Last week we put on Shane Koyczan in All Saint’s
Church. It was the biggest gig as Say
owt me and Stu Freestone had ever undertaken.
We approached it with a DIY effort.
A co-production with Apples and Snakes’ Kirsten Luckins, the three of us
organised tickets, hire, seating, lighting, staging and supports
ourselves. So a massive thank you to
everyone who came to see the show, caught the supports and clapped, laughed and
cried.
The first time I visited the Church was a gig out on by
my mate Jamie as Owls Owls Owls featuring ONSIND and Spoonboy and then another
OOO gig with Chris Clavin (Ghost Mice).
I booked the Church for Buddy Wakefield, x3 times World Slam Champion. The audience were kinda small for that gig,
in 3 years the number rocketed thanks to the healthy York scene. But I didn’t really know how to acquire Pas or
lighting, Buddy just got up and did the gig.
Earlier this year, we put on Harry & Chris in the
space. Again, with very little set-up,
just 100ish people in the Church. The
main reason is we wanted to try and branch out from our usual home of The
Basement and try our hand at something under our control The Church is kind enough to let us come and
go as we please, as long as we tidy up and make sure we’re locked up. Rather than signing away our control to venue
bookers and bar staff and contracts and splits, it feels, for a single night,
ours.
There’s some problematic elements to using a Church, I’ll
admit. The fact that as an atheist, I
know some people feel uncomfortable under the roof of organised religion. The Church as a whole hasn’t got a great
record on LGBTQ+ rights. But I know this
particular Church are a far stretch from the arch-villainy of Westboro.
But I think the reason I like using the Church is the DIY
attitude of re-using space. There are
Churches across the UK which mostly sit empty, and it’s nice to reuse them to
support gigs, musicians, poets and the community. Churches were built for all manner of
reasons. Praising God an obvious one. Sanctuary (what we might now call a safe
space) being one. A place to come
together another.
The issue comes from the sanctity-ness of the space. This wasn’t a problem for Harry & Chris
and Gecko, their cheeky and silly patter and poems/songs just seemed like a
chilled house show. But Shane Koyczan’s
poetry is full of hope, joy, power and his delivery suitably impassioned. With that in mind, he was worried that maybe
the setting would be a bit ‘Holyish’. We
didn’t use a lecturn from the Church, for example. The setting of the Church adds layers. Elements of preaching, of otherwordlyness and
of a hierarchy of God, preacher and flock.
DIY is meant to reject these structures, and (as we talk about in the
latest Say Owt Podcast) I hate it when poets are put on a pedestal. Anyone can write poetry, anyone can share
it. We advertised Shane as a superstar,
and he is when you crunch numbers, but anyone can crunch hearts.
So I think using Church spaces is highly rewarding, but
there are things to consider about the connotations of the space, how audiences
perceive performers and how you break down the barriers of performer and audience
and power.
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