges the ongoing economic freefall turns up over the next 12 months, how we all as cultural institutions through the region address the things that really matter, pick our battles and still find a way to resonate with our audiences. During times like these, creativity can be at its highest. I think this could generate some of our finest moments.
Marco Bernardi and Jamie Harvey
Promotions managers, Timbuk2, Bristol
What does the new year hold in store for you/TB2? We have a lot of exciting things in the pipeline for 2012 including an upgrade to the room two (the bar room) soundsystem and changes to the lighting and decor of both the main and bar rooms within the next few months.
We're starting the year as we plan to go with Ist Das: as a sneak preview we are proud to announce none other than Matthew Herbert and Ben Klock in January and February at TB2.
These bookings have been under wraps for a while now and we can exclusively reveal them in Venue that Herbert will be on 28 Jan and Klock 17 Feb.
Expect to see a lot of other quality artists announced soon including a personal highlight in February with Headrush bringing Anthony ‘Shake’ Shakir to the club on Sat 11 Feb.
Away from TB2, what else will you go and see/do? We’re looking forward to working with some new people and being involved with some new and very interesting projects in 2012 especially during the summer months. As well as enjoying fantastic events this great city has to offer.
Rag Satguru
Booker/promoter, In:Motion, Bristol
What does the new year hold in store for In:Motion? After many years of promoting clubs in Bristol I will be taking a change of tack with a few new projects. One being an artist manager for Eats Everything who recently recorded Pete Tong's essential mix ‘Live from In:Motion’, the other being an outdoor project that will come to light soon which is called 'Love Saves the Day'.
Highlight from this year? A relentless run of autumn shows at a club that I love a great deal – five years on and Motion is one of the most special places in the country.
Away from Motion, what else will you go and see/do? I sleep in my office and I eat in Slix. Work, work, work; house, house, house...
Any wider predictions for 2012? In:Motion will be back with a bang with more acts than ever and many more sell-out shows; Just Jack will step the pace up house music-wise and bring through more Bristol-based house music acts, including Tom Rio and Freddie Prest; Bristol will continue its growth as a house music city; Eats Everything will put out at least three unbelievable records!
Martin Jennings-Wright
Manager, Little Theatre Cinema, Bath
What does the new year hold in store for the Little Theatre? ‘War Horse’ is terrific and will appeal to both fans of Morpurgo and Spielberg. We're showing it from 20 Jan. Also in January is the quite extraordinary ‘The Artist’, a sublime piece of film-making about the end of silent cinema. The film is itself silent, with a rip-roaring, mainly 1920s score. Unforgettable, and a big Oscar contender. Finally, we're trying something new (or old, depending on how you look at it) every Monday for a month from 16 Jan. Called Vintage Mondays, we'll be dressing in trad cinema uniforms and selling from ice-cream trays, there'll be intermissions and all sorts of other things you haven't seen in a cinema for years. Brand new films though.
Away from the Little Theatre, what else will you go and see/do? Our eight-year-old is a big fan of theatre and the egg stages some terrific work. I'm a big fan of food and The Porter is a mecca for lovers of cheap, tasty nosh.
Any wider predictions for 2012? The penny will finally drop that big cars and a small city (come to that, a small planet) don't mix. You may say I'm a dreamer, but give it a dose of peak oil and I won't be the only one.
Copyright Venue Publishing 2011
|
